Swap Mustang Rear End?
 

I've got a 2000 V6 Mustang that I'm planning on swapping out to a 5.0l engine sometime down the road, and keeping my T5 tranny, is there any point to switching to a 8.8" differential? I want 3.73 gears and posi traction, so could I just buy a 8.8" differential or is there no point to it.

Yes you will need a 8.8 rear end to be able to handle the upgraded power..

5.0 into a 2000 is going to be tough. Have fun. Yes you'll want to replace the back end. That much torque will grenade a 7.5 under spirited use.

Please take this the right way: I don't think you've thought this out. You asked a really basic question which means you don't know the answer to more complex issues. The wiring harness from your 2000 wee sicks won't work, nor will the engine computer, the fuel system, and much much more.

Please consider a 4.6L swap. It's much easier and you can get a complete cobra kit (engine and tranny, electronics, wiring harnesses, computer, air filter... the WORKS) for about 6K (Talk to Ken at www.speedconcepts.net he sells the kits and has done 2 swaps with them).

Your T5 will die eventually. It's strong enough for the six but they were notoriously weak behind a V8. 3.73 gears are a great choice. Posi is a lot of things... do you want Auburn, Track-Lok, Detroit Locker, ECTED, etc...? Need to research or ask questions.

Could you clarify how much you're looking to spend? There are TONS of supporting parts you'll need and almost noone knows what they all are.

better yet switch a 5.4 navigator engine...beauty of modulars, it will fit like a glove

I don't know much of anything about 2000V6's but don't they have an 8.8 already?

Adam

I believe they have a 7.5"..

You are correct the V6 models have the 7.5"

stick with modular engines and you can stuff any of them you want in. A 4.6 4V swap would be a cheap (well 6K isn't actually cheap but it's cheaper than anything else for what you get), super easy bolt in and a major boost in output. You should be able to find a good 8.8 for under 400 bucks (craigslist.org). 99+ 8.8's are bringing a premium right now thanks to all the terminator cobras wanting to drag race and swapping out their IRS.

94-98 are a good option. With 9" wide wheels you won't even notice that they're an inch skinnier than 99+. Rear end swaps take about 4 hours if you're a novice.

How many horses are we talking with the 4.6l? And where is this complete cobra kit, I couldn't find it at speedconcepts?

Also how much could I get for a 3.8l V6 and T5 tranny with 75,000 miles?

get an MPH built engine....theyll do wonders....actually...take ur whole car to them....and tell them to have fun w/ it and make it a superstang..haha

260 @ the crank and ~230-240 rwhp, thats a manual now....ebay for the complete cobra kit, ford doenst produce the cobra engines for our years any more....

and ebay search for ur engine....i imagine ~900 if u include everything

(~=around)

definately get a new rearend.. as far as the swap there's a lot of really strong 4.6 shortblocks that would be great. are you wanting to make a NA beast or go with FI?

Here are alot of crate motors.
http://www.gefracing.com/Merchant2/m...ry_Code=CRATES

I told you to call Ken at Speedconcepts. That's how you get the cobra setup for 6K.

Stock 4.6L 2V <260bhp
Stock cobra setup (like SC sells) 320bhp
The rest of you geniuses are confusing the hell out of him. Shortblock this and ooh ooh try that... dumbasses. He clearly doesn't know what the hell you're talking about in most cases. The only suggestion of any use was GefRacing.

Pure Stang... you are not helping.

Going rate where I'm at for a 3.8L+trans is about 500 bucks. Save it for when you blow your V8.

Ok thanks for some useful knowledge. I'm gonna have to sell my 3.8 as soon as I get my V8 running inorder to afford the swap. And by blow do you mean supercharger or destruction, cuz neither of them are gonna happen to that engine. I'm not gonna beat the **** outta my brand new engine that cost me a year's worth of work to buy.

So the cobra setup is like the same thing as my buddies 01 or 02 Cobra (320hp)? Can I get it matched up with a 6 speed for a similar price or not?

6 speed will cost you about 1700 bucks now. Not worth it. An old t5 can be built strong with 2.93 first gear and .82 5th gear for under a grand and it's easier to get parts for later.

I was speaking of "blow" as a synonym for destroy. Everyone thinks they'll be gentle to their stang but you pile in 300hp and a manual tranny and you have super duper intra-veinous fun. It's hard to be nice to your motor all the time. Eventually your cobra motor will blow... even if you're nice to it. And last, yes, it's a 320bhp motor. You should expect to see 275-290rwhp and similar torque at the rear wheels.

FWIW, these motors have been really reliable with the 2 personal friends that have done the swap. They're not gentle drivers.

An old t5 can be built? I thought the kit came with a tranny...
And how's my cobra motor gonna blow up if i'm nice to it?

cant the stock v6 rear end handle 300hp so y would he need to spend the money to change it

Ok... stang00... I dare you to put 300hp through a 7.5" diff and beat on it just a little. If you don't think that's a bad idea while you're doing it then ask yourself why they COME WITH GT's. If a 260bhp GT presents enough risk to the 7.5" rear end that Ford dropped an 8.8 in it, then the 7.5 is clearly insufficient. Mod right or don't mod. Besides, the 7.5 is an open diff, dropping a couple hundred on a stouter back half with posi will make having V8 power less of a liability as it pertains to controllability.

Yes an old T5 can be built. It can be built to withstand pretty impressive HP levels, for very little $$$. The idea with that is that it's cheap to rebuild a T5 so if you want to play with power, there's a way to save some scrilla. Yes the cobra kits come with a 3650 from what I recall. The 3650 is a fine tranny, but not the most durable or cheap to fix.

Lastly, every motor will eventually find a way to die. That's just life. Don't fool yourself into thinking that your idea of nice is going to change the fact that motors wear out and sometimes they just catastrophically self-disassemble because they're bored.

Go buy that motor. Ask ken for links to the install pics. He did dozens of pics of his swap.

I understand motors can die, but I'm expecting over 100,000 miles outta this one, there is no reason why it shouldn't last that long. Hell my brother has a 460 in his truck that he rebuilt at 275,000 miles for the hell of it (he had it out for some reason and it was starting to leak a little oil or something, but didn't absolutely need to be rebuilt). Now that it's been rebuilt, it has over 300,000 miles on it. And it didn't have an easy life either, the guy that had it before us put 200,000 miles on it pulling a loaded hog trailer daily. Coupled with the nearly invincible 5 speed manuals in the 92 F250's it should keep going for quite a while.

Not that I want to compare a truck motor to a car motor, but we've got another F250 with over 110,000 and a car with 120,000 or so.

It's gonna take me a while to pass 100,000 on that motor, I maybe put on 15,000 miles a year. By then I'll be out of college and I'll actually be able to afford to rebuild/replace the engine. And if the expected life of the engine is under 100,000 miles with good maintanance and not abusing it too much, then that's pretty crappy. I take care of my stuff pretty good.

100K is easy on a modular motor. The only hitch is that I see most people promise up and down that they're going to be nice and gentle and then they get the Mr. Hyde syndrome as soon as they feel the power under foot.

Truck engines don't usually have to deal with pulling high rpm like sports cars.

no matter what, 100K isn't unreasonable. 200k is pushing it.

I am gonna promise up and down because i dont have the money to replace it. I stomp on it a couple times and say oh cool it's got lots of power and then I get over it. I don't need to show off my car to myself. And I think I've raced 2 people since I got my car, because it's only a crappy V6. And when I get a new engine I've got two people I know I'm gonna race and that will probably be the end of that. I'm not real big on abusing my stuff. Plus I live in an area that doesn't really have many fast cars and the nearest track is a long ways away.

So what comes with the $6K package, an engine, tranny, driveshaft, rearend, computer or what? I'm not gonna bother calling the guy for now because I won't be able to afford it until June probably. I hope they still have the kit in 6 months.

To get the whole parts list would wear out a keyboard. It's EVERYTHING that a ford factory would want to convert a 6 to a cobra except the rear end.

Call Ken dude... if you don't you may lose out on any chance you had to get the OEM kit. At least call and talk to him about it, he loves that crap. Maybe put a deposit down and he'll make sure that you have one in June. Timing is an issue in most things.

In general the kit comes with: engine, trans, computer, guage cluster, wire harnesses, fuel tank, fuel pump, air filter housing, snorkel, pedal assmby, and a billion little things you'd never think of.

do what lew did