Well, we have finally decided to put a V8 in the '72 daily driver. The 243,173.6 mile (as of the time of this post) 250 will finally take a break for a while (I'm not done with that motor yet though, I know it's got 300,000+ in it! ) There is an '85 Lincoln with 68,000 miles on it sitting in my grandpa's field. Was parked in 2002 because the ignition switch went bad. I last started the car in 2005. It ran excellent. We are going to drop this in the '72 totally stock and maybe add a few bolt on's as time and money allows. The engine has that old carburetor looking fuel injection on it, but I have unbolted the throttle body and bolted a 2 barrel in it's place and installed a Duraspark II distributor and it runs great. And an added plus, it already has a serpentine belt setup on it and a working A/C compressor. Question is, the engine currently has an AOD behind it in the Lincoln. We want to retain the C4 in the '72 FOR NOW. Will that flexplate on the '85 engine be compatible with the C4 torque conveter? If not, where would I get the late model 50 oz. flexplate compatible with a C4? I can't just use an older flexplate from a 70's parts car because of the balance diffrence, right? Any help greatly appreciated. We are planning to do this over the up-comeing long weekend.
The flex plate for the 6 cylinder will not work and the flexplate for the AOD is different. You should be able to get a flexplate for the C4 and your 302 at any auto parts store. If you get a 157 tooth flywheel for an 85 C5 it should work on a C4.
Jamie, that sounds about like the 85 T Bird engine I'm using in my Mav. It had an AOD behind it in the T Bird. As for the flexplate, it all depends on your transmission. The AOD flexplate worked with the C4 torque converter in mine. My C4 is a pan fill model, not a case fill, so that may make a difference as well. If you have a early model c4 with the small bellhousing, you will have to get a small 50 oz flexplate. If your C4 is like mine and has the larger bellhousing, the flexplate on the engine will work fine. My C4 came from a 77 Granada, and has the large bell, but the two spare C4's I have both are small bells, one came from the 73 Mav I parted out, the other was in the trunk of my 74 when I got it from Clint...
Good luck we are also doing a v8 swap were putting a 2000 5.0 out of an explorer into my uncles 66 falcon..he got tire of not being able to get out of potholes with his little 200.
Exactly the kind of info I am looking for. The '72 currently has a '71 case fill transmission in it with a '73 torque converter and '76 bell housing. How do you tell the larger bell from the smaller bell? Do you have any pics of the diffrence? Can I swap a large bell and torque converter onto my '71 transmission? Here are a few pictures of the same type of bell housing/torque converter that is in the car now. These pictures were taken back in June of 2005 when I was replacing the transmission in the old '74 Grabber for the first time. The same engine in those pics has been in the '72 since Dec. '05, trans and bell housing in those pics are not the exact same ones behind that engine now, but are the "same" parts with the same part numbers, if you catch my drift. The transmission in there now has been rebuilt with a shift kit, and has been working great for the past year and a half the '72 has been together. I guess I need to know what year and model car I need to get the flexplate from. I have a '72 302/C4 flexplate and torque converter, but I know that won't work with the newer '85 motor... And I need to figgure this out and get the parts very quick, because we are driving the '72 up to NC tomorrow night and will begin pulling the 6 cylindner when we get there. The car needs to be back together and ready to drive home by Monday night. So I need to have everything there and ready to bolt together.
jamie is swapping out a 250 so it'll already have the larger v8 sized bellhousing. the fly wheel its self shloud literally blot up right but i think the 250 flywheel is balanced diffrently and will throw off the balance of your bottom end if you use it on a v8. sorry i cant be any more specific i would think you would be able to get the right piece fairly cheap at the local parts store but you better know exactly what you need because im sure the guy behind the counter wont good luck
The 250 is 0 balance. I know it will bolt up to the 302, but it will not be correct and will cause vibration.
Jamie; you are going about this the right way. Get the parts together first. Bad juju if you need something and can't find it. BTW, got my stuff together and the car goes to the shop in a week or so. Later,
I don't have a pic handy but If I remember right, the small bell bolts to the front pump on the tranny. The large bell bolts more outboard, seperate from the pump. Somebody posted a link a while back that had clear pics of both types. Maybe somebody saved it and can remember what link I'm talking about....
Nice! that should be a fun car when he is done. That is a gt40p headed motor so let me know if he needs some custom headers for it . Good luck with the swap Jamie .
yeah it old him the only bad part for that engine were the spark plug angle i'll let him know about the headers thanks
jamie, this is a great site for c-4 info. shows easily how to tell the difference. give it a try. good luck. http://www.mustangcentral.net/tech/c4.html
