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Hey I have a copy of PASMAG that had a Miata with the 5.0 Mustang motor in it. Besides a whole lot of fabrication, a custom bent hood and flipping the exhaust manifolds around so they faced forward to meet clearance, it worked great....

If I wanted a big fuel inefficent monster, I would definatly stay in the ford family of engines. I hate seeing cars with motors that aren't remotely in the family... Nissan Pickups with Chevrolet 350's... etc. Keep it in the family bro!

If I wanted a big fuel inefficent monster, I would definatly stay in the ford family of engines

While there is something t be said for "Staying in the family".... Ford engines arent anywhere near as interchangeable as Chevy or Mopar engines. Also.. ford is extremely proud of their parts and typically charge more for the same engine components. Now its been a while since I have been hardcore in the V8 scene and I suppose things could have changed.. But at the time I was building my Nova, I had two friends building hotrods as well. 1 was a 72 340 4sp 'Cuda and the other was a 68 mustang 289. Heh.. we all beat each other at various times when we raced (One of us would get a new HP upgrade and be able to beat the other 2 for a few weeks LOL) But when all was said and done on our engine builds.. I had spent a total of $3200 on my engine which produced a bit over 400 bhp. The 'Cuda guy went a bit nuts with his in the end with a blower & NOS.. he blew both of us away quite handily but spent over $8000 on his setup (not to mention 6 clutches & 2 transmissions hehehe) Now for my ford buddy.. He ended up with a bit less bhp than I did.. better torque though... but he had around $5300 into his engine if I recall correctly.. and though his mustang would edge my Nova by a fender length when we raced.. $2100 will practically buy you another Chevy engine ready to roll I still think I could have had him too if I could have dropped a couple hundred lbs from my cars weight Man I miss those days LOL What I am getting at is that "Staying in the family" would be more expensive than going with a Chevy engine and the parts arent always as easy to find. But thats the great part about building cars.. we can do what we want to and make our rides unique.

Tunes67

If you can fabricate, you might be able to stay within that budget. I've seen a V8 rwd in a metro, chevettes, and more... also helped start on a twin-engine Swift. They are very time consuming projects and take a lot of money even if you do it yourself. Much more than you set out thinking it will cost. Custom rads, custom brackets for everything, custom suspension, frame, etc..

Strip the chassis to it's bare bones, take out the sawzall and start chopping in the right spots. You can seriously compromise the safety of the car if you dont have some knowledge behind you. I would expect it to take over a year from start to finish from planning to problem solving and actually having the time amongst trying to make money to support the habit. It would be rather fun though...

I dont think there is a need to do any work on the chassis
I heard the chassis on MX3s dont have to be changed if someone decided to run AWD or just RWD

I could be wrong though

Juans_93_MX3 wrote:I dont think there is a need to do any work on the chassis
I heard the chassis on MX3s dont have to be changed if someone decided to run AWD or just RWD

I could be wrong though

Can anyone comfirm this?

You would definetely need to do some cutting and relocating of suspension components at the very least. If you were trying to install a Miata or 323 drivetrain you'd need to do that for sure. You could probably even get away without reinforcing the body with a full tube chassis. With a big V8 though you'd have to tube it. The unibody just wont take that kind of load. We havn't even started with how you'd mount the new rear axle to the flimsy sheet metal. Even if you could get it all in and running and driving down the road, your first hard tap on the gas would twist the body beyond repair. I'm not trying to make you feel bad about doing it, but you can't do it for $8000. The guy that I know with the 350 Chevette spent well over $20000. And he gets all of his parts at cost since he's a manager at Performance Improvements. Maybe you should set your sights on doing something a little more managable but just as cool. Like a miata swap.

Or evem a rotary swap...

Personally, when I getmy own place, I definitely wanna try a AWD BPT MX3

Juans_93_MX3 wrote:I dont think there is a need to do any work on the chassis
I heard the chassis on MX3s dont have to be changed if someone decided to run AWD or just RWD

I could be wrong though

Well, you ARE wrong.

Realisticly you shouldn't have to do that much to get an AWD MX.. a 323 is about as close as you can get to an MX, but I'm sure it's not easy.