Hopefully helpful tips to new owners like me
05-10-2013, 04:17 AM
#1
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Ohio
Posts: 15
Hopefully helpful tips to new owners like me
Just thought I would put this out there in an attempt to possibly help other new owners learn from my experience with these cars as I to am a new owner.
Just completed some upgrades and tune up items on my newly purchased 2005 GT. What I did was;
Ford Racing CAI
Ford Racing axle back
Ford Racing Tune
Fuel filter
Oil/Filter change
Spark plugs
Cabin air filter
All in all everything went fine. About two days worth of work for me spending about 4 hours each day on it. I am no seasoned mechanic and a lot of this is new to me so it was a lot of reading and over planning.
Here is some things I learned that may help some while entertaining others.
Even following the TSB you may very well still break a spark plug during removal. My car had the original plugs in it at 63000 miles on the clock. The four on the drivers side fought me hard even with a soak but the all came out complere. The first one on the passenger side, front of engine, broke with one stout twist. After waiting a few days my new fancy Snap-On tool arrived to save the day. The only tricky part for was removing the remaining white chalky stuff inside the remaining plug to make room for the tap. I used a reverse drill head fasioned onto a long extenstion and slowly broke it up. Using some shots of air and then some grease I was able to remove the debre and finally complete the tap removing the plug. Not easy, but if you take your time it can be done. If I can do it, anyone can. Entire process took about an hour as I was very careful to not let anything fall into the cylinder.
Exhaust wasnt to bad either after fighting the car to give up the old exhaust. Tip would be to have someone behind the car or to climb out to check the alignment of the exhaust tips before tightening everything up. After using my superman moves to tighten everything down I was surprised to find one tip to be out slightly more than the other. I basically did the job twice to get it where both tips came out evenly. Well worth the money and time as this really change my driving experiance... amazing sound in my opinion.
CAI, oil/filter, cabin air filter, and fuel filter all really easy. There is a youtube video showing you how to access the cabin air filter. That really made that job easy.
Note on the CAI. After I was done with everything what I considered a mild touchy throttle became very noticable ON/OFF like throttle. Almost like I was 15 again learning how to use the clutch... and this car is an auto. What I discovered with some research and a youtube howto video was the throttle body on these cars can cause all sort of issues if not clean. Kinda like a weak battery will make you think a multitude of issues are wrong with your car when really its just the battery. Cleaning the throttle body was easy. I didnt even take it off. I simply removed the airfilter connection and used throttle body cleaner and a shop rag. I took my time and now my car runs smooth and has a very nice throttle response.
In the event you live in Ohio and need the spark plug removal tool please look me up. I hope to never use it again but at over $100 I cant simply give it away. I will gladly meet with you so you can use it for the job for free.
Hope this helps.
Just completed some upgrades and tune up items on my newly purchased 2005 GT. What I did was;
Ford Racing CAI
Ford Racing axle back
Ford Racing Tune
Fuel filter
Oil/Filter change
Spark plugs
Cabin air filter
All in all everything went fine. About two days worth of work for me spending about 4 hours each day on it. I am no seasoned mechanic and a lot of this is new to me so it was a lot of reading and over planning.
Here is some things I learned that may help some while entertaining others.
Even following the TSB you may very well still break a spark plug during removal. My car had the original plugs in it at 63000 miles on the clock. The four on the drivers side fought me hard even with a soak but the all came out complere. The first one on the passenger side, front of engine, broke with one stout twist. After waiting a few days my new fancy Snap-On tool arrived to save the day. The only tricky part for was removing the remaining white chalky stuff inside the remaining plug to make room for the tap. I used a reverse drill head fasioned onto a long extenstion and slowly broke it up. Using some shots of air and then some grease I was able to remove the debre and finally complete the tap removing the plug. Not easy, but if you take your time it can be done. If I can do it, anyone can. Entire process took about an hour as I was very careful to not let anything fall into the cylinder.
Exhaust wasnt to bad either after fighting the car to give up the old exhaust. Tip would be to have someone behind the car or to climb out to check the alignment of the exhaust tips before tightening everything up. After using my superman moves to tighten everything down I was surprised to find one tip to be out slightly more than the other. I basically did the job twice to get it where both tips came out evenly. Well worth the money and time as this really change my driving experiance... amazing sound in my opinion.
CAI, oil/filter, cabin air filter, and fuel filter all really easy. There is a youtube video showing you how to access the cabin air filter. That really made that job easy.
Note on the CAI. After I was done with everything what I considered a mild touchy throttle became very noticable ON/OFF like throttle. Almost like I was 15 again learning how to use the clutch... and this car is an auto. What I discovered with some research and a youtube howto video was the throttle body on these cars can cause all sort of issues if not clean. Kinda like a weak battery will make you think a multitude of issues are wrong with your car when really its just the battery. Cleaning the throttle body was easy. I didnt even take it off. I simply removed the airfilter connection and used throttle body cleaner and a shop rag. I took my time and now my car runs smooth and has a very nice throttle response.
In the event you live in Ohio and need the spark plug removal tool please look me up. I hope to never use it again but at over $100 I cant simply give it away. I will gladly meet with you so you can use it for the job for free.
Hope this helps.
05-10-2013, 06:18 AM
#2
6th Gear Member
Congrats on the successful work. Much of this is in the "HowTo" stickies.
When you grow tired of the Ford Racing Tune, consider a good custom tune from Bama or Brenspeed. Either one will gain you an additional ~10 RWHP in addition to their customer service being able to fine tune the tune to your needs.
When you grow tired of the Ford Racing Tune, consider a good custom tune from Bama or Brenspeed. Either one will gain you an additional ~10 RWHP in addition to their customer service being able to fine tune the tune to your needs.
05-10-2013, 08:21 AM
#3
6th Gear Member
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Acworth, GA
Posts: 12,260
Congrats on the successful work. Much of this is in the "HowTo" stickies.
When you grow tired of the Ford Racing Tune, consider a good custom tune from Bama or Brenspeed. Either one will gain you an additional ~10 RWHP in addition to their customer service being able to fine tune the tune to your needs.
When you grow tired of the Ford Racing Tune, consider a good custom tune from Bama or Brenspeed. Either one will gain you an additional ~10 RWHP in addition to their customer service being able to fine tune the tune to your needs.
05-10-2013, 09:47 PM
#6
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Ohio
Posts: 15
Thanks for the responses. The write-ups on this site helped me a lot, but with everything its one thing to read about it and another to do it. I tackled a lot at one time. Next I get to try the suspension on my own!
05-12-2013, 02:41 AM
#8
5th Gear Member
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Maui
Posts: 4,752
I have worked on my stang more than any car I have ever owned. Its awesome to do it yourself. Your write ups helped me with my cams and DS install. Congrats OP, modding is the fun part.
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