80's factory lightweights?

[old5.0]

Little update for anyone who's interested. I've been hearing stories of a batch of 5.0 Mercury Capri's, 85 model year, that appear to have been shipped with a slightly larger than stock bumpstick (stock was .444, 268*. These came with a cam measuring .490, 302*). Still not sure about the previously mentioned "lightweight" notch in terms of legality, but there's no question that these Capri's were illegal as hell if they did, in fact, ship with those cams installed at Dearborn. Also heard about a possible process through which some of these things may have occurred without the wrong people hearing about it.

[PxTx]

Sounds real cool. That is a lot of cam in 1985. Should have been easy to notice next to a true stocker. How were they used?

[beater68427]

In 1985-6ish I built a 78 Monte Carlo with a 396 I liked the small Monte's at the time and one day I was driving by the Chevrolet dealer and noticed a new SS I went in and test drove it I thought that was just cool I liked it a lot more than the new Camaros. Over the next few weeks I thought how cool it would be to have a new SS with a big block in it and came up with the idea of ordering a plane jane Monte SS and installing a new crate LS6 I went to the dealer and asked if I could order a AC delete car and other items deleted I cant remember all that was deleted, so we sat and filled out a order for a car with a 305 and 373 posi and basically no other options having manual windows manual locks etc I told him lets order it and he said I needed to pay up front for a car like that, because he would never be able to sell it otherwise.... there went that idea... But it could be done.

[old5.0]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: pxtx</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Sounds real cool. That is a lot of cam in 1985. Should have been easy to notice next to a true stocker. How were they used? </div></div>

ASC McLaren conversion. Two available bodystyles, a standard hatchback and a roadster conversion. All the anomalous cars appear to be hatchbacks. It was thought that ASC installed the cams during the conversion process, but then sometime back a couple of the project principles on the ASC side were located and interviewed. They swear that ASC never touched the engine internals, they came that way from Ford. They were reluctant to comment on the how's and why's, but one of them did mention that, during the unloading and conversion process, a few of the cars sounded much beefier than normal.

One other issue with ASC installing the cams that occurs to me is this: I'm not sure that, during the timeframe in question, such a cam would have existed outside of Ford's experimental garage. Not that roller cams for a small block Ford wouldn't have existed, but they would have mainly been highly specialized, race-only solid rollers. Being the first year for a production roller-ized 5.0, I'm not sure such a cam would have readily available.

[PxTx]

That is interesting! There was a dark blue and orange one that used to run around NE Philly on Sunday nights in the early 1990's but by that time anything could have been swapped. That was the height of the 5.0 movement!

[old5.0]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: beater68427</div><div class="ubbcode-body">In 1985-6ish I built a 78 Monte Carlo with a 396 I liked the small Monte's at the time and one day I was driving by the Chevrolet dealer and noticed a new SS I went in and test drove it I thought that was just cool I liked it a lot more than the new Camaros. Over the next few weeks I thought how cool it would be to have a new SS with a big block in it and came up with the idea of ordering a plane jane Monte SS and installing a new crate LS6 I went to the dealer and asked if I could order a AC delete car and other items deleted I cant remember all that was deleted, so we sat and filled out a order for a car with a 305 and 373 posi and basically no other options having manual windows manual locks etc I told him lets order it and he said I needed to pay up front for a car like that, because he would never be able to sell it otherwise.... there went that idea... But it could be done. </div></div>

That's cool! I've encountered a couple similar cars through the years. One was a '79 Mustang Cobra. Guy drove it straight home from the dealership and replaced the stock engine and trans with a worked Cleveland and a Toploader. Less than 20 miles on the clock when the swap was made. Another was an 84 Hurst/Olds. Similar deal; the guy bought the car and had a fresh rebuilt 350 Olds (supposedly out of a 69 or 70 W31 car) waiting in the garage. Brought it home and immediately pulled the 307 for the 350.

[whitetop]

A friend of mine right out of college in 1984 ordered a '85 Mustang 5.0, no radio, or heater/AC and no options.

I guess this was about as lightweight as you could get from the factory.

He actually sold it maybe 7-8 months later due to no AC. The glamour disappeared quickly when he would go to work with a sweat stained back.

[Dave Rifkin]

What about the SAAC Mustangs? Were their engines modified?

[Fast67VelleN2O]

Here is a Grand National aluminum core support.

[Fast67VelleN2O]

And here is a thread about a Monte Carlo aluminum hood.

http://www.montecarloss.com/communit...;Number=818666