Black EX-R6

Ok, here is the scenario.

You just bought an 74 xbgt hardtop. And you have $1000 give or take to throw at the car to improve performance. This thousand or 1500 max is to include labour for a mechanic to do the work. What would you do?

The rules are the car is to be used only on street, no drag racing at all. The car will be a weekend driver. The car should remain original looking. With the exception of extractors or something easily bolted on and off.

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74' Sandstone Biege XBGT, 351, FMX, Sunroof, Air Con, Power Steering.

xespack

So your saying that the car is a bog stock xbgt coupe with original motor that has never had any work and bever been rebuilt etc? How many ks has it done and is it manual or auto?

Black EX-R6

It has been rebuilt. It is original motor.

But is rebuilt to original specs with the exception of the cam and the heads. Its done an absolute shitload of K's. 700,000. Its an FMX Auto.

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74' Sandstone Biege XBGT, 351, FMX, Sunroof, Air Con, Power Steering.

Black EX-R6

The current owner has the original heads and cam in his garage. I was intending to put the engine back to original but was advised to put a different cam in and possibly extractors.

I am wondering what you would do with the thousand or 1500 bucks.

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74' Sandstone Biege XBGT, 351, FMX, Sunroof, Air Con, Power Steering.

EBXR

First thing I'd do is go over the entire car - replace hoses/fluid/ service trans, new plugs, leads, new power steering fluid, diff fluid, coolant, check suspension bushes...


Then drive it for a bit to see what it feels like, and wether you're happy with the current performance/economy. Then focus on where to spend the $$ in the areas you have identified you want improved. Otherwise, you might be spending the $$ in unnecessary areas.

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'67 Mustang V8 4sp... what fun to drive!

ZK 351

damn that is a whole lot of k's

rod051

I would get a set of tri y extractors. They are easy enough to fit yourself. If you are going to have the motor rebuilt you have to improve it, there is no point keeping it stock and getting blown away by XR6's

rod051

Average k's for a daily driver thats 30 years old.

Black EX-R6

Im not fussed about getting blown away by xr6's as i own one of them anyway.

I am just after something nice to drive around, not over the top.

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74' Sandstone Biege XBGT, 351, FMX, Sunroof, Air Con, Power Steering.

xespack

I agree with EBXR. Sounds like you want something thats reliable and is as nice to drive as can be for your extra 1000-1500. If you already have cam and slight head work then it would make sense to go extractors and full exhaust to match the better breathing cam and heads. Tri y headers with twin 2.5 inch exhaust with some decent mufflers will take up most of your budget if you get it all new and pay for all installation. You will get a decent increase in power and might even get better fuel economy.

But as i said, i agree with EBXR about getting all the little reliability things sorted such as hoses, belts, filters, fluids, bushes etc etc.

Also might be worth getting it on a dyno. A good dyno tuner might be able to get your whole package running better by playing with things such as jetting, timing and experimenting with carb spacers etc etc. It should only cost you a few hundred + parts and the operator will be able to give you some advice as to what he thinks would be good for your 1000 for your car.

Aaron.