Thinking about buying an 80s Mustang 5.0 Advice??

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Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite


I you feel you may be too grown up for a 'stang, maybe try a vintage '93 Mark Viii with the INTEC DOHC motor. A Rocket, but be prepared to tinker with all the dodads and air/hydraulic suspension. Very Nice car (on the same basic rotten chassis IIRC )


One, in my opinion, one is never too grown up for a Mustang. LOL! The one in my signature is a ball to drive and even with the 3.7 V6....it will flat move!
 
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I called the guy to come see it- he is asking 4200 OBO so the next question will be what is it really worth?

I love the fox body dressed in black...
 
My advice, buy it and have fun. Pick up a few copies of Muscle Mustangs and Fast Fords, 5.0 and Super Ford, and flip through the ad sections.

Late Model Restoration has a lot of hard to find interior parts for the Fox bodies. I get a fair amount of stuff from them since the shipping is free and their prices are competitive. American Muscle is also a good source of parts.

Summit Racing is my usual go-to for go fast parts. Trick Flow makes awesome H/C/I setups, you just have to watch out for PTV clearance with the Twisted Wedge heads.

My personal favorite for suspension parts is Maximum Motorsports, they are local to me and have awesome customer support. They corner weighted my 1998 GT at Buttonwillow for free because I had all their parts on it.
 
It's an extremely durable car. Reliability pretty much boils down to how much it was abused before you got it. Buy the least modified one you can find.
 
Originally Posted By: metalboy
It's an extremely durable car. Reliability pretty much boils down to how much it was abused before you got it. Buy the least modified one you can find.


Very true. Contrary to popular belief, mods to Mustangs reduces value on the retail market. It usually indicates the vehicle was beat on. Also depending on who did the work the value could go down more if they have a bad reputation on the Mustang forums.

Other good advice is to cuise the Mustang forums, stangnet.com, svtperformance.com, corral.net are some. Just read all you can before deciding on anything you want to do.
 
Originally Posted By: metalboy
Buy the least modified one you can find.


^^Buy a bone stock unit only. When I`m car shopping and I see even one modification/alteration,I walk away. You don`t wanna inherit someone else`s junk.
 
Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
I like the early ones with the t10, the t5 manuals are weak. Ive owned 5 HOs but liked the early one with the mercury marine engine and the 4 speed and slapper bars.


Mercury Marine engine?

That would be a C4 Corvette ZR-1. (or at least assembled by Mercury Marine in Stillwater, OK)
 
I put 65k (122k to 187k) on an '88 5.0 and only had small stuff fail - fan clutch, something with the u-joint.. nothing really expensive. Stock power levels, but I beat the [censored] out of that car.
 
Originally Posted By: OVERKILLCar
looks pretty stock, so it is a good candidate once you ditch that God-awful hood scoop.

First thing I noticed, bleh with the autozone hood scoop.

I prefer an LX 5.0 over the GT... not a fan of the ground effects and slotted tails, but otherwise a great ride.

'88 and up way less prone to leaks! Also, every 302 Ive owned (several Vics and grand marquis and one 'stang) had a little lower end noise, but otherwise, you couldnt kill em if you tried!

One thing people always neglected was the pcv screen under the pcv valve in the back of the engine, seems like a lot of folks never even knew about it.

And the T5 was NOT the most stout of manual gearboxes, but as long as you didnt romp in it, you will be fine. Drive it and make sure you hear NO grinding when going through the gears!
 
Too bad you couldn't get a Fox body 'Stang with today's 5.0...that thing would be a rocket!
 
Originally Posted By: babyivan
Originally Posted By: OVERKILLCar
looks pretty stock, so it is a good candidate once you ditch that God-awful hood scoop.

First thing I noticed, bleh with the autozone hood scoop.


I think that's the stock hood "scoop".

It's the same scoop on the turbo-Fairmont. Just mounted 180° in the other direction.

I think it was there to put an airgap between the turbocharger and the hood so they wouldn't have a burned spot on the paint on the hood. I think it migrated to the V8s for style purposes.
 
Originally Posted By: Spazdog
Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
I like the early ones with the t10, the t5 manuals are weak. Ive owned 5 HOs but liked the early one with the mercury marine engine and the 4 speed and slapper bars.


Mercury Marine engine?

That would be a C4 Corvette ZR-1. (or at least assembled by Mercury Marine in Stillwater, OK)



I wouldn't buy a 5.0 without the post-1987 cylinder head revision.

As far as I know, Mercury Marine has never built an engine for Ford. Just because the NAME is Mercury....
 
Originally Posted By: babyivan

One thing people always neglected was the pcv screen under the pcv valve in the back of the engine, seems like a lot of folks never even knew about it.


Man, I thought I was the only guy who complained about that! LOL! My dad's Townie had the neglected screen. I replaced it as soon as I ended up with the car. The old one was plugged solid!
crazy2.gif


That was the first thing I replaced, along with a Motorcraft valve on my '87
thumbsup2.gif
 
Originally Posted By: Spazdog
Originally Posted By: babyivan
Originally Posted By: OVERKILLCar
looks pretty stock, so it is a good candidate once you ditch that God-awful hood scoop.

First thing I noticed, bleh with the autozone hood scoop.


I think that's the stock hood "scoop".

It's the same scoop on the turbo-Fairmont. Just mounted 180° in the other direction.

I think it was there to put an airgap between the turbocharger and the hood so they wouldn't have a burned spot on the paint on the hood. I think it migrated to the V8s for style purposes.


It isn't stock on that car. I may be a stock Capri or earlier Mustang scoop, but a '90 GT didn't have a scoop. They look like the '87 I posted earlier
smile.gif
 
Originally Posted By: metalboy
Originally Posted By: Spazdog
Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
I like the early ones with the t10, the t5 manuals are weak. Ive owned 5 HOs but liked the early one with the mercury marine engine and the 4 speed and slapper bars.


Mercury Marine engine?

That would be a C4 Corvette ZR-1. (or at least assembled by Mercury Marine in Stillwater, OK)



I wouldn't buy a 5.0 without the post-1987 cylinder head revision.


I think you mean 1987 and later. That was when the 302HO got the E7TE (1987, Truck) heads. They were definitely an improvement over the E6's and E5's, however it is cheap enough to swap on a set of GT40's too.

The biggest difference is that earlier years had flat-top pistons. Which meant you were limited in camshaft choice much more than if you had an '87+ engine, which had the 4 factory relief's in the TRW forged slugs.
 
Originally Posted By: metalboy
Originally Posted By: needsducktape
So I am going to look at the 1990 mustang posted the link to-

Assuming everything checks out (no leaks, no ticking etc etc), WHAT WOULD YOU PAY ?

http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/cto/3757257381.html


I'd look for rust, first. But $3500-4k seems fair if it's been well kept. Sort of depends on how much proof of maintenance they have.


Agreed
thumbsup2.gif
 
Originally Posted By: OVERKILL

I think you mean 1987 and later. That was when the 302HO got the E7TE (1987, Truck) heads. They were definitely an improvement over the E6's and E5's, however it is cheap enough to swap on a set of GT40's too.

The biggest difference is that earlier years had flat-top pistons. Which meant you were limited in camshaft choice much more than if you had an '87+ engine, which had the 4 factory relief's in the TRW forged slugs.


That's right, my mistake. It's been a while!
 
Ok So I looked at the 1990 Mustang GT

The drive-line was relatively untouched: only had headers and flow-master exhaust.

Interior was pretty rough though, and the deal killer was the rattle can paint job -He should have disclosed this in the ad.

No rust, but the paint job was AWFUL and he had sprayed the rubber trim around all the windows.

The car actually shifted quite nice but to get the car to look how I wanted would be a $1000 paint job and I would have also wanted to change the rubber trim pieces

I would say it was worth $2500
 
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