Making a 3.3L run good (79 Fairmont)

[sleepercoupe]

Ok I just recently aquired this car and it has low mileage (33,000). I am going to do an oil change, wires, plugs, fuel filter, clean the fuel tank, cap/rotor, belts and air filter. The motor still has all the factory emissions junk and other random stuff under there. Is there anything that I can remove to make the car get better mpg? or should i just not mess with it?

Blake

[Chuck W]

There IS alot of random junk in there. What kind of exhaust is on the car? Cat still intact?

I'm in the process now (hoping to finish this evening) of redoing the exhaust on my Z-7 (still had the original cat :| ). After it's done I'll be pulling of the ait pump and all the extraneous bits associated with it.

The head/intake thing is the real pisser about these engines. It REALLY limits what you can do with them. I'm sure there are things that can be done, but I'm not spending my time on the head/intake to try and scratch out a little power from it. I'm going to pull the engine and redo it with one of the Aussie crossflow heads and use it in something else and drop a modded 2.3T in mine.

If you're keeping the 200, do a better exhaust and keep it tuned-up.

[sleepercoupe]

There IS alot of random junk in there. What kind of exhaust is on the car? Cat still intact?

I'm in the process now (hoping to finish this evening) of redoing the exhaust on my Z-7 (still had the original cat :| ). After it's done I'll be pulling of the ait pump and all the extraneous bits associated with it.

The head/intake thing is the real pisser about these engines. It REALLY limits what you can do with them. I'm sure there are things that can be done, but I'm not spending my time on the head/intake to try and scratch out a little power from it. I'm going to pull the engine and redo it with one of the Aussie crossflow heads and use it in something else and drop a modded 2.3T in mine.

If you're keeping the 200, do a better exhaust and keep it tuned-up.

yes it does still have the original cat, but it has a new muffler, i was going to have an exhaust shop cut it out and put straight pipe in there. and i am not really trying to make the car fast just max. the potential for good gas mileage. do you think dropping all of the air pump/evap system would net me a gain in the mpg division?

[Chuck W]

do you think dropping all of the air pump/evap system would net me a gain in the mpg division?
Dunno. Mine is going away because the cat is as well. Granted it's a small drain, but the belt running the pump has to be leeching some power. I'm pulling the pump from mine but leaving the EGR.

[sleepercoupe]

do you think dropping all of the air pump/evap system would net me a gain in the mpg division?
Dunno. Mine is going away because the cat is as well. Granted it's a small drain, but the belt running the pump has to be leeching some power. I'm pulling the pump from mine but leaving the EGR.
i think i am going to try to pull the belt off and see if it helps any. If it does I think I might go ahead and pull all of the crap. I usually just pull it for weight savings.

[Chuck W]

do you think dropping all of the air pump/evap system would net me a gain in the mpg division?
Dunno. Mine is going away because the cat is as well. Granted it's a small drain, but the belt running the pump has to be leeching some power. I'm pulling the pump from mine but leaving the EGR.
i think i am going to try to pull the belt off and see if it helps any. If it does I think I might go ahead and pull all of the crap. I usually just pull it for weight savings.

I would leave the pump until you pull the cat.

[sleepercoupe]

I would leave the pump until you pull the cat.

why?

[Chuck W]

I would leave the pump until you pull the cat.

why?

It injects the air into the exhaust for a reason....to help the cat do it's job. You cut that off it will help clog the cat up more quickly. Some cats use it, some designs don't. It's more of an emissions thing.

I could be totally wrong though, it's just something I recall.

[sleepercoupe]

I would leave the pump until you pull the cat.

why?

It injects the air into the exhaust for a reason....to help the cat do it's job. You cut that off it will help clog the cat up more quickly. Some cats use it, some designs don't. It's more of an emissions thing.

I could be totally wrong though, it's just something I recall.

Well it injects air into the exhaust just ahead of the cat's to supply more oxygen to the cat's to help them burn the Nox gases. Thats why the cat's get so hot just after minutes of running. They heat up super hot and help burn the smallest particles of emissions. I thought maybe you had pulled the belt before and had problems with the cat clogging up soon after or something. That was more along the lines of my question.

[rbohm]

8) one thing you can do to improve fuel economy is to swap to fuel injection. easier than you might think, but my way does require some machine work.

1: get a cylinder head from a salvage yard, and have it modified for a three 1 bbl carb settup. may as well have them freshen up the cylinder head while you have it there.

2: get three tempo efi throttle bodies.

3: get a megasquirt efi computer and harness. they are inexpensive and programmable. http://www.bgsoflex.com/megasquirt.html you can even build one if you like.

4: assemble the system and tune it with a laptop or even a desktop computer(harder with a desktop as you cant tune it in real time).

you can even get the megasquirt with an ignition controller if you like.

other things you can do is install a better cam as the factory cams didnt change much, if at all, since 1959 when the 144 was first introduced to the motoring public. check out www.fordsixparts.com for a selection of good cams ground by clay smith. you can also upgrade the head to an aussie or argetine head with a removeable intake, for even better efficiency and power.

as to the exhaust, mike also sells headers that fit nicely. add a nice dual exhaust after the collector, you can install a cat behind the collector to keep things emmisions legal, and a nice set or turbo mufflers. if you want to swap to a manual trans, use a T5 from a 4 cylinder mustang, and run something like 3.55 gears out back. this will give you some pop as well as dropping engine rpm on the freeway. some guys have gotten as much as 30mpg with some of these mods.

[Chuck W]

8) one thing you can do to improve fuel economy is to swap to fuel injection. easier than you might think, but my way does require some machine work.

1: get a cylinder head from a salvage yard, and have it modified for a three 1 bbl carb settup. may as well have them freshen up the cylinder head while you have it there.

2: get three tempo efi throttle bodies.




What do you think about using one of the 2bbl adapters and using one of the CFI throttle bodies?

What year Tempo t/b's are you talking about?

[Chuck W]

8) one thing you can do to improve fuel economy is to swap to fuel injection. easier than you might think, but my way does require some machine work.

1: get a cylinder head from a salvage yard, and have it modified for a three 1 bbl carb settup. may as well have them freshen up the cylinder head while you have it there.

2: get three tempo efi throttle bodies.




What do you think about using one of the 2bbl adapters and using one of the CFI throttle bodies?

What year Tempo t/b's are you talking about?

[rbohm]

8) the only problem with a 2bbl adaptor and a cfi throttle body is that you need to do some machine work anyway, and you wont have as efficient of a system. as for what year tempo tbi, any year will do fine. as i recall the tempo got tbi in like 1990.

[rbohm]

8) the only problem with a 2bbl adaptor and a cfi throttle body is that you need to do some machine work anyway, and you wont have as efficient of a system. as for what year tempo tbi, any year will do fine. as i recall the tempo got tbi in like 1990.

[Chuck W]

8) the only problem with a 2bbl adaptor and a cfi throttle body is that you need to do some machine work anyway, and you wont have as efficient of a system. as for what year tempo tbi, any year will do fine. as i recall the tempo got tbi in like 1990.

I just thought I remember seeing a 2bbl adapter that didn't require any machining..*shrug*. The main goal would be to ditch the carb.....POS....Hell, if one of the 1bbl T/B's would be big enough I'd just try that....but I know they're not.

[Chuck W]

8) the only problem with a 2bbl adaptor and a cfi throttle body is that you need to do some machine work anyway, and you wont have as efficient of a system. as for what year tempo tbi, any year will do fine. as i recall the tempo got tbi in like 1990.

I just thought I remember seeing a 2bbl adapter that didn't require any machining..*shrug*. The main goal would be to ditch the carb.....POS....Hell, if one of the 1bbl T/B's would be big enough I'd just try that....but I know they're not.

[sleepercoupe]

yea....if this car gets fuel injected its going to be with with 8 cylinders. I did the tune-up on it and it already runs better i am going to rebuild the carburator this weekend so hopefully iy will run even better after that.

[sleepercoupe]

yea....if this car gets fuel injected its going to be with with 8 cylinders. I did the tune-up on it and it already runs better i am going to rebuild the carburator this weekend so hopefully iy will run even better after that.

[Welfare Stang]

yea....if this car gets fuel injected its going to be with with 8 cylinders. I did the tune-up on it and it already runs better i am going to rebuild the carburator this weekend so hopefully iy will run even better after that.
got one question? why do you guys keep messing around with an engine that's never going to perform? i put a 300 6 out of an old pickup in an 81 which had a 3.3 in it. I PUT A 4-V INTAKE, CAM AND A SET OF HEADERS, AND IT RAN 14.30'S. granted it was done the WAYNE COUNTY WAY (done with the resources we had,use your imagination) but it fit, and worked. i'd like to know why using this engine (for 3.3 swaps) is never used? let me know.

[Chuck W]

got one question? why do you guys keep messing around with an engine that's never going to perform? i put a 300 6 out of an old pickup in an 81 which had a 3.3 in it. I PUT A 4-V INTAKE, CAM AND A SET OF HEADERS, AND IT RAN 14.30'S. granted it was done the WAYNE COUNTY WAY (done with the resources we had,use your imagination) but it fit, and worked. i'd like to know why using this engine (for 3.3 swaps) is never used? let me know.

Well, I'm not going to be using the crap US-spec head/intake on mine...and I don't want the boat anchor 300 block...I still want the car to handle.

I just ordered an Aussie aluminum crossflow head/intake and such for my 200 block...I'm going to do the work to mate the two, fuel-inject it and turbo it and use it. It will weigh about the same as my current 2.3T set-up. I wouldn't waste my time with the US-spec head, or even the OZ head (same head with removable intake).

[rbohm]

got one question? why do you guys keep messing around with an engine that's never going to perform? i put a 300 6 out of an old pickup in an 81 which had a 3.3 in it. I PUT A 4-V INTAKE, CAM AND A SET OF HEADERS, AND IT RAN 14.30'S. granted it was done the WAYNE COUNTY WAY (done with the resources we had,use your imagination) but it fit, and worked. i'd like to know why using this engine (for 3.3 swaps) is never used? let me know.

8) hmmm, you say the 3.3 doesnt perform well, but there are a number of guys at fordsix.com that will argue that point with you. mandarinaracing runs 14's with his early mustang with a 200. azcoupe has built a 200 inline that has show its taillights to a number of V8 cars, as have a number of other guys there. one guy use to have his stang doing a burnout as his avatar, and it has a 200 in it. oh yes, the burnout was done on dry pavement and good tires(not the skinny crap that came on the early cars). check out fordsix.com sometime, and be impressed.

[86caprirs]

I am actually on that site and there is alot of info on there. My daughter has a 1982 mustang with a 3.3L in it. I have heard alot of things I can do to it. One thig that was forgotten was that you can machine 0.080" off of the head also.Then get spacers for the head bolts and walla....more compression. I have seent the 2BBL swaps done with the clifford spacer and with the modded log intake(no spacer required,just machined flat at the original carb spot and drilled for a 2bbl carb), but i am interested and also want to see pics of this tempo hybrid EFI system. Do you have any pics rbohm??????

[86caprirs]

All this talk made me take the daughters car out for a good run.I have to say the carb on there is a pain in the arss when it is cold but ones it is warm it is not bad. It does lack power and stumbles when you have it floored. I am interested in seeing how this EFI setup works. The cold start is such a pain and a waste of fuel.Start stop.start......stummble fart stop.

One thing I did note was the fan on the engine.Will my stock 5.0L clutch fan fit on there????That solid mount one is a pain and really robs the power.

[rbohm]

but i am interested and also want to see pics of this tempo hybrid EFI system. Do you have any pics rbohm??????

i havent yet built the system. i have merely planned it at this stage in my minds eye. it would however be very similar to the 3x1bbl card settup that offenhauser has sold in the past, but with all three barrels opening at the same time, rather than progressively.

[86caprirs]

Ah yes. I have seen that setup.Sweet.

[rbohm]

8) now imagine that settup with three tempo efi throttle bodies, and controlled by a megasquirt efi controler, and you have the idea.