1982 mustang 3.3 fox

[sarkie83]

this gets better and better!

[charles97]

[incarsolutions]

Now up for grabs in the forsale section £895.

[adamjcatt]

Very cool looking car I'm gonna drop you a pm about getting my name in the current que for the car

[fannywhacker]

Nice car, I like these. Looking for an aod box if you know of one?

[cortinachris]

Is this 'Sold' sold, or just SOLD?
PM if still available...
Many thanks in advace,
Christopher

[incarsolutions]

Went last weekend to uncleterry on here.

[iamcanjim]

Hi there. I was suffering from nostalgia, googled my first car and ended up here. I live in Canada.

A 1982 Mustang GLX 3.3 was my first car. I bought it in 1991 with 89,000 km on it for $650 CDN (at the time about 400GBP). Man I loved that car.

The 3.3 L makes 85 hp and 160 lb/ft of torque. This is actually less hp than the 4 cyl, but more torque (88/110). The 3.3 always has 3 sp automatic in North America. The 3.3 is the basic ford straight six found in everything from 1960 on with various displacements. It is the source of the legendary Australian Barra 4.0. It was dropped after 1983 for obvious reasons in NA and replaced with the 3.8 L Ford Essex (CDN) V6. The 1979 Model had the 2.9 L 'Cologne' V6, but it was not used in 1980-1982 because of supply and quality issues. In NA it had 110 hp (that should tell you how much emissions choked our engines compared to Europe at the time, note the more primitive 2.8 made 135 hp in the Granada).

The 3.3 L has an overly complicated carb (for emissions purposes) and a maze of vacuum lines (I remember spending hours playing 'find the leak'). It was a good highway engine for Canada, the torque allowing good passing manners.

Mine was a tu-tone dark grey on top/dark red below with a grey interior (grey cloth/vinyl seats). Mine was a hatchback, which were a lot more common in Canada.

I notice from the pics yours has the non functional hoodscoop, and option that mine didn't have. Yours also has what appears to be a GT instrument panel (most non GT's had an odd fake woodgrain). Of course I see you have put a GT front dam on it. Many also had a centre console with a strange little computer that told you when the lights went dead.

I had mine for 3 years, and merrily abused at as high school kids are wont to do. I hit a deer after taking it across the country to Alberta (what a trip, 55 driving hours) at about 150 km/h (95mph). It hit so hard that the rad was pushed into the fan and the hood (bonnet) accordioned.

Someone bought the car for the engine, which went into an '83.

As for performance....there isn't much you can do. Even if you open up the intake and exhaust and put another carb on, the size of the valves, the cam and the low redline mean you won't get a lot more power. If you can find a '79 donor you can put a cologne 2.8/2.9 in it from a Euro car, or you can put a 302 in it. With a 302 the sky is the limit. I have seen them around here with up to 400 hp as daily drivers. Crate engines are cheap here and every junkyard is full of ex cop CROWN Vics with HO 302's.

Another option is the Turbo 2.3. These can be had from SVO models with intercooler (200 hp) or non SVO models without (135 hp). Thunderbird Turbo Coupes from the same era also had the intercooled engine.

This wasn't my last Mustang. I had a 1984 Hatchback (2.3 4sp manual, $400), a 1986 Mercury Capri (in North America it was the same as a Mustang with different clip and tailights 'free') (3.8 3sp auto), 1988 Hatch (2.3 5sp Man $900) which got up to 550,000 kms. It broke a timing belt and rather that fix it for less than $200 I rather heartlessly sent it to the junkyard. I also had a 2003 with a 3.8 and a 5 speed (actually it was my wife's).

Other fox bodies included a 1983 Cougar 3.8 3sp and a 1985 LTDII 5.0 3 speed. Even though they look very different, Mustangs, Fairmonts, Zephyrs, Capris (NA models), LTD II's and Mercury Grand Marquis (small) were all identical under the skin and almost all non body parts are interchangeable.

Oddly, I have never had a V8 Mustang (I did have a 1969 Mercury Cougar with a 289 briefly in 1999, but someone made an offer I couldn't refuse on it). The fastest car I have ever had was my 300 hp Dodge Caliber SRT4, a hot hatch.

Anyway, if you have any questions, or if you want me to look at the nearby self serve junkyards for parts, let me know.

[iamcanjim]

By the way, the sputtering and dying is caused by the fuel filter and junction just upstream from it. There's a jet like thingy made of brass that keeps sticking, cutting off the fuel supply. It's hard to describe.

Take off the fuel filter. Ensure you can blow through it. There should be a tiny (2mm) brass piece on the upstream side of it. It should move in and out freely without sticking. If it sticks it cuts off the fuel supply. If the car dies, remove the fuel filter and unstick the piece. Hmm. PM me if you need more direction.