[BigSmith]

I am new here to these forums and i am hopefully picking up a very nice and clean bone stock 1985 mustang GT hatchback. I have taken it for a nice drive and i was pretty impressed with what it could do. However it is the carburated model. I would love to have about 300hp to the flywheel. Currently stock they had about 210. Would putting on a good modern carb and manifold help? Or do i need to do heads. Also i will be using this car as a daily driver/street cruiser, rather than a track car. I want to do gears but im torn between 3:73's or 3:55's how would it do on the highway with 3:73's? is it really worth it? I really like this car its just i don't know if i should hold out and wait till a nice 87-93 model pops up. No one on this forum really seems to have the old carburated models and i don't know what there capable of.

 

[quik00gt]

My car is carbed and runs very well in my eyes. My first mods would be gears (3.55-3.73) exhaust, and some suspension work. Then it would be time to look into a good set of heads. As for intake manifolds I like the edelbrocks..they look good and perform well. I'm not a huge fan of edelbrocks carbs they have a high failure rating from what I've hears. Get an air fuel ratio gauge as well as an adjustable fuel regulator that way you can monitor your car. Hope I was a little help.

 

[BigSmith]

I have been thinking of upgrading the carb to a nice new holley 650. This is going to be a daily driver during the summer as well so i think ill do 3.55's. I guess its not to limited with the carburated motor. Easier for me to work on.

 

[SilverBullet07]

if you get a holley get a phenolic spacer for it. my holley 650 got terrible vapor lock without the spacer. but now its nicely tuned and runs like a dream.

i would agree. get gears 3.73's.

after that i would do suspension, and then if you decide you want more i would get heads cam and an intake.

 

[Guest]

before spending money for a set of gears and then money for installing them, you might look for a complete 8.8" rear end (complete housing) with gears already installed. The 85's still used the smaller 7.5" rear end as where the 8.8 wasn't used until 86. you might find a complete 8.8 steup for the cost of a new set of gears and in the end might be cheaper than replacing the ring and pinion in a smaller weaker rear end. just my .02

 

[85saleenclone]

RPM air gap intake with a 600 cfm eddy 1405-06 is a good start, 85 carb cars are know for fuel perc (vapor lock) so any kind of wooden spacer is a good idea, you can pull 270 hp to the wheels out of a 7.5 rear but if you can pick up an 8.8 cheap even better. other than gears, intake carb combo, nothing else you can do for cheap, after that you have to pull the motor and stroke ever so softly (331, 347) along with proper heads and cam :bigthumbsup