Ok this will be one of the more interesting posts. My brother and I have a 1970 Pinto that looks nothing like Ford intended. Try to imagine a San Francisco trolley that small. If you can see this then that is what we have. Very cool car for shows and for fun. Unfortunately the car was rear ended and in bad shape. With the body work my bro and I have decided that the very weak 1300 cc motor has to go. We have decided to go one of two ways. One, because the whole car is custom it would not matter if the motor bay has to be re-done so new motor with trainee. (Four on the floor with no granny gear not fun for parades) Two, replace the whole frame with a 79-99 fox body convertible with auto and 5.0. What I would like to know is the + and - of both and what motor you would replace the 4 cly with. Does not need to be very powerful just enough. Thank you

 

Not that is funny!


Back in the day, I remember guys beefing up the Pinto chassis and suspension and put a big V-8 (350 cubic inch and larger) in those cars. Man....they were fast.

I cannot help with a recommendation, but by all means show us pictures.

 

Not to split hairs, but the first year for the Pinto was 1971 and the base engine was a 1600cc unit... if there was actually a 1300cc motor in there it didn't come from the factory that way.

http://wikicars.org/en/Ford_Pinto (yes, I wrote this one too )

I have seen a few beefed up Pintos, one of the last ones I saw was a 79-80 model that a guy dropped a Fox-body Mustang 302 in it (don't know the year), it did sound and run pretty good - that seems to be one of the more common Pinto engine swaps.