honda powered mustang

[mark21742]

welp I'm taking the plung. just picked up a 1966 unrestored mustang 289 auto coupe(two pumps and it fired right up)
striping it down to do a restoration on the body and full custom under the skin. when finished I'll have a front wheel drive 300hp fuel injected honda drivetrain under the hood that get 30+ mpg.
I've been waiting for a good project

[Wesman]

LOL no seriously what are your plans for it?? Sounds like a nice platform for a project.

[mark21742]

LOL no seriously what are your plans for it?? Sounds like a nice platform for a project.

mom and dads first new car was a 68 mustang... she has always said she never had a car since then she liked as mush as that car....but she likes the way front wheel drive handles. so saturday and sunday we striped most of the car down and hopefully il have the space to pl the honda in the garage to strip down two weeks from now. stock restoration may be worth more, but hey if you could get paid in smiles per mile from your mother what would you do lol

[Wesman]

mom and dads first new car was a 68 mustang... she has always said she never had a car since then she liked as mush as that car....but she likes the way front wheel drive handles. so saturday and sunday we striped most of the car down and hopefully il have the space to pl the honda in the garage to strip down two weeks from now. stock restoration may be worth more, but hey if you could get paid in smiles per mile from your mother what would you do lol

So you are serious about a FWD Honda powered Mustang....interesting to say the least.

I don't think you understand the whole handling/drivetrain design. Many cars that are designed to be FWD handle well given their drivetrain layout, which is less than ideal for a performance vehicle anyhow. Chassis engineers spend thousands of hours perfecting every characteristic using state of the art computer software to make the car drive like it does, meaning the best combination of ride, sporty handling, emergency handling, ect. The '68 Ford Mustang you have is designed to be RWD. Meaning the entire chassis is designed around that concept, and trying to convert it to FWD is going to turn it into a practically undriveable vehicle.

First off, as far back as I can think, Mustangs have used an SLA front suspension with a coil spring on the lower control arm. And being a '68, it has a conventional steering knuckle and spindle with wheel bearings built into the brake rotor. How you think you are going to convert this to run a FWD setup is beyond me, seeing as its impossible unless you somehow replace the entire front subframe with one from a different vehicle designed for a FWD car, which would be extremely involved and probably wouldn't work anyway.

And even if you somehow, by some miracle, managed to make it work, the car would handle dangerously. Meaning going around a corner would probably result in snap oversteer, since the weight of the engine, transmission, and driveshaft that are supposed to be in the car wouldn't be there, and all the weight of the powertrain would all be over the front wheels. Plus, what would you do with the rear end?? Just let it hang out back there and spin freely??

I think you need to reconsider this idea, it just seems pointless. Plus its a disgrace to put a Honda weed wacker engine into an American pony car, period.

[mark21742]

whoo wesman, your making it way too difficult lol.
basiclly I'm cutting the body off of the honda so I will have the honda front suspension,drivetrain, lower firewall, floor and rear suspension still all as a one piece roller (kinda like an old VWpan. the cut and add 5 inches into the honda floor to lenghten the wheelbase to match the mustang. run new nrake amd fuel lines the right lenght, then after that part is complete, take the body of the 66 ( minus floor) and sit it down over the new pan and finally fab a 1 1/4" thin wall square tube stub frame to re hang the mustangfenders and frontend.
so roughfly I'm just doing a chop and channel with a twist.
the biggest part is building the jig to hold everything in place before welding. over the last fifteen years I've built several things from the ground up, starting with gokarts and dune buggies, then a few motorcycles with hand fabbed chassiss and suspension and then four highly custom cars so now just taking it to the next level.....but trust me I know its going to be some hard work

[mark21742]

but if it makes you feel any better I'd never think about dropping a fwd 4 in the goat.
plus she is the customer and the customer is always right....specially when the customer is your mother lol

[c5z28]

-no! gosh a focus motor converted to rw drive would be better than that-please don't your going to make every mustang owner cry.

[ATCharming]

with a honda engine too???

[mark21742]

with a honda engine too???

yup. decided to go honda civic for several reasons. it one of the most popular tuner cars so there is a rediculous amount of aftermarket parts from brakes and suspension to engine mods and bolt ons, for very good prices. I have lotd of experience working with them, easy to work on and really reliable if you don't try to push too much through them and great gas mileage

[Midnight02]

When I first read this I thought "Oh no, that's completely backwards" (a Mustang motor in a light Honda sounds much more interesting to me). However, understanding your motivations (putting a smile on mom's face), I will wish you the best on your project! :-) Some priorities are simply greater than others and mom should always be pretty high up on the list.

[jaslivers]

i like the idea... i want to do a rat rod with a honda motor......some day it will happen

[jknelms]

i'm betting that other forums are posting this thread on honda/mustang sites..... haha, i only wonder what their reaction is.

[mark21742]

i'm betting that other forums are posting this thread on honda/mustang sites..... haha, i only wonder what their reaction is.

lol true... I guess I have to take the good with the bad.....but I know my goat can run circles around it but she just wants something nice to putt around in and look good

[LT1 > LS1]

mom and dads first new car was a 68 mustang... she has always said she never had a car since then she liked as mush as that car....but she likes the way front wheel drive handles. so saturday and sunday we striped most of the car down and hopefully il have the space to pl the honda in the garage to strip down two weeks from now. stock restoration may be worth more, but hey if you could get paid in smiles per mile from your mother what would you do lol

she likes how they handle??????



who enjoys, like really enjoys torquesteer?????


I like it because I make a joke out of it, and think its funny......hahahaha

[mark21742]

she likes how they handle??????



who enjoys, like really enjoys torquesteer?????


I like it because I make a joke out of it, and think its funny......hahahaha

she has spun out a few times in rwd cars in bad weather and she wants this one she can drive daily year round and be comfortable driving if it gets bad out.....we used to get snow here in maryland and I hope someday we start to get more again.
before anyone says it, no its not going to have a fart can.....but if you've never sat in a parking lot in a front wheel drive car, thrown it in reverse and done smoky backwards donuts, you are missing out on some good fun

[mark21742]

i like the idea... i want to do a rat rod with a honda motor......some day it will happen

best thing is I picked up the donor car (98 civic) for $500, runs great, just has some passengerside front damage from a deer hit. complete rebuild kit, rings, pistons, bearings, gaskets, and oil pump for $253.87.....cant go wrong

[jaslivers]

best thing is I picked up the donor car (98 civic) for $500, runs great, just has some passengerside front damage from a deer hit. complete rebuild kit, rings, pistons, bearings, gaskets, and oil pump for $253.87.....cant go wrong

damn its hard to wrong for that price.... you gotta keep us updated with pics... i wanna see how this goes

[mark21742]

damn its hard to wrong for that price.... you gotta keep us updated with pics... i wanna see how this goes

we took some pics before we touched it and going to be taking a lot more as the project moves along. got the mustang just about striped down the only things left are the hood, trunk, motor and tranny....all that will be gone friday by lunch time... then the braces get welded in to keep the body strait while I make all the cuts

[Z28collection]

def. keep us posted on this project it sounds very interesting and post up some pics soon.

[bamaz28]

what did the stang ever do to you ?