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Messages - Chuck W

3
User Rides / Re: Work In Progress. '88 TC
What are you doing to these poor starters? Lol

Does the PimpX include any turbo control routines? What are you currently running? I know my T3 with the GN cold-side would definitely benefit from something besides a spring/ball manual regulator.

I know after messing with tuning on my Volvo 850 with the turbo control routines in the stock software, it's pretty easy to improve the drivability of a potential over-sized turbo.

I haven't dug into the Pimp stuff, as I just do the MegaSquirt stuff (And my current ones are too old.) so I don't know what he's got built in.
4
Other Vehicles / Re: Added another Fox to the fleet - 1985 Marquis LTS
Yeah, I think everything will clear just fine with the stock spacer, and I shouldn't need any intake spacers.

I also have some downtime coming up this week that'll slow things down. Got to have cataract surgery on one of my eyes later this week, so that's going to limit me for a short bit. Hopefully I'll still be able to work on some of the underhood wiring.
5
Other Vehicles / Re: Added another Fox to the fleet - 1985 Marquis LTS
No time to get on this until today. Of course it's the day the weather decided to take a turn and get cold and blustery.

I needed to get the driveshaft back into the car, but I needed to replace the u-joints first. During the RnR of the U-joints. One of the balance weights got knocked off of the shaft, so I welded it back on.


Got that knocked out and got the unit back into the car.

I did pick up a new rear sway bar for the car too, so I got that swapped in while I had things up for the driveshaft install. Went with a 24mm one over the 21mm that was in there. The 21mm will wind up on the wagon. (Unless I buy another larger one for it  :toothless: )


The next, tedious task was to replace the bad trans cooler lines. Which took much longer than it needed to.  Just used a Classic Tube set.


By this time, the temps had dropped quite a bit, so I was done for the day.

Following up on the throttle body spacer clearances.


With the thinner aftermarket spacer, it clears the valve covers and such just fine. What doesn't clear is the throttle cable bracket.
It hits the FPR on the rail. I'm probably going to just go back with a modified stock EGR spacer instead. It'll give me the clearances I need.

I need to get back under the car and reinstall the shift cable and the the TV cable.

I've also made the decision to just mod the stock Y-pipe to fit the factory headers and build the new Y-pipe later. Not what I wanted to do, but I'm just running out of time before it gets generally miserable outside.



7
Other Vehicles / Re: Added another Fox to the fleet - 1985 Marquis LTS
Got time to work today.

One of the firsts tasks was to get the RM seal replaced. Made use of my install tool. It took almost nothing to get the old seal out.



Got the trans filter replaced and got things back together again.


While I was prepping to move things into place, I found this. A busted PS cooler line.


*sigh* Guess it's good I found it now, instead of after I filled the system up.

That wasn't going to stop me from my goal for the day, however.


All bolted down, so now to finish up the rest of the stuff.

8
Other Vehicles / Re: Added another Fox to the fleet - 1985 Marquis LTS
Limited time the past few days, but I did get a little time today to get the valve covers, distributor, and injectors installed.



Other than the rear main seal, the engine is ready to drop back in. The only other item that needs to be tended to is to replace the trans filter.
Hopefully next weekend I'll have some time to get that accomplished.
9
Other Vehicles / Re: Added another Fox to the fleet - 1985 Marquis LTS
Stopped and picked up some oil on the way home from work. Dumped 5 quarts into the engine and primed up the oil system.


The #8 intake took quite a bit longer than the rest to finally flow oil.

I picked up an FL-1A filter as well, but I think I'm going to run on that MANN filter I put on to paint things for a short bit, then change it out. The MANN is a quality filter, even though this one is shorter than the FL-1A . (It's the same size as the ones used on the 2.3T turbo cars, though). Gonna run it for a couple hundred miles, then pull it and install the FL-1A.

Then I grabbed a few more parts and got them installed.



Gotta clean up the valve covers, then they get put back on. Also going to stick the distributor in it.
10
Other Vehicles / Re: Added another Fox to the fleet - 1985 Marquis LTS
Was able to squeeze in a little work around everything else this weekend.

I'd attempted the install of the new AOD front seal, but I managed to slightly damage it on the install, so I opted to buy another. This time I printed up an install tool, to avoid any issues.





This evening I had a little time, so I thought I'd at least get the PS pump rebuilt.


Compressing the unit to get the big c-clip out to release the valve cover.


All of the guts. That cam assembly on the left with the shaft came apart on me during reassembly---. Had to fight all 10 of the springs and "slippers" back into place. Pretty easy to push that all apart when you're trying to get it installed and the shaft pushed through the new shaft seal.


Aside from the 1 fumble, it all went together pretty quickly, and I wrapped it up just after dinner.


All of the internal o-rings and that shaft seal were pretty stiff and obviously not doing their job.

11
Other Vehicles / Re: Added another Fox to the fleet - 1985 Marquis LTS
It's cast, but closed.

Looking ahead at 3 busy weekends in a row coming up. I'll have time to get things ready to drop in, but probably won't have time to stuff the engine/trans back in until after that.

Am I correct in remembering that the upper intake won't clear the PBF valve covers I have on the engine? May have to add a spacer, if so. I know there were certain covers that were kind of tall and interfered. I haven't messed with a port injected EFI 5.0 set-up before.
14
Other Vehicles / Re: Added another Fox to the fleet - 1985 Marquis LTS
Still getting things done.

While I wait on valve seals (got the Ford kit), I wasn't just going to stare at the wall, so I worked through a couple other details.

I went ahead and installed the thermostat and dropped the lower intake onto the block.


I took a couple bits of AL can to seal off the EGR ports before I dropped things on.


I'd cleaned up the motor mount brackets and decided to at least attach the isolators to them.
While doing so, I noticed that the replacements didn't have the little locator nubs on them. So I added some.


More than likely not really needed, but I do know I had issues with some of my 2.3T mounts I used to make. If folks were lazy and didn't install the secondary hardware to keep the bases from twisting on the K-member pads, there would be some binding and vibration. So I just began installing the "nubs" on my mounts. Not a direct correlation, as those were poly mounts, but they were there for a reason.

The transmission x-member was crusty and the bushings were pooched, so I picked up another "adjustable" one and got it welded and cleaned and in paint (No painted pic)


Final task for the weekend/day was getting the injector harness trimmed down.


The harness I have has sensors and such all tied into it with the injectors, but I don't need that, since my sensors are already in the harness that I have together.
Got it down to just the injectors, and now I need to cut off the big connector and group up the "banks", as I'm doing batch fire. Slightly different grouping vs the trucks, since I have the HO firing order.


Looks like I need at least 1 new u-joint on the driveshaft, so I'll just replace them both.

I've had this gear-reduction starter sitting on a shelf for who-knows-how-long.  It's going to finally get used.


I would like to add an oil pressure gauge to the car, and I have a couple old VDO ones in my stash. Just need to get a sender and figure out mounting. My coolant gauge is just mounted down low currently, which is fine, but there's not room for another gauge there. I may replace the ashtray "drawer" with something, that I'll probably just 3D print.


Once the valve seals land. Aside from priming the oil system and replacing the rear main, the block is basically done.





15
Other Vehicles / Re: Added another Fox to the fleet - 1985 Marquis LTS
I didn't get a compression test done before I pulled things, due to time constraints to get that done.

I didn't do a full leakdown test, as I could tell the valve seals(or as it seems, lack thereof) were making things worse.

I know the engine has some wear, but it's not close to dead yet. If it could keep oil, etc inside of it, I'd still be driving it as it was.

Any big drivetrain changes are FAR down the list of things to do.