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Loving the Fairmont, Eric.
From your video I would say that you’ve picked up a winner there; absolutely zero rust on a car that old! Awesome.
One thing I’m a little confused about is the suspension (I’m still in school so bear with me). It appears to be rear wheel drive due to the positioning of the engine and the prop shaft coming from your rear differential; yet the diff has a solid bar as opposed to what I’m used to seeing in RWD and that’s driveshafts coming out of each side to provide drive to the wheels?
Lastly, you don’t need to touch the stereo in my opinion; you can buy a tape/iPod adapter to hook your iPod up to for pennies. I’d actually prefer that to CD but my car has CD as standard…
http://www.amazon.co.uk/MacAlly-POD-TAPE-EU-iPod-cassette-Adapter/dp/B000A0C2L0🙂
Cheers. Steve.
[quote=”Webby the Bear” post=90504]Loving the Fairmont, Eric.
From your video I would say that you’ve picked up a winner there; absolutely zero rust on a car that old! Awesome.
One thing I’m a little confused about is the suspension (I’m still in school so bear with me). It appears to be rear wheel drive due to the positioning of the engine and the prop shaft coming from your rear differential; yet the diff has a solid bar as opposed to what I’m used to seeing in RWD and that’s driveshafts coming out of each side to provide drive to the wheels?
Lastly, you don’t need to touch the stereo in my opinion; you can buy a tape/iPod adapter to hook your iPod up to for pennies. I’d actually prefer that to CD but my car has CD as standard…
http://www.amazon.co.uk/MacAlly-POD-TAPE-EU-iPod-cassette-Adapter/dp/B000A0C2L0🙂
Cheers. Steve.[/quote]
The type of suspension you’re used to is an independent rear suspension. That’s the type I’d like to put in. What’s in there now is just a ‘straight axle’, or third member. I know, funny name. It’s the same as what you’re used to, it just doesn’t have the articulation of the independent suspension. In fact, I believe more cars have a straight axle than independent. They’re much cheaper to manufacturer.
I’ll worry about the stereo when the time comes. For now, I’m happy just focusing on the mechanics.
[quote=”ralluf” post=90495]really like this project, maby you could do some kind of fairmont donation program.[/quote]
I’m considering a Kickstarter. I’d like to sit down and come up with a realistic plan and budget for the car first. In fact, that’s going to be a future video I plan to make with this. Once I have a plan and budget, I’ll look into a kickstarter.
Being an old guy it was interesting to see yesterdays technology over again. Boy have we come a long way.
Looking forward to future installments and seeing how this pans out. A V8 in that thing is going to be great. And you just cant beat the V8 sound.
The other thing I forgot to mention was the output; 80bhp from a 6 pot 3.0L engine. That’s not great lol but to be fair if the thing is super heavy then I can understand it/
[quote=”Webby the Bear” post=90766]The other thing I forgot to mention was the output; 80bhp from a 6 pot 3.0L engine. That’s not great lol but to be fair if the thing is super heavy then I can understand it/[/quote]
The car isn’t heavy at all really, and that has little to do with engine output. Performance yes, but not engine output. No full frame or heavy components on the fox body. It was part of Ford’s move to make a more fuel efficient vehicle. As I said in the video, the engine was detuned in order to meet emissions standards. I could probably get about 150bhp without doing much.
[quote=”wysetech” post=90872]Back when it was fun and rewarding to repair cars.[/quote]
Yea, these days it seems it’s all parts changing. The adjustments and finesse seem to have gone away. The ‘art’ of repair seems to have gone away in favor of the quick easy fix.
A lot depends on how good of a “used”/junk yard shopper you are ! Of course my favorite saying relates to both cars and computers : “How fast you go only depends on how much money you have in your pocket !”
It you could find a 4.6L aluminum block Modular engine that would be great. You might even find an all aluminum DOHC 4 valve motor if you look hard enough ! Do some research first, even the SOHC motors are very W-I-D-E !! Headers and that power brake booster are going to be close.
Personally, I would go with a MegaSquirt system and a Ford EDIS.
AOD transmission should be cheap in junk yards, but I would have a good performance rebuilder “do his thing” ! Those are big transmissions so you may have to “massage” the hump in the floor.
Front to rear sub-frame connectors are a must as is an 8.8″ rear axle.
I forgot to mention, Fox Body vehicles can twist down their length. Some vehicles twist bad enough to break the dashboard and the bracing behind it. Research what you can do to prevent twist, like from a high HP engine !
[quote=”theoldwizard1″ post=91102]I forgot to mention, Fox Body vehicles can twist down their length. Some vehicles twist bad enough to break the dashboard and the bracing behind it. Research what you can do to prevent twist, like from a high HP engine ![/quote]
Yea I’ve noticed quite a bit of body flex just when placing it on jack stands. Frame connectors have always been a part of the equation for that very reason. In fact, I even considered a roll cage but I feel that would interfere with my ‘sleeper’ goal. As for how much power, I want to be reasonable about this. How often is it that you get to use such power on the street? Not often. I plan to take a more practical path and try to balance performance with practicality. I want a driver, not an insane monster that wants to kill me. The next video I do I hope to go over my “plan” for the build. I’m considering a couple of options at the moment. Thanks for your suggestions.
I found this video to be very interesting, mostly because I own a 1978 Ford Fairmont – an Australian Fairmont, which is a completely different car. Some parts are very similar to what my car has though, some are what I would expect to see on a much earlier model. It was really interesting to see the difference.
I am a bit curious as to why Ford hadn’t switched over to a crossflow head for the American sixes. Australia switched over from the log to the crossflow in ’76 (I’m assuming they’re using the same block for the 3.3/4.1), as a bit of a guess I’d assume it was emissions related – Australia definitely was a lot slower on emissions laws.
[quote=”Ansith” post=91129] I am a bit curious as to why Ford hadn’t switched over to a crossflow head for the American sixes.[/quote]
I have had the pleasure of driving an FoA alloy cross flow head vehicle and you are correct, it IS a very nice engine. I worked with enegineers from both FoA and the US o putting EFI on that engine.The reasoning had a lot to do with the times. Setting up production for a significantly redesigned engine was not “fashionable” or “politically correct”. I6s had got the reputation as being a “Grandma’s” engine. Economy was in the 4 cylinders and performance in the V8. Even though the Fox body stayed around for a long time, the future was obviously FWD and an I6 would not fit.
Ford US had another I6, the 300cid/4.9L, that had a great reputation in trucks. It hung around a lot longer than the 3.3L/4.1L and even though a couple of prototype SOHC crossflow engines were built, again, it was not “fashionable”. People in the US wanted a V8 !
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