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Topic: My Sport (Read 26430 times) previous topic - next topic

My Sport

Reply #90 –
As kind of a closure to my dash wiring swap nightmare, I was looking through some boxes of parts yesterday, and came across an engine harness that I snagged from an '88 Cougar LS 5.0 a year or so ago.

I got to thinking about the 2 connectors, one gray, one black, so I looked at the respective end of the engine harness, and lo and behold, it only has the one connector. So either (unlikely, but both my dash AND engine harnesses came from a Cougar..) the Tbirds only got the dual-plug harness, or the higher optioned cars had that second plug to route the power instead of the ring terminal to the starter relay.
(The Cat I got the engine harness out of didn't have premium sound, had the manual hvac, and no sentry)

Either way, I'm going to be swapping that harness in when it warms up.

In doing so it will make the only parts original to my car the glass, and the body itself, and the passenger side front control arm. I have literally replaced, switched, or swapped every other part in the car. ...
'98 Explorer 5.0
'20 Malibu (I know, Chevy, but, 35MPG. Let's go brandon, eh)

My Sport

Reply #91 –
Welcome to my world. The only parts of the Sport that actually came with the Sport are the body, and front and rear window. That is all. Everything else has been swapped.
'88 Sport--T-5,MGW shifter,Trick Flow R intake,Ed Curtis cam,Trick Flow heads,Scorpion rockers,75mm Accufab t-body,3G,mini starter,Taurus fan,BBK long tube headers,O/R H-Pipe, Flowamaster Super 44's, deep and deeper Cobra R wheels, Mass Air and 24's,8.8 with 3.73's,140 mph speedo,Mach 1 chin spoiler,SN-95 springs,CHE control arms,aluminum drive shaft and a lot more..

My Sport

Reply #92 –
Quote from: ThunderbirdSport302;377468
This WILL be the year...no more bullshiznit.

Ever have one of those moments when you wish that ole Doc Brown really had invented a time machine built into a DeLorean?

In other words...the Sport won't be driven (legally) this year...


I'm going to go back to square one. Reinstall the lo-po 5.0, convert back to AOD....NOT.:rollin:

Nahh, but I am planning on completely dismantling the car, sand, paint, rust proof/repair everything I can...no sense in doing it twice, they say. (The 3 or 4 times I've already done a lot of this notwithstanding.)

I'm going to try to get the Stang mobile with HO power, and using the TC spindles and 11" brakes for at least the basics of V8 stop 'n go.

How far we get will have to be seen though.I've still got couple of small harnesses to get first. And I need to pull the 2.3 and do some cleaning to both the bay, and as well find a place to put the Bird so I can work on it. Mother in law has a nice 2 car garage, but not sure she'd want a shell of a car in there for a couple of months while I strip it, clean, paint and haul all the small stuff back home. If I just had a concrete floor :mad:

It seems like I'm getting my priorities backwards, but if I really cared about the Stang as much as I did the Bird, it'd be getting cleaned and everything rebuilt/replaced too.

And my stanger buddy Steve and I are looking to lease/rent/buy a shop somewhere...so hopefully we can work something out where we'll both have plenty of room to work on our projects..as well as maybe a weekend or part time job to do brakes, oil changes...not that I really want to get into other people's car repair/maintenance again..

But I suppose I could put up with it for my share, to pay my part of the building, etc. I need to do something for a backup or second job, to fund the next few steps of my plan(s) for both cars.

I'm tempted to go snag up some sets of GT40 intakes for resell. Any takers?
'98 Explorer 5.0
'20 Malibu (I know, Chevy, but, 35MPG. Let's go brandon, eh)

My Sport

Reply #93 –
Already have a Gt40 intake, sure could use those TC interior parts though that we traded for.....lol. :)
95 Ranger Splash 2.3
88 Tbird Sport :ies::ies:
5.0 SO, stainless shorty headers, w/ Magnaflow lers. KYB struts, KYB shocks. 5lug conversion from sn95 Mustang, subframe connectors, drilled and slotted rotors, 03 Mach 1 wheels. sequential taillights.140 speedo

My Sport

Reply #94 –
Quote from: cougarman;382467
Already have a Gt40 intake, sure could use those TC interior parts though that we traded for.....lol. :)

I know..I'm an asshole for forstill not getting them out...I have tomorrow and Friday off, so I'll get it headed your way, barring any more twisters...
'98 Explorer 5.0
'20 Malibu (I know, Chevy, but, 35MPG. Let's go brandon, eh)

My Sport

Reply #95 –
The Explorer intakes with internal EGR are the ones most people want. Get them, clean them up really nice, maybe even paint them, and sell them on Ebay.
'88 Sport--T-5,MGW shifter,Trick Flow R intake,Ed Curtis cam,Trick Flow heads,Scorpion rockers,75mm Accufab t-body,3G,mini starter,Taurus fan,BBK long tube headers,O/R H-Pipe, Flowamaster Super 44's, deep and deeper Cobra R wheels, Mass Air and 24's,8.8 with 3.73's,140 mph speedo,Mach 1 chin spoiler,SN-95 springs,CHE control arms,aluminum drive shaft and a lot more..

My Sport

Reply #96 –
Beau, surely you can get that Bird in shape this year. I did my Sport from ground up, and it's my daily driver. C'mon, get busy. I even have to repaint and seats recovered this year.....and window tint.
'88 Sport--T-5,MGW shifter,Trick Flow R intake,Ed Curtis cam,Trick Flow heads,Scorpion rockers,75mm Accufab t-body,3G,mini starter,Taurus fan,BBK long tube headers,O/R H-Pipe, Flowamaster Super 44's, deep and deeper Cobra R wheels, Mass Air and 24's,8.8 with 3.73's,140 mph speedo,Mach 1 chin spoiler,SN-95 springs,CHE control arms,aluminum drive shaft and a lot more..

My Sport

Reply #97 –
I could, and I know this sounds like a cop out, but between money and time, it's hard to hurry, and do things right and safely. Kids, jobs...blah blah..I know, a lot of us are in the same boat...

For starters, my plan is to take off all the suspension parts, k member, etc, blast and paint those, and the underside, along with a dose of rust preventative...then get the bottom side back together.

I don't want to drive it while it's rusting away under me. Meanwhile, I can slap my HO engine in the stang, cause it's got a few dents, a little rust under it, and drive it till it's junk, sell the electronics from it, and then my Bird will be have the bottom side taken care of. Other than that, I've just got to find a Mark 7 rear, and I have pretty much all the major mechanicals.
'98 Explorer 5.0
'20 Malibu (I know, Chevy, but, 35MPG. Let's go brandon, eh)

My Sport

Reply #98 –
Why don't you just get a rear from an SN-95 Stang? Probably easier to find than a Mark VII these days. Does the Stang run as it is? If so, leave it the way it is. It costs to do engine swaps into anything. Something ALWAYS comes up, and the money you could save could be used for the Bird.
'88 Sport--T-5,MGW shifter,Trick Flow R intake,Ed Curtis cam,Trick Flow heads,Scorpion rockers,75mm Accufab t-body,3G,mini starter,Taurus fan,BBK long tube headers,O/R H-Pipe, Flowamaster Super 44's, deep and deeper Cobra R wheels, Mass Air and 24's,8.8 with 3.73's,140 mph speedo,Mach 1 chin spoiler,SN-95 springs,CHE control arms,aluminum drive shaft and a lot more..

My Sport

Reply #99 –
Every rear I've found in an SN95 has been gutted...I'd take the rear, but want the extra 1.5" the Mark rear has, and vented rotors...

The Stang's 2.3 has serious issues, timing is off, or a cam lobe is wiped. Have nearly everything except mass air bits an A9L, and fuel lines. There's almost always a fox Stang in the yard in Kansas City...I can get the lines easy enough.

Earlier today I started tearing down the 5.0 that I bought from my buddy...he had a '92 Stang with a Cobra intake that he bought, but it didn't run right, and wouldn't idle. He timed it, I timed it, we pulled some codes, but nothing seemed to indicate any problems.

Later he pulled it and replaced it with an '89 block and heads and an HO intake and related parts and sold it, and I bought the rough-running 5.0 for 50 bucks, sans the Cobra intake.
I moved the engine over under my lights today, was just going to pull some ancillary stuff off so I could clean it, when I noticed this:

That's the intake port left, and water passage on the right.

I checked the other head, and sure as there's shiznit in a cat's guts, it had corrosion too. !

I decided to pull the heads off, and surely as hell, am small amount of water and rust in cylinders 2 and 6. Double .


On the bright side, there's very little ring ridge and crosshatching is still visible in all cyls.

The E7 heads aren't going back on...but now I'm worried...the head gaskets didn't have any appearance of being shot, and I'm hoping the block isn't cracked. Be awhile before I can afford to have it checked for cracks...IF I can find a place local that can do it.

I have 2 other 5.0 blocks, but not sure if they're roller blocks or not.

If the block is junk, least I'm only out 50 bucks...:hick:
'98 Explorer 5.0
'20 Malibu (I know, Chevy, but, 35MPG. Let's go brandon, eh)

My Sport

Reply #100 –
Could have been an intake gasket leaking, they will if not installed properly.
95 Ranger Splash 2.3
88 Tbird Sport :ies::ies:
5.0 SO, stainless shorty headers, w/ Magnaflow lers. KYB struts, KYB shocks. 5lug conversion from sn95 Mustang, subframe connectors, drilled and slotted rotors, 03 Mach 1 wheels. sequential taillights.140 speedo

My Sport

Reply #101 –
Quote from: cougarman;383706
Could have been an intake gasket leaking, they will if not installed properly.

Beau only has trouble with water pumps! lol

My Sport

Reply #102 –
lol. ;)
95 Ranger Splash 2.3
88 Tbird Sport :ies::ies:
5.0 SO, stainless shorty headers, w/ Magnaflow lers. KYB struts, KYB shocks. 5lug conversion from sn95 Mustang, subframe connectors, drilled and slotted rotors, 03 Mach 1 wheels. sequential taillights.140 speedo

My Sport

Reply #103 –
Yeah, I also snapped off one of the long water pump bolts in the  thing...no biggie though, it's going to need to go the machine shop.

Hopefully my water pump issues will be a thing of the past...in any case, I paid extra for the lifetime warranty on the caprice w/p...so WHEN it goes bad again, those f*ckheads will give me another one.
'98 Explorer 5.0
'20 Malibu (I know, Chevy, but, 35MPG. Let's go brandon, eh)