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who has put a 289/302w into a mk4 zephyr /zody before?


otazup

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hey guys

just wanting to know who on here has done this conversion before? im doing it next weekend and apparently was quite common back in the day. my only real question is im going to run the mk4 4speed box factory from the zodiac, so which bellhousing do i run to mate that to the 289w??. i want to do it original without any adaptor plates etc, ive heard theres a paticular bellhousing that bolts directly upto both, everyone just cant remember what car they come from. do i just run a mustang bellhousing? but i pressume theyre bolt pattern will be too big for the zody box

thanks alot

Jason

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I profess to know absolutely nothing about Zephyrs. Canterbury Uni Motosoc has one with a 351 in it. I was told that it has a supra box in in so thats probably no help to you. The fit was quite tight, like doing up the headder studs 1/8th of a turn at a time tight. Went ok in a straight line, but lack of traction going round corners and massive amounts of body roll made for and interesting ride. All in all we need more of this sort of maddness in NZ.

+1 from me

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Haha thanks for the info, apparently they were quite the boy racer car back in the day, but yeah I've heard about the shocking body roll. Having it slammed should assist with that issue, also being a 71 its got disc rear and independent rear end so ill get the handling sorted.

Did you help build the one at the uni? Or if not is there anyone you know that wouldn't mind me having a chat to them

Thanks mate

Jason

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They are quite abit different to the mk3s, as mk4s were v6 factory and had spare wheel in engine bay etc....the mk4s had the good gbox that can handle v8 torque also.

I heard the mk4 zephyrs were meant to be factory fitted with 289 and 302s and the zodiacs were

To get the 351s, until some pommie gitt told them to run the essex v6s, which are absolute shyte.

Can anyone put me in contact with someone who's done the conversion in a mk4, would like to pick they're brains

Cheers boys

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  • 6 years later...

Used to be a common installation and also bin the original rear suspension and fit a 9" rear. One of mates years ago had a silver Mk 4 Zodiac with a 351C, Toploader and 9". It was a cool car back then. Would be interesting if it's survived. This was back in the early 80's. By memory all the running gear came out of a wrecked XA GT when they were worth bugger all.

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I did the 289  with auto conversion way back in the late 70s don't remember much about it except it wasn't that hard mate had a very hot 351 in his , was lethal in the wet it would just fry the tyres on every gear change recall late on night on way home from the pub ( I was driving cause he could hardly stand up ) I really struggled to get up the slope from the basin reserve to Mt vic tunnel cops were more interested in what was crammed under the bonnet that the drivers

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The Mk4 Zodiac 4 speed gearbox was used alot for other V8 conversions back in the day, the problem with it is it has a funny bolt pattern on the gearbox where it bolts to the bellhousing with like 6 bolts 4 down one side and 2 on the other or something, I have 2 of them on the floor in my shed.

They Have a 6 1/2" input shaft witch is handy for most bellhousings, it may work with something like this  https://www.rodshop.com.au/bellhousings/ford-windsor/bh100-ford-bell-housing.html/

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  • 4 years later...

Back in the mid 70s I had a MK4 Zephyr and the V6 Essex engines had an achilles heel. They used to strip the teeth off the fibre timing gear and bend all the exhaust valves a bomb to fix at the Ford dealer. A bronze one was available but it was noisy and eventually chewed out as well. This led the charge in the mid 70s in what was an innovative NZ back in those days to repower these cars with Ford US 289/302 engines. I got my hands on a 327 Chev it was originally mounted on Chevy engine mounts on 2 steel bars about 100 x 10 thick running from the original cross member engine mountings to the front unit construction front member under the radiator. This was OK for a while but started to crack the front cross member joining welds. The best solution of all for mounting whatever engine in these cars is to use another original cross member bolted directly in front of the original. I managed to get one from a wrecker complete with all the bolts for a song. The front suspension control arms for the McPherson struts are bolted to this cross member. Then you can put a shorter plate between the 2 cross members to mount whatever engine mount for whatever engine you have for maximum strength which I cut up from bars I first used. Chevys have the engine mount two thirds to the front of the block Fords more to the centre but with a V8 being longer than a V6 you have to put your engine mounts slightly forward of the original engine mounting spot. There was some outfit back in those days (after I built my car) that had cast some 289/302 bell housings that would directly mount the Mk4 gearbox. I had an adapter plate mated it to the MK 4 gearbox but my clutch kept slipping under power towing or even just going up a steep hill MK4s were reasonably heavy. I then changed to a Chevy Hayes pressure plate which had a ring and weights on it the harder you accelerated the more the pressure on the MK4 clutch plate. Back in the mid 70s you could get a MK4 clutch plate and inch bigger diameter as well which solved the clutch slip problem. The MK 4 Zephyr originally had the 2.5 litre motor and 3.9 ratio diff. The 3 litre cars Zephyrs and Zodiacs had  3.7 diffs. I had a 350 hp corvette cam 4 bbl holley d/per block hugger headers and msd ignition it was a beast fun to drive with high back buckets seats from a Torana  floor change and cheap petrol back in those days I went everywhere in it. MK4s are tall and tend to be front heavy, roll quite a bit cornering even lifting the inside rear wheel on occasions with standard cars  My car had 14' Jolley wides some air shocks I picked up from a guy who trashed his Camaro on the rear and an extra anti roll bar on the front with koni front towers it handled seriously sports car well with just those easy mods. I used to throw out gearboxes with regular monotony every 12 months. The English Ford gearbox design was crap in all their cars Cortina Capris MK 3 and MK4s. It had no support for the centre bearing and it used to flog up and down the whole centre shaft under power or load eventually destroying the gearbox. It became unrepairable because even the housing became warped as well. Boat mooring block material. Best use a T10 on 289/302 or a Muncie on Chev or go auto. Never ever had a problem with the diff I cant ever remember even changing the oil in it.  After a while wheel bearings go front and rear UJs on the half shafts and drive shaft. I had a special drive shaft made up with the Mk 4 gearbox spindle welded to much bigger UJs on both ends. Original front towers are crap use Konis. Rear brake calipers used to leak brake fluid all the time as they had a very unusual handbrake set up where the caliper was hinged and also utilised to activate the hand brake as well as normal braking. It did work OK and was easily repaired with a brass sleeve. I am quite tall and I fondly remember MK4s as having good vision on the road as you sat more upright in them and they were much easier to get in and out of compared to the MK3s or even the late Falcons which I am still driving today. I drove the car until about 1982 when it rusted out around the shock towers until it became unviable to repair. Sold it to a Wrecker less motor and gearbox bought off the same wrecker a 72 Belmont V8 ex cop car less motor and gearbox changed it all over including the Torana buckets seats which were the same colour. It had V8 diff heavy cop suspension heavier UJs on the original Belmont driveshaft which I had shortened and adapted to the MK4 spindle. It built into a great road car with a much higher diff ratio 3;23 I think it was a great cruiser very fast with good handling but I wrote it off in 1985 on a rainy stormy slippery road one day I later found out had tallow spilt on it.  Memories from 50 years ago. 

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Some 40 years ago had a mate with a very tidy Mk IV Zodiac Executive (very flash in it's day) that had a 289 Mustang fitted. As I recall he ran the floor change (?) Zodiac manual gearbox  which gave no trouble but he was always having diff issues - in hindsight it was more driver right foot issues!

He was based in Tauranga and had been cajoled in to running a car wreaking yard for a few weeks while the owner was on holiday. I loaded the girlfriend (now Mrs sr2) into my "slightly modified" J14 Vauxhall and headed down from Auckland for a few days play in a wreaking yard, better than Heaven in those days.

They had a Valiant ute that had been in a big frontal and when I discovered that not only it had the ford stud pattern but it was a limited slip I got serious with the tape measure. We ended up fitting the sold rear complete with the ute leaf springs. From memory once I'd made pads for the spring mounts it was a very easy swap, all done with stick and gas welders and basic hand tools. I even managed to swap the rear (or was it front?) yoke with a hacksaw and the stick welder, I shudder now wondering how well it wasn't balanced!

The swap was a great success, the taller ratio suited the motor well and diff problems became a thing of the past. Sadly my mate wrote the car off on the Papamoa straight coming home on a rainy night after a session in the old Greerton pub.

 

 

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