Hello, everyone my name is james and alas i have no maverick. I live out in Cali and although I love it i cant stand the smog laws. I currently own a '91 5.0 LX mustang with a T-5. It wont pass smog (something I will hopefully have resolved within a week) and once it does im selling it. I love fox mustangs but I m done dealing with all the smog stuff. I long considered doing a stock rebuild on the car, tricking out the suspension to handle/better take advantage of a lightly modded 302 and being done with it. BUT! I had a better idea. Why not just get a pre '75 car and tell smog to go pound sand? That's what I intend to do. So I got on craigs list and found a very nice '71 Maverick with a 302. Not bad at all given the car looks decent and for $3.5K i could do worse. The only problem is that i saw no A/C in the car. I live in central cali and air is a MUST. Although I could piece factory air or modify vintage air/old air to fit i came up with a better idea: Would a new mustang 3.7 fit a Maverick? It's hard to pass up 305HP and 31 mpg. I can also run a/c since the engine should have more room to spare. Any thoughts? Sorry for the long intro and i'm sure Ill get better feedback in a tech or genral section, but any advice is appreciated!
Welcome to the board. I don't know thew specs on the new engine but the Maverick engine compartment is pretty small. You would probably have to go with a Mustang ll front conversion and eliminate the shock towers. Not sure what other problems you would run into.
what citi are from? Smog exemption is pretty awesome. I removed all my egr/smog stuff the first day they changed the law to pre 76 cars
Thanks every one. Do you really think the 3.7 is bigger than the 302? I can't seem to find exterior dimensions on this motor. Given that it's a DOHC it just may be. I supposed I could also go with a built SVO drive train. Parts are bound to be cheaper, and there's tons of 2.3's out there. I may just write to one of the larger mustang/ford mag's and see what they think of the swap. Not that I don't trust your info or anything but it's bound to be much easier to see them do it first so all the little issues that come up with these swaps are solved.
302's are small compared to Mod engines. Duratecs are similar sizes to Mod engines. Engine compartments in mavericks are not wide at all, due to the invasive shock towers. Even an old technology 302 can get 30mpg while hitting 300HP. It's not uncommon with a T5 behind it.
holy frijoles, I knew there was a side difference but that's massive. and that's the 4.6. we'll looks like a 302 is the way to go.
