Back in a fox. 1988 Turbo Coupe. The life journal.

Topic: Back in a fox. 1988 Turbo Coupe. The life journal. (Read 30992 times) previous topic - next topic

Back in a fox. 1988 Turbo Coupe. The life journal.

Reply #90 – August 20, 2018, 04:40:11 PM

Quote from: thunderjet302;466757

Refresh my memory but is the stock TC computer capable of supporting a MAF conversion with a tune?

It is capable with a J3 adapter and tuning software. The problem is that even then, the TC computer can only support so much.

Quote from: thunderjet302;466769

VAFs don't care about bends in front of the meter? MAFs get all screwy with bends.

The VAF doesn't care as long as it's mostly level and not getting a lot of NVH. It has a spring loaded door that actuates a potentiometer basically.

With that said, I have a Megasquirt 3 and 1000cc injectors. Once I get some other stuff caught up on the car, I intend on converting the car to MS, getting the cam phaser, setting up a crank trigger, and then going full sequential using LS2 coil packs.
The best place for the VAF and LA3 is the garbage can as far as I'm concerned.

Quote from: Chuck W;466764

The car looks great, Shawn.

I turned the intake tube downward in the fender on the '83 (You can kind of see it in the pic HERE. Was able to fit a fairly long filter in there.

Thanks Chuck. What you did is actually my intention. The way the bend goes into the fender, it angles toward the fender liner, so if I put a 90* bend, it'll aim it towards the fender. When I get to it, I'll get a better angle tube going into the fender and do what you did. I feel the VAM is a bigger restriction than the little filter anyways.

I did take the car out for a drive. Haven't driven it in a month or so. I always forget how shiznitty these cars are. I've got a lot of work ahead of me to get where I'm happy with its performance.

Back in a fox. 1988 Turbo Coupe. The life journal.

Reply #91 – August 20, 2018, 07:17:02 PM

I assume you're doing a stand alone MS conversion, since there is not a PNP option like for a 5.0 car.

The EDIS conversion should help out a bunch, especially since quality remanufactured distributors are hard to find.

Back in a fox. 1988 Turbo Coupe. The life journal.

Reply #92 – August 20, 2018, 07:20:57 PM

Quote from: Tbird232ci;466798

I did take the car out for a drive. Haven't driven it in a month or so. I always forget how shiznitty these cars are. I've got a lot of work ahead of me to get where I'm happy with its performance.

I recently drove a stock, low mile 86 5.0 Cougar. The thing handled like trash and giggled far too much. With all the suspension/frame reinforcement I've done to my car it's like driving a modern car (well except for the shiznitty Fox brakes, need to do a SN95 upgrade one day). You'll be amazed how much suspension mods and frame reinforcement helps. Well you already know, but a you'll be much happier with your TC once you've worked on the suspension.

Back in a fox. 1988 Turbo Coupe. The life journal.

Reply #93 – August 21, 2018, 09:16:26 PM

Quote from: thunderjet302;466803

I assume you're doing a stand alone MS conversion, since there is not a PNP option like for a 5.0 car.

The EDIS conversion should help out a bunch, especially since quality remanufactured distributors are hard to find.

Actually, Stinger-Performance has a MS based system call Pimp and PimpXS that is PNP for nearly all EEC-IV cars. I was initially going to go with the XS, but its about a grand with software licenses. It's the most seamless way to go MS, but it has it's downfalls, like relying on 30 year old wiring, and still using the IRCM found in the 87-88 TC's that like to have the fan circuit fail.

Distributors aren't that big of a deal. Finding a quality TFI module is the worst now. Other than that, rebuilding them isn't hard.

Biggest reason I'm going to go MS is that I have a MS3 in my toolbox from a previous project. I have to add the MS3xtra board, which isn't expensive, and build a harness. It'll allow me to ditch all of the extra wiring, and all of the that I don't need any more. It'll be a big project, but the payoff will me worth it.

Quote from: thunderjet302;466804

I recently drove a stock, low mile 86 5.0 Cougar. The thing handled like trash and giggled far too much. With all the suspension/frame reinforcement I've done to my car it's like driving a modern car (well except for the shiznitty Fox brakes, need to do a SN95 upgrade one day). You'll be amazed how much suspension mods and frame reinforcement helps. Well you already know, but a you'll be much happier with your TC once you've worked on the suspension.

Imagine that amount of suck, with 225K miles on it. It'll get better, but it's going to take patience. Patience is something I've never been good with.

Back in a fox. 1988 Turbo Coupe. The life journal.

Reply #94 – August 22, 2018, 08:28:32 AM

Doing the MS and doing tuning is a really great way to get knowledge on how these things work. A lot to learn, but you gain quite a bit from it.

Also, the MS tuning and interface is much easier than the stuff I'm looking at for tuning the factory Bosch Motronic ECUs in the 850's.

Back in a fox. 1988 Turbo Coupe. The life journal.

Reply #95 – August 22, 2018, 04:45:54 PM

Quote from: Tbird232ci;466798

I did take the car out for a drive. Haven't driven it in a month or so. I always forget how shiznitty these cars are. I've got a lot of work ahead of me to get where I'm happy with its performance.

I experience this on a daily basis. I work at a shop that specializes in European cars. 90% of the work I do is on modern BMW's, Benz's, Volvos, Land Rovers, etc. Every once in a while, though, I do some work on a classic European car. Might be an old Land Rover Defender, might be a Triumph, Might be an Alfa Romeo, might be a Fiat. There have even been some old Volvo PV544's & 1800's, plus some air cooled VW's. These cars all look incredible, but driving them really, really sucks. They are awful. They feel like they're falling apart. About the only ones that feel solid are the old Benz's, but they have absolutely no road feel or handling, they just feel like tanks.

This is why some day, when I find a four-eye Bird and am actually in the position to buy it, I don't car what it's got for a drivetrain, because it's all going into the harbour. The car would be stripped to the shell and rebuilt the way I want it. It'll have modern suspension, brakes, drivetrain, etc. The interior would remain as stock appearing as possible but it'd get all modern infotainment and instrumentation. I'm at the point now I don't even know whether I could be happy with a Windsor engine. I think I'd have to go with a Coyote.

Back in a fox. 1988 Turbo Coupe. The life journal.

Reply #96 – August 23, 2018, 03:17:45 PM

Quote from: Tbird232ci;466809

Actually, Stinger-Performance has a MS based system call Pimp and PimpXS that is PNP for nearly all EEC-IV cars. I was initially going to go with the XS, but its about a grand with software licenses. It's the most seamless way to go MS, but it has it's downfalls, like relying on 30 year old wiring, and still using the IRCM found in the 87-88 TC's that like to have the fan circuit fail.

Distributors aren't that big of a deal. Finding a quality TFI module is the worst now. Other than that, rebuilding them isn't hard.

Biggest reason I'm going to go MS is that I have a MS3 in my toolbox from a previous project. I have to add the MS3xtra board, which isn't expensive, and build a harness. It'll allow me to ditch all of the extra wiring, and all of the that I don't need any more. It'll be a big project, but the payoff will me worth it.

Imagine that amount of suck, with 225K miles on it. It'll get better, but it's going to take patience. Patience is something I've never been good with.

I didn't know you were planning on re-wiring the whole engine electrical system. That sounds not so fun. Good luck with that project.

I still think that frame stiffening and new/better suspension components are the best mods you can do to these cars. They just make them so much more enjoyable to drive. With 225k I imagine every bushing in the suspension on your car is toast. It can't ride well at all.

Back in a fox. 1988 Turbo Coupe. The life journal.

Reply #97 – August 24, 2018, 01:41:07 AM

Quote from: thunderjet302;466824

I didn't know you were planning on re-wiring the whole engine electrical system. That sounds not so fun. Good luck with that project.

I still think that frame stiffening and new/better suspension components are the best mods you can do to these cars. They just make them so much more enjoyable to drive. With 225k I imagine every bushing in the suspension on your car is toast. It can't ride well at all.

With some of the products offered for Megasquirt, it really wont be too bad. The hardest part will be separating the necessary chassis electronics from the engine electronics. The EEC harness ties into the ABS and ride control, along with the gauge wiring and other functions. I'll have to do a lot of EVTM studying and unpinning connectors. I actually enjoy that type of work.

I'm well aware of the differences the stiffening makes in these cars. A buddy of mine had a SN95 with a 3.8L, and the full MM catalog. The car wasn't fast, but it didn't matter. It was so much fun to drive. It never felt like a Mustang.

So today I set out to do a simple task. Of course, my attention span turned that into a handful of small projects.

My initial task was to degrease and clean up the engine bay. It's usually one of the first things I do to a car when I buy it. That went well. I sprayed the engine bay down with Greased Lightning, closed the hood, and then drug the power washer out of the shed. I set the power washer up, lifted the hood and sprayed it down again. I could see the crud running off of various components. Then it was time to blast. The only thing I was careful to avoid was the distributor. Everything got blasted. The paint on the valve cover basically exploded in a mess of tiny, black flakes. I chased the residual soap off of the rest of the car, and saw some of the crud coming out of the cracked and textured clear coat, so that also got the blast. The results are pretty pleasing.

So with the pressure washer out, I decided it was time to address the body side molding. It's not in bad shape, but it was a daily driver, and they tend to never get the attention they deserve. There was dirt caked between the door and the molding, and between the inner strip and the molding. I did clean a few sections by hand, but it was super tedious. Last week, I put the door badges back on the car. Typically, I hate putting words on a car. If you don't know what it is, I don't want you to look at the emblems and ask me dumb questions. I've had people read the emblems and say "That's one of them Super Coupes isn't it?" or "Is that the turbocharged V6?" I'd rather the conversation not happen. Anyways, the only reason I put them on was to fill the silver gap in the molding. Well, the pressure washer blew them both right off. I came up with a solution that I'm happy enough with for now.

While not the perfect solution, I'm actually very happy with the end result. It doesn't have a gaping silver hole in the molding, and it doesn't have an emblem on the door.

While not this week, another upcoming project:

Also received the 92-94 Ranger accessory brackets:

I also scrubbed and power washed them. The durability of 24 year old dirt is quite amazing.

Also, the other night, I bought a palm sander and an array of sand paper. Being a home owner, I know a palm sander will be useful, which is my justification for buying it. I have a few sets of lights kicking around, so I started trying to clean some up. Started with 320 grit and went up to 1k, and then some polish. I think I either need to spend more time with the lower grit paper, or use a more aggressive polish or compound to finish up. The surface still seems to have some haze to it.

I do have a mint pair of headlights, but with as rough as this car looks, I don't want to put perfect lights on it right now.

Back in a fox. 1988 Turbo Coupe. The life journal.

Reply #98 – August 24, 2018, 05:17:04 AM

I decided to spend a few hours out in the garage and work on the headlights a bit more. I got them pretty much to where I'm happy with them. The light that was pretty much done needed a more aggressive polish. I happened to have Mothers Mag and Wheel polish. As soon as I started rubbing with that the haze pretty much went away. I then used the Extra Cut polish and a few coats of wax.

These s are hard to photograph.

For the next set of lights I polish, I'll do a more comprehensive write up. I get tired of seeing people charge 300 dollars for a pair of decent headlights when you can put a little time, effort and money in and have your own decent headlights.

Back in a fox. 1988 Turbo Coupe. The life journal.

Reply #99 – August 24, 2018, 09:07:28 AM

You probably already know this but my bet is the accessory brackets have oxidized to the point they will need to be bead blasted. You can try some wheel (mag) cleaner on them and a stiff brush to see what that does but I think they have sat so long (typically what happens when a vehicle is not driven and the grim and crud helps with the oxidation process) you are past that. I just cleaned up the '07 Crown Victoria engine cross member and the spindles for my F100 project with mag cleaner and the cross member turned out awesome but the spindles did not. They are now down at the powder coaters getting bead blasted and will be coated a satin black. I opted for the satin black over a clear coat as the control arms are also satin black. I have this posed in the "Other vehicles" section if you want to see the results on the cleaning.

Other than that gibberish the car looks great! Cannot wait to see what your choices are suspension wise.

Back in a fox. 1988 Turbo Coupe. The life journal.

Reply #100 – August 24, 2018, 12:06:20 PM

The under hood clean up went great. Every time I see a Teves unit I remember how cool they look, for 80's tech. Then I remember how expensive parts are for them now and they seem less appealing.

Do you plan on eventually replacing the door moldings with regular, non TC ones, and then changing the chrome strip to a red strip?

For headlamp polishing I've found this stuff to work great after the last 1500 grit sanding: https://www.meguiarsdirect.com/meguiars-m105-mirror-glaze-ultra-cut-compound-32oz.html It also works great for paint blemishes/scuffs. Be forewarned it leaves a lot of dust.

Back in a fox. 1988 Turbo Coupe. The life journal.

Reply #101 – August 24, 2018, 01:43:19 PM

Quote from: Aerocoupe;466831

You probably already know this but my bet is the accessory brackets have oxidized to the point they will need to be bead blasted. You can try some wheel (mag) cleaner on them and a stiff brush to see what that does but I think they have sat so long (typically what happens when a vehicle is not driven and the grim and crud helps with the oxidation process) you are past that. I just cleaned up the '07 Crown Victoria engine cross member and the spindles for my F100 project with mag cleaner and the cross member turned out awesome but the spindles did not. They are now down at the powder coaters getting bead blasted and will be coated a satin black. I opted for the satin black over a clear coat as the control arms are also satin black. I have this posed in the "Other vehicles" section if you want to see the results on the cleaning.

Other than that gibberish the car looks great! Cannot wait to see what your choices are suspension wise.

Of they certainly are oxidized. I intend on spending more time on the brackets and getting the power coated, but I at least wanted them clean to where I'm not getting dirty every time I handle them. I did see your thread and was thinking about grabbing some of the wheel cleaner you used.

Suspension will be a long process with a few odd choices at first. I have to use the stuff I have laying around first, before I spend the big money.

Quote from: thunderjet302;466835

The under hood clean up went great. Every time I see a Teves unit I remember how cool they look, for 80's tech. Then I remember how expensive parts are for them now and they seem less appealing.

Do you plan on eventually replacing the door moldings with regular, non TC ones, and then changing the chrome strip to a red strip?

For headlamp polishing I've found this stuff to work great after the last 1500 grit sanding: https://www.meguiarsdirect.com/meguiars-m105-mirror-glaze-ultra-cut-compound-32oz.html It also works great for paint blemishes/scuffs. Be forewarned it leaves a lot of dust.

The Teves unit will be coming out at some point. I do love the technological advancement for the time, but it's terrible by todays standards. The pedal feel is horrible.

I'm fairly undecided as to what I'm going to do with the door moldings and the overall appearance of the car. The paint is shot and there is some rust. I have a co-worker that just came out of a body shop that is very willing to do the rust and mud repairs. After that, I'm not sure my plan. I've considered putting LX molding on it, and then going monochromatic. I've thought about putting the LX trim and swapping the red stripe. I've also thought about leaving the door moldings off and going monochromatic. There are also options like vinyl wrapping and Plasti-Dip. I'll figure it out when I get to that point.

So the Meguires 105 and 205 are compounds I was thinking of using. They are super popular in the detailing scene. Most of the time, the car will get clay bar, then 105, 205 and a wax or sealer. Those are products I intend on buying, aalong with a buffer.

Back in a fox. 1988 Turbo Coupe. The life journal.

Reply #102 – August 24, 2018, 03:01:51 PM

The 105 should work great after the last wet sand (1500 then 2000). Using a foam pad it'll take out all the sanding scratches. Meguiars Ultimate Compound is pretty darn close to the 105 and will get almost the same results with the lenses. So you can use that, as it's usually easier to find than the 105 at most auto parts stores.

Back in a fox. 1988 Turbo Coupe. The life journal.

Reply #103 – September 15, 2018, 06:48:58 AM

I don't have a whole lot to report. I have been taking some opportunity to drive drive the car for the most part. The weather has gotten a bit more cool, and the little IHI has been eating it up.

About 10 minutes into one drive to work, I smelled oil and noticed some smoke out of the hood scoops. Oh well, nothing I could do about. I went to work and looked at it before I left. The entire right side of the engine block was coated in oil. My co-worker and I were looking at it, and found the valve cover gasket is the culprit. It's leaking from the front corner, and blowing back over the block. While looking at it, I found that it has a CORK gasket. I haven't seen a cork gasket used in probably 15 years now. Blew my mind. I have a Ranger gasket sitting in the garage. I just haven't felt like messing with it yet.

I have had a head unit sitting in a bin since I parted out my red 87 however many years ago. It came in a friend's 4 runner back when we were just out of highschool, and he replaced it with a nicer one. He gave me this one, and it suited the car fairly well. It was from 1998 or so. I ordered up the harness, and sat and soldered every wire and used heat shrink. I also learned that premium sound cars don't ground the head unit through the harness, they ground through the case. After resolving that issue, and having some other dumb drama with the head unit, that is installed and working well. The best thing was when I turned it on, a CD started playing. It was the last CD I was listening to when I decided to pull the red bird off of the road. Brought back a tidal wave of memories and emotions.

It didn't photograph well, but the green matches the green in the car fairly well. I'm happy with it for now.

I've also realize that I haven't really taken pictures of the car. I haven't really felt that desire to just run around and take pictures like I used to. I did randomly decided to take a picture while I was at work.

It makes the car look a bit nicer than it is, but I'll take it.

Back in a fox. 1988 Turbo Coupe. The life journal.

Reply #104 – September 15, 2018, 11:23:24 PM

Did the car have Premium Sound without the EQ?