Pretty Pony with the heart of a Beast!

The Austang is back home with all the bits in place!
Bottom line is at the top . . . George May of Racecraft in Kunda Park has done a great job.

The journey has been emotional and I have endured highs and lows in the process, the lowest of which is the crap work done by the exhaust guy. If you want a personal report, drop me a comment and I will fill you in. After spending $1500 with that clown and having all brackets break from the strain, the whole thing has since been rebuilt for half the original cost and now does not bang on anything, even with a full load of people. Plus there are no leaks through parrot-shit welds! Honestly, I would not let them work on my wheel barrow.

Heads up, if you want a great job done on your exhaust, go to Steve at Kuluin Mufflers.



The Camshaft is very lumpy and probably a bit marginal for an auto tranny but makes big HP and a great sound.

Got a little issue with the Rack and pinion steering by RRS, there is a little play in the uni joints which causes the steering to lose it for a couple of degrees in the middle. I am currently talking to them about getting a replacement set.

Here's a little video of the first drive, the belt is a bit noisy and I need to deal with that . . .

Straightening out the Rack

The You-beaut RHD rack and pinion steering setup from RRS went in without a hitch, but the claim it would stop bumpsteer was just bullshit.

We had to modify the front arm height to ensure it aligned with the rear. Otherwise the tracks were not going to be anything near correct!

Now at least the beast really will steer without spreading her wheels on the bumps.

Will be great to steer around the carpark with power again. The guy who did the RHD conversion talked me into not putting power steering back in. Probably because he just didn't want to go through the hassle of setting it up.

With this stuff in place I am expecting it to steer like a Ferrari and handle less like a jelly fish. Still have to replace the sway bars etc, but lets just see if there is any money left when all this stuff is in!

Looking at the greasy side . . .

(click any image to see it in a larger form - hit back button to return)

This shot gives a good look at the fitting of the now shortened and rebalanced tailshaft. You can also see the remade LH exhaust pipes, made to point straight back, to avoid hitting the tranny.

The Automatic Overdrive Box as supplied by Monster Transmissions arrived as an impressive and comprehensive box of kit.

However it did not just bolt in, despite the AOD cross member and mounting hardware. The box just would not go into the hump without a little modification to the floorpan. There was no need for cutting, they just beat it with a hammer (the floor pan that is ) in a few judicious points and it eventually bolted up in place.


The next little issue is with the fitment of the B&M shifter, which necessitated the inversion of the shift lever/linkage.

That was easy enough but caused the LH extractor collector to interfere with the box and the mechanism.

So the pipes were cut and collector removed. A new set of pipes made and repositioned to go back on the extractors, turned away from the AOD. The collector is yet to be put back in place.

Pity the lovely black paint was scratched away from the bottom of the tranny will it was being put up and down.

The ubiquitous Ford 9" differential now graces the rear end! 3.5:1 gearing and the overdrive should see quick starts at traffic lights and low revs on the highway.

With the car up like this I finally got to see why the exhaust banged on something whenever we go over a decent bump with a load or low air in the pump up shocks.
The dumb b@3t@rd$ that fitted the exhaust in Newcastle way back, just mounted it too far back. If they had just made their brackets an inch more forward, it would miss all the undercarriage and never have been a problem.
We had always figured (and blamed) the leaky air shocks for being the issue. I must have spent a small fortune ever the years, paying morons who claim to be trade experts, to do crap work.
Because the thing is, I am quite capable of doing my own shoddy work without expert help!

As you can see the air shocks are history and are replaced with good quality standard shocks from (of all things) a landcruiser! They have lots of travel and are good beefy support for the rear end.

Work Continues

The engine bay has been painted the same red as the body, looks pretty good in high glossy duco rather than the ugly matt (and oil stained) black finish. The wiring has been rerun under the guards so it is hidden from view.


New shocks were fitted and the springs shortened to give a better ride and a muscle car stance. Truth is, it did look a bit like a missile launcher with the tail down and nose up.

The extractors have been modded to line up the pipes with the exhaust ports in the aluminium heads. The odd thing is that the exhaust ports are not the same as the original windsor heads and do not line up. So George has modified the extractor pipes by welding material in place and then ground out the pipes to line up more closely. In his words, this is not the best arrangement but in view of his guess of $2000 (which is probably a fair enough price but outside my budget) to build a set of custom made pipes, it will have to do for now.

The exhaust down the left side caused another challenge when the new AOD went in. The pipes had to be cut, the collector removed and a new set of pipes made which turned away from the tranny. More on that later.


The main components are in place, now it is just the "fiddly bits" left to do before we get the tranny adjusted, new exhaust system made/fitted and fire up the motor.

Retiring the 289

Well, here's the old donk!
A sweet genuine old school 289 ci Windsor. I was told by an American dude we met at a drag race meet in Alice Springs, that these old blocks are great for stroking because they are stronger.

Hmmm my new stroker is a '93 block . . . hope he is wrong. LOL

austang is getting a new heart (and lungs, liver and other organs)

We put the car into the hands of George May of Racecraft in Kunda Park. He was straight about the prices and didn't want me to write him a blank cheque like the other crowd (who shall remain nameless)!

The motor was pulled out, C4 and Mustang diff all removed without ceremony. Now they are all living in my garage, while I think about what to do with them.

In their place is a great new 3.5:1 9" diff, AOD tranny and of course the awesome 347 from the Engine Factory.

Today I bought a new B&M Megashifter to give some racing control over the AOD.

Geo suggested I get the engine bay painted the same colour as the body and have all the wiring hidden. I agreed, so he has filled all the holes, taken out the piece of crap alarm installed by a mob insisted on by Shannons Insurance. You should have seen the quality of the connections they made!

On top of it, I scored a set of HID lights for it, so we will now be able to see at night!

Oh yeah, also have bought an RSS rack and pinion power steering set up, to replace the hybrid falcon/mustang set up. It looks like this . . .

The 347 is here!

Last September I ordered a roller cam 302, stroked to a 347ci with lots of go fast stuff on it, rated at 450 horsepower. The people charged with freighting it over stuffed up the transport and it has arrived 2 months late.

The idea is to build up a street machine, with the hot donk, a hard AOD trnsmission and a 9" diff with a locker and 3.55 gears. Should be a sweet beast! Now the engine has arrived but I am yet to order the rest of it, because I was worried the motor had been stolen or I had been ripped off.

Well it has arrived, the thing looks amazing and now I have to pull my finger out and get the rest of the gear organised.
Here's the video the engine builder made for me

Australia Day Buderim 2010

Brilliant blue skies launched a scorcher of an Australia Day on Buderim, nice and early we prepared for the big parade down the main drag.

Shano donned the Kookaburra suit to play the part of Buddee, the mascot of the Buderim Web Site. Riding in the back with a cartoon speech bubble style sign which told the crowd who/what he was . . . he waved to the cheering flag wavers as the Mustang revved and seared on the boiling bitumen.

Ambient temperature was in the mid thirties, a home made ice vest kept the mascot's internal character cool(ish), the poor 289 was sitting quite high in the guage, but kept steady.