got the car home. it needs work.
front shocks apparently make the car bounce more. its absolutely ridiculous.
master cylinder is shot, breaks barely do anything.
dash gauges do not work.
car needs a new windshield.
car needs a cat back.
door handles are all screwed up.
paint. the arrest me red I guess does not stick to the car.
good points.
runs very well.
no vibrations, shimies or weird noises
alignment is perfect, and front end is very tight no noticeable slop in steering.
car is very, very solid to drive quiet, shifts fine, its a good driver.
quick notes.
engine feels powerful. can easily chirp tires from a dead stop. but holy the auto feels like a rubberband compared to a t-5. id guess 0-60 would be 3 seconds slower just because of the auto. I plan on getting both cars driveable and lining them up.
Any pics?
I found them
oops, thought I included them...
(http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d82/bosenKevin_02/2013-10-01210323.jpg)
(http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d82/bosenKevin_02/2013-10-01210304.jpg)
Looks good what's the plan?
no idea. I'm going to fix the small things to make it driveable for now. then ill have an extra car so I can fix the little things that bug me about my thunderbird.
I think I'm going to continue to daily drive the bird, and.make this car more of a fun car. think I'm going to collect parts and do a h.o. upgrade and see how I like it. that's likely far down the road though. i do have a explorer intake, h.o. throttle.body, cam ect laying around. but it will depend on what it takes to get it on the road first
What do you mean by "the auto feels like a rubberband"? I'm not a fan of autos either, my last vehicle was a manual, I miss it like crazy :(
rubber band as in the auto is just so slow a disconnected feeling compared to a stick. when it shifts, its really soft. you can't even get a chirp on downshifts.
I've got some better ideas on what I'm doing now.
if I can get enough money for a t-5, I'm going to set it aside for this car. it will be a 5 speed. probably going to go with another 94-04 v-6 transmission because they are so cheap. I have a line on three v-6 stangs with blown engines for less then $800. this is most definitely the way to go.
my registration for my tbird is up in January, so ill have this car ready to go by then. gonna do the master cylinderand exhaust, then take it in on emissions and safety testing by the end of the month. if it will pass emissions, ill register it and park the tbird. after I swap the power steering rack and alignment on the tbird, ill fix the small exhaust leak it has and re-register it, then start throwing real money into ruby.
short list.
11" brake upgrade, staying 4 lug.
sn-95 springs, new struts.
explorer upper, stang throttle body/egr spacer.
stock h.o. cam and 19lb fuel injectors.
gt-40 heads with new springs.
1.7 ratio stock style rockers from 3.8 v-6 motor.
99+ sn-95 t-5 with 87-98 tail shaft housing to run a stock vss.
some bucket seats that don't have the fox lean.
dual exhaust. will probably run stock h.o. junk with some big lers rather then extend the mid pipe section.
15" rims, preferably 10 holes to match the other car.
worked on the car a bit. master cylinder was shot. wouldn't push fluid to the rear brakes. replaced, bad rear brakes. shoes were almost to the metal and one brake cylinder was shot. replaced the cylinder, but gave up on the drum brake replacement. I bow to those of you that do shoes in less then an hour.
gonna get a temp tag and register the car. plan is to do windshield and struts this weekend then get the catback done after and hopefully it runs good and passes safety and emissions.
so, finally got back to the rear brakes. I gave up on the passenger side and had had the drivers side done in 10 minutes. turns out one of the.brackets was messed up on the passenger side. one new rear brake adjusted kit later, and all is good.bled the brakes and pedal feels pretty good. I noticed rear tires were too low on tread, so I swapped my 275-60/r15's on. they look really good on this car. I've also decided the rear shocks must be brand new. I can hardly compress the rear suspension. even trying to get the tires to rub on a drive way seems impossible. which is very interesting because the tires definitely have less room on the older body style.
I'm gonna get a temp tag this week and hopefully start driving it this weekend. needs a windshield, catbackand front shocks. also needs the passenger inner door handle. the outside handles are also about shot. I will probably fix this as a precaution just incase. I think ill have the car legal and registered mid November.
new plans :).
the cougar is emissions exempt, and I like a dummy didn't realize it. since mercury is a defunct.brand, its only 25 years, rather then 30 for a ford.
I may just cut the tail pipe off of the tbird and throw it on this car temporarly. this carving going to take a different.direction. just gonna winter drive it for this year, then I am going to start modifying it heavily. haven't decided on which k-member yet, might stick with stock and chuckw mounts.
basic plan, aluminium heads, large carb style intake, but keeping fuel injection, throw and elbow on it and 90mm throttle body. gonna try to keep a stock bottom end and run large exhaust. thinking 1 and 5/8" or bigger long tubes, 3" off road h-pipe, and 3" "catback". haven't decided on fuel injectors, fuel pump, camshaft, or exactly which heads yet. definitely gonna be a sn-95 t-5 with 11" clutch. dunno if ill go with f-150 junk again or order a custom.flywheel/clutch yet. I think I'm gonna keep it a 7.5" rear, but I will swap it to a locking rear. its much easier to source a stang 8.8, so I might just do that.
things are gonna be pretty interesting here in the near future I think :).
car has a temp tag.
struts need done for sure. washer fluid doesn't spray. outside door handles need done as well as passenger inside door handle. windshield, cat back and figure out the insterment cluster gauges not working.
should have it through safety and emissions by mid November, but I am driving this car for now.
my sprayer motor worked, but the tank wouldn't hold fluid, turns out the hose that goes on to the tank came loose.
my sprayer motor worked, but the tank wouldn't hold fluid, turns out the hose that goes onto the tank wasn't hooked up.
yeah. this ones doesn't make any noise at all and the cap is missing. tank is full of dirt.
the plan was big tires and 3.73 gears with a stick. now I'm not so sure. I assumed there was a .50 od ratio for the t-5. closest I can get is .59 with a 2.95 gearset. that basically requires a aftermarket t-5z trans. for the cost, it really wouldn't be much more to go with a t-56 .50 od ratio, although I don't like the 2nd and 3rd gear ratios anywhere near as much. but with a .50 od ratio, 4.11-4.33 final drive ratios without giving in on freeway rpms and therefore gas mileage is very tempting.
after doing some maths, 3.73:1 final drive with a .5 od would be almost exactly the same freeway rpms as the stock 2.73:1 and .68 od ratio. this would also give the .74 of the double overdrive a good between gear when crusing at 45-50 mph without being too high or low.
looking like about 4k for the complete swap, minus whatever yoke/drive shaft modifications that will be needed. gonna have to see how tax season goes...
Well, my taxes didn't work out, but I am driving the car.
Got it through safety and emissions, failed me on a tail pipe and emissions were just a wee bit high at idle. did a quick tune up and ran codes. bad 02 sensor on passenger side. $40 and I should have it fly through emissions.
Exhaust bits are ordered. just going to throw stock junk on it for now. temp tag expires tomorrow, and its the same day my exhaust should come in. if all goes well, I should have it registered Thursday.
Tail pipe didn't come in until today. I fought the o2 sensor for a couple hours. it was cross threaded, which took another hour or so to get back in. ran codes, pulled a number 11 and 77 (wot during test error). I've never had a car that didn't pull any codes before.
I did 0-60 using gps before and after. went from 17.9-12.9. Wasn't the best run, but the car has a lot more low end. it spins the tire okay from a stop now. ill bring it in on emissions tomorrow and hopefully get plates.
Failed emissions. I got it fixed though. timing was 20* advanced. I can't believe it wasn't pinging. dropped from 223 hc (220 is passing), to 75 on the idle test. numbers almost seem too good to be true.
When I retimed it, I had a very hard time making out the markings. I figure its somewhere between 0-10* right now. car was gutless on the way home. when I get a chance ill fix the timing. just didn't want to lay down in a muddy dirt parking lot so I could clean it up nice.
You think the timing chain is stretched? I'm still surprised how much difference a bump in timing can make. Are you running 93 octane?
Nope. 87 octane. due to my 4500ft elevation. 91 is highest available here. I'm not sure honestly. car had 191k on it when I drove it home. bulbs are burned out in the dash. haven't gotten around to fixing it.
On my tbird I have always left the dist loose and played with it until I got it where I like it. id I remember its usually around 16* or so. we also have 10% ethonal in our gas, which should raise octane at the expense of power. bumping up the timing gives some of it back.
I didn't check mine for slop since the engine was supposed to only have 80k on it. I still wonder if it is stretched because I ran 18 degrees advanced at the track with no ping. 191k. Rode hard and put up wet lol.
My old bird with 180k on it, I could actually touch the timing.chain together it has so much slop.
Been driving the cat a bit, fixing little things here and there.
i fixed the gas guage, it was a small wire that was melted so it wasn't making contact on the ignition switch. crimped for now. ill solder it when i have time and some good weather.
i also replaced the dash bulbs to the speedo. made a huge differance always knowing how fast your going.
my wiper motor died, swapped in a new one. i also found a console lid. its grey instead of red, but it doesn't look too out of place.
i have a problem after visiting the junkyard. 83 tbird with nice sport style seats, and a 83_84 cougar. it has decent same color red doors, manual everything. I'm gonna have to pick these up. there was also a 2001 v-6 manual mustang in there. I'm going to have to try to get the trans for a spare, or if the aod starts to go in the cougar.
i gotta come up with about $200 in the next week or two to make sure i can get at least the doors. the v-6 stang.t-5's are all over out here, but this car looked like it was well taken care of. good interior, good body minus being rear ended. my guess is its probably south of 100k.
Car has been running cold above 45mph. i decided the thermostat must be stuck, takes longer then normal to warm up. went to the parts store, they gave me a 180° instead of 192°. I told them i wanted a 192° and the guy was sure i wanted one that would make it run too hot. oh well. gonna try to swap it in tomorrow.
my 85 Cougar seemed like it took quite a while to warm up, my current Ranger, and the last one I had, both 2.3's, heat up real quick! Do TC's heat up quickly too?
No idea. never even sat in one.
Got it swapped in. took about an hour. had to redo the gasket, it slid. i was trying to be cleaver by leaving the bypass hose hooked up. Makes it hard to seat right. getting it up to operating temps, lock down dist and do a freeway run to see if i can get higher temps freeway.
I'm guessing the guage is off. feels and drives the same, temp guage still sits between n and o on normal regular city driving. leaving it in d going up a steep hill it stays in o. Freeway speeds it gets to n and stays there. old thermostat looked new and opened fully about 195. I think i just wasted time, oh well.
What's with the waterfall grill? I know in '85 & '86 they got the Mercedes-style grills.
My guess is it was wrecked. couldn't be bad because everything looks pretty straight under the hood. the rear bumper only has two bolts on it and the drivers door is mounted a bit too high. there is also bondo above the windsheild that is.cracking away.
my guess is it rear ended a truck, or got pushed into it, which would explain damage front and rear. the bondo on the roof really kinda scares me though. when i get the bird back on the road, I'm gonna start sanding and removing paint to see how bad the rust issues really are.
car drives amazingly well and straight with no weird problems, other then struts are completely shot.
Car was a hertz rental in 1986 in portland Oregon.
doors are both swapped to manual everything. no wires enter the doors.