Spring has Sprung! (Both the season, and the suspension component)

So I actually did some work to the project the weekend before last, now that it is no longer freaking cold.  I took on the front suspension rework.  After gutting all of the V6 stuff, I set out to rebuild the front end. 

So in went the new Ford Racing lower control arms with upgraded bushings and SN-95 style ball joint.  Along with it came 87+ V8 spindles, V8 springs, a rebuilt 2.5:1 GT rack and pinion, new tie rod ends, new struts, 1-1/8" sway bar with poly bushings, and 93 spec 11" rotors with new bearings/seals and Lincoln/SVO calipers with new hoses, along with fresh friction material.  To top it all off, I added in a set of Maximum Motorsports caster-camber plates. 

Long weekend of work, but it's all done up front now.  Thanks to Steve Carrow for the hand on Sunday.  It is nice to work with someone, and its comforting to know someone is there with you to be able to call 911 when something like a spring gets loose while compressing it, and end up emedding itself in your chest.  Not that this happened, but its still reassuring to know someone can get to the phone if need be. 

Below are the pictures...next will probably be the rear brake lines/cables so I can seal off the hydraulic system.

It's so much cooler with a radiator....

So I had some time last Saturday to spend on the project.  I was able to install the power steering cooler, the A/C condenser, and the radiator, electric fan assembly, along with all of the hoses.  The radiator is the Ford Racing Aluminum radiator, originally designed for the 96 Cobra.  It wasn't a perfect fit, but the modifications required weren't too bad. 

Realize Ford utilized the same basic underpinnings from 1979 to 2004 on the Mustang, all drawing its roots from the 1978 Ford Fairmount Fox platform, so a 1996 part is not too much of a stretch to get to work in a 1986.

The 2-Speed dual electric fan assembly was originally for a 1999-2003 Cougar, but a few mounting tabs cut off with a dremel cutoff wheel makes an almost factory fit.

Once all of the hoses were on, I added 3 gallons of 33% / 67% coolant mix (33% glycol), and a bottle of Water Wetter for good measure.

But alas, I am still avoiding finishing the behind the dashboard wiring for the EEC harness, and the remote key fob power lock kit.  I just wasn't in the right frame of mind to tackle any wiring. 

Hopefully the next update won't be too long.  I think my next area to tackle (if not the behind the dash wiring) will be plumbing the rear disc brakes and running the e-brake cables.

Some Free Time Over the Long Thanksgiving Weekend

Not a huge amount of progress, but I got my lower intake all set up with the injectors and fuel rail, installed it along with my valve covers, upper plenum, EGR spacer, and throttle body.  I now can see my fuel lines are going to be the next challenge.

Fun with Powder Coat

So it is not really working on the Mustang per se, but I just got some parts back from the powdercoater, and they turned out fantastic!  The basement lighting in combonation with the flash don't do this justice, as the colors are a little off.  The pictures make the grey look much lighter than they are.

I had my valve covers, upper intake, upper cover plate and EGR spacer done in a two-stage clear gun metal grey.  There is just enough metalic in it to just be caught in the sun.  After the base coat, the powder coater cut back the grey from the raised aluminium on the valve covers and intake cover plate before he cleared.

The lower intake, the master cylinder and MAF housing was done in a single stage cast alumiunum matte finish.  I am stoked about this, but now I just need to find the time to get back at this project.

Project on Pause

So its been a while since I posted any progress, but there has really been none to post.  I have spent most of December and January working on remodeling the basement in order to move the office downstairs in anticipation of the arrival of my second child.

Shelby Kathryn was born on February 8, 2010 at 10:59 am, weighing 7 lbs. 14 oz. at 20.5 inches.  Mom and baby are home now, and everyone is doing great.

So as we adjust as a family of 4, I suspect progress will be slow at first on the Mustang, but its too cold now to do much outside, so once spring hits, look for new updates on progress.

OK...so I've been lazy...what have you been doing?

So I have been lazy, and havent posted progress for the last few weekends worth of work.  I'll roll them up here.

I set out to do the under-work for this project.  I hate working under cars on my back so I figured I'd get it out of the way.  I lifted the car and set it on jack stands on all four corners on the sub-frame, so all of the weight was off the suspension.  I removed what was left of the single exhaust, the upper and lower control arms, the 7.5" rear axle, and I dropped the fuel tank. 

Because for all I knew, the fuel pump was original, I went ahead and replaced the fuel pump with a new unit, and re-installed the fuel tank. 

After the tank was up I installed the new stainless steel tail pipes with all new hangers, and rubber isolators.

I put in new bushings in the upper and lower control arms, and installed them to be ready for the 8.8 reat axle/differential.

This is an 8.8" rear from a Thunderbird Turbo Coupe, which I originally bought for my 83 project.  It is a Traction-Lok (Posi for the GM folks) with 3.55 gears and rear disc setup with Varga calipers made especially for Ford.  These are the same rear brakes used on the '93 Cobra.  I replaced the wheel bearings and seals in it, replaced the calipers and hoses, and put some fresh Mobil 1 gear oil in it.  I also spent some quality time with a wire wheel and a can of enamel.

So finally I finished up for the weekend as seen below.  I still need to install the rear shocks and e-brake cables, and try to figure out why my geometry seems off in back.  But that will be for another time and post.

Engine in...garage a lot less cluttered...

So Sunday saw the new engine in, and a lot more free space in the garage.  All in all, pretty straight forward, and no real issues considering I did it without an additional hand helping.  Went in a lot easier than the V6 came out.





As you can see, I put the engine and transmission in as one piece.

Other than a few hour delay trying to find where I put the transmission mount, one I set to it, it was pretty easy.


















































Now I need to decide if I work on the front suspension, or if I tackle the 8.8 in the rear.  So more to come.

It's getting closer...(OK so I am out of clever titles...)

So this past Sunday was a semi-fruitful one with regard to progress, although I fell short of the goal of having the engine in and bolted down to the K-member.  Considering I lost 3 hours or so trying to find where I put my damn flywheel, I didn't do so bad.

I got the engine off the stand with the flywheel and clutch installed, and then the bell housing and transmission mated up.  I did my final torques on the headers, got the motor mounts and transmission mount on, and I am officially ready to drop it all in.  (I really felt like sayin' git'r'done, but I digress).

In addition, during last week in the evening, I swapped out the front bearing retainer with a steel snouted one.  The facotry one is aluminum and is scarred easily by the throwout bearing.

So hopefully the next post will have the motor in.  Also as an update, I have decided to go Adkins on this project right out of the gate...(Adkins?  No Carb...duh).



I just didnt feel like rigging the high pressure fuel pump to feed a carb, and wire an override to the fuel pump relay.  Also, it didnt make sense to wire up an ignition, just for a short time, since my end goal has always been going fuel injection.

Rockin with Rollers at 1.7

OK...so I have been lazy and have not posted in a while...I missed an entire post from the Saturday I spent putting the Heater/AC box back together with new heater core and evaporator, intalling it along with the A9L ECM and 1990 ECM harness.  I also successfully got the engine bay thoroughly cleaned, degrased and waxed (I know, but the degreaser leaves such a flat finish.)

So I didnt get pictures of any of that, but not really that exciting.  Anyway to the meat of this post.  I spent Sunday Oct. 3 prepping the engine for its eventual date with the now clean and sparse engine bay.  Since I decided to go with Ford Motorsport 1.7 ratio roller rockers, I needed to uprgrade the valve springs before the rocker upgrade.

So this is what I spent the day doing.  I swaped all 16 valve springs and installed the roller rockers, and set the inital valve lash. You can see the before and after below.







 BEFORE:

Stock Stamped Rockers with Stock Valve springs

 AFTER:

Trick Flow Dual Coil Valve Springs and Retainers with Ford Motorsport Roller Rockers by Crane (These are the same as 93-95 Cobra Spec)










So next up is to install the new front bearing retainer on the transmission, install the rear main seal, set up the clutch, bell housing and transmission, and mate it all together, install the motor and transmission mounts, and do one last fastner torque check on all of the bolts which will be impossible to reach once the engine is straddling the K member.

Its getting close to dropping the engine in, but the one thing holding me back is the original V6 engine and transmission sitting in the front of my garage occupying the engine lift.

I really need this thing to find a new home...I am practically tripping over the stupid thing.

Dash and Dine

So another Sunday with Nancy and Joseph with the in-laws.  The perfect opportunity to curse, swear, throw tools, yell at inanimate objects and "watch" SpikeTV's Sunday Morning Power Block on the garage TV followed by the Cardinals getting swept in a horrible game against Atlanta.

So I felt like tackling the dashboard  (or instrument panel if you prefer).  This is one of the dreaded tasks for any Fox Mustang owner.  The dash...specifically removal.  The only task worse is dash reinstallation.  If there was any way I could get away without doing it I would have.  Considering I have a leaky heater core, I have to install a manual transmission pedal set, and the only easy way to unplug the engine bay harness is by getting the dashboard out of the way, I bit the bullet.  As a plus, I now have easy access to remove the EEC-III and ECM harness.  Fortunately, there was a good post on the Four Eyed Pride forum detailing dash removal at http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthread.php?t=52798&highlight=dash+removal

What is great about this post at FEP is that it shows exactly which screws need to be removed, and which ones don't.  I'd have removed way more screws than what I would have needed to without it.

So here is the interior BEFORE picture...

 


And then the AFTER...steering column gone, and dash gone...they now live in the basement...



And I was finally able to remove the engine bay harness.  I still have to strip the ECM harness, brake lines, master cylinder/booster, wiper motor and miscellaneous cables/hoses.  At this point I can wet sand the engine bay and repaint.  I plan on going with Ford Shadow Blue on the firewall, upper radiator support and fender aprons.  I am going to go with dark charcoal grey epoxy from the frame rail line down.


Next up will be removing the heater/AC box inside, the ECM and Harness, and if I am really productive finish stripping out the engine bay.  Hopefully this Friday will be the next work day for the project.

Labor Day Labors

So I only got the chance to work on anything this holiday weekend on Monday.  The weekend had too many other things planned to do anything effective any other day.

So I spent about 6 hours or so carefully removing the engine wiring and vacuum harness.  Since I am interested in reusing the wiring, I couldnt strip with wild abandon.  I sucessfully removed all of the vacuum  harnes with all of the solenoids for evap purge, egr etc., and I made a decent attempt at pulling most of the wiring.  Since I still have a little more to pull out, and my day was cut short by having to go to my "fun" job slinging auto parts, I didnt take any pictures...I'll take some once the engine bay is cleaned up.

In the beginning...

So here it starts.  No this isn't the book of Genesis.  Every project has a start, and yesterday was the start to this one.  After one last drive on Friday evening out MO Rt. 94 West to Washington MO, and then back home via MO Rt. 100, I parked the Mustang on the garage with exactly 98,001 miles.

So Sunday morning after church and breakfast, Nancy and Joseph went to Grandma's house while I stayed home to kick off this project.

My goal for the day was to pull the engine and transmission. 

While I achieved this goal, it took way longer than I had originally estimated.  If I had it to do over again, I would have had someone over to help me. 
As it was, I did it solo, and probably took me at least 50% longer to do than it should have.

Anyway, push came to shove, and I got the motor and transmission pulled and the garage back clean enough to let Nancy's car fit in the garage with all of my tools wiped down and at least in one place.

The next step is to thoroughly clean the engine compartment and underbody of its 22 years of road grime, grease and oil.