Hi all, I am new to this site, got an advice from Finnish Us-car forum!
My 1988 tbird (3.8L) has been at the repair shop and they lost some parts from it... :( :( For some reason there are not many Fox-Tbirds in Finland, but there are many newer birds (1989-up)
So, the question is : are the parts from 1989-up Tbirds same as in Fox Tbirds ? Missing parts include (at least) Air pump, alternator (fortunately these can be found as an aftermarket replacement part from local parts shop), brackets for both, bolts, nuts, harmonic balancer, pulleys, fuel injector nozzle fasteners... bracket for oil steering pump. Here's a picture of the engine in it's current state... What's in the pic, is what there is left.. :(
Thank you in advance!. .. to be honest, at the moment I got the feeling that it will be a miracle if this car moves on it's own some day...:(
best regards,
Markku
My question is; if the repair shop lost the parts, why is that your problem? They had better find them!
A novel idea, I know. The best thing to do is a post in the "parts wanted" section of this site. I am sure somebody could send them to you.
And that right there is why I do everything myself. If I ever came across a shop that did me like that...somebody would be in a world of hurt.
Exactly. The only things i'd have done by someone else is alignments and block boring (stuff that most people can't do at home).
You guys ain't helping one bit, not everyone can(or wants) to do their own work...
I'd say at least some of the parts are the same and possibly all... Brackets, pulleys, etc, could at least probably be used as a complete group... The harmonic balancer may be different as there were some changes to include a internal balance shaft along those years...
Really need someone to chime in that knows the differences in the years which isn't me...
Make sure they aren't charging you more than their initial quote now - they may want to hide some of their losses in the bill. While most people here are 5.0 and 2.3 people, there are a few here and there that know more about 3.8's.
I know the 3.8's in the newer cars do not have the balancing shaft. Although, some of the newer mustangs do. I would be willing to bet that the accesories off of a 89 up bird could work. They use the same basic engine. I wish I had two sitting next to each other to see what could and couldn't work.
I'll check my book this weekend. It has the differences between 80s 3.8s the newer 3.8s. only up to 92 I think. (old book)
Thank you for your advices !
Repair shop is owned by my friend, so I'm not going to kill him (at least not yet). I agreed to see if I can find the parts for the car by myself, because it's 'almost' impossible to find them from here :/
It looks like posting an ad to 'parts wanted' section might be the best choice. My other car is a 1962 Imperial, to which I have done all kinds of repairs by myself (rebuilt the engine for example), but because of my work I had to move to another city and I didn't have a place there where I could work on my Tbird, maybe I was also afraid of the Fuel Injection!?!
I really like my Tbird and I am starting to like Mercury Cougars too (more I see pics of them, the more I l ike them:) )! My Bird is missing the side mouldings and it has 'cheapest available' aftermarket wheels on it. It would look better with the original ones !
Daminc, I would really appreciate if you could take a look at your book :) Thanks !
best regards,
Markku
i'm just curious, but how did your friend LOSE all of that? i mean for Christ's sake, thats almost half the stuff from your engine compartment....
what was the car actually there for?
By the picture, I'm guessing it was in for a water pump replacement :)
if they lost all of those parts during the process of an hour job, the place needs to shut down.....
so far,, almost all the accessories on the front of a 88 3.8 cross reference with the sc and the 3.8s to 96. pullies and tensioners included. but I'm not seeing anything about brackets and bolts. Air conditioning lines are different for the sc only I'm pretty sure.
There is also 2 versions of 3.8 for 88 listed in the book. One has a single tensioner pulley while the other has a double like the sc I believe. do you remember which one you had?
Harmonic balancers are listed as the same for everything after 88 (89-93) can't find any info on a 88 balancer, and I know a 87 is different.
I'll keep looking
The balancer will be different for 88 only. Your best bet would be a newish mustang with the internal balancing shaft. I wonder if some of the pullies/accesories from a tarus/windstar 3.8 could work? I know the newer windstar intake is an upgrade for mustang 3.8's.
I think that if you used all the stuff from the 89 3.8, and the internal balancing shaft harmonic balancer, I'll bet it would work. It has the same basic engine layout, and is a front rear layout with less room under the hood. I have seen a stock 5.0 out of a mn-12 in a 94 up mustang with the mn-12 accessories and it did fit. I know that some water pumps are a different rotation and some have a different length snout on the water pump. I think it would work as long as it had the same length water pump.
They make after market pulley setups for just about any engine you could imagine, but it would probably not be very cost effective to get it to you.
im not sure how much of the original 88 3.8 brackets and parts that i do have. but i know i have stuff like the ac bracket.. should have balancer/crank pulley. i know i dont have power steering pump ( i just checked cause i needed hoses) but i know i do have some bits n peices.
Take a closer look :) There was a leakage on cylinder head gasket and the engine overheated. So, they overhauled cylinder heads and replaced the water pump. Car has been there quite a while! ( I said there's no hurry with it...mistake number 1..). My friends business associate cleaned the place up and threw those parts away. He thought they were garbage! I still don't understand why he didn't ask anything before he did that!! ( In my opinion, he's not the sharpest tool in the shed)...
I took more photos today. Is there only crankshaft front oil seal missing and then the harmonic balancer ? I can see the timing chain gears! Photos are at my photobucket album "markkujaakkola" under the folder Tbird engine. I can't post a link here :/
Thanks Daminc,
No idea, if I did have one or two tensioners :( How ever, I did receive parts list from Ford dealer, but they said that they can't provide those parts(picture attached) anymore. Looks like there's not mentioned even one tensioner ?? I'll have to ask them again. Part number for air pump and alternator are also missing.
Looks like there are two different air pumps available
A-1 CARDONE Part # 32291 {Remanufactured}
w/I.D. #E8ZE-BA
A-1 CARDONE Part # 32415 {Remanufactured}
w/I.D. #E8SE-AA, E8SE-AB
84-87 used a different pulley and accessories set up all together. 83 were carbed I do belive.
yes, and almost everything is opposite on the motor too. including battery, wiring, throttle cable, and fuel lines.
I'm gonna miss mine. Lots of good times, and never let me down.
(http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee79/daminc/cougar%20before/IMG_2828.jpg)
Bigblockhead
Your parts you need are very easy to find here in the states.
do not use any parts from 87 and down as everything Haystack said is dead on correct. In our world of these cars here, the 88 model was a one year only deal.
Your resources for the brakets needs to be from *ANY CAR* with the 3.8L fuel injected engine but stay as close to your year as possible but nothing from 87 and earlier will work.
Again, these parts are very easy and much remaining to be had here still.
The engine Daminic posted is of a previous model 1987 3.8L engine.
As he stated and is common sense here, the 87/88 engines are reverse negative of eachother and to include some pully and intake changes. no brakets on that car will work.
looks like your buddy was collecting up aluminum in my opinion.
If you like, and you can wait a little while longer, I can get the parts for you at a junk yard. I really dont have any spare time lately though so keep that in mind.
Another option would be to pay someone here who goes to the junk yards often and just simply place your order with them. You may have to pay for the parts / labor / shipping but it is what needs done. For what I see you need, I would pay whatever it took to get past this simple problem right now.
There are several people here who regularly go to yards and score parts. Pay thier time / parts / shipping and i bet you have parts before COB of october.
In addition, you do not need the smog pump. You will need to dead end the vac hoses that lead to the smog system (tan and black lines if i recall correctly). You will need to pinch off the tube on the exhaust where the smog hooks up and as well, cap off the area where the smog connected to on the intake. after this is done, you simply install the shorter belt. The reason is two, you save money, less parts and you delete this part that generally carbons up your throttle body and EGR anyway. The issue in my mind is that I can not remember if there was a special way to add a shorter belt on the 88 3.8L. On the 87 3.8, its as simple as removing the smog pully and little plastic fan, then run in a shorter belt.
I really need someone to post up a pic of the 88 3.8L if they have one so this guy sees something, otherwise ill have to dig through a bunch of random posts to find them for him.
as an alternative resort,, check this parts resource site out...........
http://www.car-part.com/
here is everything you will ****EVER**** need to know about the 3.8L engine and the evolution of its block / guts.
You will see why we are saying a lot of things changed in 88.
by the way,,, it took me a half hour to find this article as I had it saved in my diy link in word but couldnt remember where it came from.
http://www.enginebuildermag.com/Article/2393/rebuilding_the_ford_38l_engine.aspx
Eric
you should link the above site to coolcats.net, its a good piece of history for the car.
Now if i can only find a similair article for the 2.3 and 5.0 that would complete the mission.
Nice to see nabers in this forum !
tervetuloa!
Best wishes from Estonia !
for the balancer, 88 FWD and RWD only, or 99 up 3.8 mustang, or 89-95 super charged 3.8 tbird or 89-90 XR7 cougar. If you do this, you should be able to use any 89-97 3.8 front accessories and pullies from a tbird or cougar. They use different alternators at the very least. I would stick to the earlier years to be safe. If you do go junk yarding, it would probably be cheaper to buy the whole block then everything piece by piece.
I also cannot guarantee all of this to be correct, but it should be a good starting point.
Are there any replacement balancers for 1988 models available ? I checked from BHJ dynamics website, but they list only for 89-> up SC model balancers.
jcassity, Thank you very much for the link and information. Thanks to others too, you have been very helpful. I spotted a 92 Tbird from local junkyard, if I take all the parts from it and find a new 88 3.8 balancer.. it could work ?
power steering pump is the same part number. Uses a 65 amp alt, which should be compatable with what you had, smog pump you don't need and water pump is the same. Belt tensioner and accesories should be very similar. The brackets will be different, but I don't see how it could hurt as long as it fits in there.
The fact that the water pump is the same means that all the pullies should line up. Next time I'm at the junkyard I will see if I can take a picture of both an 88 and 89 up motor. the only real question is the ac compressor.
*edit*
according to autozone, even the AC compressor is the same. I cannot guarantee it, but I think it will work.
So far, I couldn't find any reason why everything from the motors shouldn't work, except for the balancer and the AC lines from a SC. All the part #s are listed for an 88 and up. But without seeing the motors up close, we may not be seeing an important difference.
Cougar8775 has a 90 SC, maybe we can get him to snap some pics of his for a reference point.
Thanks Haystack and Daminc,
There's internally balanced 3.8 engine on 1994-1997 Fords. Summit has two versions of dampers available, I still doubt if they fit ? I emailed couple companies and ask if they have 1988 balancer. We'll see what happens. I sure would like to know how does it look like !
On Ford parts list it says E8SZ6B321-A Damper and pulley assembly??
Thanks, nice to see that there are US car enthusiasts in Estonia too ! :bowdown: