lots of Ford fans here... The 300 L6 is the beast... the 200s and under are about 375 lbs, from some internet sources.

I agree with the mb choices, but probably would want to retain stock for simplicity (there is a 280C with a 3.5 v8, n'est ce pas?) and if i were unhappy with the acceleration, then boost it with bolt-ons. However, up here North of North Dakota in Manitoba Canada, there aren't very many mb to choose from. There Toronto Ontario ones have lived in a salt bath. A local buddy has driven to Arizona, etc, a couple of times, so I am serious about pulling a parts car back home.

Sooooooooooo WANTED: in excellent running condition... 70's or 80's 280C or variant, 3.5 L and sunroof are interesting, Parts car+ is required.

geez... all that in six posts. You guys work pretty fast here.!!! thanks again...

I guess I'm the wrong guy to ask. But the M120 would be my vote see attached.

John Roncallo

Attached Thumbnails

 

Yikers Ron... what's that behemoth???????????

and can I get it into a Fiat Uno?

v12

tom w

__________________
[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Well, I guess that settles it for this thread. Despite mismatches in rpms, hp, weight, and torque, it is the one. Uh-oh... I forgot about the PT-6 shaft turbine, articulated John Deere tractor engines, diesel locomotive engines, marine power, and stationary emergency electricity for whole cities. Arugh, you guys are torturing me. Quick!! take up a collection and see if I can be pacified by a 280CE with a 3.5.

like a winner.

tom w

__________________
[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

So I been poking around the old posts (back to 01) and the smallblock chevy fits the 123 if a) you are a professional machinist with a cause or b) you have a Mustang II front axle to install. Or a Ford v8 (not a flathead though) All very interesting. I feel like I no longer know just enough to be dangerous, and have even moved off the 3.5 V8... just take out the back seats and door panels, lighten the wheels and the fuel tank, and bolt on some intake booster and let the 2.8 roast until you need another one from the boneyard. That could be a winner.

it may have problems, but if you spend a lot of dough modifying your car you will have problems you never dreamed of and will have a car that is about sale proof.

i have done two mb conversions, both involve putting five cylinder diesels in cars that came with fours. both pretty straightforward both done by my indie. both times i started with a complete running donor car and just swithched over stock parts. both jobs required fabrication of one bracket for the motor shock on one side of the motor.

and in the end you even then will have a few little things that never are right.

so yeah, modifying your car and keeping it mostly stock will be the simplist and most cost effective way to go.

good luck with it

tom w

__________________
[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

from another thread...

Richard, I have a problem of trying to reduce weight for the purposes of improved acceleration, fuel economy, and handlng. Weight reducion is all positive, and one good thing leads to another. On the other hand, with weight increase, you may never know exatly what you did wrong.

To that end, I have, of course, tried to resist the heavier options, again of course, without knowing exactly what the 110 weighs. Four legs good, two legs bad I chanted.... Orwell's Animal Farm, just to be sure we're on the same page.

However, as for Orwell too, the chickens are complaning (is the 4.3 lighter than the 110... I don't know!!). To clearup all contusions (and confusions) my first chioce was not the 123, but the early 70's coupe. I had measured the engine bay of local like-era 250 and was a little concerned about a "v" fit, of course to confirm my supposition that a turbo'ed Ford 200 L6 at 385 lbs and 7 mains with an easy 7000 rpm redline, driving through the rugged 99 pound aluminum powerglide wih a high-stall conveter was the cat's a** for this one. As well, I had a notion that all those young guys in Mustang 302's that were shellacked by my 1980 Cutlass (403 Rocket, TH350, and IROC 373:1 posi) sedan, which produces all it's 315 ft-lb of torque below 315 rpm needed another lesson from an old guy (me, of course). Besides, the thought of beating them with a little Ford 6 was so compelling, that in my jubillation I had forgotten that my original intent was to source the 200 from a agricultural swather!

However, in the course of a half dozen posts I had undergone he greatest conversion since Saul headed out for Damascus, and began to blow the horn of the 110 (what's wrong with a cross-flow DOHC hemi, anyway?) and was converted fully when some cat says that the used 110's grow on trees in Texas (how many trees does Texas have, anyway, though) and Arizona (a desert... ha!). I guess that's "grow on cacti", or at least are found in goodly supply at the auto wreckers. Then it was a task of properly boosting the manifold pressure until it was time to call for a replacement (oops) engine.

So now I am a stock-mill 123 guy. At over 15 years of age, the 123 has much reduced import (to Canada) restrictions, and I have come to appreciate their looks as much, if not more, than their predecesors. Besides, even if there is more width in the 123 engine bay, I will need it not for a V-engine, but for my plumber's nightmare of a custom PC-controlled boost system. Well. it has to get complicated somewhere, doesn't it? At least 'll be driving it with a failed boost "permitter" (fail-safe!!), rather than a partially installed Mustang II front axel.

PS... Richard, if you're having real problems coping with your 280C, I will help you relieve the burden. Just drive on up here and you get my Oldsmobile. I just put 750 bucks into it!!