I'll bet its smaller. Plus the fact you could only get a 4 cyl in them might make them less stronger. Dont know for sure.
'71-'72 Pinto/bobcat are a little different than the M2. '74-'78 are identical to the M2. The '73 Pintos are oddball. I think the rack placement is a little different as well as the lower control arm mounting. Could be wrong. Most aftermarket stuff is based on the '74-'78.
I'm going off of memeory here, so I might not be exactly right. From what I remeber of my dad's '72 it was 2 inches narrower than the '73 and later. They originally came with a front sump EAU 2.0L SOHC. I also think they mounted the rack behind the cross member in a "rear steer" configuration, which necessitates the use of a front sump pan. Most late model racks and spindles are front steer so you can use a rear sump pan. The cross member is fairly beefy. The stock frame rails and unibody will probably break before it does. We had no trouble getting the 2.3 in there width wise, but it was snug top to bottom and front to back. Shouldn't be an issue in another chassis though. It's important to note that the '71-'72 still used frame mounts rather than cross member mounts. Don't know if that is different or not from a later model. I know that we got 2.3 frame stands and a front sump pan, so maybe that's a '73 thing. Anyway, that's all I know.
