1980 Fairmont V10 Swap

Mine is for cruising only but I built the drive train to take some abuse!! if necessary. Steering is light with the hydroboost and braking is excellent with the Cobra front discs and Mustang GT rear disc. I started drag racing back in the 60's so I still get the itch to hammer it every once in a while!

 

The steering should be okay, if the engine's got an aluminum block

 

The Ford V10s were never available with an aluminum block. I have lowered the weight on the front end some with tubular headers instead of cast iron, a smaller battery, ect. the v10 has aluminum heads but is still probably 50 -100 lbs heavier than a dressed 302 or 351. Weight has been added out back with a larger 8.8 axle, sway bar, H.D. springs. That helps the balance a little and the station wagon has more mass behind the driver which helps the balance. This is my 3rd wagon and I have always thought they handled better than the stock Mustangs. Mine tended to oversteer rather than understeer as stock Mustangs do when pushed hard.

 

Awesome car! Wish I had the know-how and time to do things like this. School me on the v10 please. Why was that your choice? I’ve only worked on one I think and if I remember we had trouble finding engine parts? I was under the impression that they had a lot of issues and therefore were only made a short period of time? I had to google “PI heads” seems like if you have a v10 that the ONLY way to go because the non-PIs would bog down under a heavy load?? Is any of this correct?

 

The V10 has been in production since 1997. They are still in production and used in many brands of RV's. Just about the only gas RV engine anymore. A few Chevys but not many. The non P.I. engine was the first. They had some issues with blowing out spark plugs because of the shallow depth of the threads. They also had longer intake runners which probably helped torque at lower rpms. The P.I. heads were from 2002-2004. They had different ports and shorter intake runners. Not sure exactly when the spark plug threads were strengthened. That head was the YC2E. From 2005 to present the V10 is the 3valve model with 362 hp and 460 tq. My favorite if I could find one but the cause other swap issues because of drive - by- wire throttle, ect. They are great engines especially when swapped into cars or light trucks. They are rev happy and very solid engines. I have built from the ground up two complete engines. The last one I built was in a heavy duty work truck that was abused. It had a dead miss on one of the cylinders because of a bad injector connector and they continued to drive it. Finally it stretched the rod on the dead cylinder a threw the rod. It stayed in the pan and no one new it had thrown the rod. Just a tapping in the valve train when the valved hit the top of the broken piston that was stuck in the top of the cylinder. I was still drivable!!

 

And I was referring to Andrew's auto-correct where he wrote "online" six instead of "inline" six.

 

Poops! Uh, I mean, "Oops!"

 

Don't sweat it, happens to all of us. I thought it was pretty funny. (especially since I knew exactly what you meant. )

 

Broken piston and still thumping huh? That’s pretty impressive. Also equally impressive is the left over space between the motor and radiator. Probably could have put a v12 in there if you wanted. Are the v10 and v12 used in anything besides trucks? (And fairmonts...) also, if I were looking at a v10 what would be some ways a fledgling like myself could distinguish the PI, non-PI, and 3 valve heads?

 

Here's a 4-part video of a Viper 10 getting stuffed into a Maverick. It doesen't look half as tight as the Titan stuffing. I can't tell if the Viper's set up at 90° or not. 72° would be ideal, without having to offset the crank throws. It would then fit in much better. I don't see where he's got his master cylinder:

 

The PI heads say P.I. somewhere on the head. I don't remember exactly where. The non-P.I. heads have longer intake runners. Don't remember other visual differences. If you Google a 3V V10 you will see that the valve covers are completely different. Personall, I would use any of the if building a cruiser. Plenty of torque and that's whats fun. Nver heard of a mod motor V12 except in maybe a Aston Martin or some other exotic. My new floor mats!

 

Only one Modular V12, and custom-built from two V-8 engines:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_GT90

 

Which would guarantee higher low-end torque

 

I knew I had seen one somewhere. That's what I saw. My brother and I were actually thinking about making a 4 cam V10 using some cobra or Mk 4 heads

 

Mk 8 heads