'87 Mustang

Topic: '87 Mustang (Read 8948 times) previous topic - next topic

Reply #15 – January 16, 2015, 08:09:28 PM

Been working on converting my 65mm Explorer TB to Fox specs. TheFoeYouKnow had a great tip, swapping the 65mm plate onto the stock HO's 60mm TB shaft and then installing that into the 65TB...in order to keep the proper throttle cable connector clocking. Working on that and cleaning as I go. I'll take pics of my progress and add them to this later.

After that, I'll be taking the rails and injectors and whatnot off of the lower and cleaning it and the upper. Probably just lightly blast them and blow the residue out, put everything back on and go from there. It's supposed to in the upper 40's, lower 50's through the weekend, I'm going to get the block over to the big door on my building, use oven cleaner, clean it up, then paint, and start assembling things. My heads are done, the Wolverine cam is ready to go in. Gettin' there.

Also tomorrow I'm going to gather all the wiring that I've got in storage for the 2.3 to 5.0 conversion. Been kicking the idea around of transferring all the stuff onto my '84 notch. IF I had the original dash, I'd already be doing it, but alas, the previous owner pitched it because the top was cracked. Guess he didn't know that it could've been swapped, and left the dash in.

Might go to the junkyard and try to find a dash from a '94 up Stang, though I'm not anywhere close to being ready for the hell of swapping wiring and converting shiznit for THAT, yet.

'87 Mustang

Reply #16 – February 19, 2015, 07:46:23 PM

Picked up a pan gasket today, and spent a little time in front of my heater and wire wheel cleaning up various bolts. Gotta grab some more sand tomorrow, hit the other pan real quick-like to take off the little bit of surface rust that's developed, and bring it in the basp00get to paint. Heads have been wiped down with carb cleaner and will get painted tonight. Pan gets a shot of paint tomorrow. I've got a couple of cans of a high temp blue shade...as close to Ford blue as I could get.

I guess I will soak my pushrods in some diesel fuel, a few of them have some sludge coated on. I've got a set of stock HO valve covers I'm going to use to cover the springs when I paint my heads. First I'm going to clean them up, and when I'm done, and paint is dry, I'll probably snap some pics and sell 'em.

Time to go cam shopping...seeing if I can find an E cam or a TFS1 for sale on some forum or another.

Soon as the weather gets back to something slightly above arctic ed frost, I'll get the block cleaned off with oven cleaner, hit it with some degreaser and get it painted. I've got another front cover cleaned up and ready to go, as I cracked the original getting it off.

As for the '84, if I can find a set of stang upper RCA's, I'll put a rear under it, loosely assemble the front, throw the column back in it and get it out so the '87 can go where it is, get put up on stands and get fuel line swapped and get the half motor out.

Between the cold, cs, being sick, and other stuff, I've not been able to do as much as I'd like, but I'm chipping away whenever I have a bit of free time. Not whole lot else to get for it, other than a cam and a front cover gasket. Would dearly love to get my V8 T5 rebuilt and strengthened, but that's going to have to keep right on wanting and waiting, I'll make do with the 2.3 T5 for now.

'87 Mustang

Reply #17 – February 21, 2015, 12:58:12 AM

Sounds like a great project....good luck....its really cold in Michigan right now....not fun.

Travis

'87 Mustang

Reply #18 – February 21, 2015, 11:58:42 PM

Another good cam option is a Comp XE264. Works well with the stock EEC with far less bucking/idle issues than either the TFS1 or E303. It'll have near stock driveability. The Comp XE270 is also a good option as well.

'87 Mustang

Reply #19 – February 25, 2015, 07:45:40 PM

Quote from: turbotrav;445042

Sounds like a great project....good luck....its really cold in Michigan right now....not fun.

Travis

Agreed, great progress...

I'm such a pansy ass I won't even go into my garage till it's regularly at least 50*... Got a '72 Comet GT I've working on for almost two years...

'87 Mustang

Reply #20 – February 25, 2015, 07:50:31 PM

I didn't use to be such a puss. Myself and a few friends, we'd go camping in the winter nearly every weekend when there wasn't ice or snow.

Nowadays, it's just about a pain in the ass to walk down and check the mail. The kids love the snow though, so I have fun with them in the wet white , but I don't enjoy it nearly as much as I used to.

After awhile the cold sets into my ankles and knees and then it hurts bad. Although I would wrench with much greater passion if I had an insulated, heated shop and at least a 15x15' concrete slab to work with..

'87 Mustang

Reply #21 – March 16, 2015, 08:06:22 PM

Been making some decent progress, the E-cam is in, timing set on and torqued, lifters in, spider in and bolted snug.

Got a little bit of former head gasket material to carefully se away with a well placed shop vac hose for company, and then I'll drop the old pan off, throw in a new oil pump and pickup, and I have a cleaner, nicer pan to put on.

Going to finish blasting it later, as well as a carb intake for an outside job for a guy, and then...maybe I'll get a pic or two.

Feels good to be getting somewhere. :D

'87 Mustang

Reply #22 – March 22, 2015, 03:35:48 PM

Heads on, torqued, lower intake on and torqued, valve covers on, and getting ready to head back out and shoot a little paint on the pan, and do some cleaning on the block. Things are really coming together, literally.

Nice warm day, nearly 70 degrees. Have the engine pushed over in the sunshine..hey, I can get a tan AND put an engine together!

I'll take some pics, though there's nothing terribly exciting about things LOL.

'87 Mustang

Reply #23 – March 22, 2015, 06:42:19 PM

Don't forget.........

'87 Mustang

Reply #24 – March 22, 2015, 07:07:56 PM

Well, ended up snadblasting the front cover and whatnot. Came in to eat and help get the kiddos ready for bed. I'll head back out in a bit to do a little more and clean my tools and put them up.

Going through my bolt buckets trying to get all my bolts for the cover and waterpump lined out before I get anything else done. Then I'll swap oil pumps, put the good pan on, and slowly, piece at a time, clean and reinstall everything from the waterpump forward.

I'll snap a few pics when i get back out in a few. Forgot to take my camera...and my cell is funny about pics in bright light, it doesn't make them very crisp for some reason.

'87 Mustang

Reply #25 – March 23, 2015, 08:34:56 AM

A little reminder why when you're tired, and barely able to keep your eyes open, you should probably just wipe down your tools and call it a night.

I had taped off my intake ports on the lower, and the exhaust ports on the heads so I could clean the front cover gasket surfaces with a little wire wheel on my cordless drill.

Anyway, I thought I'd take the timing set back off to keep it clean before hand. Anywho, when I was loosening the crank bolt, the rotating assembly turned just a little.

Later on, after stuff was clean, I rolled the cam back and the crank in order to time it. Keep in mind my tape was still on the intake and exhaust...

Yeah....after the front cover was on, I was looking at the rockers...yup...the #1 isn't on the compression stroke...

Looks like the minty fresh front cover is coming back off, and I need a new gasket. Wish I'd noticed it as soon as I'd put the cover on. I was hungry, stumbling tired, and just wasn't sharp enough to catch my mistake.

Lesson learned...thankfully the front cover gasket isn't that much. Would've really been in a pickle had I got the engine in the car and then discovered it....

'87 Mustang

Reply #26 – March 31, 2015, 08:29:34 PM

A guy I know from the next town over stopped by earlier, we got to talking about my engine, and made an offer for ALL of my V8 stuff, including the 2 engines sitting on blocks (complete truck 351w, and another HO..that was in my Sport).

We just got through loading them up, and all of the loose parts, and I came in...saw on the local FB car and truck swap group that a guy is selling his 3/4 ton Chevy truck.

I called him, he goes "it's got the 6.0 and a bad trans". I offered him a decent price, and he agreed.

Looks like I've jumped camps and am going the LS route. I pick it up tomorrow...stay tuned for pics. :)

/flame suit on.

Re: '87 Mustang

Reply #27 – September 04, 2020, 01:39:40 PM

5 years and some change later, I started getting tired of how the car sat.
Wednesday I cut a coil and a half off of the rear springs and got the height to where I wanted it.

The fronts will be matched after the new (again) engine is put in. I dragged this thing out of the corner of the shop, first time it's seen daylight in over a year. I've got some real, new motivation to work on it now, and so it goes. It's dirty, but dust will wash off.

I cut a coil and a half off, for the fronts, once the new engine is in and the weight is back on and it's down, I'll see where it wants to be and whittle them accordingly.

(apologies in advance is the pic is huge, new camera..)

I had planned to convert the red interior to gray but only ever got as far as the driver's door panel. Since I had convertible door panels (which are NOT a direct swap) it was a fair bit of experimental cutting and tpuppies, I decided to just leave the red in. Most of it is good, just faded, headliner is mint. Dash has one small crack above the vents, but the cluster will be swapped for the V8 version, and minor stuff. Need to get into the trunk too, (key is missing)...

Progress won't be super fast, but whatever little things I can chip away on will get done.

The tank was dropped because I thought the fuel pump was bad, turns out it was something else, but in any case, I cleaned it and repainted it, and was going to put my GT bumper cover on but now can't find the bag that has the clips and fasteners. Looks like I'll be making an order to LRm... it.

Re: '87 Mustang

Reply #28 – September 04, 2020, 08:48:21 PM

Are you in need of the gas filler door?
I have one off an 86.
Rick

Re: '87 Mustang

Reply #29 – September 04, 2020, 09:38:55 PM

No, I have the door, it's in the trunk, ironically. Thanks for the offer though!

I have, or had, rather...the keys (two trunk, one ignition) in a zip loc bag, that bag is missing. I've found some other shiznit missing around here the last few months....would be just like some crackhead to see a Mustang (with a bad motor that won't turn over, no less) and steal the key to it thinking they'd come back and swipe it outta here. I know where I had the keys, they were in the bottom of my toolbox. There were three bags, each one had the keys to different vehicles. All are gone. The 84's keys are taped to the inside of the driver's door. Luckily enough, the other keys missing were to my 90 hatch that I dragged off to the sper last summer, and the '88 Chevy 4x4, but I had made a third set of keys for it and gave them to my dad, so that's no major issue. They can't get the chevy truck as I have it blocked in with a couple of hay bales LOL!

Ahh well, I have one ign key to the 87..I'll figure out a way to get the trunk open. All my hardware for the fuel tank is in there, straps, door, etc. Walbro 255, as well. FML..

On a different note, I'll have to see about rolling the fenders....those 275/40's are pretty ed close. If the suspension is compressed whilst hard cornering, I think there will be contact.

This one is about 90%. Find a red driver's door panel, swap cluster, and some serious cleaning/de-spider webbing, and it'll be ready to drive again. There's also a leak in the rear, looks like it's coming from the pinion area. This rear already had a 3.55 so it has been in someone else's car before for sure...all I done to it was Ranger axles and new fluid/friction modifier. Never did a pinion seal/bearing before, so will probably just take it out and take the ed thing to a shop. I'd rather spend a little coin and have it done right rather than be cheap and shag something up messing with it. I know just enough about diffs to swap axles (on an 8.8)nd how to replace outer axle bearings and seals...learned that on my last two Exploders. Both had axle bearings go bad...one spectacularly. Anywho...

Been thinking long(er) and hard(er) about what to do with the '84, engine wise. Gumby's BlueBird thread has got me contemplating a 32v swap. So much so that I've started to look for a running Mark VIII donor. This is something that's more long term...I want to go auto trans too....haven't delved into anything new than an AOD in a project....BUT...my '06 Explorer has the 6R60 trans...I'd think something like that behind a 32v would be a decent combo, and give decent mileage, as it's a 6 speed auto.

No clue if something like that would fit in the tunnel though. Looks like my next stop from here will be google looking up if it's been done and what it requires. The car is really nice and straight....I'd rather not cut on stuff.

I see my pics are still here, they're just stuck in photoshagit's bullshiznit pay me or lose your stuff thing. I have them all saved on the pc...eventually I'll re-upload them to imgur and edit the old posts so the pics are restored.