[rbohm]

This is bad advice, on many levels. And your comment about the 7.5 rear comparison is certainly not the same as the wimpy 6.75. Bad advice. He needs to change it all or not at all.

pete is right, take some advice from those of us that hop up the six. we look for six cylinder 8" maverick rear ends if we want to keep the four lug wheels, or swap to the more common 5 lug eight inch rear ends to swap to five lug wheels. even we realize that the early 6.75 and 7.25 rear ends are suspect behind even a hopped up six, let alone a V8.

 

[rbohm]

I , mainly, wasn't commenting on safety as such. Although it is entwined with just having beefy enough parts to handle the load. As was said above, the 6.75 is weak. They break with 6 bangers in front of them. Trying to save what? money?? sticking with the small stuff is rediculous. The 8" rears are easy enough to find. Then with the V8, you have added weight, thus the small brakes weren't designed for this new load.
As was mentioned above, rbohm is on the six cylinder site all the time. He knows his sixes and the problems that go with building more powerful engines. Just dropping in, even a stock V8 will put you were the six guys strive hard to reach. It just doesn't make any sense and hoping the OP understands this.
On another note, it was mentioned about the Maverick rears with 4 lug axles and 8" gears. The Pinto also used these rears, with V6 cars. These rears are exactly the right size for early Mustangs too. So you could use the 4 lug axles, or replace them with 5 lug. Either way these Pintos are a prime place to look as well . . . V6 cars.

the only problem with the 8" pinto rear end is the wheel bolt pattern, as you know the early cars are 4x4.5, but the pinto is 4x4.25 like the fox body cars. but it wouldnt be hard to redrill the axles flange and the brake drum for the larger bolt pattern.