AtlantaSteve
Active Member
Even though I am a mustang enthusiast, and have been since I got my car at 16, more years ago than I care to remember (still seems like yesterday!) I actually kinda "grew up" involved in the street-rod world. The guy who taught me to do a lot of basic stuff had a '36 Dodge (that he bought when HE was 16) with a chevy 327 and Turbo 350 to a Ford 8". He was a true street-rodder, and a lot of my early experience with cars was involved in that world. I would pick up a mustang magazine every now and again, but I subscribed to Street Rodder.
At the time, the way to get your car into Mustang Monthly was to make sure your seat belts had the right date-code for your VIN. No offense to the concourse crowd, but nothing bored me more than that, so I spent my days reading Street Rodder, and thinking of ways to bring that mentality to my mustang.
Then I spent a lot of time out of the car hobby, and came back to find that the "Resto modded" mustang had become popular, and I was very happy!
But one thing that is insanely prevalent in the Street Rod world, that is almost unseen in our world, is cross branding engines. The SBC engine was just the most common engine, whether you were building a Ford, an Olds, or a Chevy. It would PROBABLY have some variant of the SBC in it. And you'd also see (to a much lesser degree) SBF engines being dropped in other brands. There was no sin in crossing engine brands.
In our world, if I came on here and said I got a FREE Chevy 350 or LS-X engine, and was going to drop it in the Mustang, I think I'd be flamed right out of existence.
SO, my questions to you all are:
1) What is your opinion of crossing engine brands?
2) If you're a brand loyalist (Chevy engines in Chevy Cars, Ford Engines in Ford Cars) Why? Is there a REASON it's wrong to cross brands, or is it just a gut feeling?
My take? I'm a lot more lenient on it than I've seen some people around here. A year or so back I saw a thread on Pro-touring.com of a guy who was building an LS powered mustang (though it was basically a mustang body being put on a tube frame, IIRC) When I saw that he was using an LS engine I was kind of turned off, til I read WHAT he was trying to do...and that was build a car as cheaply as he could, using mostly stuff he had around his house. He had an LS engine, so that's what he used. He got a mustang body cheap, so that's what he used. Once I understood that he was building this, I understood his motivation, and was fine that it was GM powered. So under the circumstances, I was fine with it.
That said, I'd never use an off brand in my car. and I can't really explain why, except to say it just seems WRONG.
I look forward to hearing other people's opinions...
At the time, the way to get your car into Mustang Monthly was to make sure your seat belts had the right date-code for your VIN. No offense to the concourse crowd, but nothing bored me more than that, so I spent my days reading Street Rodder, and thinking of ways to bring that mentality to my mustang.
Then I spent a lot of time out of the car hobby, and came back to find that the "Resto modded" mustang had become popular, and I was very happy!
But one thing that is insanely prevalent in the Street Rod world, that is almost unseen in our world, is cross branding engines. The SBC engine was just the most common engine, whether you were building a Ford, an Olds, or a Chevy. It would PROBABLY have some variant of the SBC in it. And you'd also see (to a much lesser degree) SBF engines being dropped in other brands. There was no sin in crossing engine brands.
In our world, if I came on here and said I got a FREE Chevy 350 or LS-X engine, and was going to drop it in the Mustang, I think I'd be flamed right out of existence.
SO, my questions to you all are:
1) What is your opinion of crossing engine brands?
2) If you're a brand loyalist (Chevy engines in Chevy Cars, Ford Engines in Ford Cars) Why? Is there a REASON it's wrong to cross brands, or is it just a gut feeling?
My take? I'm a lot more lenient on it than I've seen some people around here. A year or so back I saw a thread on Pro-touring.com of a guy who was building an LS powered mustang (though it was basically a mustang body being put on a tube frame, IIRC) When I saw that he was using an LS engine I was kind of turned off, til I read WHAT he was trying to do...and that was build a car as cheaply as he could, using mostly stuff he had around his house. He had an LS engine, so that's what he used. He got a mustang body cheap, so that's what he used. Once I understood that he was building this, I understood his motivation, and was fine that it was GM powered. So under the circumstances, I was fine with it.
That said, I'd never use an off brand in my car. and I can't really explain why, except to say it just seems WRONG.
I look forward to hearing other people's opinions...
