Edumacate me on Mustangs

Apexcarver wrote: my mom actually had a 3.8 with 80k on it that we couldnt keep headgaskets on. (1994 mustang convertable with an automatic) this was before i really started wrenching on cars, so it might have been a shoddy mechanic after an initial failure.

I have never seen the headgaskets fail on a rear drive 3.8 except for one, and that was a special case. (The owner had a leaky timing cover and she didn't pay attention to coolant levels until it was so low that it stopped building heat. Then she drove it for another week)

On the front-drivers, they'd always fail at the same spot, and the heads were never warped. I think it was an assembly fault, because you could just slap in new gaskets and head bolts and it'd be good essentially forever.

ford had a TSB about it apparently http://www.ford-trucks.com/tsb/tsb.php/m-FORD/d-MUSTANG/y-1994/t-00M10S2

http://www.ford-trucks.com/tsb/tsb.php/m-FORD/d-MUSTANG/y-1994/t-00M10

if you search internet mustang forums its a common problem. http://www.coolcats.net/tech/troubleshooting/gaskets.html

http://www.allfordmustangs.com/forums/v6-tech/54306-3-8l-head-gasket-issues.html

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/automotive/ford_mustang.htm

Interesting. I've never once seen a cracked 3.8 head but it's funny that they said in the allfordmustangs link that it's generally the right head, which would be the rear bank on a FWD, which is the one that would leak out.

So can anyone tell me the front track with of a fox body mustang? Or wheel mounting surface to surface dimension? I am trying to re-do the suspension/brakes on my '77 Capri and I found an A-Arm K-member kit for a fox mustang and was hoping it would be a close fit. Other ideas are welcome. I am just looking to have something with some aftermarket support. (Focus, Fox, Mustang II)

I'm thinking the Fox stuff won't be even close to fitting, unfortunately. I do not know for sure if it's compatible stuff but you might look at some of the custom Mustang II crossmembers the hotrodders use.

RossD wrote: So can anyone tell me the front track with of a fox body mustang? Or wheel mounting surface to surface dimension? I am trying to re-do the suspension/brakes on my '77 Capri and I found an A-Arm K-member kit for a fox mustang and was hoping it would be a close fit. Other ideas are welcome. I am just looking to have something with some aftermarket support. (Focus, Fox, Mustang II)

Call Norm Murdock at Team Blitz (google for information on him) and talk to him about what you want to do. There's also a good yahoo discussion listserv for the Capri. The short of it is, Mustang parts aren't going to help you.

That said, if you were wanting to do some kind of SLA front end on a Capri, and you had this Mustang crossover and didn't worry about cutting on it a bit and you could weld it might be possible to graft into the front of your Capri II. Or you could just emulate what Ford did with these cars in the Group 5 days and go with that. Personally I'd worry more about the brakes and the wheel bearing situation on the front of the Capri than trying to get rid of the Macpherson struts.

Miata would make a better Capri suspension donor in my humble opinion...

Huh... I guess the answer really is always Miata.

I wish there was more broken miatas around. But theres not. I wouldnt have a problem hacking that kit up but it gets to the point that it would make more sense to start from scratch since the spring and damper rates would be off too. Whats the WMS to WMS front and rear for the NA miata?

Been a while since I measured one of mine but I wanna say 57" WF to WF. I do know that a Miata suspension is too wide to fit under my J-H and the stock axle on it is 54". A Miata front X member is not overly complicated and could be narrowed pretty easily with the exception of the rack itself.

If you are in the Southeast I can point you to someone who has lotsa busted up Miatas. I just picked up a full F&R suspension setup from him for another budding project.

Maybe you should start a new thread for your Capri, since your Capri isn't remotely related to any Mustang, and it'd be a better place to get and dump ideas.