Fox Build Thread- Some Days I Should Of Let It Burn Down

[Black1987]

 

[Black1987]

After getting the engine out, everything looked good. However the block had a lot of rust and sediment in the water passage ways and really needed to be honed and hot tanked.

I did another form of a leak down check on my heads using the gasoline and water and soap method. As it turns out my valve springs were weak and not hold the valve completely close.





Well my break for school was ending and I decided to nickel and dime parts and store the engine until I could afford everything. Some random pics of the engine with some lithium grease sprayed to prevent corrosion.







http://s1087.photobucket.com/user/Black1987coupe/media/IMG_20140315_143540_956_zps5oxipk64.jpg.html





http://s1087.photobucket.com/user/Black1987coupe/media/IMG_20140315_143621_561_zpsr8cg69e8.jpg.html


http://s1087.photobucket.com/user/Black1987coupe/media/IMG_20140315_143710_051_zpsprliwtco.jpg.html



Now that I was back in school for my final 2 semesters. The car just sat for almost a year and half like this:





Until this past Christmas, after moving and started a job 2 hours away from my folks house were the car sits.

My wife after eating Christmas lunch, asked my father were I kept my old engines and pointed to a gray 89 I had bought and was like that has a long block you can try ( I had bought that engine and never tested it for a 95 shell I had laying around).

She proceeded to go over start unbolting the engine to swap into my 93











FYI if storing an engine in a car, either put the intake on or use duct tape. The painters tape and clear tape leak and you get water in the firing cylinders.


Moving on this motor was supposed to be out of a 95 GT with a small cam (convinced this is a factor of why my MPH was so low). Anyways, we pull the motor that day and make a weekend out of it.

 

[Black1987]

To say the car looks rough is an understatement, but there is zero bondo/filler and is super straight with good floors.



http://s1087.photobucket.com/user/Black1987coupe/media/20150316_092139_zpsb5qqem9e.jpg.html




http://s1087.photobucket.com/user/Black1987coupe/media/20150316_092832_zpsquv4k4w1.jpg.html


http://s1087.photobucket.com/user/Black1987coupe/media/20150316_095342_zpsxcwjxiy1.jpg.html


http://s1087.photobucket.com/user/Black1987coupe/media/20150316_095352_zps6qqdr1x8.jpg.html


http://s1087.photobucket.com/user/Black1987coupe/media/20150316_095355_zpsvasl9ia3.jpg.html


After cleaning out the crap, I bought a gasket rebuild kit for KAS and some odd and ends from Advance Auto.

Come to find out the heads and lower intake had elongated holes and broken bolts in them. So I robbed a set of E7s from a wrecked drag car in the junkyard. Leaked tested them, they appeared to have some work done to them and new springs. Then slapped on my old cobra intake with some explorer injectors.

Leak down check





Had to hone one of the cylinder for extra assurance.





No time like the present to learn





Bearings and oil pump

RL=http://s1087.photobucket.com/user/Black1987coupe/media/IMG_37443575992190_zpsiao0r0ar.jpeg.html]





New timing chain





Cleaning old gaskets and carbon off the heads




Before and after cleaning









Head Gaskets




Heads are on


Little pre-oil and gaskets

 

[stykthyn]

I seriously dig your hyperlinking

 

[Black1987]

I had some time to update. I purchased the tubular uppers and lowers control arms from our vendor CJPony, Strange 10 way adjustable shocks, and some SVE progressive lowering springs. I took some side by side shots for everyone. However, there has been a revised design of the arms at LMR, but I wanted the grease zerks.


All together
















Lowers control arms




Upper control arms








Old set up (4 cylinder springs one coil cut)







Shock side by side



New set up





A few key notes if you are doing the control arms. The hardware provided, I wasn’t a fan of. It is stamped grade 8, however it is very soft.




If your old hardware is in good shape, then reuse it. The stock upper control bolts you cannot reuse due to the length (see below). But, you can use a set of stock lower control bolts instead from another build I had or junkyard.




Overall I think the car hooked a lot better on the old suspension IMO, but I still playing with shock rates. I think the progressive springs are way more forgiving on the street.





More to come, almost have everything for the front end suspension.



Mini update

Well the exhaust with the catted h pipe and flows in the back was on the car, but has a clogged cat. The pipe also has a small hole that needs to be welded.


Sooooo, header packs FTW. Old school cherry bombs and surprisingly a lot quieter.




Up next wasn’t much of an upgrade, but needed to be done, was the rear brakes.




http://s1087.photobucket.com/user/Black1987coupe/media/20150412_133918_zpsujnxlmgd.jpg.html



Just trying to make it drivable for now. I also thought I just had a bad bearing in the rear. However I later learned upon pulling the axles, they were pitted and needed to be replaced.






The new to me axles have really long stud and are beefier. They’ll work for now.







The middle one is one of the new ones.



http://s1087.photobucket.com/user/Black1987coupe/media/20150412_133918_zpsujnxlmgd.jpg.html




New bearings





So, don’t be dumb like me and wiggle the axles while putting the C clips in…..or the spider gears will pop out. Lesson learned smh

 

[Black1987]

Oh and my diff cover had a crap ton of RTV too. Before and after below. After putting the cover back on, I filled with LMR kit of royal purple.








I hope to get to the front end soon, but being 1.45 hour away sucks and eats into my budget. Well anyone remember this, I found it in my storage






Well when it rains it pours haha. I had a leaking header on number cylinder 4, I thought. However, after a long day of finally deciding to go back for shorties for the time being. I also wanted to finally install a remanufactured cobra rack on this car, which meant changing to the hybrid maximum motorsport steering shaft.







Driver side header






Leaking SOB













So, I forgot how much of a PITA it was to put/pull these headers. Basically you have to pull the motor almost completely out. That’s when dumb crap happens like the yoke popping out and spilling that cheap old Dextron III on the ground smh. Moving on old rack out, old steering shaft, and comparisons.















I will say an fyi, if you have a 4 cylinder conversion with the original rack and want to do the 03/04 swap. Then you will have to swap to the 5.0 spindles and hubs or cut the ends. I went ahead and swapped to the GT stuff that was off an old project.


Stock vs Expensive











Headers side by side and an old h pipe off a member here.










Struts and spindles














20 dollar mistake




Home sweet home

[URL=http://s1087.photobucket.com/user/Black1987coupe/media/12180041_1075741179116580_1827978171_n_zpsrddrpuv5.jpg.html] [/URL]



I finished putting the hubs on and its sitting on the ground rolling. Waiting on new rubber brake hoses and pads. Then I have some PowerStop rotors for it. I still have to bolt the catback on. But some progress.

 

[Black1987]

I seriously dig your hyperlinking

Yeah no clue on why it does that, but i posted this to help kill time for a buddy of mine on 3rd shift. Enjoy

 

[stykthyn]

I dig the progress. Love the stance in that tail shot.

 

[Black1987]

I dig the progress. Love the stance in that tail shot.

It is actually lower with LMR progressive rears than with the stock 4 cylinder springs with 1 coil cut . It nibbled my tire when I flexed accidentally on my path to the house.

 

[Black1987]

Finally took the sticker off. When I bought it, it said insane lunatic tattoos and piercings. My family thought it suited the car, but been getting odd looks going on to base everyday now.



Also, been driving around lately and had a 75mm throttle body laying around from another car I sold.

So I thought bolt it and just see what needs to be clearanced. Not quite what I expected.






It was nice the other day, so I had a CAI laying around



Currently fixing odds and ends .....btw this is the path that cut the tire


View: http://youtu.be/GoYG_h7zhB8

 

[Davedacarpainter]

It is actually lower with LMR progressive rears than with the stock 4 cylinder springs with 1 coil cut . It nibbled my tire when I flexed accidentally on my path to the house.

Very cool man, that chick is a keeper btw. If my wife sees grease on ME, she feels like she needs to clean up.

 

[Black1987]

Very cool man, that chick is a keeper btw. If my wife sees grease on ME, she feels like she needs to clean up.

Yeah she has seen me covered head to toe in mud, grease, fiberglass and doesn't care. She still brings me cold drinks and meals while working ....as long as she gets to rip on the car too. Actually the rolling shot in the curve was her testing out the 03/04 Cobra rack and steering shaft.

 

[Boosted92LX]

Amazing. A redhead female that likes to wrench on engines!

 

[Black1987]

Track was humid as crap that day around 100 degrees, it cooled off a little that night. I had an exhaust leak on cylinder 2 and the plug in the back of head (Check engine light for that and EGR). Tires were Toyo Extenza on 35-30-25-20 psi....the guy kept spraying the burnout box even though I asked him not too (no way to drive around it either). 5 speed, full weight plus the trunk fully loaded with tools and jack and etc.

Best part of the day was no ac, wife riding for 1 hour drive to the track filled up before we left, and got 25 mpg round trip including the 4 passes on 87 octane.

 

[Black1987]

@84Ttop & @madmike1157 are the mphs low for a relatively stock 5.0 with 3.73s (elevation basically sea level 15 ft)

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

@84Ttop & @madmike1157 are the mphs low for a relatively stock 5.0 with 3.73s (elevation basically sea level 15 ft)

Can't answer that one, not a drag racer.

 

[Black1987]

Can't answer that one, not a drag racer.

ah didn't know if you knew relatively. Well I have checked the sticky and google seems to have a wide variability

 

[cleanLX]

you said the trunk was full of tools, jack etc., so, without knowing the cars actual weight, and the actual air conditions (you can be at sea level and have 3500' DA) it's hard to say if that is a time representative of a 5.0 with intake/exhaust mods or not. My intitail thoughts are that it's slow but, you are throwing used parts together with unknown mileage/wear/condition...
Mine ran 100mph when it was stock with offroad H pipe and 3.73's, but it was essentially a new car at the time with an empty trunk and it had certainly never been on fire... and we typically had DA of 300' or better.

I really enjoyed reading this entire thread.
You have more guts than me, I would not have the "balls" to build a motor out in the yard like that... so if it were my car, it would be sitting and rotting.
So, all I can say is I commend you for your efforts and for actually getting out to the track and running it.
I have a lot of respect for guys that make do with what they have, and are not afraid to run their cars.
Tip of the hat to you young man.

 

[Black1987]

you said the trunk was full of tools, jack etc., so, without knowing the cars actual weight, and the actual air conditions (you can be at sea level and have 3500' DA) it's hard to say if that is a time representative of a 5.0 with intake/exhaust mods or not. My intitail thoughts are that it's slow but, you are throwing used parts together with unknown mileage/wear/condition...
Mine ran 100mph when it was stock with offroad H pipe and 3.73's, but it was essentially a new car at the time with an empty trunk and it had certainly never been on fire... and we typically had DA of 300' or better.

I really enjoyed reading this entire thread.
You have more guts than me, I would not have the "balls" to build a motor out in the yard like that... so if it were my car, it would be sitting and rotting.
So, all I can say is I commend you for your efforts and for actually getting out to the track and running it.
I have a lot of respect for guys that make do with what they have, and run their cars.
Tip of the hat to you young man.

Thank you for the compliments. This time around the car will be on a diet and air/humidity is cool/low. Before like I said it was hot and you would sweat in the shade and NC humidity you can sweat but never dry off.

The in the yard built doesn't bother me as long as the parts are used (failure from FM makes anyone paranoid), but this was treated as a learning tool for the wife and nephew. The wife didn't understand the assembly/work involved but letting her do it. Now she wants to build more powerful set-up (guess she'll have to twist my arm on that...haha jk).

Have you made any changes to your set up lately?

 

[A5literMan]

Yes from my experience that mph is off by around 6-10mph. You should see 90 mph at a minimum(even with bad air). My 3 stock(ish) cars ran 92-95mph and with gears/tires-98-100mph. Even with higher temps/humidity something is amiss IMO. My 86 with just intake,exhaust,and stock 2.73 gears-Goodyear tires (before first rebuild) went 96mph(14.50's) and 2.xx 60 ft. You definitely need some better tires for the track and if you take .5seconds off that 60ft you'll see 1 second in et drop and pickup some mph.