Skip to main content ↑ ↓
Topic: Back in a fox. 1988 Turbo Coupe. The life journal. (Read 41114 times) previous topic - next topic

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

Reply #150 –
Quote from: thunderjet302 – on
Glad to hear it's now driving, and driving better. Does the car have subframe connectors yet? If not it should feel even more solid after those go in.

How's body roll and turn in with the new front suspension setup?

I don't have subframe connectors yet. I initially wanted to do the subframe connectors before doing anything else, but some of the parts I've ded and other good deals called out to me. They will probably be something I do this spring. I'd like to do the TA/PHB at the same time, but the budget will determine that.

There is still body roll, but it is greatly reduced. I have 225lbs springs in the front, which is fairly soft for most handling setups, but still are equivalent to an H&R Super Sport spring. I still need to shorten the sway bar end links, so that may change the characteristics a bit. I'm not too sure yet.

The turn-in is pretty awesome. It's still a little bit lazy for my liking, but it's worlds better than it was before. I also haven't had much opportunity to really throw the car around and push it's limit yet.

Quote from: ISTLCRUZ – on
Looks great and those wheels compliment the car very well. What’s next on the “to do” list?

Thanks! I was actually surprised that the wheels look as good as they do on the car. I found them on Facebook Marketplace for 100 bucks and figured that they were "acceptable". They work on the car and may stay on longer than I antited.

The to-do list right now is mostly tying up loose ends right now. I have a lot of small tasks that need to be addressed such as window motors, speakers, headlight relays, fuel pump and filter, and a multitude of small projects. This project ate up most of my disposable income, so I need to slow my roll a bit.
It's Gumby's fault.

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

Reply #151 –
Hell yeah. I've got a set of those wheels for my '87 notch....I like them a little better than the Bullits on it now.

I need to find another one, as one of the set has curb rash, and I'm missing two center caps.

They're like a modern (well, in '99, anyway) version of the Pony wheel.....

Your car is sick...good work dude!
'98 Explorer 5.0
'20 Malibu (I know, Chevy, but, 35MPG. Let's go brandon, eh)

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

Reply #152 –
I'm glad it's handling better. I get the softer springs though. I have 98 Mustang GT convertible springs all around. They aren't the firmest things and there is still some body roll but it's much better than stock. The stiff bushings front and rear help though. I assume like me you didn't want to go nuts with a non-dedicated track toy. If you've got to street drive the car the softer springs are going to ride much better over py roads. When I was younger I wanted the springs and all suspension components as stiff as possible. Now that I'm in my 30's compliant and firm is great, as it doesn't beat my kidneys to death.

Subframes are going to make a huge difference. I bet the car handles even better with them. 
88 Thunderbird LX: 306, Edelbrock Performer heads, Comp 266HR cam, Edelbrock Performer RPM intake, bunch of other stuff.

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

Reply #153 –
Quote from: thunderjet302 – on
I'm glad it's handling better. I get the softer springs though. I have 98 Mustang GT convertible springs all around. They aren't the firmest things and there is still some body roll but it's much better than stock. The stiff bushings front and rear help though. I assume like me you didn't want to go nuts with a non-dedicated track toy. If you've got to street drive the car the softer springs are going to ride much better over py roads. When I was younger I wanted the springs and all suspension components as stiff as possible. Now that I'm in my 30's compliant and firm is great, as it doesn't beat my kidneys to death.

Subframes are going to make a huge difference. I bet the car handles even better with them. 

Honestly, ride quality was the lowest on the list for choosing the springs I did. When I initially bought the car, it had some stock SN95 springs with it. I intended on using those temporarily, so I bought the cheapest shocks and struts I could find. Once I landed the front control arms, I decided it was time to go coil over. Basically, I did a bunch of number crunching between what I felt the struts should be able to handle, with consideration to matching with the rear springs. I eventually want to go with Koni's and some seriously stiffer springs, but that will be after the torque arm when I have to change rear springs anyways.

Although I'm in my 30's, I still have the desire for stiff suspension. My budget is what isn't allowing it at the moment.
It's Gumby's fault.

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

Reply #154 –
Ah. I thought you were going with a decent ride approach in mind. There are enough potholes/bad roads near me that I went softer with the suspension.
88 Thunderbird LX: 306, Edelbrock Performer heads, Comp 266HR cam, Edelbrock Performer RPM intake, bunch of other stuff.

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

Reply #155 –
There hasn't been too much progress to report. This work week has been hectic and not left me with much time/energy to make much headway before Carlisle.

I did manage to get my drivers window fixed (not even getting into that problem), the passenger window motor replaced, door speakers "upgraded" and a few other odds and ends.

The poor car was so dirty and the paint is so shiznitty that I said screw it, put in the car soap, and then put in some Simple Green. A lot of the nastiness came right off, showing the absolute beauty of the early 90's insurance job respray...it's bad.

At least it looks good in pictures.



So it's time for me to try to pass out, grab a few hours of sleep, and drive up to Carlisle for the afternoon.
It's Gumby's fault.

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

Reply #156 –
I like the stance.  How'd did it ride on the Carlisle trip?  Must have missed you ... walked through the T-birds on Saturday around 1PM and didn't see you, but then saw the car later in the day when I went through again.  We bailed in the early evening to beat the rain since we were camping.

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

Reply #157 –
Carlisle was pretty much a success.

The entire drive up was great. The car ran smooth, stayed cool and showed absolutely no signs of problems. It was very smooth and comfortable. It did become apparent that the shocks and struts on the car aren't enough for the springs, but it's not too bad. I did take opportunity and run some exit ramps at a faster-than-usual rate of speed. The car did great on the ride up.

The fun began when we arrived. We pull into the registration building parking lot and go in to register. I was BSing with a few S550 guys and get the car registered. We get back in the car and it wouldn't start. It was cranking slow and would maybe sputter every handful of revolutions. It started cranking really slow, so I pulled out my little lithium jump starter and it was still cranking slow. It eventually wouldn't even crank. I hit the schrader and it had fuel. I can only assume it had spark.

I text a few people I know (from these forums actually) and then try to go see if I can walk into the show field to see if someone else has a jump pack. The woman at the gate tells me how I have to get my hand stamped to walk in, but they had a phone number for a guy who could ride down with a jumper pack. I gave him a call and in the mean time, Brian and Andrew came walking down.

The guy with the jump pack arrives a few minutes before Brian and Andrew do. As they're walking down, they take a picture and eventually sent it to me.



You can see my roadside assistance there helping me out. The car had cooled off a bit and with the jump pack, it started right up. It didn't want to stay running by itself, so I had to help it along for a few minutes.



Brian says to me "well, it wouldn't be a turbo ford" and takes that picture.

I drove it up to the rest of the Turbo Coupes and proceeded to catch up with people, run around and all the normal Carlisle festivities. I didn't take any pictures unfortunately.

Hours later, when we got back up to my car, it started without too much issue. The starter was a little slow to crank but it fired up and ran just fine. It ran mostly okay the whole way home. It was REALLY fast into boost, but made very little power once it was in boost. I also noticed that every so often, I would get a smell of hot. You ever get a pot or pan really hot, and you can just smell the metal roasting? That was the smell.

I haven't messed with the car yet, but I did do a good bit of thinking. I had to let the situation pass and think about it clearly. In the old days, especially with carb cars, too much ignition timing would make for a very difficult and sluggish hot start. Also, the really fast boost and lack of power under boost point to cam timing being a tooth off. In addition to that, the super hot exhaust points to timing also. Hot exhaust will cook that poor starter too. Me being the idiot that I am; I threw out my timing light thinking that I would never have another distributor car again. I have to grab another one of those, and do a bunch of basic checks and see what I come up with.



My girlfriend did take one picture of my car on the show field

Quote from: 85CougarCobra – on
I like the stance.  How'd did it ride on the Carlisle trip?  Must have missed you ... walked through the T-birds on Saturday around 1PM and didn't see you, but then saw the car later in the day when I went through again.  We bailed in the early evening to beat the rain since we were camping.

The car rode great. It rode much more smoothly than I expected on the highway. Speed was hard to judge. It felt like I was going slow because of how smooth it was. It soaked up bumps with no drama and didn't transmit much impact into the car. The coil overs really transformed how the car felt.

I didn't get up to the show field until probably 2pm. I wanted to arrive sooner, but my night hours and traffic didn't do me too well. I did see your car there but I didn't spot you guys while I was running around. Spent a lot of time with Eric, Baxo and the crew.
It's Gumby's fault.

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

Reply #158 –
Glad to hear the trip mostly went ok.

You should hopefully get the engine issue ironed out shortly.
88 Thunderbird LX: 306, Edelbrock Performer heads, Comp 266HR cam, Edelbrock Performer RPM intake, bunch of other stuff.

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

Reply #159 –
I have figured out the issue, but I haven't solved it yet. I found that the diaphragm in the FRP ruptured. Basically flooded the engine and fouled out the plugs. I have a Kirban adjustable on the shelf, but it's about 25 years old. It was old when I got it from a friend back in 03 or so. I ordered a diaphragm for it and am just waiting for it to arrive.
It's Gumby's fault.

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

Reply #160 –
I haven't updated much as I haven't done much.

I put on the adjustable fuel pressure regulator, and as I was installing the rail mounted gauge, I broke the fitting off in the rail. I dug my spare rail out, did new injector o-rings, new fittings and swapped it all on.

In the meantime, I found that the battery is shot. Had it on my charger/maintainer for 2 days. It didn't charge fully and still barely started the car. I let it run outside for a half hour or so while I worked on the Mustang and it wouldn't even crank the engine over.

That's leading into the next project. Going to do the PMGR starter, Ranger 3g alternator setup, heavier gauge battery cables and a small battery.
It's Gumby's fault.

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

Reply #161 –
Finally, I'm back. Other hobbies, a little bit a traveling and the holidays took my interest from messing with the car for a little while. It took a while, but I got off of my ass and got the car mobile once again.

Since the TC is an occasional driver, I decided to go with a race battery. After looking at the cost of a Braille battery and other various companies, I took to Google and a bunch of other various forums to refresh some research I did years ago. Braille batteries are made by Deka. The biggest difference is the case color and labels. Braille rates their batteries using a different method, so the numbers trick you into thinking you are getting a much more potent battery for the money.

With me trying to stretch my budget, I picked up an off brand battery, which is a replacement for the Deka  ETX14. I had to purchase terminal posts and a bracket. Sadly, the bracket cost more than the battery.



It's so cute!





The terminal posts are a bit...clumsy looking.



And with it mocked up.

I didn't take a whole lot of other pictures. I ended up using different terminals which shorter. I also got some silicone hose to slide under the adapter to cover the square terminals. I tried to remove the decals from the battery, but the glue was much stronger than the paper so I used to black vinyl I had laying around for years. The nerve racking part was drilling holes in the inner fender to mount the bracket.

In the process, I decided that windshield washers are for the weak. The tank went into the s bin. The cruise control servo followed the same fate.



So much room for activities! This setup shaved roughly 22lbs. The terminals are temporary. I'm ordering a 3g alternator for the Ranger bracket, a PMGR starter, and some supplies to do headlight relays. Once I get that setup sorted out, I'll likely make nicer cables.



I drove the car to work a few days this week. Felt great to be back in it and driving around. The battery works pretty well. It doesn't like being below 40 degrees, but still gets the car started. I also forgot how well it handled.
It's Gumby's fault.

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

Reply #162 –
You really ran with the whole "windshield washers are for the weak" what with driving it to work and having it rain, lol.  Nothing but rain on the eastern seaboard for 3 weeks now....


-- 05 Mustang GT-Whipplecharged !!
--87 5.0 Trick Flow Heads & Intake - Custom Cam - Many other goodies...3100Lbs...Low12's!

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

Reply #163 –
Quote from: V8Demon – on
You really ran with the whole "windshield washers are for the weak" what with driving it to work and having it rain, lol.  Nothing but rain on the eastern seaboard for 3 weeks now....

Exactly what some weak ass would say.

I placed a pretty hefty Rock Auto order, which consisted of mostly everything I need to the Ranger 3G alternator, PMGR starter, and a ton of other odds and ends. I also ordered a 3" downpipe to start the exhaust. I haven't made my decision as to what lers I want to run. I also need to find a source for genuine Walbro pumps.
It's Gumby's fault.