just put some money down on a 66 coupe for another project car. I have the Torino pretty well finished for now and have the bug.
The 66, someone tried to restore it, replacing all four fenders, the interior is trashed, they cut a hole in the dash for an aftermarket stereo. They tried to paint it them selves and have a lot of runs and orange peal in it. It has a 200 6 in it, with a replaced head ( they tried to pull the old one and broke off the bolts and did not even try to easy out them . they worked on the brakes and did not know how to adjust the drums so they got rid of it. A friend who has a small car lot took it on trade with another car, akjusted the brakes, but does not have the time to work on it to make it saleable.. so I bought it.
Since the other owners have pretty much ruined the originality of it, I plan on restomoding it.
I know I need to sand down the body and repaint it ( they painted it pumpkin orange, it was red ). The interior I plan on gutting and replacing with new. Saw some bolt on front end kits for disc brakes and better stearing.
The question I have is the engine....Which one? my thoughts are a V8 crate engine of around 302 to 347. It is an auto with a C4 tranny in it and will bolt up.
Any other mod ideas would be helpfull... I have other ideas of my own but too many to list...
Will get pic's when I take possession.

 

I would go with 331 for strength. Most 347 kits require the piston to be so short that the piston pin intersects the oil rings. While a nickel-sized gap behind the ring on each side of the piston may not seem like a huge issue, in fact such a gap will increase the oil consumption of the motor to some level. We spoke to four reputable machine shops to get their opinions on using the 347 in a street application, and their responses were equally divided. It seems as if half of the Ford crowd is convinced the 347 is not an ideal street motor due to rapid wear on the rings (from the relatively low rod ratio) and increased oil burning.. The other half feels the piston pin issue is a non-issue, and refers to the number of satisfied 347 owners using them in daily drivers.

Several companies are offering kits with custom pistons which raise the oil ring grooves above the pin hole. The Coast High Performance 347 kits accomplish this with a 0.085" shorter rod (5.315")). Naturally these 347 kits are more expensive, and critics say area above the piston crown becomes so thin that the piston is prone to breaking at the ring lands upon the slightest detonation. We've actually seen this very thing in a supercharged 347.
Shortly after the 347 became popular, the 331 kits started hitting the popularity charts. Using the same 5.400" rod, but less stroke, results in an ideal 302 stroker. The rod ratio is nearly the same as the stock 302, meaning the side loads from a 331 rotating assembly is not adversely different than that of a stock motor. The 0.150" shorter stroke means the piston pin is well below the oil rings.

I found that info here. http://www.fordmuscle.com/archives/2002/04/331/

 

I have a 65 that I am currently working and am thinking about dropping in one of the new Boss engines. I haven't done a lot of research on it yet, have a long way to go before I am ready, but they appeared to be comparable price wise.