mikeisgod

Hey everyone. My mom just bought a 2005 4.0 Mustang, so I luckily inherited her 89' 5.0 LX. The car has some work that needs done, mostly cosmetically that I know of. It needs a new AC compressor, and aside from that i'm not too sure. The gauges have been replaced twice, so not sure on the exact mileage, but it is believed to be around 200,000 miles. The compression was checked a few years back and was fine, and it seems to run good still. Me and a friend will be checking compression shortly. The timing chain, to my moms knowledge hasn't been changed before. The car does leak oil (not sure from where) but not horribly. About a quart a month. The exhaust has a bit of black smoke which makes me believe it's running rich. I'm wanting to completely rebuild this thing, get it looking real real clean, running good and then slowly start modding it. Where should I start? I'm wanting to make sure it's running tip-top before I start driving it. Think I should take it to a mechanic and have them check w/ a diagnostic machine?

randy78045

Congrats on your new car... you might consider a rebuild if the car is using oil and you plan on moding it later...

88blackgt

check all your fluids, change them if they are at all questionable. if its running rich check your plugs. also try running a diagnostic check. you can do that on your own, do a search. may want to do other little maintenance things like cap and rotor, plug wires, fuel filter, and so on. congratulations on the pony, hatch or notch?

Ninety5five0

Congrats on the new ride. If you can rebuild yourself, that would prolly be your best choice, and you can get some better flwoing heads for cheap, and a cam too. But if it doesnt need rebuilt, i really dont see why, unless your purely looking to do it for performance reasons.

mikeisgod

luckily she took it to jiffy lube every 3k miles so it's had fresh fluids. i'll definitely replace all of the minor things like filters and plugs and what not. It's a hatchback (which I prefer) grey cloth interior, red exterior. It has original motor/trans which I would love to keep for sake of reselling later... I honestly may just restore it real nice, and do some boltons. Who knows... at the same time I plain out want the most badass fox in Idaho, which isn't going to be done on a stock engine/transmission....

randy78045

While you were charged for it, they probably never changed the filter... Jiffy Lube suks... [:'(]

95 BLOWN GT

+1 did you see that investigation report on jiffy lube. bunch of crooks i think it was in california somewhere.

mikeisgod

ya i saw that, luckily in the area we're at... they're pretty friendly and honest. City of about 45k 50k people...

mikeisgod

So apparently this car had a "full tune-up" in March, by a very good local mechanic. Spark Plugs were replaced, wires, rotor, cap all that good stuff... fuel pump/filter were replaced, air filter replaced. What would I want to look at next as far as black smoke from exhaust? I'm not sure if it was happening before that was done, or if it was happening immediately after... first time I noticed it was about 5 months ago....