The Beginning....

This blog will document an engine swap. Specifically a 1965 Mustang Convertible will receive an EFI 5.0 from a 1995 Mustang GT. The '65 will become a mild restomod with the main exterior clue being a set of larger wheels and tires. Underneath though, some go fast goodies have been installed. This blog is starting mid stream in the project. I will endevour to detail what has taken place up to this point and then, give a play by play on the future developments.

Some History:

The car was purchased from a used car dealer in San Diego in 1987. It was then driven across country to where I was living at the time, Washington, D.C.

It led a normal life of going to the store and school. It was and still is Poppy Red with a white top and interior with black carpet. A stock 289 2barrel and 4spd provided motion.

In the late 1990's a mild restoration was begun with grand plans. During this time, the following parts were installed:

Currie 9inch 3.50 with large drums

Aluminum driveshaft

Tremec 3550

CenterForce Dual friction clutch

Total Control Coil Over front suspension

13inch SSBC front discs

347 stroker motor from a builder in FL

Total Control Rack and Pinion

Sanderson Headers and Flowmaster exhaust

VintageAir A/C

Three core radiator

These parts were installed and some problems immediately arose:

The steering rack rubbed on the Cobra T oil pan

The SSBC calipers rubbed on the wheels

The exhaust had minimal ground clearance so it rubbed

The motor overheated

The steering was fixed relatively easily. The exhaust was tucked up as high as it could and it remains too low for my tastes but there is only so much space to work with. The big brakes were removed and put on the shelf. The motor was a completely different story.

A crate motor builder, with a good reputation, assembled the 347 with aluminum heads, good cam, roller rockers, all the goodies. It had a 4bbl carb ontop. The motor overheated so badly that the ceramic coated headers started to discolor. All the causes were investigated. Water pump, okay. Thermostat, okay. Radiator, okay. Collapsing hoses, none found. Heater core, okay. We did a compression check and found that two cylinders were at 60psi. Finally, the decision was made to pull the heads off of the block and look. Remember, this was built by professionals. When the heads were pulled we saw that on the head gasket, the embossed word, "FRONT" was toward the rear of the car. The cooling passages were completely covered up by the gasket. But the story does not end here. In the search for information, we went back to the paperwork supplied with the motor. A dyno sheet was included but the date on the sheet listed a day when the engine was not even assembled due to the lack of needed parts. So, we got a bogus dyno sheet, and head gaskets that were installed wrong. A call to the builder said that the guy who built the motor had been fired but since we pulled the heads off, he was not liable for any quality control issues. I can understand his point, but with the gasket snafu, and the 'liar' dyno sheet, I will tell all of my friends to stay away from that builder. An easy way to avoid this builder is not to use anyone from northern FL.

With a bad compression test, the mustang was parked and left for dead in the garage. That was 2002.

A few years ago, a totaled 1995 mustang gt was purchased from a salvage yard. The plan was to take the efi motor and put it in the '65. Along with the wiring nightmare this would entail, a new underdash wiring harness was purchased. Along with the new harness, a JME billet gauge cluster was obtained. All new gauges and a tach!!!