New Kid with the Small Block
 

Hey everyone, my name's Aaron and I'm new here. I have a 79 mustang hatchback that I acquired as a means of transportation and project car. It's been worked on before, and it has a 4 bbl carb on an aftermarket intake, 302 engine with stock exhaust, MSD ignition, electric fan and bare essentials. I haven't touched it mechanically yet, aside from an oil change and new battery. The interior dash is replaced with custom gauges (which never work right) and switches (which i don't know what they're for), and set up for nitrous (which it doesn't have.)

There is a stock 4-speed SROD tranny and a clutch that's going out. The synchros in the tranny are almost shot, and I'm looking for a new t5 (unless you have suggestions, feel free to let me know) Goals for this car are to build a street/strip car with tons of HP/TQ on pump gas.

Before I replace the clutch in it, I was hoping to find out why it's screeching so loudly. When I open the hood to find where the noise is coming from at idle, the screech is so unbelievably loud its hard to pinpoint. I narrowed it down to inside the bellhousing (I think), and when the car is driving under load (very low rpms in gear) the sound goes away. When it picks up speed and rpms, the screech gradually gets louder till I have to press in the clutch to shift, and when I press the clutch it gets even louder. Then it quiets down again for the low rpms of the next gear and so on. Any ideas?

Aaron

i had a screeching noise once but was the alternator dont see that for you, but welcome to the site

Welcome to the site!!! The screeching noise, most likely, is an extremely worn throwout bearing. Get everything you need to upgrade to an 87-93 T5 setup, it will be a huge improvement. I always hated the SROD in every first gen Fox I've owned.
Does it still have the exhaust manifolds through single exhaust???? Even upgrading to the stock 86-93 LX system would be a HUGE improvement!!!
The best bang for the buck on those cars is swapping in an 87-93 exhaust system (factory headers, h-pipe, transmission mount and crossmember) with upgraded mufflers, T5 trans upgrade (trans, bellhousing, clutch cable, 28oz balance 10.5" flywheel, clutch fork, matching clutch kit, driveshaft), an 8.8 rear end (drum to drum), 87-93 11" front brake and suspension upgrade (calipers, rotors, spindles, struts, pads, brake lines), cheap aluminum intake manifold (Performer 289/302, Torker 289 dual plane, Weiand Stealth, Offenhauser dual plane) with a stock rebuilt and rejetted 83-85 5.0 HO 4bbl carb, and 82+ dual snorkel air cleaner. The above will probably cost you about $1000 if you are good are bargain hunting and do your own work, and will net you about 40-50HP over stock 1979 ratings with a huge jump in driveability and fun factor. On some parts, you can add a little money and upgrade, such as the shocks and struts (get KYB GR2's instead of stockers) or rear end (3.73 gears) or even a complete 86-93 performance exhaust system (I've seen selling online for $250-400 sometimes!).
Best of luck with your project and post up some pics for us! I love four eyed Stangs, and will be looking for a clean 82 GT project in the next few months....... Let's see what yours looks like now so we can compare.
SS