1988 TC single Holset turbo 5.0/ 4R70W

Topic: 1988 TC single Holset turbo 5.0/ 4R70W (Read 269876 times) previous topic - next topic

1988 TC single Holset turbo 5.0/ 4R70W

Reply #435 – May 19, 2011, 09:32:41 AM

Quote from: thewestie;360233

"I thought I might get some love for that speedo"
Im lovin it, and still amazed

He-he. It came with the car in the boxes of stuff that came with it.

The car and all the booty was only $700.00, but I'll have 10 times that in it when I get done.

1988 TC single Holset turbo 5.0/ 4R70W

Reply #436 – May 19, 2011, 03:56:13 PM

I know the feeling

1988 TC single Holset turbo 5.0/ 4R70W

Reply #437 – May 19, 2011, 09:23:59 PM

Well, it was another good news, bad news kind of day on the old 'bird.

AZ only had one grease seal for the front rotors (the other one 'in stock' was mislabeled), so I went ahead and just bled out the calipers that were on it after I finished the exhaust.

I ended up tpuppies both ends of the center pipe and taking some off the axle pipe as well to fit my stuff. I made up some brackets to bolt the Summit to the stock hanger and made 2 other hangers for the tailpipe and front of the ler. I still want to get a hanger on the pipe near the tranny, but that will wait until I am ready for the cat.

It quit raining (for a while) so I spent 4 hours on the tractor in second gear with fresh blades slogging through the tall grass. It has to quit raining soon or I'm going to go nuts already.

After that I tightened the driveshaft bolts, aired up the tires, put in the computers, and took her out. All I really wanted to know was if the tranny was going to shift, and it did! It was a herky-jerky maiden cruise, but she went down the road a few hundred yards and came back with out incident. I was getting some smoke and water out the tailpipe at first, but it seems to be OK after running a spell.

Now the bad news:

I have a trans fluid leak, looks to be a fitting on the tranny lines right at the transmission. Hopefully just an annoyance rather than a real issue. It's just a drip-drip kind of thing. Those lines took forever to make so I hope I don't have to re-do one.

I took a bucket and started to wash off some of the decade of crud on the roof and found it is just full of little dents, possibly very light hail damage. It's not the end of the world, but it's gonna take a lot longer to do body work with having to skim the roof.

The alternator wasn't charging by the time I got back to the garage. I didn't see when it quit exactly, but all I am reading is battery voltage on the gauge. It was a junkyard unit so I didn't expect much. It was a drag though, since it WAS charging at first.

So, all in all........ some progress I guess. Just hard to be too excited with the extra popping up.

1988 TC single Holset turbo 5.0/ 4R70W

Reply #438 – May 19, 2011, 09:50:28 PM

I just keep smiling at the good stuff and tell myself it could be worse. Ive got the whole car striped and the roof deck lid hood and header panel in primer. Now I'm taking off to N.C to bring back moms stuff, wish I knew how to fly :) could shorten the trip a little

1988 TC single Holset turbo 5.0/ 4R70W

Reply #439 – May 19, 2011, 10:00:08 PM

Quote from: thewestie;360307

I just keep smiling at the good stuff and tell myself it could be worse. Ive got the whole car striped and the roof deck lid hood and header panel in primer. Now I'm taking off to N.C to bring back moms stuff, wish I knew how to fly :) could shorten the trip a little

Sounds like you are making good progress! You'll be in paint before you know it.

Drive safe, now... and have a good trip.

1988 TC single Holset turbo 5.0/ 4R70W

Reply #440 – May 19, 2011, 10:11:55 PM

Thanks I'm sure your progress will amaze me when I get home

1988 TC single Holset turbo 5.0/ 4R70W

Reply #441 – May 19, 2011, 10:15:26 PM

That wasn't bad news!!!! It started, drove and shifted! I can't wait to get to that point again.

Look at the bright side, at least it is not leaking from the front seal of the trans. :)

Must have video!!!! And more pictures.

Thanks for your help on my build thread.

1988 TC single Holset turbo 5.0/ 4R70W

Reply #442 – May 19, 2011, 10:29:33 PM

Quote from: The Shredder;360314

That wasn't bad news!!!! It started, drove and shifted! I can't wait to get to that point again.

Look at the bright side, at least it is not leaking from the front seal of the trans. :)

Must have video!!!! And more pictures.

Thanks for your help on my build thread.

Everyone was gone, and it was getting dark and starting to sprinkle, so I just went for it without the camera. Sorry about that!

Yes, you are right. It's not too bad. I just hate to have to re-do my work. I was real careful on those darn fittings. I'll have to drop the front of the exhaust to get in there. Just a bit of a bummer is all.

The alternator is worrisome since it is RIGHT in the heat of the exhaust. I couldn't figure a way to get it any better than it is, though. Hopefully it was just a bad one from the get-go, and didn't die from heat. I have a spare, so I'll autopsy this one.

And you are most welcome.

New video of how it's running.

Reply #443 – May 20, 2011, 12:31:06 PM

I put the lappy on to see what the alternator was reading. Turns out it is FINE! The problem is that when I put the gauge face on it just touches the volt meter needle and holds it back from reading true. I can fix that.

Next I got into the timing and fuel tables a bit to make it more Ford friendly. Got a nice idle. I found I had to bump timing for when the trans is engaged from idle to keep it smooth. Took it down the road again, and the jerkiness was much improved. I'm about ready to call it time for paint.

Punch list for pre-paint:

1. Fix oil leak at tee
2. Fix trans leak
3. Re-torque header bolts
4. Tidy up engine bay
5. Reroute battery cables (too near ler)
6. Bolt in battery and solder on battery clamps

Here's a little clip of it running with the exhaust on it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQJ7WZDGXsw

1988 TC single Holset turbo 5.0/ 4R70W

Reply #444 – May 20, 2011, 06:36:15 PM

What's that really loud whistling sound that starts at about 1:01 in? Maybe something's wrong with your camera:cool:

Brother you're almost there, that is if you can remember how to put your interior back together;)

1988 TC single Holset turbo 5.0/ 4R70W

Reply #445 – May 20, 2011, 07:39:38 PM

Quote from: sarjxxx;360358

What's that really loud whistling sound that starts at about 1:01 in? Maybe something's wrong with your camera:cool:

Brother you're almost there, that is if you can remember how to put your interior back together;)

Kind of funny, when the BOV let off the first time I jumped a little bit!:rollin:

1988 TC single Holset turbo 5.0/ 4R70W

Reply #446 – May 20, 2011, 11:42:13 PM

Oh cool. Thanks for the video! That is sweet. The car seems to be running well. Is your tach reading 2X because it was originally from a 4 cylinder? I think there is a cool cats article about changing it over to a v8 tach.

1988 TC single Holset turbo 5.0/ 4R70W

Reply #447 – May 21, 2011, 06:20:27 AM

Thanks for the info, Shredder.

There is a provision in Megasquirt for running my tach output at 1/2 speed that I've been trying to get to work. I had it working, now it isn't. If I can't get it I'll probably do a resistor swap on the tach.

I forgot to add to my punch list the front struts and brakes. I kind of hate to do it since the alignment and brakes feel pretty good right now. Steering sensitivity feels good as well. I was concerned about that.

Did you guys like my toolbox seat? :pbb:

EDIT:

I just looked into Megatune and the output pin I'm using for tacho was turned on to RPM again. It has to be OFF for it to work right. I changed it, so I expect the tach will read right now. I must have burned in an old tune with that setting when I made my last changes. I'll wipe all my old tunes out of memory so that won't happen again.

Vacation... YAY!

Reply #448 – June 05, 2011, 09:46:24 AM

I haven't done much on the Tbird lately. We've had the first stretch of nice weather and I've been playing and working on the house a bit.

I did get a new GPS receiver puck for the car, and got it configured and running on the garage PC. Works really well, and was $40.00 off Ebay. 5 MHZ update speed and lightning fast satellite acquisition even in the house.

I retired my trusty old ATT Tilt 8925 smartphone and got a new Inspire 4g (4.3" screen!) to tether to the car. Been playing with it a lot the last day or so to get accustomed to Android and get it set up the way I want.

These phones are great for pilots, 'cause we can look at live radar anytime, and even download charts for emergency use in the pen 15pit. Not to mention the text weather capability, flight planning, logbook, and wifi hotspotting for remote location PC use. I'm lucky the company supplies me with such awesome tech.

More and more execs want to communicate by texting, so it is a benefit there as well.

Anyway, on to the plan for the next 2 weeks.

I still need to fix the voltmeter rubbing the cluster face, weld in an O2 bung, and rework one of the tranny lines. Once I fix those I'll be tearing the car apart the rest of the way and getting on the body work, getting a windshield installed, and aiming for paint maybe this coming weekend.

I can't wait to start putting it together and installing the PC stuff. It's gonna be so cool! I am going to order an Andrea Superbeam mic for the phone/ PC voice controls. Otherwise the hardware is pretty much here. I want to price the solid state hard drives to possibly use in the car to negate vibration issues. It'll work with or without one, though.

Pics should start coming early next week.

1988 TC single Holset turbo 5.0/ 4R70W

Reply #449 – June 14, 2011, 09:20:38 PM

Vacation winding down and I have hardly touched the Tbird. I did get the Superbeam mic., and hooked it up on the garage PC to play with it. It really does well for voice recognition it seems. I'll have to see how it does in the car environment.

I have had to do a major tune up on the old Ford 8N since it quit on me last week. New plug wires (cut to fit) and a total dizzy and carb rebuild has her purring again. Gotta love old tech! She's been faithful to me for almost 20 years now.

Just got done with the first coat of stain on the deck. Had to pressure wash off some peeling stain first, so it was an all day job. I should wrap that project up tomorrow. It was a color change, so a lot of time involved.

The TR7 now has the modded front hubs and all new wheel bearings. I played with the after-start tune and it's starting and running better than ever. I also cleaned the O2 sensor and it came back to life for me. I missed the wideband while it was gone.

It also needed a new fuel pump. This is the 3rd one since I built the car. The first was an old used pump, but the last 2 were Carter pumps from NAPA that I only got a year each from. I said screw that! This time I went with Bosch. It is so quiet I can hardly hear it running. The last two were obnoxiously loud. It has a lifetime warranty I'm hoping to never use. Got it from Advance online. It was $118, but I got 15% off plus a $50.00 coupon for my next purchase. I changed the pre-filter and the main fuel filter as well, so she's good to go for a long while.

My son's Daytona had the A/C quit. It was R-12, so since it was empty I changed over to a modern refrigerant. I'm trying ES12 and I love this stuff! I bought a 50 lb. container and I'll be using it in the Tbird. It is so efficient and runs at a lower pressure than even R12. I am a convert.

There's still a chance I'll get some quality time in on the 'bird this week.