Best donor car?

[darksideqc]

Hi guys, first post for me here, what is the best year/model (or version) donor for a mk4 roadster??

[3kcarbon]

If you are going Coyote you may as well go with new running gear to go with a $8000.00 motor. One of the new Boss motors would be awesome.
A CSX car would make a good donor... .

[trublue]

I used a 70K mile 2000 GT with 4.6L V8 for my donor. I elected to keep the power steering, power brakes and ABS. With the five speed manual transmission, it has been a joy to drive. The tear down was instructive and because I could label everything, the MK3 build went smoothly. I would do it this way again.
Art

[riptide motorsport]

Hands down...87-93 GT.

[RyanH]

I got a 90gt for $850 that ran.

I have used the gas tank, wire harness, engine, tranny, drive shaft...and thats about it...oh, the horn.

I went IRS so I junked the fox rear end.

I tried use the front LCA's...I even had dreams of chroming them just to stir the pot here on the forums...but they were junk. It was impossible to get the old bushings out to replace them and I ended up damaging the LCA..so I paid for the F5 ones.

I went to the junk yard for sn95 front spindles and calipers. That nearly paid for itself just in core credits on new calipers.

Got a manual steering rack from another forum member.

I did enjoy the teardown..I say get the cheapest thing you can find that runs and source the rest from the junk yard.

Odds are high that you will mod this thing to death to make it your own. Dont lock yourself in financially by spending a bunch of money on parts that you will probobaly end up not using. Even some of the full kit guys say they wasted thousands on supplied parts they didnt use because they decided to go custom in some area.

Just my $.02

[Gumball]

What Ryan said - don't get too hung-up on the donor. When FFR started 15+ years ago, Fox bodied Mustangs were a all over the place and donors in good condition with low miles were still around. Not so much now. People are making do with a variety of year ranges, though, but it seems like those using donors aren't doing the traditional "full donor build" much these days. I bought a '94 SVT Cobra with the plan of using quite a bit, but in the end the list of what I used is pretty limited and I would have probably been better off just sourcing those few parts from a salvage yard and buying the rest new from forum vendors. I used the engine (complete rebuild into a 347), transmission (only a minor run-through to make sure everything was okay), the rear end (complete rebuild plus replacement of ring/pinion and axles - Fox length so I could use 10.5" rear wheels), pedal box (quite a bit of modification to use AC pedal pads and a modified Russ Thompson gas pedal), gas tank (with single pick-up from Breeze to account for non-return carburetor set-up), brakes (rotors, calipers, and brackets - except for rear brackets which were replaced to relocate calipers for the wider wheels), and the spindles (but with new hubs). I guess I used a couple of other odds and ends here and there, but not enough to justify using a donor. The good news was that while I paid $5k for the donor, I sold what I didn't use for half of that, so my total out of pocket isn't too terribly much more than if I had bought everything separately (figuring a core engine and rear end).

[3kcarbon]

Just as it was said don't get hung up on the donor concept don't get stuck on the so called "complete kit" You can do better on your own with a optioned up base build even if you skip the donor.

[skullandbones]

I guess I'm echoing what the last three guys said but it is true that you really find the "right way to go" most of the time from the experience of other builders. I started with a donor, 92 GT, but I went with a new crate short block even though the old motor would have been OK. I've changed out the front spindles, rear end to a Cobra with rotors, new harnesses, cooling fans, shorty headers then changed to 4 into 4, etc. Now I'm thinking of changing out the pedals to something that will work better. The end result will be a "donor build" that has the original trans, gas tank, with a few other small odds and ends but that's it! But when I started, I would not have guessed that there would be that many changes. Again, some of those decisions were because the parts either didn't feel right on the project or they were not in good condition. I don't think there is one way to go but take your time and "cherry pick". Have fun, WEK.

[PERL]

For an affordable donor build you can use a 2000 to 2004 Mustang GT. You should still be able to find a fairly low mileage donor meaning an engine you do not have to rebuild. For the wiring you should budget in a wire diet from wirediet.com. Makes things much easier. You will need a 1998 or older differential because of the width. The engine is not very pretty but as I said this is an affordable build or as affordable as they get. There are probably still vendors that will set you up with a donor pallet. This is the build that I did in 2005. The engine has stock 260 HP and with that I can't keep the tires hooked up.

[PERL]

One more picture … with some work you can clean up the looks of the engine if you want.

[Bradford Drummond]

87-93's are still a dime a dozen around here. Not hard to find them in good shape. And often you can find them with power upgrades already installed.
Don't knock the original donor concept. I went with a complete donor build wanting to get on the road and then be able to decide what I wanted to change. Keep in mind that this was before the forums were around like today.....Even with the forum, I don't think I would have done it any differently today. The single donor idea got me on the road in 90 days and it's been an enjoyable 10 years on the road.

Brad

[Shady302]

The single donor idea got me on the road in 90 days and it's been an enjoyable 10 years on the road.

Brad

90 Days! holy crap! When I order my kit I'm sending it directly to you. Lol

[gtcobra]

Well it did not take me 90 days ( I am no RE63, oops wrong forum,) anyway my first build, and I did use a 2003 Mach 1 donor.
I can say, however that in less than a year I was legal and on the road, all painted and complete..... awesome machine as well.

I would do it again with a donor in a second, no questions asked...... Just ask Dave Smith what the objective was when he started
FFR..... whatever you decide to do, you will be incredibly happy when you get you first thumbs up......
JMHO

[Morgan]

Is that air filter functional? How is the intake routed? That is a nice way to clean up the engine bay.

One more picture … with some work you can clean up the looks of the engine if you want.

[PERL]

Well I hope this is ok because I really don't want to rewrite everything I wrote in the old forum. Below are links to a discussions on the old forum about this type of intake.

http://www.ffcars.com/forums/17-fact...e-air-box.html
http://www.ffcars.com/forums/45-ford...urkey-pan.html