Re: OT, V8 Maverick

Posted by Hal/WA on July 04, 2005 at 11:52:34 from (148.65.0.200):

In Reply to: OT, V8 Maverick posted by ChadS on July 04, 2005 at 10:41:22:

My daughter had a 76 Maverick with a factory 302 and C-4. It was a quick little car, but handled poorly and was the reason that I selected and bought cars for the other 4 younger kids as they got old enough to drive. The Maverick would go way too fast for a 16 year old, and I felt lucky that she made it through her time with that car unscathed.

The fit with the 302 is tight. Changing some of the spark plugs was a real pain and required removing the bracing that was bolted to the upper part of the engine compartment. The way the transmission cooler lines were run required unbolting them to be able to remove the oil filter. Changing the oil was a lot harder and slower than it needed to be.

I never could get that car to handle right. I had the front end carefully checked and aligned by the best shop in town, but that didn't seem to help very much. The car had custom wheels and non-standard tires--maybe they were the wrong offset or something. Anyway, the car wandered badly.

With the amount of power it had, it would spin the right rear tire very easily on dry pavement. It also had a problem with rear spring windup. Had I kept it, I would have tried to get a limited slip differential for it and would have installed slapper bars.

The Maverick was a miserable snow car, even with 300 lbs of weight in the trunk. It would get stuck easier than any other car we ever had. It also got poor gas mileage--no more than about 15, at best. It really kept my daughter broke, paying for her own gas.

So after about a year and a half with the Maverick and after a couple of bad close calls, we decided our oldest daughter needed a different car. We sold the Maverick to another teenager for about half what we paid for it, and bought our daughter a Mazda GLC, which worked great for her for 5 years.

I often thought I should have kept the Maverick, as it really would go and I thought it was fun, but would not have wanted another of my kids to drive it, even if I was able to fix the spooky handling.

I have read that a 351 Windsor looks like it should fit where a 302 has been, but it just increases the clearance problems around the valve covers, plugs and manifolds. But depending on how much you want to do, I suppose it could be done. The Maverick engine bay is fairly narrow, so I would stick with a 302. For exhaust manifolds, I would try to locate factory cast iron units from the Maverick or Comet. 64-66 Mustang or Falcon manifolds might work and may be reproduced. I would also check out the shorty tube headers from late model 5.0 Mustangs. Good luck, and I hope your Maverick handles better than ours did.....

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