Thread: Dare I?

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Well, like I said in the New Member Sign-In, I was new to the Rod scene and had a few questions about building my first. For starters, there's gonna' be plenty of time to plan, as I'm kinda' doing the starving student thing till' January of 08'. But the first idea I had was fuel-injection.



That's right. I went there. I've never seen it before on a Bucket, and I could imagine that it isn't exactly a welcome idea. But, hey, I want it. I was thinking a late-model Windsor, like something from a Fox body 5.0. Is this idea even plausible? What's everyone think?

I'd go for a truck engine, the intake is better for power, and would look way cool sticking up out of a bucket. No reason why it won't work, just a lot more friggin' around to set it up.

Not a bad idea. I'm not too worried about all the extra wiring and sensor work and what not, if that's what you meant. Has anyone done it around here before? It'd be great to get a few pointers.

Not in a T bucket, but I have put injected engines in a number of customer cars. Only thing I see as a challenge on a bucket or other open engine car is installing the wiring harness so it looks good. Sure can't have a bunch of wires hanging all over in a Hot Rod!!!!

That would be pretty awesome. There are a lot of ways you can go whether it be megasquirt and a lap-top or the easiest way would be get a whole donor car so you can use the wiring harness, computer, all the sensors, etc. I've always worked on fuel injection cars my-self until very recently and to be quite honest I find myself alot more comfortable around that then a carb. I'm slowly getting around this whole carb thing being more then a magical box that sits on top of the engine, i'm sure it's the other way around for some of the older guys doing this stuff.

That was what I was kind of not looking foreward to; making a wiring harness pretty. My plan was to find a complete donor car, yes, but I might be finding an Explorer instead of a Mustang now. Well, now that I've got confirmation on the engine I want, where do I get started? Anyone know of a good starter's manual or something along those lines?

Start with a chassis, lots of companies offering them in various stages of completion. Prices are close, TCI probably at the top and Speedway Motors towards the middle on prices. I'd suggest going for the quality pieces the first time and save yourself a lot of grief later. There are also lots of How to books if you want to build your own chassis, check out Amazon or any of the other book sellers on line.

Well, to be a little more specific, the biggest gap in my knowledge with a T-Bucket is suspension. I've seen a few fabricated and custom designed suspensions and I was wondering which ones are more common or popular and why. Are there suspensions better for performance, but not so hot for ride comofort? And what about the other way around?

Total Performance has an injected LS1 in their Tangerine T.

Ride quality in a T may be contradicting. The wheel base is so short it's hard to get a true good ride. With that being said the coil over rear is probably a better ride, but I think the transverse spring look's too cool.

Oh, hey, I don't care about ride quality. This is gonna' be 'the fast car'. I'll wear a mouthguard to keep from losing my teeth when I drive over speedbumps, if need be. I was just curious about what is out there for buckets so I know my options.