I am going to be starting the 5.0 HO transplant into my 85 t-bird 5.0 in about two months. right now I am looking at motor prices and whats available. My cousin is going to be giving me an 88 couger 5.0. It has 200,000 miles on it and doesn't want to sell it to anyone. My question is will the cougar supply me with everything I need. I plan on buying the Painless wire harness. And I will pickup a computer from wherever. I just don't know if I will be able to find a whole mustang to use. I have reviewed the tech section on this on CoolCats and it looks like The cougar would be ok as long as I got the wire harnass and computer, but I wasn't sure. As I look at motors what would it have to come with so Im not out buying a bunch of stuff at the salvage yards. I am basically trying to use the cougar, painless wiriing harnass, mustang 5.0 HO computer, and a mustang 5.0 motor. Also is the AOD tranny on the 88 cougar better than my 85 tbird AOD tranny? The 88 tranny was rebuild about 30,000 miles ago. If it's not I will just look for the transmission off of a stang as well. Thanks for your help, Jason. :america:
Jasonfischer from the old Fox board? And Cat Jam? If so, welcome back.
Only thing I'm sure on is the tranny. I know the 88+ valve bodies are better, so you'd be at an advantage using the Cougar tranny.
Yes it is me. I haven't been on in a while, shame on me. I did a demolition derby, then there was a couple of months I was working a lot and then hunting season. I am now switching gears and getting back to my tbird. It's been sitting for a few months so its a good time to do the swap. All I have to do is talk the wife out of her garage space.
if the cars a 5.0 you dont need a harness (i dont think). the one you have will work fine (im pretty sure. its true for the 87-88s). use a mustang computer (87-88 sd). im doing this in the next 2 weeks or so. im even keeping it speed density to keep things even simpler.
It's also true of the '86, but unfortunatly not on a '85. You're gonna need the later harness....
So I can use the harness from the 88 cougar? It will plug into the mustang computer? Even if I could I was still thinking of doing the painless wiring just because I figured it would be a lot easier and user friendly. I saw it used on a show and it looked awesome being that everything was labeled and such. What do you guys think? Another question; does the cobra version use the same wiring, computer etc., is it worth paying extra for it?
yes it will plug into the stang computer (providing the computer is speed density) and you are planning on running speed density.
I think their might be one slight pin adjustment to be made. Maby someone else will jump in here.
The 88 engine harness will plug into the Mustang computer, but will not plug into the 85 dash harness by the master cylinder. The plugs are different, maybe you could rewire the plugs :dunno: . Unless you want to put the 88 dash in. :ies:
Shoot. Basically what I am hearing is that I picked the hardest model and year to do this swap. Oh well, I like a good challenge. So reqaurdless of what harness i use (painless, cougar or mustang) it's not going to connect to what I've got. What functions are in the harness that needs to go to the plug at the master cylinder? I am very foggy about how the whole thing is going to work. How does the ignition get tied into the new system? (Which harness?) Coolcats says to remove all wiring and hoses so Im guessing that the new engine will contain mostly wiring and less hoses being that my current motor is CFI. Keep the info coming guys, the better picture I have of what to expect the smoother this whole thing will go for me. I am sure I will understand more as I get into it but I would like to know as much as possible before I start on it. Thanks a lot guys.
You really need EVTM's for both your and the donor car. You'll find that the circuits for both cars are similar, just the plugs are different. You can either repin the '85 into the '88 conectors(providing of course they are of the same gender)then just plug em in. Or you can make a adaptor harness from the '85 engine and the and the '88 body harness connectors(which is what I did when I did my swap).
Making the adapter harness sounds like a good solution for that problem. Thanks TurboCoupe50.
Yea, just cut the plugs off the old engine and body harness', leaving about 6"-8" of wire on each. You probably can match most of the wires up color for color, but likely some circuits will use different colors(EVTM time). To be sure there is no problem down the road, I soldered and shrink wrapped my connections.
The '88 harness will have three plugs, and the one that has only three wires is the one that actally puts the show on the road. The red/green wire in that plug is what powers the coil, EEC, and fuel pump relays. I found with every bit of the engine harness disconnected(except for ground connections and the fuel pump harness of course), as long as the red/green wire is connected, the engine will run.
So if you have an 88 5.0 car, to use the HO motor all you need is a SD computer, and that just plugs right in without having to change any wires??
Yup, the Stang SD computer plugs in to a 5.0 '86-'88 Bird/Coug harness with no modifications necessary. Also a '86-'92 Lincoln LSC HO computer can be used(are all SD), but begnning '88 they have a speed limiter set at 106 mph.
What are EVTM's. Is that the electrical diagram?
Electrical and Vacuum Troubleshooting Manual. Very useful and they pop up all over ebay. Make sure to get the correct one for the specific year of each car. You'll find yourself referring to it a bunch, even for everyday problems.
I aquired my first EVTM off of ebay. It's the one for the 87 cougar that I will be robbing a good portion of parts from. I got my garage completely cleaned out so I should be getting the bird in there this week to start unhooking everything.
I was curious about my exhuast. I have been reading Erics tech section on this over and over. I don't want to try to fit up a new exhaust system myself so I would take it somewhere. Would I be able to reuse the cats from my bird and just tell the ler guy to run duals. Or is there a better choice? The only reason I ask is because I had new ones put on about 3 years ago and I would hate to buy new ones. Thanks, Jason.
For exaust forget the stock converters... Get Mustang headers and H pipe, then have a ler shop connect them to the '88 dual lers.
You are going to need to move the fuel filter off the frame rail for clearance on the passenger side, just swap to the fuel lines from the '88.
I am in the process of taking out my engine. I have fluids draining as I speak. I have aquired EVTM's for an 87 cougar and my 85 t-bird. I have gotten a little crossed with the whole speed density and mass air thing. I understand the diff between them but not how it relates to the phylical wiring. As I look for engines I can obviously find better used ones from a 92 mustang than I could from say a 85 mustang because of the actual age of the car it came from. The newer the engine the better, and the fewest miles the better. I am trying to do this as cheap as possible but not at the cost of it being done right. Since I am putting this into the 85 bird no matter what I do I am going to be putting in a new wiring harness. The question is from what or where? I have an 87 Cougar at my disposal for free so I just figured I could use that harness. But now I am seeing that its for speed density only. I don't have to use this car for everything if it's easier to get a harness from something else. I will modify this motor at some point but prob. not for about 1-2 years. My questions are; Can I get a 89-93 stang motor and still use the cougar harness configuration with speed density? OR would I just do mass air and get an aftermarket harness or stang harness? Is there any difference in difficulty for me in my application in doing speed density or mass air being that everything is going in new for me anyway? I need to make sure that I am hunting for the right motor so that when I see one that is a good deal I can c00ch it up.
Hopefully I will have this motor out this weekend, so my final question is what do I leave in the engine bay? Should I take out everything engine related?
Thanks for your help, Jason.
If you go with a Stang harness you'll need another EVTM, as there are several differences from the Bird/Coug piece. You can use the Cougar harness, and convert it to mass air with one of the kits the Mustang suppliers sell(they are on ebay as well, Approx $40). BTW I have a '87 5.0 Bird harness in my TC that I converted to M/A.
There are 5 wires that need to be added to the harness for mass air, four for the MAF meter, and one added for the fuel pump monitor(optional, but the MAF EEC will throw a code 89 if it's not connected). Also there are two that move position, and thats it.
So I could potentially put in the 89-93 motor and and set the rest up as speed density from the 87 cougar wiring, coutgar air cleaner assembly, and sd computer from stang and convert to mass air when I want to do some mods. Thats prob. what I will do unless I buy an aftermarket harness.
I am unhooking everything in the engine compartment (radiator, ac stuff, ps pump, and fuel already disconnected) and I am currently looking at the primary wiring harness and I see 6 wires going to the plug in the drivers side firewall, and everthing else going through a grommet in the firewall on the passenger side. Where does this unplug at? I guess I will have track each one down and unplug it. Please don't tell me I have to take the dash out. I had to do that twice for the heater core before, no fun to be had there. I am trying to leave all of the wiring on the motor just to keep it simple if I use this engine elsewhere. Thanks, Jason.
They connect to the 60 pin plug on the EEC...
Sorry, for some reason I was thinking there were multiple connections. I was just having a dumb moment, I should have looked before I posted. I have all of the engine stuff disconnected (except at motor mounts), now I need to go after the exhaust and transmission items.
Thanks, for your help.
Ok, the damage is done. I got the engine/transmission out along with all of the wiring. Now I have to clean it up and paint it with some black heat paint, then start on the wiring. I have made some decesions. I am going with a 5 speed rather than auto, and with speed density with all the wiring coming from the 87 cougar I have been given. I will run the mustang H pipe setup for exhaust with no cats.
Should I look for a certain type of T-5????? I saw on Eric's site all of the different model #s and specs. Is there enough difference in the oem T-5s to bother worrying about it when I am looking to purchase a used transmission.(http://[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/Jasonfischer/000_0038.jpg)(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/Jasonfischer/000_0036.jpg)(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/Jasonfischer/000_0039.jpg)[/IMG] ???
Here are some pics of my progress. (the easy part) If the pics work.
wow, thats big, I forgot to resize them. Here are a couple more.(http://[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/Jasonfischer/000_0037.jpg)(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/Jasonfischer/000_0038.jpg)[/IMG]
I tried resizing those, I don't know why that didn't work.
Looks like everything is going well so far Jason. Of course, tearing stuff out is always easier than putting it back in. ;)
Good to see you on the boards again, btw.
well, youre also going to need the cruise and throttle cables from the 87, seeing as theyre different from your CFI bird
the plugs on the drivers side of the engine compartment, are those the ones in question?
Yes, If I am not mistaken, those are what I will need to splice my 87 cougar harness onto. And just down the line from those is the plugs for the headlight/turn/horn/marker lights. I haven't retrieved the 87 cougar harness yet. When I do I am sure I will have bunch more questions. I am going to try to put the wiring together in a couple of weeks after I have cleaned and painted the engine bay.
ill be doing a similar swap in my bird (3.8L CFI to 5.0 EFI), so im making notes of your thread and pics :)
It would make me very happy if my struggles can help you or anyone else for that matter. I am trying to have this thing together and running before my baby is born so my wife can have back the garage. I can see now it will be pretty tight to make that deadline but I will try my best. I mainly want to do it correctly so it will be fully functional when I am done. Choosing to do the 5 speed made it even harder but I just can't see having the power with a column shift. I also want to switch to the handbrake (I love to lock up those rear wheels) but I think I can do that after I am done with everything else, but if it will save me time I may try to do that as well while there is tons of room to work around.
Being that it is very nasty weather here today I am not going to pull the car outside to wash that engine bay. Instead I am working on getting the interior work done. I am pulling out the steering column, e-brake pedal, and pedal assembly to make way for the T-5 swap. Is it possible for someone to tell me the measurements on the hole to cut in the floor for the T-5 shifter? Or am I going to have to wait until I get the engine and trans.?? Thanks, Jason.
I think that you can just get a center console and just cut it out around that hole. I think that there is a write up on coolcats with pictures
Yes, the writeup on coolcats uses the properly installed center console as a guide. If I'm not mistaken, there's a printable stencil to cut with, too.
http://www.coolcats.net/media/shiftemp.pdf
Note that the drawing is for an AOD floor shifter. You can use this for a 5-speed shifter as well; you'll just have to bend the ears on the corners.
Thanks. I thought there was something on it, but when I didn't see it under the
5 speed swap I figured I must have saw it on a previous post, but I couldn't find it on the old site. I did find suitable seats and console from an XR7. I don't know how I am going to work in the hand-brake yet though. I may end up forgetting that for now if it becomes too much of a problem, I have enough to do as it is.
I have located a 4 cylinder mustang in my local salvage yard with a transmission in it. Is this transmission acceptable for my conversion. The ones listed on Eric's site don't show the 2.3 mustang older than 87, is that the cut-off year for the t-5 in mustangs? I know it has lower gearing, but for $50 bucks can I live with it? Or is it just worthless in a 5.0 car.
well, it does have lower gearing, itll almost be like you have 3.55's in the rear with a stock T5 tranny
here's the dilly, you can use the transmission only, and the clutch pedal assembly, youll still need a 5.0 flywheel, bellhousing, clutch fork etc.
as for the 4 banger tranny behind a 5.0, ive seen it done many times, ive seen it last, but everyone doesnt recommend it
The only 4 cyl Stangs older than '87 to have a 5 speed were the turbocharged SVOs. The torque rating for the 4 cyl trannys is around 240 ft lbs, the early(pre '89) "weak" 5.0 T5 was rated at 265 ft lbs.
They do have a deep first gear, 3.97 vs 3.35(or 2.95 for the strongest T5s). So as Shawn stated, 2.73s would be like about like 3.55s. Stick a late '80s Probe pilot bearing in the back of the crank and yes you could use it... I'd locate a spare or two though...
I am seeing in several places that using the 4banger t-5 is not too ideal. I think I will skip that idea. I dont want to be pulling it out or scared to get on it. You also give up some overdrive as well.
Does the brake booster and master cylinder from the 4 cyl. work in the t-bird? If I understood it correctly from Eric's site I need to put a stang unit in to get clearance for the clutch cables.
I didn't get to my engine bay yet due to py weather and I had one of those nasty colds. I tackeled my driveshaft instead. I painted it and put in new universal joints.(http://[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/Jasonfischer/100_0034.jpg)[/IMG]
Can I use up to a 95 stang motor? For some reason I was under the impression I couldn't use anything past 92. Eric's write up list up to 95. I didn't know if it caused extra work or what. Just wondering as I search out for my engine. I have bid on a couple of engines on ebay that were listed locally but they went for more than what I wanted to pay. I am being patient, but another couple weekends and I won't have anything to do without the engine and transmission.
Well you can use up to a 95 engine but the accessory mounts are a little different on the 94-95 also they have that weird intake that curves toward the airbox which won't work for you.
I would stay away from the 86 engine as it has really py flat top pistons and very restrictive e6se heads.
Also stay away from the 93-95 engines as they have hyperutechnic pistons which are not as strong as the 87-92 stang engines forged ones.
You don't have to limit yourself to 89&up engines you can include the 87-88 as well.
They were sd but that doesn't matter as they are exactly the same as the 89-92 mass air engines,only difference being the maf sensor.
The stock maf sensor actually lowered the hp of the 89-92 engines to 215. because it was a restictive 55mm,the tb is 60mm.
Thanks, I thought I had seen some reason to stick with the older engines.
I was planning on running speed density regardless of which motor I get. Does that mean I will need to swap out the throttle body as well as the air box and inlet tube? I was thinking I would only need to swap out the air box to eliminate the MAF sensor. Didn't know about the throttle body being diff.
I suppose I could just leave it up to fate and say if I get a MAF motor then set it up that way and if I get an SD motor set it up that way. I know that I won't mod this motor for about two years so I was thinking use the SD since it has a little bit more power then convert to mass air once I am ready to modify the engine.
The tb's are all the same on th the 87-93 engines.
The difference lies in the intake tubes that come from the air box.
Instead of on long tube from the air box to the tb,they use 2 smaller tubes and put the maf between them.
The only reason there is an hp loss is because when you put in a stock maf it is smaller than the tb ,ie:bottleneck.
cool. Thanks.
If I was to pick up a 5.0 HO that originally had an automatic I need to get a flywheel, correct? Is the $60 dollar flywheel from like advance or autozone OK? Or do I need to spend more on it?
Transmission Crossmember - If you examine your crossmember, you will see that it is either shaped like [----] or like [____]. You can grind the welds on the ends, off, and then slide the horizontal piece up and down, in relation to the ends, or you can buy the manual transmission piece. Whatever floats your boat.
Got that from Eric's site.
Does this mean that any crossmember from a mustang will work or does it have to be from a t-5 mustang?
I have painted my engine bay and many parts to help the look of the final product. I have relocated the battery to the trunk. I am now working on getting my interior put back together and the engine wiring. I do have a question I would like help with.
On the pedal assembly, there are two sensors/switches. One working directly off of the clutch pedal and the other works off of the quadrant. What are these and can I ignore them? I wasn't planning on hooking up the neutral safety switch, but it looks like a lot for just a neutral safety switch. Thanks, Jason.
did you reuse the stock quadrant? they suck you know. id get an aluminum one and use an adjustable cable. as specially if you havnt allready installed the assembly. its MUCH easier to dis assemble the factory plastic adjuster and pawl (quadrant) and install an aftermarket one outside of the car than it is inside the car. you ended up using a 4cyl assembly right? the one slider to the driver side most side of the assembly is for the clutch in switch. the only other one i can think of is on the brake pedal for the brake lights. mine came from a 5.0 mustang but im pretty sure the 4cyl is the same other than having a shorter arm.
you shouldnt need another booster for the cable to go through. you will if you decide to use a firewall adjuster though.
Yes I am using the aftermarket aluminum quadrant and firewall adjuster. The pedals came from a 5.0 stang. That brings me to a new prob., I have no idea how to install the cable or the firewall adjuster or how the adjuster works. I have never seen one. Hopefully I will see a complete one in the salvage yard so I can get an idea of how it works. I spent all day on the engine wiring and what a mess. I am having trouble identifiying what is what. I figured out two wires of the 9 that I have to splice. I think.
well, the cable and adjuster are str8 forward installs. below and toward the center of the car their is a rubber grommet. pop it out and that is where the cable goes through. if the pedals are allready installed you should be able too see the quadrant on the other side of the firewall.
im not sure about your particular firewall adjuster but the one i got cant be installed with the stock tbird brake booster (mine is an 88) yours may be different. its too big and doesnt leave enough room for a firewall adjuster. i need to get a mustang booster in order to use my firewall adjuster. i ended up geting an adjustable cable for now. it does the same thing as the firewall adjuster but the adjustment is on the bellhousing end so i have to get under the car to adjust the cable...no biggie.
the cable should have a bracket on it. if you look below the battery (should be on the drivers side for the 5.0 swap) and towards the direction of the rear of the car about 10 inches their is a hole. the bracket catches that hole and screws in. the cable is routedpast the headers and down and by the filter and back to the bellhousing. you will figure it out when its right there in front of you. id post pics but my camera died by the hands of my 17 month old.
Thanks for the info. What do you do about the spacing on the quadrant? It has room to slide in and out after I place it on the shaft. Am I supposed to leave the original spring on it to maintain the mounting point? Am I supposed to use the spring? The instructions on the kit I bought don't go into any detail at all.
The good news is that I think I got all of the wires figured out and the matching counter parts on the 87 wiring harness.
well, i reused the factory clip. there was some side to side play on the shaft. the tension on the cable should keep it right where it needs to be.
How long can an engine sit around and still be good? I can get an HO motor out of an 89 mustang GT with 64,000 miles on it for $650.00, but it's been out of the car for like 4 yrs and sitting in a garage.
Sa long as it isn't stuck and turns over freely it should be fine.. BUT occasionally the valve(s) that are open can rust and not seal completly, causing them to burn once its put into use again.
I'd try to knock him down enough to pay for a valve job, gaskets and front/rear main seals...
What's a "valve job"? Ive heard that term before but not really sure what all that entails. Would you replace the front and rear main seals on any engine before you put it in car anyways? Is it easy to put those on or is it finicky to get them on right?
This engine does not come with the accessories, or headers. Does have the intake and throttle body. What do you think it's worth? The price on it was actually $550.00 plus $100.00 core. I am almost to the point where I think I should just buy a rebuilt engine. I could get one of those for $2000.00. I am scared of getting a used engine, putting it in, and then it not work well.
id offer 300-350. im a cheep though.
Im still thinking about the motor thing. I figure if it has sat for this long another week won't hurt. I think $650.00 is too much. I think $450.00 would have to be max. for it.
What do I have to do to leave off the neutral start switch? Im not just leaving it out to be lazy, I honestly like it better with out it. I figure I could just loop the wires together that came from the automatic transmission netral start switch. Is that true?
yup
thats what i did...but nobody drives my car either. at least not without me. just dont forget to splice in the reverse light switch at the same time.
The going rate at all the mustang shops around here is $450 for a gauranteed complete engine, for $650, you could get one with all the accessories.
Got the engine and transmission. The donor vehicle was supposed to have been running a couple of weeks ago before wrecked. What is the minimum I should do to the engine/transmission before dropping it in??
rear main seal for one. if the oil pan leaks nows a good time to do that gasket too. if the lower intake leaks in the back (common on the 5.0) attack that. dont bother with the silicone ones. just goop the out of it, as specially in the corners. inspect the hoses as well look for leaks. if you have time maybe media-blast and paint any brackets or parts you might want to. other than that your probably good to go. anything else should be easy enough to do with it in the car. id go with new plugs, wires, cap and rotor.
obviously if you are going to install a cam, heads or any valvetrain work it will be better to do this with the engine out.
as far as the tranny goes i assume you picked up a t5. if it was all pulled together you might want to pull it appart and inspect the flywheel teeth, surface and clutch. its all going to have to come off to put in a new rear main seal anyway. deffinetly inspect the t5s input shaft where the throughout bearing slides and the bearing itself. id go get a timken one from a parts store. if the shaft has any groves in it order a steel one from summit. if the clutch looks good than i guess its okay to reuse it as long as you are using the same flywheel it was mounted to. when sepperating the flywheel and pressure plate make sure you mark it so it goes back on the same way. inspect the flywheel for cracks or burns. if you find any count on getting a new clutch and flywheel. me, id just get a new clutch and resurface the flywheel (as long as its good) to begin with. that eliminates a few reasons for ripping it all out later on.
I am looking at my fuel and motor mounts now. It looks like I will need to put in the entire fuel line from the 87 cougar according to what Tom said in an earlier post. I looked at it and I don't see anyway to hook up my existing fuel lines to the new stang engine.
As far as the motor mounts go the stang mounts look very similar to what is on my old 85 t-bird engine. They look nothing like the 87 cougar mounts. I want to put new mounts on as all the ones I have are broken. Do I look for new mustang mounts or 85 t-bird mounts? I can't tell just by looking at the 92 stang engine mounts and 85 t-bird engine mounts if they are different. Thanks, Jason.
i used an engine and dash harness from an 86 50so tbird to plug into the 85 chasis harness. the main problem i had was that the radio harness did not match.no matter how many diagrams i looked at,i just couldnt get the system to work correctly.still have no radio to this day.i do get to hear the sound of that sweet ho though. if i remember correctly,i also lost my rear window defroster too. didnt work to begin with,so what the hey!
i also reused my 85 tbird mounts.as far as the fuel lines are concerned,that will be a difficult thing to deal with.if i remember correctly,i used the 2 different sized metal lines that ran into thecfi throttle body to plug into the fuel lines that run into the engine compartment by the frame rail.i cut them in half and flared the ends.then i toof 2 of the chrome lines that hook into thesefi system and cut and flared them.thats how i attached mine. it worked for me.
as a side note,just where abouts in southern ind. are you? evansville/newburg area maybe.if so,i live across the bridges in henderson.if close enough,maybe i could give you a looksee. although im running a c4 now,i have already done the t5 swap once.(still got the pedals hanging.)i have also done the 50ho/massair swap as well.
I see what you are saying for the fuel lines. If I could do a good job of making those connections that might be the easiest thing to do. I have never used a flare tool on brake/fuel lines. I have always just bought the lengths I needed and used unions. I guess I could get a piece of tubing and practice a bunch before I do the fuel lines. I am not real excited about putting in all new fuel lines that's for sure.
I live on the east side of evansville, close to the Green River rd. and Morgan ave. intersection. I play basketball on Sat. mornings 7:00am-9:00am at Holy Name Church in Henderson. It's about a 15 min. drive to the church. If you had time I wouldn't mind some pointers from someone who has done this before.
What power booster/mater cylinder combo do you guys recommend for my 85 bird? I am planning on buying a remanufactured power booster from advance auto. I was thinking an 86 mustang power booster and go to the bone yard and get a master cylinder from an 84-86 crown vic (as sugested by Eric's tech section) and rebuild it myself and put it on the stang power booster. Is there a better combination that does not force me to run new brake lines?
I have put in the firewall clutch adjuster, and have upgraded all of my brakes to mark VII calipers and larger disks. I figure this to be a good time to upgrade the booster and master cylinder to help feed the larger brake system. Thanks for you help, Jason.
As far as motor mounts go, the 85 bird mounts are the same as a mustang mount. I seriously recommend going to your local Autozone/Advance auto store and buying a set of motor mounts for an 87-93 mustang 5.0 convertable. You'll know why once you compare them to a regular mustang mount. :evilgrin: Cheap and VERY effective.
you will definitly need the smaller mustang booster for the fire wall adjuster.sounds like you have the break thing down.does any body in here know if he has to readjust the power booster pushrod length?if not,the haynes repair manual for 1983 thru 1988 thunderbird and cougar has a power brake pushrod gauge template on page 238.that should keep the front brakes from locking up.just curious,but what spindles did you use?would you be interested in an 88tc rear end?i was at the u-pull-it on st joe ave this morning and it looks like you have been there.more than one mkvii with the front discs and calipers gone.did you see the 50 conv,or shall i say,what was left of it?
I did the brake upgrades about a year and a half ago. I really don't need any rear end since I put in an 8.8 rear from a mark VII although its not posi. trac. That gave me bigger brakes and 5 lug. There was an LSC rear at the Glissons on St Joe still together last time I was there but the wheels had a lug nut lock on them. I thought about seeing if it was posi. trac. and getting it, but I've had too much other stuff going on lately. For spindles I used some off of a mustang GT, I think it was an 88. I basically followed Eric's tech section and help from guys on here to get it done. The rotors and calipers came from the mark VII front and rear.
Thanks for the motor mount tip Joefriday.
I am going to try to make some solid headway tonight and tomorrow on this thing. Thanks guys. Jason.
I didn't see much rubber on those convertable GT motor mounts. lol. That will go well with my polyurethane bushings I've been putting in.
Well I made some solid progress this weekend. I got the last of the engine wiring put together, got the shift cable mounted, installed my pedals, and steering system. I am going to do a few more things then roll the car outside and bring in the engine and get it ready to install. Hopefully I will be able to get started on the stang engine this weekend. Feels good to get assembly under way.
Couple of pics of my progress.(http://[IMG]http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y225/lilgirls79/100_0599.jpg)[/IMG] (http://[IMG]http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y225/lilgirls79/100_0598.jpg)[/IMG] ;)
Wow Jason that looks really good. That's going to be a fun car to drive when you're done. I love how clean the engine bay looks. Like a brand new car!
looking good. keep the updates coming...
hey jason,give me a call.(270)826-7375.the sooner the better.wish my engine compartment looked that good.you have obviously put a lot of time into your project.its kinda difficult to do those things when its a daily driver like mine.
Thanks guys. It certainly looks better than it did. I had trouble deciding where to stop the new paint, so I went as far as any rust went. I stopped just inside the transmission area and I only painted the motor mount portion of the K-member as it was rusty. I'm sure it will scratch off my new paint at some point but it makes me feel better. Im not going to spend a bunch of time on the engine but it will be clean and the overall look should be pretty good. I want to see how healthy the engine is before I go spending a ton of time painting it. Im sure I will have it out for a rebuild within a few years anyways.
30thtbird, I didn't catch your first name. I would hate to call your house and ask for 30thtbird. I will try to give you a shout tomorrow as I didn't get home from work tonight until about 8:30pm.
just ask for kenny.
Can someone please tell me which switch is the back-up lights switch? I think it's the one on the right but I want to be positive. Also, am I supposed to have a cable going to the speed sensor. I don't seem to have one. I know mine is an electronic spedometer and odometer but Im not sure how that whole thing works. Thanks guys, Jason.
here is the pic of the tranny.(http://[IMG]http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y225/lilgirls79/07f2d505.jpg)[/IMG]
yes,its the one on the right.the one in the cover is the nuetral safety switch.
is that a stick? cool beans
How bad is this?? Drained the oil on the 92 stang engine and there was little metal peelings stuck to the drain plug. What should I do about it? Where might it have come from? Thanks, Jason.(http://[IMG]http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y225/lilgirls79/100_0678.jpg)[/IMG]
um. yes, metal in the oil pan is BAD. but i would have no clue where that come from.
They look a bit large for the distributor gear, but I'd check it out. If it has a cast iron dist gear with the steel roller cam, the dist gear will wear out in a few thousand miles.
At this point definatly pull the oil pan and check the bearings. It ain't no fun trying to get the pan off once the engine is installed....Got first hand experience... I'm putting bearings in the Blue 5.0 bird, because of the wrong dist being installed in its engine by the rebuilder.... The oil in it looked like metalliac paint :mad:
I had the distribuor out already and it looked fine. I will try to get the oil pan off tonight and check it out. I can borrow an engine stand to put the motor on. This is going to be fun considering I have never took an engine apart before. All well, first time for everything. Thanks.
Also on the other side need to be sure it has the roller cam in it. If some one installed a regular cam, the dist gear is eating into it.
If the pan is clean and bearings are ok, guess you'll not know what it is.
I'll know if I take the whole engine apart right? I am guessing if something is bad enough to eat peelings of metal it should be pretty obvious if I look at everything. I am working on it right now. Didn't get to it yesterday. I am trying to mount the engine stand to it but I don't have bolts long enough. I am afraid to put foreign bolts in the transmission wholes. I don't want to mess up those threads. I am going to run to home depot and look for some with the same thread. Thanks.
ooohh!sorry to hear and see.looks to me like a spun bearing. hope its not catastrophic.if you havent already pulled it apart,once you pull the pan,look for darkened rod caps.the discoloration would be noticable.if you need a hand,all you got to do is ask.wouldnt mind at all.got half a mind to drive over there tonight.naw,wouldnt do that unless you asked
looks like I dodged a bullet on the metal peelings. It looks like they are the threads from the oil drain plug. The plug and pan threads were about 50% stripped and I could see a couple of those peelings still attached to the oil pan at the threads. A buddy of mine tipped me off to look for that and that's what it was. There wasn't so much as a flake or dusting of metal in the rest of the pan. I will check the filter also just to be safe. Bad news is that the 2nd spark plug from the front drivers side has small-medium amount of carbon build up. the 1st spark plug from the front on the drivers side was oil soaked. I didn't pull out the plug until after I turned it upside down though, could oil have leaked to the spark plug from turning it upside down??? But it had some build up on it as well under the oil. The inside of the header on the same side also has some carbon build-up in it. The rest of the plugs are clean as a whistle. So now I don't know what I should do. Im thinking re-build. I was kind of hoping to get by for a couple of years on this motor while I get the paint and interior fixed up then re-build it with upgrades for more power. If I do it now I can only afford a stock re-build.
Hey guys, I have been working like crazy but I have been released from the clutches of overtime hell. I have been knocking out little things every week in preperation for putting the engine back in the car this weekend. Prob. won't get it ready to run but once I get it in there and hooking everything up it should be downhill from there. My question is about the radiator overflow resevoir. I put my battery in the trunk so where the battery would go (drivers side) and am putting a dual resevoir half is for the coolant overflow and the other half is the washer fluid. I pulled this particular one from a ford ranger. l have noticed that some tanks have the hose from the radiator connecting at the bottom of the tank and some at the top of the tank. The one I picked up is at the bottom. Does this matter at all?
it shouldnt jason.ive got one from an 86 tbird that mounts in front of the radiator and it picks up from the bottom.
I need some help guys. I got my engine in and when I turn the key the fuel pump won't run. I double checked all of my ground wires that I know of. I can hear the ecm power relay click on as well as in the engine bay. All of my accessories are working just fine and the motor will turn over just fine too. Where should I start to look????
Thanks, Jason.
You could check by the computer on the passenger side. There is a circular 3 or 4 pin connector that goes back to the trunk. This connects the fule pump to the ECU harness. You can check it at that point:
Tan/Green - From ECU to relay coil. Grounding this energizes pump relay, and should turn on the pump.
Yellow - Hot coming from fuse link going to switch side of relay that supplies power to pump
Oops!! I saw that plug but I thought it was an extra for some accessory that I didn't have. I will put that plug together and see if that fixes it.
Thanks, Jason.
That was it, I spliced in a new connector and my fuel pump is running. The still didn't want to run. It hickupped and backfired a couple of times but it wouldn't fire up. I didn't spend much time trying to get it to run last night so I need to go through the motions of trouble shooting, but I wanted to get your guys opinion about something. The gas that is in the car has been there since January when I started this project. Do I need to drain the tank and put fresh gas in it? It has over a half tank of gas in it now, plus I added about 3 gallons and some treatment to it. What do you guys think? I am going to try to get this thing going tonight if I can. Thanks, Jason.
I don't think you would need new gas, especially if you put treatment in it. It should be fine.
Well, I put the treatment in last night, would that help it any?
Also, I used the ignition module from the 85 bird on the 92 mustang engine. I thought they had the same part # so I was thinking that would be ok, am I wrong about that?
I just put gas in a '87 turbo Coupe today that had not been on the road in over 2 years... Ran just fine on was was in tank..
A backfire is a timing problem... recheck your wires and dist placement, possibly 180* out of time.
Tom, you the man. I must have turned the dist. gear when I pulled it out to put on the ignition module. It was 180* off. It runs and idles good. Now I just need to put everything together and see how good the tranny is.
What cold air intake kit should I get to run to the stock fresh air intake hole in my 85 bird?. I know a couple of people around here that did it like that. I didn't want to cut the big hold for the 87 cougar air box. I am looking for a reletively cheap solution as it will likely be temporary. I will later try to configure a forced air setup. Thanks, Jason.
pics.. we need pics of the install!!
congrats on getting it running.
on ebay, they sell cold air intakes for like 60 shipped
of you can just grab a stock airbox and tube
Here are some current pictures. I was going to wait until I was completely finished but I figured I would put some up since there was a request. (http://[IMG]http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y225/lilgirls79/Picture1008.jpg)[/IMG] (http://[IMG]http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y225/lilgirls79/Picture1007.jpg)[/IMG] (http://[IMG]http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y225/lilgirls79/Picture1006.jpg)[/IMG]
As far as the cold air intake goes, those kits look like they are too long to go to the T-Bird hole. Do I have to cut the tubes to size? I don't want the filter to be in the engine compartment or in the fender where I have to take out the fender well cover to get to the filter. Do I have any other options?
The Mustang cold air kits go the opening that would be where your windshield washer box seems to be. Have you looked behind it? the hole might be there.
(by the way, where did ya get the cool remote battery posts?)
The remote battery posts came from summit. They are very large and I had to put on beefy terminals to fit them. Stock battery terminals would not fit around them. There is no other hole on my car. The hole you see in the pic is where my cold air came from originally so I was wanting to reuse this hole. I guess I will have to make something. I thought I saw a car with the cold air intake running to that location before, but maybe I was wrong about that.
Looking good, keep up the good work!! ;)
nice,
good luck with the CAI, there a ton of kits out there you will just have to find the one that suits you, or pick up some pipe and make your own!
If i'm not mistaken. Only 86 and up fox bodys had the hole in the passenger inner fender. All the 85 down foxes I have seen dont have it.
I got everthing together and drove the car to work on thursday and today. The engine and tranny are working very well. The power steering pump that I put on from the 87 cougar is not working right so I bought a rebuilt one today to replace it with. The car won't warm up so I am replacing the thermostat as well.
The only problems I am having that I am not sure about is my speedometer is not functioning and I can't adjust my clutch enough to get it farther away from the floor. It's in a safe range but I would like to bring it out some more so it's easier to operate. I think I will have to buy an adjustable cable so I can get some more length out of it. As it is now I had to screw out my firewall adjustment jus to get it off the floor.
I still need to move my fuel filter so I can put some exhaust in (still not sure what to put in there) and pick out some guages (have not idea what brand to get) so I can monitor my engine. I am thinking tack, oil, temp, and volts/amps.
Also when I rev the engine and lmmediately let off the throttle I can hear pretty loud popping and cracking. What is causing that? valves, timing, tune up stuff, or just not having backpressure without the exhuast on?