84/85 Mustang Stocker

[Pat Cook]

Is anybody running one these? and do they run under the index?

[greg fulk]

Yes they run them ....the 85 with the Holley carb is a GOOD stick only combo.

[ALMACK]

^^^ I agree with Greg....the '85 5spd combo looks good.
The 83-84 manual cars don't have very attractive head flow plus they came with flat tappet hydraulics.
Thje 83-85 carbs I think are all the same.
The intakes I believe are very similar.
The 83's had a E3 intake.
The 84-85's had the E4 intake.
I own one of each and cannot tell the difference.

The '85 has a hydraulic roller and the E5 heads.

[Geerhead55]

Rory,,,someone is calling for you.
Danny Durham

[Chris1529]

My 84 GT350 is an original CFI with an AOD car. I ran it that way for a few years, but not with a built stocker engine. My best time was 13.42 with only the driver's seat in it. That engine is in my dad's street 5 speed 83 GT now.

This combo is listed at 195hp now. would run M/N/O SA in NHRA 12.85/13.00/13.15 index at 2900/2995/3095#

N would probably be best fit for NHRA.

IHRA G/FIA at 2900#, 13.05 index.
H/FIA at 3095#, 13.45 index. a little heavy

this is achievable, but I don't think the CFI will run a whole lot faster than those indexes. I think there is someone in the midwest that may be running this combo now.

[james schaechter]

Bill Dyer has 2 of these. He has a 1985 hatchback and a notchback and a 1985 Notchback. He might be interested in selling one. He bought his son's Notchback from him. It is in M stick at Indy. He typically runs the Hatchback in N stick, but he has run the car in SS/N or O.

[Rory McNeil]

I`ve been running my 85 Mustang LX hatchback in M&N/S for about 8 years now. As mentioned, it is a stick only combination, there were 5.0 automatic Mustangs available in 84 & 85, but they only came with the CFI throttle body setup, all the 4 barrel cars were sticks. The 85 was the only year that used the hyd. roller cam and a 4 barrel, the 84 does use the same intake manifold, and I believe the carb has the same dimensions. I think the 83&4 hyd flat tappet cam has similar lift to the 85, but I`m not positive. The 82-84 engines use the same crappy D8 heads as a 78 Fairmont 302 2 barrel, the 85`s E5 is identical, except they have notchs on the intake side to allow enough room to Re &Re the taller hyd. roller lifters. As bad as the heads are, the intake is the real bottleneck. The ports are tiny, much smaler than the heads, and quite flat. Last year, just for fun, I removed the stock intake manifold, and swapped on an Edelbrock Air Gap Performer I had laying around. With everything else the same, the car picked up 6 tenths.
I believe the fastest 85 5.0 has to be Gary Summers Mustang converts. He has one he runs in Stock, and another in S/S, Both his cars have held multiple records at the same time. My LX hatch is a natural L car, but my big gut won`t allow the car to get light enough for L. The 85 is a decent combination, but I think the 87-95 5.0 FI is better, especially the 94-95. Also, if one was so inclined, the 86-95 5.0 is available with an automatic or a stick. The 86 is an oddball, with 1 year only "high swirl" heads, and a smaller throttle body, but the 87-95 is virtually identical to each other.

[Doug Blackley]

Eric Cabral ran pretty good with his too. He has since sold it though.

[kwm]

Gary Summers runs well also.

[Pat Cook]

Can't run the 85 with an automatic?