86 Mystery Mods Progress!

Likely a explorer engine transplant
Find a plasic line that should come from under the firewall at the passenger frame rail in the engine compartment and passes by the shock tower, that is the fuel tank vent and needs to hooked up to a charcoal canistrr with the related solenoid and stuff, can be had new so no problems there.
I'll have to see what all is still under the car. If it's a transplant, explorers have WAY more power then it needs, this car gets sideways at 1/2 throttle in second gear no problem, assuming of course it doesn't starve for fuel and stumble. Lol
 
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They really didn't have any more power than a mustang 5.0, maybe a little more in the torque department. It probably has a taller gear in the back, a cheap mod is gt40 heads, better valve springs and an explorer intake, you got the jump on that already. You just need to un hack the rest of it. They guys here will help you out.
 
Explorer engines just need a cam swap to make them a bit more suited to a light car like a fox.

I do notice no ACT sensor mounted in the lower intake, and you have manifold vacuum applied to the BAP sensor on a mass air equipped car. Both should be corrected.

I'd run the codes and see what else is missing. Does it have o2 sensors?
 
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Check the computer behind the passenger kick panel. I'm interested to see which computer you have.
 
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Explorer engines just need a cam swap to make them a bit more suited to a light car like a fox.

I do notice no ACT sensor mounted in the lower intake, and you have manifold vacuum applied to the BAP sensor on a mass air equipped car. Both should be corrected.

I'd run the codes and see what else is missing. Does it have o2 sensors?
It does have O2 sensors, we had the car on a lift before I bought it. There also looked to be a few connectors I thought we're O2 sensors under the car on the drivers side that weren't connected to anything, but I found the o2's and they were connected, maybe a speed sensor or backup light? It looked like a round 4 or 6 pin, don't recall
 
Probably the VSS or NGS sensor...both which should really be hooked up for the car to run properly as both affect the car's neutral idle strategy and what happens when coming to a stop and pressing the clutch pedal in.

Add them to the list of things to identify and correct.
 
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Pic of the ecu
 

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Well it means the vacuum line on the BAP can stay as is, and you should see if that MAF has any wiring and if it's connected to anything.

Also, everything unplugged under the car needs to find its home.

Have you run the codes?
 
Running codes may not work without the round plug under the car hooked up. ( if its the neutral switch )....or if the clutch switch isn't hooked up. That is a built in safety feature so you can't run a KOER test with the car in gear. That would end real bad.

One of the first things is identifying everything that isn't plugged in. Then you need to dissect the added wiring to see where the PO tapped in to stuff.

The car runs and drives....that's way more than half the battle. You know it has the stock 86 computer so the wiring should be the same as an 86 5.0

There was a way that people would wire a MAF sensor into a speed density computer like yours. I don't remember off hand ( that was at least 15yrs ago ). I don't think an 87+ computer would work on your car because the dash harness is a little different.

You need a good wiring schematic for your year and model car. Then you need to trace and repair all the botched up wiring.

The emissions stuff usually won't cause driveability problems....other than pinging from no egr function on hills while cruising ( light throttle ).

The ECT sensor is very important. If the car doesn't know how warm it is it could cause a high idle condition, rough idling, and stumbles while driving. There should be two on your car. One temperature sender for the stock gauge ( one wire ) and another for the cars computer ( 2 wires ). There should also be an IAT sensor....it goes in the intake and read air temperature.
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The air temp sensor and coolant temp sensor look almost identical other than the very tip.
 
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I know the ACT has been mentioned, but did anyone notice that the previous owner did connect the ACT sensor but instead of trapping the lower intake or moving it to the air box they just layed it next to the distributor lol.
 
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Running codes may not work without the round plug under the car hooked up. ( if its the neutral switch )....or if the clutch switch isn't hooked up. That is a built in safety feature so you can't run a KOER test with the car in gear. That would end real bad.

It is wired in parallel with the switch on the clutch pedal, so as long as he's holding the clutch down the entire time it will allow him to proceed.

That assumes it's hooked up to a functional switch of course.