Fox 90 Lx

[510notch]

Hey guys i finally bought my first mustang about two months ago, i havent done much to it other than buying it new tires since it had been sitting in a friends garage for over two years, other thing i did was replace rack and pinion along with installing new mufflers since the old ones had large holes and lots of rust.
anyways just need advice on what to do first, the engine is pretty much stock from what i know, the valve covers look like they have been leaking for a while but i get no major oil stains in my garage, another thing i am having a hard time deciding is wether i should rebuild the original t5 tranny or just save up and buy a new t5 or a tko i sorta want to do my tranny first before doing any work on the engine reason being is my second gear seems to be pretty bad i always need to hold it in order for it to grab on.
well any advice would be appreciated and thank you for taking the time to help me out.

 

[A5literMan]

Looks stock from pictures. If upgrading the trans go directly to an aftermarket unit ie tko500/600. That way you'll be ready for any later power gains. I would address any leaks/running issues first. Run codes etc. afterwards I highly recommend brake/suspension upgrades before moving on towards the power department. Congrats on your purchase and welcome to Stangnet.

 

[510notch]

Looks stock from pictures. If upgrading the trans go directly to an aftermarket unit ie tko500/600. That way you'll be ready for any later power gains. I would address any leaks/running issues first. Run codes etc. afterwards I highly recommend brake/suspension upgrades before moving on towards the power department. Congrats on your purchase and welcome to Stangnet.

Thanks man i really hope i can have it in ok shape for this summer. So you dont think a ford racing super duty t5 is a good choice? I really do want the tko 500 but its a bit more pricier but i might just deal with the leaks first like you suggested then just keep driving it till i really need to upgrade it. I believe my friend did some suspension upgrades not sure tho i will have to ask but it does look like theres a few new suspension parts installed.

 

[old_blue]

The valve cover leak probably isn't showing up on the driveway because it burns off on the exhaust manifolds.

I always recommend suspension and gears as a first modification to these foxes. Springs, subframes, etc. Also take care of the little mantainenance things before you dig too deep. Replace stock ignition switch (along steering column, not the keyed portion) to prevent a future fire. Also look at headlight switch check for burn marks/melted wires.

 

[mikestang63]

first thing to do is run the codes to see if/what the EEC is telling you is wrong

Then a major tune up on the car to include

• air/oil/fuel filters
• spark plugs autolite 25's are stock
• new plug wires- taylors are my choice
• cap and rotor- stock FOMOCO are fine
• new valve cover gaskets- get the felpro rubber ones with the steel cores that go on dry. You can reuse them over and over
• Put dielectric grease in each end of the spark plug wire boots an some anti sieze on the spark plug threads gap the plugs at .55
• Drain you coolant and refill with a 50/50 mix of whatever cheapest green coolant and distilled water. Buy a lisle funnel to help burp the system
• Your stock distributor, coil, cap and rotor are sufficient to for 500hp. Don't let people sell you aftermarket ones.
• For your first few oil changes- about 3-500 miles before you change the oil pour about 8 ounces of Marvel Mystery Oil in the oil filller. It does an excellent job of cleaning out sludge and junk. Your oil will come out black. It also helps to free up sticking lifters and valves.
• Pour a can of Techron in your gas- excellent for cleaning fuel system and injectors
• Buy a can of Thrtottle body cleaner and clean the Throttle body
• Buy a can of Mass Air cleaner and gently clean the Mass Air

Once that is done, then move on to inspecting these items that are prone to failure

• clutch fan and fan blades
• Motor mounts
• Water pump
• ignition switch
• heater core
• torque boxes

After that the items to address should be

• Suspension- subframe connectors, shocks, sway bar end links, ball joints, control arms and bushings
  
• Brakes- upgrade pads, shoes, ss lines and cailper bushing
  
• Charging- upgrade to a 3g alternator and wiriing
  
• performance- best bang for the buck is grears 3.55 for stick 3.73 for AOD, good shifter, if stick heads- save up for TFS or AFR heads, for now, a good cat back exhaust, 94-95 mustang GT mass air, and k&N filter. You can start adding things like headers, throttle body but with the stock intake and heads, the gains are minimal. It takes about 2-3k to get these cars in the 300rwhp range. Stock they are about 180-190

In that order

 

[510notch]

first thing to do is run the codes to see if/what the EEC is telling you is wrong

Then a major tune up on the car to include

• air/oil/fuel filters
• spark plugs autolite 25's are stock
• new plug wires- taylors are my choice
• cap and rotor- stock FOMOCO are fine
• new valve cover gaskets- get the felpro rubber ones with the steel cores that go on dry. You can reuse them over and over
• Put dielectric grease in each end of the spark plug wire boots an some anti sieze on the spark plug threads gap the plugs at .55
• Drain you coolant and refill with a 50/50 mix of whatever cheapest green coolant and distilled water. Buy a lisle funnel to help burp the system
• Your stock distributor, coil, cap and rotor are sufficient to for 500hp. Don't let people sell you aftermarket ones.
• For your first few oil changes- about 3-500 miles before you change the oil pour about 8 ounces of Marvel Mystery Oil in the oil filller. It does an excellent job of cleaning out sludge and junk. Your oil will come out black. It also helps to free up sticking lifters and valves.
• Pour a can of Techron in your gas- excellent for cleaning fuel system and injectors
• Buy a can of Thrtottle body cleaner and clean the Throttle body
• Buy a can of Mass Air cleaner and gently clean the Mass Air

Once that is done, then move on to inspecting these items that are prone to failure

• clutch fan and fan blades
• Motor mounts
• Water pump
• ignition switch
• heater core
• torque boxes

After that the items to address should be

• Suspension- subframe connectors, shocks, sway bar end links, ball joints, control arms and bushings
  
• Brakes- upgrade pads, shoes, ss lines and cailper bushing
  
• Charging- upgrade to a 3g alternator and wiriing
  
• performance- best bang for the buck is grears 3.55 for stick 3.73 for AOD, good shifter, if stick heads- save up for TFS or AFR heads, for now, a good cat back exhaust, 94-95 mustang GT mass air, and k&N filter. You can start adding things like headers, throttle body but with the stock intake and heads, the gains are minimal. It takes about 2-3k to get these cars in the 300rwhp range. Stock they are about 180-190

In that order

Thanks for the response man i appreciate the advice. My heater core was leaking bad already so i just bypassed it for now, i have done almost half the stuff you mentioned in the first part.
I will be replacing my valve covers soon i just ordered them today.

 

[jaketuff]

I went for a TKO with a McLeod Clutch. EXCELLENT upgrade. It feels stout and strong and really grips putting all the power (all 240 I have at it! ) down when you are hard on it. The T5 is a T5... super/world class/rebuilt... the TKO is a much better unit!

.02

 

[510notch]

I went for a TKO with a McLeod Clutch. EXCELLENT upgrade. It feels stout and strong and really grips putting all the power (all 240 I have at it! ) down when you are hard on it. The T5 is a T5... super/world class/rebuilt... the TKO is a much better unit!

.02

Yeah i hear ya i guess i will save the money for the tko.

 

[90lxwhite]

first thing to do is run the codes to see if/what the EEC is telling you is wrong

Then a major tune up on the car to include

• air/oil/fuel filters
• spark plugs autolite 25's are stock
• new plug wires- taylors are my choice
• cap and rotor- stock FOMOCO are fine
• new valve cover gaskets- get the felpro rubber ones with the steel cores that go on dry. You can reuse them over and over
• Put dielectric grease in each end of the spark plug wire boots an some anti sieze on the spark plug threads gap the plugs at .55
• Drain you coolant and refill with a 50/50 mix of whatever cheapest green coolant and distilled water. Buy a lisle funnel to help burp the system
• Your stock distributor, coil, cap and rotor are sufficient to for 500hp. Don't let people sell you aftermarket ones.
• For your first few oil changes- about 3-500 miles before you change the oil pour about 8 ounces of Marvel Mystery Oil in the oil filller. It does an excellent job of cleaning out sludge and junk. Your oil will come out black. It also helps to free up sticking lifters and valves.
• Pour a can of Techron in your gas- excellent for cleaning fuel system and injectors
• Buy a can of Thrtottle body cleaner and clean the Throttle body
• Buy a can of Mass Air cleaner and gently clean the Mass Air

Once that is done, then move on to inspecting these items that are prone to failure

• clutch fan and fan blades
• Motor mounts
• Water pump
• ignition switch
• heater core
• torque boxes

After that the items to address should be

• Suspension- subframe connectors, shocks, sway bar end links, ball joints, control arms and bushings
  
• Brakes- upgrade pads, shoes, ss lines and cailper bushing
  
• Charging- upgrade to a 3g alternator and wiriing
  
• performance- best bang for the buck is grears 3.55 for stick 3.73 for AOD, good shifter, if stick heads- save up for TFS or AFR heads, for now, a good cat back exhaust, 94-95 mustang GT mass air, and k&N filter. You can start adding things like headers, throttle body but with the stock intake and heads, the gains are minimal. It takes about 2-3k to get these cars in the 300rwhp range. Stock they are about 180-190

In that order

He nailed it. Get a good foundation to start with before trying to make er go fast. How many miles are on it? If the motor feels tired you might want to think about freshening up the bottom end before getting a high performance top end (heads,cam,intake). In today's world it takes a fairly decent flowing topend or some sort of forced induction to be pseudo competitive. Either will run you around $3k give or take. As for the transmission, I think I'd make my choice based on a realistic "final" horsepower number that I'd think I'd reach which is soley based on how deep ones pockets are. Say for instance 300 rwhp is as much power as your bank will allow, then either rebuilding the t5 or the super duty would be fine as long as your not beating the dogsht outta it daily, power-shifting etc.

 

[510notch]

He nailed it. Get a good foundation to start with before trying to make er go fast. How many miles are on it? If the motor feels tired you might want to think about freshening up the bottom in before getting a high performance top end (heads,cam,intake). In today's world it takes a fairly decent flowing topend or some sort of forced induction to be pseudo competitive. Either will run you around $3k give or take. As for the transmission, I think I'd make my choice based on a realistic "final" horsepower number that I'd think I'd reach which is soley based on how deep ones pockets are. Say for instance 300 rwhp is as much power as your bank will allow, then either rebuilding the t5 or the super duty would be fine as long as your not beating the dogsht outta it daily, power-shifting etc.

What do you suggest has far has bottom end? sorry but its my first mustang and im really trying to research has much has i can before dumping too much money.
Has far has horsepower im not sure yet but maybe 300 to 400 sounds like a good starting point for me, my budget i am giving myself is around 5k total just hope i can build a ok summer car.
its not my daily driver and i dont power-shift has much since i just recently learned to drive manual lol yeah i know. im still really debating on the tranny it really sucks driving it right now because of the 2nd gear grind. i bought the car with about 170k miles on it

 

[Shoomakan]

Another option for the transmission is to get a set of G-Force or TKO gearsets. Since your T5 is toast, anyway... May as well reuse it.

 

[510notch]

Another option for the transmission is to get a set of G-Force or TKO gearsets. Since your T5 is toast, anyway... May as well reuse it.

Yeah my best option at moment is probably going to be to have my t5 rebuilt, theres a all mustang shop about 30 minutes away that will rebuild it for $800 bucks.

 

[Shoomakan]

Rebuild it with an Astro or G-Force gearset. Will handle 500+ lb/ft of torque that way. $1600 for the gearset online.

 

[90lxwhite]

What do you suggest has far has bottom end? sorry but its my first mustang and im really trying to research has much has i can before dumping too much money.
Has far has horsepower im not sure yet but maybe 300 to 400 sounds like a good starting point for me, my budget i am giving myself is around 5k total just hope i can build a ok summer car.
its not my daily driver and i dont power-shift has much since i just recently learned to drive manual lol yeah i know. im still really debating on the tranny it really sucks driving it right now because of the 2nd gear grind. i bought the car with about 170k miles on it

170k isn't too terribly high as long as it's not buring oil etc and still feels like it's running "strong." I had my stock motor had 300k mi before I had it rebuilt. It was running ok but just felt tired. You don't have to go all crazy expensive with forged pistons etc for a 300 horsepower weekend cruiser. A stockish rebuild will hold up. I'm not necessarily reccomending this product but this is an example of a bottom end. You could pull your motor and take it to a machine shop as well. http://www.latemodelrestoration.com...-shopping-v2&gclid=CMfylpeutMMCFQotaQodHSkAyQ

 

[90lxwhite]

Rebuild it with an Astro or G-Force gearset. Will handle 500+ lb/ft of torque that way. $1600 for the gearset online.

it takes a lot of dough to make 500 ft lb of torque. W a $5k budget for trans and motor he'll never make that much. My 300k mi oem t5 is holding up well to 334 ft lbs. Not a crap ton o power but that's around what his budget would get em on the high end. Driving style has a lot to do when making transmission decisions. If it's a weekend street cruiser and he's not dumping the clutch at 5k rpm's at every stop light and shifting at 6k rpm's everywhere he goes he'll be fine w a rebuit t5. Everyman wants the biggest and baddest but you have to take a realistic look at your situation. If you don't think you'll ever put $10k worth of power in the motor no need for a super badazz transmission. Would you recommend a trans capable of holding 500 ft pounds to a fella who might run out of money after bolt-ons? @510notch I think the first thing I would do is get the transmission fixed before it has you walking home one day. That's where I'd start. Oh and if your clutch has some miles on it get a new one while you're at it.

 

[Shoomakan]

it takes a lot of dough to make 500 ft lb of torque. W a $5k budget for trans and motor he'll never make that much. My 300k mi oem t5 is holding up well to 334 ft lbs. Not a crap ton o power but that's around what his budget would get em on the high end. Driving style has a lot to do when making transmission decisions. If it's a weekend street cruiser and he's not dumping the clutch at 5k rpm's at every stop light and shifting at 6k rpm's everywhere he goes he'll be fine w a rebuit t5. Everyman wants the biggest and baddest but you have to take a realistic look at your situation. If you don't think you'll ever put $10k worth of power in the motor no need for a super badazz transmission. Would you recommend a trans capable of holding 500 ft pounds to a fella who might run out of money after bolt-ons? @510notch I think the first thing I would do is get the transmission fixed before it has you walking home one day. That's where I'd start. Oh and if your clutch has some miles on it get a new one while you're at it.

I completely agree with you. I made the incorrect assumption that he'd want to eventually complete the Kessel Run in under 12 parsecs.

 

[A5literMan]

^^^ very good advise. My only counter is I've seen plenty of t5's with problems with stock power levels. Agreed driving style is the most determining factor. If you always "granny" shift they will last a long time even with moderate power. Clutches are also a factor/as well as tires. For example a high pressure plate and some real sticky tires will destroy a stock/rebuilt t5 quickly.

 

[90lxwhite]

^^^ very good advise. My only counter is I've seen plenty of t5's with problems with stock power levels. Agreed driving style is the most determining factor. If you always "granny" shift they will last a long time even with moderate power. Clutches are also a factor/as well as tires. For example a high pressure plate and some real sticky tires will destroy a stock/rebuilt t5 quickly.

Another tip for the budget builder: when you're out driving like a drunk teenager remember how long it took to save to get it up and running good. It's harder to find the money the second time around if something breaks.

 

[510notch]

it takes a lot of dough to make 500 ft lb of torque. W a $5k budget for trans and motor he'll never make that much. My 300k mi oem t5 is holding up well to 334 ft lbs. Not a crap ton o power but that's around what his budget would get em on the high end. Driving style has a lot to do when making transmission decisions. If it's a weekend street cruiser and he's not dumping the clutch at 5k rpm's at every stop light and shifting at 6k rpm's everywhere he goes he'll be fine w a rebuit t5. Everyman wants the biggest and baddest but you have to take a realistic look at your situation. If you don't think you'll ever put $10k worth of power in the motor no need for a super badazz transmission. Would you recommend a trans capable of holding 500 ft pounds to a fella who might run out of money after bolt-ons? @510notch I think the first thing I would do is get the transmission fixed before it has you walking home one day. That's where I'd start. Oh and if your clutch has some miles on it get a new one while you're at it.

Yeah its basically just going to be my weekend car, im not gonna sit here and lie about not wanting to do burnouts every once in a while but at this point i think a rebuild should last me a few years since i wont be driving it too crazy or too much for that matter. after i get it rebuilt i will be moving to the bottom end like you suggested

 

[510notch]

this weekend i will be installing new headers a cold air intake and also cleaning the throttle body and mass air. my new valve covers and gaskets arrived but i dont feel confident enough on doing it myself so i will wait to do that until next week at somepoint.