86 notch 4.6 swap

[86 lx notch]

Hello everyone...I have an 86 lx notch which will be my 2nd Fox and 3rd mustang total. Extremely excited about this one because I've decided to do a 4.6 swap. I'm having a hard time finding a donor car in Nebraska where I'm from so any help would be greatly appreciated as far as that goes. 2nd I have about a $5000 budget and was wondering if that would be enough to do this with a supercharged engine? Thanks in advance for any and all help

 

[ModFoxMustangs]

Welcome to MFM hope you enjoy your stay... Depending on how much you find your fox for and the donor motor it might be able to accomplish with 5K... Good luck and make sure to post lots of pics...

 

[86 lx notch]

I bought my notch for $500 with a 2.3, 4 speed and 72k original miles. Is this gonna be a lot of work for a first time 4.6 swapped? And is it all worth it?

 

[ModFoxMustangs]

Sure is I am contemplating doing another just not sure which engine yet..

 

[FuturaGuy]

If your goal is the satisfaction of a job well done, it's worth it. If you're planning to get your money back later, then it's not worth it. I think a $5000 budget is optimistic and depends largely on how lucky you are in finding parts at low cost. If want to do a quality job and are only partially lucky finding parts, plan on more like $10,000. The small stuff will nickel-and-dime you to death.

If it's any consolation, I spent close to $20,000 before I could put mine on the road. And that was before it went to the body shop!

 

[86 lx notch]

What do most ppl do as far as donor cars? I kind of figured the small stuff would be a pain and its more of a project for me and maybe one day one of my boys would want this car...anyways, r there a lot of things I'll need that a donor car doesn't have? I've been doin some research and trying to find out what I can when I can. Any tips and tricks r much appreciated.

 

[FuturaGuy]

From the wording and tone of your questions, it appears that this is your first attempt at trying an engine swap. I don't want to bust your bubble but any Mod Motor swap is difficult, doubly so for a beginner. It's very easy to screw up a perfectly good project car by starting and not having thought out in advance what you plan to do or how.

If you're starting with a 4-cylinder car, you have to consider beefing up the suspension, the steering, brakes, fuel lines, motor mounts, changing the rear end, the driveshaft, and probably the radiator and rest of the cooling system. The donor car is not likely to have everything you need in one neat package. And I haven't mentioned getting all the wiring connected, which is a major job by itself.

Give this a lot of thought before you start. You may want to back off a little and install a nice injected 5.0 instead. It's a lot easier and you'd still have a neat little car when your finished.

 

[86 lx notch]

I've built a 5.0 car and it was sweet but I wanna try somethin different with this build...I haven't started ripping anything apart and I'm not gonna start any work till I have a good plan in place and most of the parts I'll think I need rounded up. That's y I'm asking so many questions I guess...I don't wanna mess a good car up. I knew about some of whAt u said, like the cooling system, brakes, steering and fuel system. What I'm most worried about is the engine wiring...that and making it all work with the 5 speed and 8.8 I have are my biggest concerns.

 

[Bill]

Here's a '96 that would make a great parts car. You could probably get it for $1200-1400 (depending on how bad he wants to get rid of it). Rebuild the motor, sell the stuff you don't use. Most of the small stuff comes with a parts car. It can be done on the cheap, particularly if you get a reasonable parts car.
http://lincoln.craigslist.org/cto/4218651699.html
Depending on where you are in Nebraska and how far you can travel to pick up a parts car, they are out there.