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Messages - Haystack

2
Engine Tech / Re: Build approval someone please!
Forged pistons are just stronger. If you are thinking about boost or nitrous is say its highly recommended.

The stock fuel pump in our cars is around 60 lph, the stock mustang fuel pump is around 90, most guys go to a 190lph or higher. I would definitely upgrade either way.

Stay away from parts store pumps, I've had no luck with them, some even dead out of the box.
3
Engine Tech / Re: Build approval someone please!
You can use the explorer block if you want. The crank doesn't stick out as far, cant Remember of that is just a different pulley/harmonic ballancer or not. The block is fine, and so are the pistons, however the pistons are not forged.

I would stick with the motor you already have if the pistons will clear. This needs checked, especially with a bigger cam and the gt40 heads.

I would suggest a 24# injector and the mods needed for that. You would be right on the edge if What 19# injectors will want to do.
4
Drivetrain Tech / Re: 87 5.0 aod wont shift out of 2nd gear
Do not over torque the pan. Ive had to top off a trans several times before it takes enough fluid to move.

You can lightly hammer the edges of the pan around the bolt holes back flat using a block of wood. Do it carefully with a ball peen hammer, the smaller the better.
5
Electrical Tech / Re: 1988 EVTM
Thanks Eric, that's actually where I ended up. I just assumed that I waa missing a fuse or a bad wire. When I crawled under to check fuses I found about 5 wires jammed into the fuse box with a bunch of splices. So I wanted a good reference if What it should have looked like.
7
Electrical Tech / Re: 1988 EVTM
Thank you for uploading this. Trying to figure out why I have the center top mount brake light and no tail light brake light. Turn signals and hazards work perfect and no blown fuses.
8
User Rides / Re: Starting fresh
Grease everything up good. Buy some cheap terry cloth and something to hose everything off with. Wd40, alcohol, just about anything will work. Once eberything is clean, I like white lithium grease. Its expensive, but it still works okay when its dirty and is really easy to get anywhere.

Once that's done, get some silicone window stuff, hose down all the rubber seals and edges around the window. This will make a mess, but it will bring all the rubber back to life and make it softer and make it not stick to the glass.

Then finally, I really like black windshield adhesive. I clean up the window really well where the track lines up good.  I then lightly sandpaper the glass near the tracks then clean it up one more time. Do a few dry runs without any glue and make sure the window is in the proper place on the tracks. Then dump some of that black goo in there, roll the window all the way up and leave it for a day or two.

I've bought new clips when they are broken, I have drilled holes on them hopong to make stuff stick better, but its really not needed.

The cleaner and better greased everything is, the less the glue matters honestly. The reason I use the wind shield adhesive is because it is specifically designed to bond to glass and plastics, its sort of rubbery so it can take some side load if everything isn't perfect and it sticks like a mofo. We go from about -10°f to about 110°f every six months or so and it does really well. Ive never had to reglue it if I lubed everything up good first.  The only thing that sucks is thst it will not cure below freezing, you want it to be 60+° outside for it to cure fully.
9
Exhaust / Re: Any decent noises if I swap glass pack for factory muffler?
I out cherry bombs on my ex wife's crown vic wagon. Exhaust and engine are very similar to our cars except it has about a 2" h-pipe with duals all the way through.

We bought the car cheap, but right around the mufflers was rotted out on both sides, it was the low point where water collected when it sat. It was a california car and had virtually no rust anywhere else on the exhaust.

I actually ordered factory replacement mufflers for it at first, but the pipe was so rotted out I could break them with my finger tips, so I cut out everything that was rotted and then took a measurement for how much pipe I needed to replace it.

I ended up just getting cherry bombs because they were longer and cheaper then an exhaust extension.

I was really disappointed in it, sounded 100% stock. You could hear the mechanical fan over the exhaust, even at wot.

My 88xr7 also had no tailpipe, they had a cherry bomb welded right to the cat. Couldn't tell until you hit a bump and it hit the floor.

Honestly, in our cars, the 3 super big cats and tiny 1 7/8" exhaust diameter where it necks down in places for clearance and tight bends kills all the sound. Mix that in with the exhaust manifolds, even "open header" they really aren't all that loud.

One day ill get around to throwing duals on one.
10
Engine Tech / Re: Front Accessory Drive Modifications
When I did my 3g I did wire mine up this way, but along with another 6 gauge charge cable and a 175 amp factory style fuse.

You do not only want to use that single 10 gauge wire as the charge wire for a 3g alt. It will easily melt the wire or possibly burn up the car.
11
User Rides / Re: Starting fresh
Quote from: Clayton on
Well crisis averted. For now. Drained the oil and it came out relatively clean all things considered. Spun the oil filter off and was expecting to get the usual oil bath and nothing until I turned it over. Apparently the oil filter was clogged.  :shoothead:  I didn't even think about that didn't even register in my mind. All is good in the world now.

Now to put the inside back together again. Then off to the alignment shop

Was it a fram?

I've seen them push cardboard mush out of engines that have sat for a while...
12
User Rides / Re: Starting fresh
Quote from: Clayton on
I was waiting for it and I knew it was coming... The two steps back in the process lol. I did a couple things to the old girl today, one of which was starting it and letting it run for a little bit. Well she started ticking I checked the gauges... Oil pressure is at 0. I'm going to change the oil tomorrow with some cheapo oil to see if that helps in any way.

I suspect the oil pump locked up. If it did. No big deal. I have 2 avenues to go down. Swap the pump... Swap the motor. I really dont want to swap the motor just yet. But if that's what I have to do that's what I'm going to do.

I was really hoping to update the calico motor before swapping it over and driving it for a while with the lo-po motor.

We shall see.

The oil pump is run by a gear on the dizzy. If the oil pump locked up, it would destroy the shaft running to the oil pump and id be surprised if it ran. Should take out the dizzy and gear too.
13
General Fox T-Bird/Cougar Discussion / Re: Ready for this one?
Wanna hear the worst part? Holy cheap swapping springs sucks and is super scary on these cars.

When I was in auto shop in high school there was a kid working in the stuts he just pulled out of his car. He was sitting right next to me, took of the top of the strut mount and it popped him into the chest and knocked him flat on the ground. He ended up in the back of an ambulance, teacher said that he was trying to out lowering springs on his Honda and heard he didn't need a spring compressor.

Ever since then, I've been a bit gun shy whenever I'm around springs.

So I pulled the a-arm off my 86 cougar. Wasn't too bad, after unhooking the strut and swinging the spindle out of the way, I pryed it a bit with a shovel and it fell out, in two peices. Thought, wow that was easy, I wonder why everyone makes such a big deal of this.

Went over to do the same thing to my 86 tbird, unhook the spindle, let the a arm down to the ground. The spring is bowed out quite a bit and won't come out at all, obviously still under a ton of tension. So I jack it back up till its about to lift off the back stand, grab two beefy ratchet straps and wrap them around the spring, tighten them a bit and then do the same thing again.

I think I spent 3 hours trying to work up the courage to actually get the spring out. Then once it was out, I felt like it was a hand grenade ready to go off. Swap out the a-arm and go to out it back in, and even with the ratchet strap fully compressed and the spring almost touching every coil, still can't get it in. So chickened out and then went to get a spring compressor.

I needed up trying three different spring compressors before I got one that really worked, they were all to big to fit between the coils, even after I loosened the ratchet straps and removed them.

Ill bet I spent 4 hours trying to get the spring compressor out, after I finally got it lined up right and everything in place. Have to use an open ended wrench to loosen all 9" of the threads showing still on the spring compressor before it loosened up. Then I spent about an hour trying to take the thing apart and get it out and in between the coils.

She. I went to put the busted a-arm back on my 86 parts car, I bitterly cut about 3 coils off the already broken spring just so I didn't have to mess with that stupid tool again.

Then right as I get that done, remeber that wobbly fan clutch? I dunno if it was the two years of driving with a blown head gasket or the fan clutch that did it in, but I go to take the car on a test drive, and it hucks the serpentine belt. The brand new barely driven 5 miles serpentine belt. Pull over and pop the hood and the fan is sitting in the shroud with the entire water pump shaft bouncing up and down on the harmonic balancer.

So I swap out the water pump for the 3rd, maybe 4th time in the last two years, and its leaking, badly. I did kinda rush stuff, I used rtv on the long water pump bolts, but I didn't clean them off.

So after working a few more days and getting picked up and dropped off at work, I finally have enough time to redo the eater pump bolts. This time I took my time, wire wheeled off each on and cleaned up the entire bolt, then I put a bunch of thread sealant on each bolt, along with a touch of rtv along the shaft of the bolt just for good luck.

Now for the first time in 2 years and 85k miles, I have a daily driver that doesn't overheat or shoot coolant out overnight, even in 105°f heat. I love this car again. But not do I feel like I've been working too hard on it.
14
Engine Tech / Re: New Radiator
Which radiator are you running now? A mechanical fan will blow more air then almost any aftermarket electric. What do you have the timing set at? Also is this ethonal fuel? We have 10% ethonal blend here, and I run 14-16° timing because the car likes it. Sometimes you can go as high as 18.
15
T-Bird/Cougar Parts & Cars WANTED / Re: Fuel level sending unit
Reason I asked is because I am parting out two cars, an 86 and an 88. Both of them the gas guages worked fine. However the float and the arm is different based on year and motor as they had different gas tanks and sizes in addition to different resistances throughout the years. I was thinking if I had more information I might have had a drop in solution for you.