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Topic: Blue by You - TC+4 (Read 41467 times) previous topic - next topic

Blue by You - TC+4

Reply #75
Looks great, nice work.
95 Ranger Splash 2.3
88 Tbird Sport :ies::ies:
5.0 SO, stainless shorty headers, w/ Magnaflow lers. KYB struts, KYB shocks. 5lug conversion from sn95 Mustang, subframe connectors, drilled and slotted rotors, 03 Mach 1 wheels. sequential taillights.140 speedo

 

Blue by You - TC+4

Reply #76
X2 on that shift cable, wish I thought of that for my car.
88 Turbocoupe: Coast High Performance 331 kit 28oz balance, Comp XE264HR14 cam, 58cc 185 afr heads, 1.7 roller rockers, Mass-Flo EFI (was POS to setup and their techline is a joke at best)
Full 1 5/8 primary equal length headers, 2 1/2 exhaust, Full manual reverse VB c4 and baked off clear coat "BECAUSE RACECAR"

Blue by You - TC+4

Reply #77
I love it when you have to use your imagination to make things work. Most of us have had to do that many times. Great idea on the cable.
'88 Sport--T-5,MGW shifter,Trick Flow R intake,Ed Curtis cam,Trick Flow heads,Scorpion rockers,75mm Accufab t-body,3G,mini starter,Taurus fan,BBK long tube headers,O/R H-Pipe, Flowamaster Super 44's, deep and deeper Cobra R wheels, Mass Air and 24's,8.8 with 3.73's,140 mph speedo,Mach 1 chin spoiler,SN-95 springs,CHE control arms,aluminum drive shaft and a lot more..

Blue by You - TC+4

Reply #78
Alright, made some more progress last night.  I'm really just trying to get this thing running and just have a few more to dos...



- Find the cougar vacuum tree and install it
- Figure out the intake tube situation with MAF
- buy a belt and install
- Temporarily re-install the dash and wiring
- Convert the 4-cylinder tach to 8-cylinder by adding a resistor (see coolcats.net article)
- Install steering column
- Connect all the dash harness wiring
- Check fluids
- Prime engine
- Hook up battery

ATTEMPT to START!!!!!

Man I'm getting close to a start, but it won't be drivable quite yet.  I have some other things to get done before the first drive.

Blue by You - TC+4

Reply #79
I dont know how I missed this thread but nice work and good luck.
88 Cougar LS 5.0 .030 over, ported E7s with GT40 valves & trickflow springs, Proform roller rockers, HO cam, removed air silencer, K&N filter, smog pump delete, 2.25" dual flowmasters, Pacestter H-pipe & headers, HO computer, 65mm TB, Explorer intake, 19# injecters, 3.45s, rebuilt posi, and TCI shift kit.

Blue by You - TC+4

Reply #80
My valve covers look just like yours. Nice.
88 Cougar LS 5.0 .030 over, ported E7s with GT40 valves & trickflow springs, Proform roller rockers, HO cam, removed air silencer, K&N filter, smog pump delete, 2.25" dual flowmasters, Pacestter H-pipe & headers, HO computer, 65mm TB, Explorer intake, 19# injecters, 3.45s, rebuilt posi, and TCI shift kit.

Blue by You - TC+4

Reply #81
I was tinkering around with some stuff and decided to get the dash and steering wheel back in.  I found the vacuum tree and installed it.  I stole the inlet elbow from my 92 mustang.  I hooked up all the necessary wiring. 

So, I hooked up the battery and turned the key to run.  The fuel pump primed - that was a good sign!  I turned the key to attempt to start it... nothing.  hmmm.

So, I just turned the key to run and jumpered the starter solenoid.  She sputtered...

more later.

Blue by You - TC+4

Reply #82
Neutral safety?
'98 Explorer 5.0
'20 Malibu (I know, Chevy, but, 35MPG. Let's go brandon, eh)

Blue by You - TC+4

Reply #83
I bet you are right!  I haven't begun to diagnose, but I wonder if that is the case.

BTW.  She's ALIVE!!!!

Again, I just jumpered the starter solenoid to get it to crank.  And with a little throttle, she fired up!  She ran very rough at first with a lot of smoke out the exhaust - I'm sure that was just the oil from the cylinder walls and rebuild.

I adjusted the timing to be 10 deg BTDC (spout out) and the idle picked up some.  It still blew quite a bit of smoke.  So I shut it down.

I pulled all the plugs to see what they looked like.  They seemed OK.  No large oil burning cylinders.  While I had the spark plugs out, I decided to do a compression test.  Every cylinder was between 135-140 psi.  I would have thought they would be higher (maybe rings still need to seat), but at least they were consistent. 

I just started it a second time and it seems to run pretty well.  I noticed some knocking noise, but it appears to be exhaust (h-pipe).  And the idle is very low.  I wonder if the IAC is not working, Or my TPS is not set correctly.

So definitely bugs to work out, but at least I have a running vehicle again!

Blue by You - TC+4

Reply #84
That's going to be a beast of a vehicle.  What are you planning to do with that 2.3?  You should make a rail buggy with it!
1987 Thunderbird Turbo Coupe (daily driver) - T5, Short Throw, Ranger roller cam (soon to be Boport 1.5), stock turbo and TMIC (also soon to change.)

Blue by You - TC+4

Reply #85
Cool! It must feel pretty good getting it fired up. I may be firing mine again today or tomorrow.

Post up some video of it running and let us hear it!

Blue by You - TC+4

Reply #86
Alright.  Last night I had about an hour just to diagnose and tinker.

I found that I had forgotten to plug in the transmission harness to the dash harness... doh!  So I plugged that in and now I have backup lights and the car will start with the key (only in neutral or park)!  Yea.  I'm glad I have the transmission wiring correct.

I took out the Engine harness to tape it an loom it.  It looks much cleaner now.

Then I ordered the new Heater core and A/C Evaporator core from Rockauto.

Next Steps:
- Pull dash out to tape and loom engine bay wires
- Wire in the Tripminder
- Tape and loom the PRC wiring
- Remove all the ABS wiring from the chassis harness (late-model ABS will eventually go back on)
- Install heater/a/c cores and re-install box into the firewall
- Then, lots of re-assembly!

To make it driveable:
- Adjust toe-in/out
- Re-install front swaybar
- Adjust shifter cable
- Fabricate/Install cat-back exhaust
- Install driveshaft
- Check fluids
- Test Drive!

Blue by You - TC+4

Reply #87
Good progress on the starting. I had a similar deal on mine with a forgotten harness plug.

Sounds like a good plan for moving forward. Keep plugging!

Blue by You - TC+4

Reply #88
Are you running SD or MAF right now? With the vacuum to the map sensor off it will shoot out black smoke on SD.
Quote from: jcassity
I honestly dont think you could exceed the cost of a new car buy installing new *stock* parts everywhere in your coug our tbird. Its just plain impossible. You could revamp the entire drivetrain/engine/suspenstion and still come out ahead.
Hooligans! 
1988 Crown Vic wagon. 120K California car. Wifes grocery getter. (junked)
1987 Ford Thunderbird LX. 5.0. s.o., sn-95 t-5 and an f-150 clutch. Driven daily and going strong.
1986 cougar.
lilsammywasapunkrocker@yahoo.com

Blue by You - TC+4

Reply #89
Thanks for all the suggestions guys.  I really appreciate it.

But... I just got tired of working on the TC. So...  I threw in the towel and just went out and bought a new car...