Reliability of a older mustang..........?
 

I know most of you want nothing to do with ford but I am looking at buying something to satisfy my power needs...... Its a 1983 Ford Mustang 5.0 manual with 122k has new clutch new white top new exhaust new brakes he wants $1,500 for it is it worth it.......are they reliable and would my leather front seats on my 88 cutlass match up with the bolt pattern

I am a Ford guy, especially the 351 Cleveland :uptosomething: , but I will tell you, stay clear away from early to mid -80's Mustangs. Bad. Very Bad. '89 or newer is much better, especially the notch-back 5.0's.

What was bad about them engines transmissions (its a manual) ???

The early 80's can be made to make a lot of power. My friend has an 84 5.0 that he and his father worked on. It's pushing 320hp.

Drivetrains were great, it's the rest of the car that fell apart. :roll:

There should be anything wrong with them, besides the point I think early model fox bodies are ugly. 302 is a great engine, T5 transmission which I cant say anything bad about but I cant say anything good about it either.

http://xbins.org/~spiral/stang/
Those are pictures of a 302 me and my cousin put together to put in his 92 mustang LX, and in about a month or so Im getting a 1988 GT and putting Gt-40p heads, and cobra lower and upper intake on it

and it carburated i dont perfer carbed motors

80's stangs are poor man's fast car. The are a dime a dozen. You wont to check for blow back with the engine. Will the vehicle is off take off the oil fill, put your hand over the oil fill, have someone start the car. If you feel pressure that pushes outward the engine is on the way out. Try doing this if you are seroius about the car. I learned this from a ford nut.

Cutlass seats would not line up. I have a 85 that is all tricked up! I will have pictures up soon. I ran a 8.89 in the 1/8 that was before I cut the roof and put the T-roof onm.

Hmm, a poor mans car eh? try finding a mint 87-93 5.0 for under $3,000

There's plenty around here for less than that. You looking for one, too??

Easy to build up. That is why so many kids buy them. Be original go for a car that not everyone has. I would take a Ford Thunderbird 87-89 Supercoupe and do that up! The supercoupe is turbo charged but to swap to a 5.0 is easy to do.

I thought they were supercharged with the M62, and not turbo'd???

No, the earlier generation of the Thunderbird was called a TURBO Coupe, not a supercoupe. It was a 4cylinder Turbo setup.

The first start of supercharged in the T-bird was 89. I'm sorry the supercoupes were 89-92 I believe the Turbocoupes were 83-88. The 87-88 were the nicest ones they had the hood scoopes.