|
1984 Ford Mustang SVO-ND
Here are the beginnings of a more complete write-up
on the 1984 Ford Mustang SVO-ND. Yes, that's right. Another 'ND'
car! This rather beat 1984 SVO was supposed to be my beater car
for commuting for work, and in most ways it was. I had no plans
to turn this into another project, let alone a ND car. The car
was a veritable basket case when I bought it at the end of December
2001. It suffered from tons of neglect, and a previous owner
who rigged anything and everything imaginable. I drove it for
a few days, and found one too many electrical problems for me
to be relying on it to get me to and from work (102 miles, roundtrip).
I just couldn't get along with the Ford EEC-IV electronics onboard,
not to mention the extreme number of wiring 'repairs'. So in
frustration one night, I took the cutters to the main engine
control harness. I cut out everything not necessary to make the
rest of the car function. I began wiring the car for Chrysler
1990 2.2L Turbo IV electronics (a personal favorite of mine).
To make this work, I needed a hybrid distributor to make the
engine happy, and make the electronics happy. I thought about
the problems of having a workable TPS and AIS, and decided to
have the intake modified to accept a Chrysler style throttle
body. After these two tasks were completed, I needed a set of
custom spark plug wires (Ford 2.3L wires, with Chrysler 2.2L
distributor ends), which I ordered from Magnecor.
Here is a shot taken a few days after getting it running on the
Chrysler electronics. I had not finished all of the wiring yet,
so I had not had a chance to neaten up the appearance, nor had
I added on wire looms, etc. As you can see in the picture, the
engine is actually running! (See the blur of the alternator?)
In this picture, you can see the mounting of the SBEC on the
passenger fender.
Here you can see the hybrid distributor. Notice the non-Ford
2.3L cap ;) Above it is my new Kirban adjustable fuel pressure
regulator.
Close up of the distributor.
Side view of the throttle body. I used a 52mm throttle body from
a 2001 PT Cruiser. If you intend to leave your intake stock in
its orientation, like this, then I would recommend a throttle
body from a 2.2/2.5 or 3.0/3.3L V6. The reason is the TPS. Notice
the connector hitting the valve cover here. The other throttle
bodies will not give this trouble. I chose to use the PT throttle
body, because I had planned to chop and rotate my intake for
a front mount intercooler. Notice the placement of the throttle
cable. A 2.2 style throttle body will have the cable enter from
the opposite side. I thought this style would allow more hood
clearance when I modified the intake. Also, for a throttle cable,
use on for a 2001 PT cruiser. You will have to modify the cable
bracket on a 2.2L throttle body (real minor), but the rest of
the cable is almost a complete drop in for the SVO. Even the
part that hooks into the accelerator pedal is the same as the
original! The geometry is about perfect, so no mods are needed
there, either. You will have to grind the hole in the firewall
out to 0.750" for it to fit.
Here is another view of the throttle body. You can see the TPS
clearance problem a little better here.
This car literally rusted itself to death. It led
an overly abused life, had at least 10 owners, and 225k miles.
Everytime you closed the door, rust hit the ground. The flip
side to the rust problem was that this resulted in the car getting
faster all of the time! After a bout of frame rot, I parted it
out. I kept most of the SVO specific parts as spares for my 86
SVO. I enjoyed this car very much, and am happy that I was able
to extend its life by at least two years.
BACK
|
|