The Black Pearl - Progress Thread

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#101
Needs new tires for sure. The Michelins on there are over 8 years old and they're dry-rotted all to hell - one on the left-rear is slowly leaking air because of this. That, and they're undersized which not only looks goofy but also has my speedo reading all weird.

The list of immediate must-haves is short:

1. Tires;
2. Speedo cable and/or gear (goes crazy and bounces around when over 55 MPH);

Stuff that I would LIKE to fix/replace but can't afford to yet (probably won't for a long while) and I can let go for the time being:

1. Radio (gonna use the one that's currently in Stinky when I can afford a better unit);
2. Valve cover gaskets;
3. New plug wires and Motorcraft plugs (those platinum Autolites in there suck, but they're brand-new);
4. Paint/clean a few pieces in the interior (dash, headliner, some random little stuffs);
5. New front driver's seatbelt latch (spring for the button is broke - it latches and holds, but I don't trust it);
6. Dual exhaust conversion (soon as I figure out how to relocate the external fuel pump and filter);
7. New motor mounts (rubber 'vert mounts or poly mounts, whichever)
8. Sand and repaint air cleaner assembly (and maybe throw on a 4v sticker instead of EFI, in case I go carb'ed, as it might lead the Smog Nazis not to think twice about it being carb'ed);
9. Touch up exterior paint the prior owner totally screwed up (mostly around the lower half of the front and rear bumpers);
10. Finish the centerline pinstriping around the rear bumper OR locate and slap on all the proper centerline trim (it's missing all the mouldings from the front to the back on both sides);
11. Locate and install missing driver's side lower rocker panel trim piece (dunno if it's a stock piece or aftermarket);
12. Finish fixing that damned LX wing by bolting it down properly, sealing the bolts, and wiring that sucker up so that the third brake light actually works;
13. T-5 conversion :drool: ;
14. Maybe a carb or roller-motor conversion (in the far, far future);

That's all I can think of at the moment. :shrug:
 

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#104
:banana:

The radiator seems barely adequate for the summers here in AZ, as it stays about at the 1/3 mark while you're moving but it heats up to the halfway point when you're at a stoplight long enough, but what the hell. The car runs great right now, idles PERFECTLY, and rides pretty damned smoothly.

My new list of fix-its:

1. Front sway bar end links (broken);
2. Need to pull the rear wheels and check the brake shoes and wheel bearings - there's a scraping-squeaky sound from the rear when you come to a stop, might be a broken brake shoe spring or something, I dunno;
3. Speedometer cable and/or speedo gear (bouncy-bouncy above 45 MPH);
4. Need to check front end parts, as it pulls a little to the left and has a small bit of slop in the steering (probably ball joints and/or tie rod ends);
5. New motor mounts;
6. Tires;
7. Swap out rear view mirror (all spotty and hard to see through);
8. Valve cover gaskets;
9. Damned coolant oveflow tank has a bit of a dripping leak - need to either seal up or replace it;
10. Other little stuff mentioned previously in the thread that I can't remember right now. :scratch:

Gonna run in early Monday mornin' and get me some plates, but in the meantime, this weekend the car's getting a nice bath, wax, and Seafoam flushin'. :nice:

I are a happy camper. :D
 
#106
Darkwriter77 said:
:banana:

The radiator seems barely adequate for the summers here in AZ, as it stays about at the 1/3 mark while you're moving but it heats up to the halfway point when you're at a stoplight long enough, but what the hell. The car runs great right now, idles PERFECTLY, and rides pretty damned smoothly.

My new list of fix-its:

1. Front sway bar end links (broken);
2. Need to pull the rear wheels and check the brake shoes and wheel bearings - there's a scraping-squeaky sound from the rear when you come to a stop, might be a broken brake shoe spring or something, I dunno;
3. Speedometer cable and/or speedo gear (bouncy-bouncy above 45 MPH);
4. Need to check front end parts, as it pulls a little to the left and has a small bit of slop in the steering (probably ball joints and/or tie rod ends);
5. New motor mounts;
6. Tires;
7. Swap out rear view mirror (all spotty and hard to see through);
8. Valve cover gaskets;
9. Damned coolant oveflow tank has a bit of a dripping leak - need to either seal up or replace it;
10. Other little stuff mentioned previously in the thread that I can't remember right now. :scratch:

Gonna run in early Monday mornin' and get me some plates, but in the meantime, this weekend the car's getting a nice bath, wax, and Seafoam flushin'. :nice:

I are a happy camper. :D
Click to expand...
Thats really a minor list buddy :nice: Aside from the tires thats not really any high dollar stuff :banana:
5.0Droptop said:
did you slap on the bones yet?
Click to expand...

As happy as Dave is im sure somebody is gonna get slapped with a bone :D
 
#107
I almost forgot. Dave, try and catch Horse Power on Spike tomorrow morning. They tried this thing from CFI Engenering (I think that was the name) that makes a plate so that both butterflys will feed both banks and they also showed this cool build it yourself CAI. Had the custom piece to go over the CFI and then it has all the bent pipes and sections with couplers so you can build the setup you want. Both parts were aroun $300. They never said exact price. They picked up 9 hp and 17ft tq and 2.4 mpg. Not sure how much that had to do with the new plugs and wires though :shrug:


Here we go. For the spacer:
CFM Technologies

Web: CFM Technologies
Phone: 603-238-6721

And for the CAI:
Spectre Performance

Web: Spectre Performance
Phone: 800-821-4868
 
#108
5.0Droptop said:
did you slap on the bones yet?
Click to expand...

Heh ... sort of. For whatever reason, the holes the PO drilled into the front bumper are like 1/4" too wide to fit any license plate on it, and I don't wanna drill new holes or anything, so I just threw the Jolly Roger on the back plate mount for right now, since I'm running a 30-day tag for the time being. It's like the only time I can legally run around with something other than a license plate back there, anyway, so what the hell... :D I'll snap pics as soon as I give 'er a bath and a wax, tomorrow.

LaserSVT said:
Thats really a minor list buddy :nice: Aside from the tires thats not really any high dollar stuff :banana:


As happy as Dave is im sure somebody is gonna get slapped with a bone :D
Click to expand...

You're right, the basic fix-its are cheap enough ... but the stuff that I WANT to do to it is where the money starts coming in (in order of priority):

1. Dual exhaust conversion - about $500
2. T-5 conversion - about $750 (minus whatever I can get for selling the AOD afterward)
3. CFI-to-carb conversion - $500 (maybe less if I go with a stock 4bbl intake and carb)

And being that all my money is gonna be tied up in dental work for the next 6 months or so, wellllllll ... y'know. It's gonna hafta stay pretty much as-is for quite awhile.

LaserSVT said:
I almost forgot. Dave, try and catch Horse Power on Spike tomorrow morning. They tried this thing from CFI Engenering (I think that was the name) that makes a plate so that both butterflys will feed both banks and they also showed this cool build it yourself CAI. Had the custom piece to go over the CFI and then it has all the bent pipes and sections with couplers so you can build the setup you want. Both parts were aroun $300. They never said exact price. They picked up 9 hp and 17ft tq and 2.4 mpg. Not sure how much that had to do with the new plugs and wires though :shrug:


Here we go. For the spacer:
CFM Technologies

Web: CFM Technologies
Phone: 603-238-6721

And for the CAI:
Spectre Performance

Web: Spectre Performance
Phone: 800-821-4868
Click to expand...

Dunno if I wanna blow any dough on trying to beef up the CFI. Besides, you can't do a whole lot with the EEC-III system without getting the ECM all freaked out - it's even more anal and unadaptive than the EEC-IV speed density system, apparently. The car pretty much has a cold-air intake from the factory that should be good for plenty o' power with the dual-snorkel air cleaner, I just need to add a K&N filter and get those flexible connections that go to the fenderwell parts (the air nozzles aiming down toward the front fenders are still in place). Or I can just cheap-shot it and go with one of those open-element HOT-air intakes... :D

I'll check that site out and see if there's anything I could possibly use on both the CFI and carb setups, though...



Fixed the horn (blown fuse and bad connection) and the leak on the coolant overflow tank (Ultra Copper RTV silicone, wooooo!), and filled the washer fluid reservoir, so I'm all good to go there. Car doesn't appear to be leaking ANYTHING now, doesn't leave a spot at all where it's parked, although it's got like 20 lbs. of caked-on oil and goop on the front undercarriage and underside of the motor from leaky valve covers and who knows what else. I might get overzealous tomorrow when I'm cleaning it and go scrape a bunch of that crap off there to see if I still have any major leaks going on...
 
#110
UPDATE: Still not done farting 'round with it for the weekend, but here's what I've done thus far...

1. Deleted the heater hoses and plugged the intake's T-connection with the coolant temp sensor threaded into a brass bushing (the heater core was leaking, plus the stupid T-connection had rotted apart enough to start leaking, as well);
2. Wrapped up all the exposed wires I could with plastic conduit and electrical tape. Engine bay looks MUCH nicer now, especially after I wiped everything down pretty well;
3. Gave the entire car a hardcore inside n' out cleaning, even took apart half the dash to get the old dust n' crap out from behind there (OCD tendencies about cleaning took over ... pretty much ate up the whole day);

On the downside of things, my car smells kind of like sour milk now because I had a jug of distilled water sitting on the floor behind the driver's seat and the stupid thing had a pinhole leak in it - half a gallon of water soaked the carpet and mildewed in the summer heat. :ack: Tried to undo it as best I could by sprinkling baking soda on it, waiting an hour or so, and vacuuming it out. It helped, but the smell's still there. So, now it looks a LOT cleaner, but it smells funky. Dammit. :fuss:

I got engine bay pics in the daytime but didn't get done with the rest of the cleaning until after dark, so here's the best I came up with...

View attachment 303925

View attachment 303926

View attachment 303927
 
#116
You can do the carb swap for about 450 easy. Thats using brand new parts. The dual swap should run about 400 using stock manifolds. Shoot me a pm if your interested in picking some stuff up. I get parts dirt cheap and have a supply of exausht parts laying around.
 
#118
I do wanna eventually get around to switching over to carb, but for right now (and probably at least the next 6 months), I'm too broke to even afford tires. :( Plus I was only able to get 14-month tags for it instead of full 2-year tags - something about the month of the year it falls on or whatever, I dunno - so I'll have to re-smog it next November. I'm hoping to get around to doing the dual exhaust conversion before then, but not doing the carb swap before that smog test because I wanna see how switching from one cat to two affects its emissions numbers. If I do both at once and it fails by emissions numbers, I want to be able to know if it's due to the change in exhaust or if it's the carb setup - don't wanna throw too many variables out there, y'know.

As far as switching to duals, from what I've read and what I can see on this car, I need:

1. Double-hump trans crossmember;
2. 86+ headers;
3. X-pipe (still have that UPR cat'ed X-pipe laying around);
4. A cat-back of some brand (kinda leaning towards Dynomax because I like their fit/finish and I don't want this thing to SOUND faster than it is, because it's gonna be plenty slow for a long while);
5. Relocate the external fuel pump, either by moving both up by the fuel tank, or just converting to a single in-tank fuel pump (which would kinda suck because I'd later have to yank the fuel pump out and put the low-pressure one back in when I switch to carb);
6. Either move the passenger-rear brake line out of the way or switch to an '86+ brake line;
7. Misc. hangers and header gaskets and whatnot.

I'll be keeping an eye out for any used cat-backs or whatever I can find that might work out in the meantime (as I can afford them), but so far my conservative estimates put the dual exhaust swap at around $500. :shrug:

On the plus side of things, I pulled the front and rear wheels and was happy to see that the front pads and rear shoes are not only brand-spankin' new but the fronts appear to be ceramic pads. :nice: But on the downside, the PO buggered up one of the front-left lug studs' threads, so I'm running 3 lugs on that one wheel until I can get around to banging out the old stud and pressing in a new one. :notnice:

Thus far, she's runnin' perfectly cool and isn't leaking a drop of anything on the ground. For once, neither of my vehicles requires a drip pan underneath it in the driveway! :banana:

Also just got done pouring about 1/3 can of Seafoam through the PCV and it's currently sitting n' soaking before I take it out to rod the snot out of it. Poured another 1/3 of the can into the gas tank. Saving that last 1/3 to run through Stinky, since I'm sure it's NEVER been done on that poor animal - the smog show should be impressive. :D
 
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