66 Mustangs

[wantahertzdonut]

When you swap the V8 in, be sure to replace the spindles with spindles from a v8 car. There are many horror stories of spindles breaking when a V8 was swapped in, and you can imagine the carnage when something like that goes.

Since it sounds like you'll be doing a fair amount of modifications to the car, you'll likely be replacing all the weaker I6 parts with stronger aftermarket ones. Just be sure to remember the spindles.

In regards to removing the shock towers and replacing the suspension with a coil-over setup, remember you will lose a lot of front end rigidity. These cars rely on the export brace to reinforce the front end, and removing the shock towers removes the mounting point for this brace. I don't know if some of the Mustang II setups have resolved this issue in any way, but you will need to keep it in mind should you decide to swap out engines.

If all you're after is bigger cubes, a 351W will do the job just fine and you shouldn't need to do any cutting. Headers are available for this swap. It'll be tight but not impossible.

I'd recommend considering a 331 stroker for a 302, it'll drop right in without any special parts, and strokers are getting more and more reliable. Even 347 strokers are getting to be very good, as companies are finding ways to eliminate the oil burning issues these big stroker kits were having. Then you'll have the HP, with little weight, and for less cost.