I'm back everyone, at least temporarly.
87 bird, 187k, 5.0 base, was wrecked with a tc front end swapped on. Drives alright, and was right in my price range. My buddy was gonna junk it, so I bought it off him for $50 more then the junkyard would give me. Has a couple small problems, the trans is missing od, but it will do for now. Gonna save up for a engine swap and 5speed over the winter. Probably be a daily driver, or just project car. Haven't decided yet.
(http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d82/bosenKevin_02/2012-10-28184300.jpg)
can't sleep, so I figured I'd update a bit.
http://www.foxtbirdcougarforums.com/showthread.php?35400-sn-95-v-6-t-5-behind-a-5.0
my t-5 swap.
I've gotten new tires. no pics yet, but front is 235/65/r15, rears are 275/60/r-15 on some 10 holes. barely rubs at full suspension travel. I hit a set of railroad tracks and didn't break for them. put a small cut in the tread. need to roll the quarters. car sucked the wheels up well, doesn't look out of place and didn't give me any rake.
power steering rack is cracked. planning on doing manual steering instead.
found my vibration that kept getting worse. my buddy that swapped on the tc front end didn't tighten ANY bolts down. the studs that poke through the header panel are all missing now.
next weekend, planning to roll the fenders with a baseball bat, try to find a 4-eye front end, and rewire the lights. also need a fuseable link replaced soon. the extension cord I spliced in makes me nervous with no fuse to it.
starter splinoid went out. swapped the one off my wagon for now. fun stuff in t-bird land.
I'd not sleep till I had that fixed..
Ive been pulling the battery cable off overtime I park it. need to get to either a junkyard or parts store sometime this week. it gets old.
Yeah, for real. Reminds me...Ford tracked us down, sent us a recall card for the Mountaineer to get the cruise replaced. I need to get it taken care of...hell, it's free. lol
its a trick. that's just what they want you to think...
ditching the non-functioning ac and power steering will leave me with a couple issues with the belt routing. I think I found a way around it by taking apart the tensioner and changing it so that it pulls instead of pushes. this seems like the best way to keep the smog stuff I've found.
(http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q315/fastford577/motorfebuary012.jpg)
well, cleaning under the rack and k-member, can't find the leak. looks like ill be pulling the rack out. sorta undecided between going power or manual steering. dont want to drop the coin for either. I can get a 80 mustang manual rack for less the $100, but the steering shaft/adapters for the different spines are over $200. power rack is $300ish. if I swap the rack ill do the pump too since everything else would be new anyways.
ballots, strut and springs are all fine. decided my rattle/ vibration was the exhaust. I am partially right... drivers side motor mount is broken. almost sheared completely off. drivers side motor is being held up my exhaust manifold against the motor mount. I see chuck mounts with a limiter chain in my future.
new front bumper, deleted courtesy lamps and added correct trim over the holes. junkyard fuseable link swapped in. couldn't find a fox battery box, so I got one from a v-6 sn-95 stang. bolted in, but seems to be ment for a smaller battery. mine fit fine.
replaced radiator and now have a functioning overflow again.
(http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d82/bosenKevin_02/2013-05-12223543.jpg)
one thing at a time...
been working off and on.
swapped motor mounts, power steering lines, and a new alt. the crownvic one plugged right in, but the.different.clocking of the alt.caused a wire and connector for the regulator to break.
I ended up with a "new" replacement. also bought a replacement pigtail and spliced it in. the new motor mounts made a big difference. the old top half was completely gone on drivers side. both mounts were broken.completely. car launches much better. I can get a solid.60mph chirp in second now, and light up a tire at any speed in first. I have a stock sized 195/60/14 on the back. my 275/60's rubbed a touch when I hit some unexpected rail road tracks. gonna leave it like this till I roll the fenders.
mechanically, the car feels 100% (knock on wood...). only minor annoyances now. needs an alignment, barely pulls to the left on the freeway.
now ill that's left is to finish the interior trim panels and then either minor bodywork, or more likely some h.o. stuff will start making its way onto the car. might see if I can run the stock s.o. with the t-5 at the track just to get a baseline on a baseline"performance" number. all is good here in tbird land.
http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid33.photobucket.com/albums/d82/bosenKevin_02/video-2013-07-06-21-49-11.mp4
quick video. ment to just take off quick, but a light rain made things a bit slippery. didn't mean to peel out in first, and you can tell its a bit slippery because of the.slight chirp in second. love the way the car sounds though.
almost embarrassing how slow a stock s.o. with 220k or so really is.
if your going to run only the alternator and water pump, the best way to do it is to get a standard rotation pump and timing cover. you can use the tensioner as factory installed then or you can use a turnbuckle to tension the belt. I have done both with no issues
couple updates.
several times I thought I had my power steering leak fixed. now it randomly dumps all fluid while the car sits, and doesn't leak at all while running. I've been several months without any fluid gone, then sometimes have to add once a week. this is going to become a priority before the snow flies. undecided between new rack or junkyarding it. if I keep the a.c., not much point in killing the power steering.
gonna keep a.c. for now. kids bitch with the window down.
the suspension is starting to feel a bit loose now. guess that 230k is starting to catch up with the car. not sure how far I'm gonna go fixing it, but shocks and strut are cheap, and ill be pulling the steering rack anyways.
the cheapie front rotors are warped. they always had a bit of a wobble, but I've done a couple of panic stops which have made them much worse.
I have a feeling the timing is off a bit. wondering if i was lucky enough to get the nylon timing gear on this car. it will also start to overheat if I beat the out of it. if I stay under 1/2 throttle it cools well and will not run hot. but it should be running cooler with a 180° thermostat in there. Polly gonna do a new timing gear and waterpump. been toying with the idea of a electric fan. thinking id need a 3g alt if i go that way.
overall, The car is holding up very well considering the amount of abuse I put through.
sitting at about 230 k miles. another 4k and I Can say its been to the moon. then I just gotta work on getting it.back ;).
got some new parts I've been collecting over the last couple months.
explorer upper and lower
60mm throttle body and egr.
h.o. cam
sd h.o. computer
mark 7 h-pipe
19# fuel injectors
still waiting to get some other parts, have some lx tails and mid pipes on back order. said they might come in Monday. only thing I'm really missing is some shorties, couple gaskets, and I wanna do a double roller chain and waterpump while I have it all ripped out.
power steering rack is ready to get picked up. not sure if I'm going to go with new tie rods or not. my wiggly suspension ended up being two dry rotted tires. the side wall was separating.
this winter I have a couple big plans. gonna swap sn-95 springs and maybe che adjustable arms for the rear with some air shocks out back. wire it for a trailer, and if I get bored, some gt40 heads with new springs
car now has approximately 235k miles. its been to the moon, now I just gotta work on getting it back order;).
I can't get over how much larger everything is on the explorer intake. (http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d82/bosenKevin_02/2013-09-28162115.jpg)
I just finished reading this thread and the t5 swap what an adventure your having with this car, great work!
thanks man. kind words are appreciated. were gonna have to meet up one of these days.
so, timing chain cover is leaking antifreeze. thought it was just the thermostat housing, but its not.
I swaped the thermostat to a 192 ° and replaced the smog pump. it locked up on me and stretched the belt. plan is to get ruby running and park the tbird. it needs a power steering rack and a timing chain cover re-done. the cost and time involved almost make it necessary to park it for now. $55 rack, new tie rods, alignment, plusall the time involved.
gonna fix a few small things and have it up and running again before winter is over
car is really starting to fall apart. needs rear shocks, exhaust hangers/exhaust work, motor mounts (3rd time since the t-5 swap) and all the other little things I need to park it for. probably gonna end up parking this car all winter and then start.working on the cougar once its fixed. I'm leaning towards getting dual exhaust done with stock stand parts and then getting a larger 3& system for the cougar. choices.
I've changed my mind again!
I've decided the tbird will be getting the h.o. upgrade parts, plus the explorer upper and lower. haven't decided for sure on gt-40 heads or not yet.
new, and hopefully final to do list over the winter.
chuckw mounts.
dual exhaust/h.o. upgrade
hopefully sorce a 164 tooth engine block plate.
really tempted to do sn-95 springs with air shocks out back.
power steering rack and new tie rods while I'm at it.
3g upgrade and electric taurus fan.
get a real shift and shifter boot for the car. maybe get a 85-98 t-5 tail shaft/5th gear cluster so that I can run the factory speedo.
should have it all buttoned up and driving good again before the snow melts.
I've changed my mind again!
I've decided the tbird will be getting the h.o. upgrade parts, plus the explorer upper and lower. haven't decided for sure on gt-40 heads or not yet.
new, and hopefully final to do list over the winter.
chuckw mounts.
dual exhaust/h.o. upgrade
hopefully sorce a 164 tooth engine block plate.
really tempted to do sn-95 springs with air shocks out back.
power steering rack and new tie rods while I'm at it.
3g upgrade and electric taurus fan.
get a real shift and shifter boot for the car. maybe get a 85-98 t-5 tail shaft/5th gear cluster so that I can run the factory speedo.
should have it all buttoned up and driving good again before the snow melts.
think I'm going to go with g-40 heads as well.
h.o. upgrade, as the stock pump has been replaced, its really not going to be much more work then a timing chain. do I want to use my other block though, or keep the 235k mile pig? decisions.
chuck w motor mounts.
gt-40 heads.
order either stang or mark7 tails, stock replacement parts.
new power steering rack/pump.
new waterpump/timing chain cover.
tempted for a 3g alt upgrade and electric fan for both cheapness and dependability.
gonna be a long and expensive winter.
oh, I like the f-150 clutch kit so much, I'm thinking about doing the 5.8 f-250 clutch instead. its rated either over or under 8500gvwr depending on which one I go with. I want to eventually tow with this car (a 3500lb car trailer would be nice) and I think a heavy duty clutch would fit right in. I don't just want to make it faster, I want to enable it to be over built and much more reliable for how I beat on it. hence the h.o. cam.
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d82/bosenKevin_02/Mobile%20Uploads/0401141702.jpg
Quick update.
sho shift nob, super coupe shift handle and boot. best part, the whole setup was free. i frequent the closest junkyard on tuesdays right before they close. the cashier person is so lazy they didn't ring me up for any of it.
all i need to do is polish the boot up a bit with some saddle soap, then figure out a good way to attach it to the shifter plate
Going to pick up some 11" brake stuff, complete setup off a 91 stang. aldo getting brake hardware and shorter stang axles( he wants it all gone, sold his fox).
best part, $20.
I'm gonna pull my stand out of the garage and put it in the work shop, start adding the h.o. stuff and explorer upper
Oops, i lied, i need the gt40 heads to mock up to see if I'm using them, or e7 heads first.
thinking about 3.8 v-6 rockers for cheap and stock looking 1.7's.
Still going with 3.8 rockers i think. my snag is finding actual gt-40's as i learned recently the "p" style do not have emissons provisions. this car will very likely need to pass emissions for another 3-5 years.
plan is 11" brakes
Explorer upper/lower
gt cam
19# injectors
h.o. sd computer
3.8 rockers
i have also decided i will need to keep the a/c and power steering. disasembly and parts swapping will be starting tomorrow afternoon. i am also going to pull the motor and trans and start swapping parts onto the new block.
Electric fan, 3g alt and chuck mounts have been decided on. i also plan to run some torque limiters in addition to chuck w mounts. not sure exactly when this will happen though. money has been a bit tight.
this weekend i will be pulling some 3 bar gt-40's and probably start some prep work on the nee.block. it will probably mainly.be cleaning up parts and what not.
i am also considering picking up another sn-95 t-5 either for a spare, or to throw in the cougar when the time comes.
If you have access to the Explorer lower intake, how much do those run at your yards up there?
As far as torque limiters, I am assuming you mean to hold the motor down tight. You don't need those. ChuckW mounts hold extremely well, and never even flinch with the Sport current engine. I have a couple of 3G's here at the house. If you can get a lower, I'd be glad to do a trade or make some kind of deal for one.
With Chuck's mounts, there's no worry of something breaking like with the stock mounts. Solid stuff. I've beat on my car with the HO and T5 for 5 years, and his mounts just flat work.
With that said, I'd rather have his mounts than any other aftermarket stuff. Need to get some for my Mustang, things are moving right along with it's donor 5.0.
I still don't know how you keep breaking mounts. My Thunderbird has more than double the power yours does and the stock mounts and replacement isolators from NAPA are fine after seven years :confused:.
I've been breaking the metal brackets and shearing the bolt off inside.the.block. the metal brackets have been flexing and cracking along the tab lines untill the whole mount comes undone. overall, I've been picking up extra motor mounts and I have to special order them, so I've been getting them.before I've ripped into.the car, just in case.
i was driving my car hundreds of miles every week for my job. sometimes i parked it in an adjacent parking lot, sometimes i pulled it over curbs and parked on the parking strip. (I do overhead construction by.trade).
also with the 3.35 1st gear and 275/60's out back, even though its a 1 wheel peel, the 10.8" wide tires dead hook if i dump the.clutch. it still should be somewhere.between 270 ftlbs and it can break the tires loose from a dead stop, but any forwards momentum and i can, and do give.it hell. its also not uncommon for me to have several.hundred pounds of tools in the trunk.
i know the chuck mounts will be fine, but i want to fix it once, and never have to touch it again.
Vinne, ill get.you a number this weekend. out.the door should be under $50 for the lower, and ill ship it.cheap. won't be till next weekend.though.
Thanks a lot. I'm easy to find. I'll have the funds ready for you.
I think I'm just gonna throw more stock motor mounts on it and use a torque limiter. i found some mounts at a junkyard, without the rubber they charged me $2.99 for each side. it will at least be enough i can swap motors and start mocking stuff up until my work picks up a bit and i get more spending money to throw at it.
I'm.gonna focus on quick and easy junkyardmods and see if i can find some cheap power steering racks. my lines seem to be fine from what i saw the other day, its g out of the end of the rack under full lock, even when the cars sitting.
agenda for the weekend, temp motor mounts, maybe 3.8 rockers (1.7 ratio), 3 g alt and electric fan. after pricing out wire, its cheaper to but some cheap jumper cables then good wire. ill see if i can rig up a fuse setup cheapish and look into picking up a fan controller.
cool seeing the history on this one. subbed.
Cheap racks! Go to autozone. The stock rack is like 55 bucks plus 20 core. TC 2.5 lock to lock is 75 bucks 20 core.
[url]http://www.autozone.com/autozone/parts/1987-Ford-Thunderbird/Rack-Pinion/_/N-iilgdZ8oxk3?filterByKeyWord=rack+and+pinion&fromString=search (http://"http://www.autozone.com/autozone/parts/1987-Ford-Thunderbird/Rack-Pinion/_/N-iilgdZ8oxk3?filterByKeyWord=rack+and+pinion&fromString=search")
[/URL]
Also it has a limited lifetime warranty.
I can get one at the junkyard for less then half with a $3 core. to be honest, i am still seriously considering going to a manual rack and don't want to dump a lot of money into it unless its permenent.
still thinking out loud and changing my mind way too much.
Spend the money and get the one with a warranty. Mine came from autozone, the sport rack, and it's been fine for over three years or so.
I've decided to be a bit more smart about the whole thing and putting everything off for a few weeks. I've decided to pay some bills off early so my next check will be wholey open for what i end up doing. i don't want to limit what i do in an adverse way because i decided to be cheap/use the wrong parts.
i am still kinda stuck on the power/manual steering bit. i want this car to be a street cruiser and keep it easy to drive and dead reliable. i think I'm going to rebuild the whole front end since i plan on using the 11" spindles. that means balljoints, inner/outer tie rods, rotors/calipers possibly brake lines as well. if i do a new power rack ill replace the pump too, which will put me at the exact same price either way, except for one part.
the manual rack to rag joint is a different spline. i think I've found a place that has the right spline output without using a super expensive flamming river steering shaft. its either that or get way lucky at a junkyard and find a 74-78 pinto with manual steering, or a 79-83 manual steering mustang. then i can use only the lower portion and tie it all together using my old shaft.
decisions. manual parts just don't break. if i kill a/c, power steering and go to an electric fan, i will have opened up the entire drivers side for another project I've been thinking about later on.
Well, motors about out.
motor mounts are both busted. i have decided these will be replaced with solid mounts. I'm just sick of screwing with them. block is coming out entirely so that i can fix a motor mount bolt broken off in the block. I've spent over $100 on rubber mounts that just break, and I'm done with it. i like the idea of chuck mounts, but I'm a cheap skate.
i also feel like its the flex in the stock mounts that are causing all of the problems. smashed oil pan, ac lines, broken battery mount. turns out exhaust a stud had just rusted off causing a leak.
I'm rambling now.
next couple weeks I'm buying new gaskets and gt-40p heads. I've decided to eliminate the ports in the heads. they only reduce emissions before the engine is warm by using exhaust through the smog pump. this is bypassed after its up to tempeture from what i can tell, and is the cause of all those littleplastic vac lines that like to break. a simple rubber hose will eliminate everything and hopefully not effect emissions any.
in the next few weeks ill be buying new valve springs and retainers to go along with the p heads and h.o. camshaft. the new motor will wait until another build unless i blow this one up, or the bores look really chewed up.
I'm really curious to see the lifter valleys after 50k miles without an oil change.
http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Universal-Bolt-Through-Engine-Mount-Cushion-Kit,1199.html
found my new mounts. also figured out why my brackets kept shearing off the.bolts.
the bolts are too long by about 1/4" compared to the ones i have on the other engine. they bottom out just a hair before tight and allow the motor to rock back and forth, cutting up the bolt and eventually shearing.
new mounts appear to be the same size and shape, but bolt the two rubber peices together. I'm going to order them, and if they fit, i don't see that center bolt breaking anytime soon.
Stuff is moving forwards.
Engine puller is hooked up. i need to remove the hood and drain transmission fluid and its ready to come out. i have a few goals for tomorrow.
hit the junkyard and pull some "p" heads. higher compression ratio and rotted out smog ports on the bacj of the heads justified this in my mind. i will still have the smog pump hooked up to the heads, but it will go.directly from the pump to the exhaust with the vac line hooked up for the wot cutout.
also gonna pick up another egr lower manifold if i can find one off an explorer. then i will be able to retain all emissions except for the smog port off the back of the heads.
once i mock up the exhaust headers with the p heads to get an idea of spark plug clearance, then i can start cleaning up and swapping parts.
gonna pick up the parts and then start ordering gaskets. gonna go with standard gt-40 everything unless i can find a cheap head gasket with less than a .047 compressed thickness without a ton of added cost.
hopefully i can have the basics and order springs and retainers with gaskets and keep everything in the sub $300 range, but i will budget $450 just incase.
also, I've setup to go look at a turbo coupe rear end at the first of the month. its a t-5 disk rear which should give me a 3.55 ratio. this would take my first and final ratio from 9.1 to 11.8 which should really, really help it scoot off the line in first. a 3:55 rear, traction lock, and 3:35 1st gear with that f-150 clutch and 275/60's are gonna be a lot of fun i think ;).
Pictures will follow by tomorrow afternoon.
Sounds like you have a pretty good plan. And it's nice to see you finally getting the old Bird moving forward.
Got my motor mounts from speed way. looks like they will work, but i might need minor tpuppies. i haven't actually pulled the motor yet. I've had my kids for the summer and didn't feel like taking them to daycare so i could go junkyarding.
the plan right now is just get the gt-40p heads and lower intake then clean everythibg up and take it apart. gonna wait until thursday morning as the kids go home wednesday night.
Took me a couple weeks, but here it goes. old vs modified, plus what the new mounts looked like out of the box.
(http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d82/bosenKevin_02/Mobile%20Uploads/0727142305.jpg)
I'm gonna loose 1/2-1" of height with this setup. knock the center pin out the bottom mount, use a very large drill bit, and it should be a bolt in affair. i only finished one side as i had to hand file the hole with a really, really py old file. my biggest drill bit was about 1/4" too small. hoping this new setup will clear and handle all 270ftlbs of torque my motor should be capeable of producing.
if the test fit goes okay, then i will clean up the mounts and pick up some washers to try and weld on top and.bottom of the mounts. this will probably require longer motor mount to block bolts, but should give me another 1/4" of height and fix my cracked/broken upper mounts.
then onto pulling the motor to get the bolt out that broke inside the block... i swear if this doesn't fix it, ill just go to a motor plate and forget motor mounts even exist...
[Img]u
Use the Chuck W mounts. Easy, and done. Cheaper than a block plate, WAY less work, and they will hold up easy to your engine, and future possible upgrades. Sometimes we invest more into a lot of small fixes than we would if we just bought what we actually needed from the beginning..
I agree, but chuck mounts cost more then half what i paid for the car, and these were only $20. If i i replaced them with stock mounts to get me by until i could afford them, they would cost me $37 each and are special order. at the very least, these mounts will not seperate and ruin everything under the hood if they do go.
i finished pulling the motor today, got a good look at some things, and so far it looks like i may just do the h.o. upgrade while i have everything apart. i also found quite a few ruined smog pump and emissions equipment. the plastic valve/couplers to the smog pump stuff were all melted. the metal tube that i knew was rotted wasn't even getting aair from the pump to get back down to the cats. still did fine on emissions.
i want to get back to driving this car soon. I'm trying to decide between just swapping the cam, computer and fuel injectors while i have it all out and have all the gaskets, or if i should wait a few months for all the peices for my.gt40/explorer swap to line up correctly and drop it all in at once a few months down the road on the new motor
I've been dragging my feet on this, but i have the motor out and managed to get all but one bolt out of the block without any serious work. two spun out by hand. the last one i am gonna try to slot with a dremel bit and see if i can spin it out with a screwdriver or chisel, hopefully have it ready this weekend.
i pulled the motor/trans/exhaust all in one go, and that is definately the way to go. i figure I've got 2.5 hours in the removal.
i should be started back up at work in the next few weeks, then i can finish my gt-40 swap stuff. I'm still on the fence for which motor to use, so ill probably pull the heads and see how worn out everything is. it leaked oil pretty good, but i found a blown rear seal, oil pan and timing chain cover.
i do have everything i need for a h.o. swap, so i may just do the h.o. swap with a gt-40 upper/lower and then build up my other motor over the summer. actually machine the heads and maybe convert to roller rockers and ensure i have clearance. my other block is a 85 gt with 87-92 pistons with valve releifs. so ill probably mock up the junkyard gt-40's or p heads and see if i can get away with milling them or not.
time will tell...