Hate Import Knight
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 19
From:
Hate Import Knight
I'm new to the forum. I just bought a 1988 LX convertble back in late January that had been retro'd and "mod'd" all over the place. The dude I bought it from had the factory engine swapped out and replaced it with a 5.0. The computer? Gone and replaced with a Holley carb. The factory transmission was replaced with a 5-spd and fitted with a Hurst shifter.
The 'Stang had a ton of problems with it when I actually made the purchase in mid-December. It wasn't inspected, I wasn't insured at the time and the 'Stang wouldn't start. In Pennsylvania we aren't permitted to park the car on the street if the vehicle isn't inspected and I didn't have a driveway to put it in so there was the matter of getting the 'Stang from where I bought it, fixed (or startable so it would pass inspection), inspected, and get my butt insured, all so I could be legal. I ultimately found out that the two biggest problems were that the ingnition needed to be rebuilt and that the exhaust was essentially illegal. As far as the ignition goes, the mechanic found that the cap was off by a quarter turn and there was about an inch of water in the distributor. In addition to that both the MSD boxes that I provided blew out because the d-bag who owned the car before me put in a crappy coil and the feedback fried them. So my mechanic had to rebuild the ignition even before the car was legal just to get it started. After my guy hooked up the ignition and got it to start for me, I had to take the 'Stang to another place to get the exhaust rebuilt and get it inspected. The exhaust was some goofey Y configuration with no catalytic converters and broken O_2 sensors. Don't ask. The story here is that I live in a pretty technically strong neighborhood in Philadelphia when it comes to these things so I was able to get the car running and legal in about 2-1/2 weeks (otherwise, birds and chipmunks would be continuing to make shelters under the power steering fluid reservoir as you read this). Happily ever after right? Wrong.
My gauge cluster is pretty much useless. Tach? What tach? Also, the gas gauge is wired some kind of backwards. E is full and 1/2 is empty. Go figure. How do I know how much gas I have? Thank God for the trip. Apparently the dude who owned the 'Stang before me changed out the dash because the speedo wouldn't go high enough after the engine and transmission swap but he did a half-assed job on the reinstall. I'm still not sure what the factory maxed out at; I'm still trying to verify. Anyway it goes up to 140 mph now. I'll take it.
One other little detail about the 'Stang that's pretty cool: it has a fuel pump wired into the ash tray that's supposed to be like a kill switch. When I had my mechanics try to fix the car, none of them could figure out how to to start it. Awesome. The pump is loud as hell too. When you stand outside of car and I flip the switch, it sounds like Bob Villa drilling holes into a cabinet fixture. Upon starting the engine itself purs like a - like a - OK it sounds like a hurricane. There is no purring to speak of - just how I like it.
Also because it was Carb'd it won't hold idle in the cold unless I give it a ballz-load of gas so I had a Holley handchoke put in. I rock like a pimp in the cold now. Also just today I put in a K&N air filter which is about 1/2 in "less wide" than the Ford motor sports one that was previously in there. Now I "accelerbrate" like a champ every time the light turns green.
On the brightside, I never had a car that was soooooo fun to drive. Before this, there were two things I could never do: drive a manual, and destroy Honda Civics on Route 1. Now I can do both with a great deal of boner. The coolest thing I ever saw in my life was when my mechanic hotwired the distributor with cap off and then started it to show me the firing sequence. It looked like friggin 4th of July in there, thanks to my man and a little help from MSD.
Unfortunately I have no pics to share for several reasons: the paint job resembles the rest of the car before I gave it life (and I haven't had time to get it repainted so it's not worth showing off at this time), and I don't have a good hi-res digital camera nor am I cool enough to have a camera in my cellphone.
The 'Stang had a ton of problems with it when I actually made the purchase in mid-December. It wasn't inspected, I wasn't insured at the time and the 'Stang wouldn't start. In Pennsylvania we aren't permitted to park the car on the street if the vehicle isn't inspected and I didn't have a driveway to put it in so there was the matter of getting the 'Stang from where I bought it, fixed (or startable so it would pass inspection), inspected, and get my butt insured, all so I could be legal. I ultimately found out that the two biggest problems were that the ingnition needed to be rebuilt and that the exhaust was essentially illegal. As far as the ignition goes, the mechanic found that the cap was off by a quarter turn and there was about an inch of water in the distributor. In addition to that both the MSD boxes that I provided blew out because the d-bag who owned the car before me put in a crappy coil and the feedback fried them. So my mechanic had to rebuild the ignition even before the car was legal just to get it started. After my guy hooked up the ignition and got it to start for me, I had to take the 'Stang to another place to get the exhaust rebuilt and get it inspected. The exhaust was some goofey Y configuration with no catalytic converters and broken O_2 sensors. Don't ask. The story here is that I live in a pretty technically strong neighborhood in Philadelphia when it comes to these things so I was able to get the car running and legal in about 2-1/2 weeks (otherwise, birds and chipmunks would be continuing to make shelters under the power steering fluid reservoir as you read this). Happily ever after right? Wrong.
My gauge cluster is pretty much useless. Tach? What tach? Also, the gas gauge is wired some kind of backwards. E is full and 1/2 is empty. Go figure. How do I know how much gas I have? Thank God for the trip. Apparently the dude who owned the 'Stang before me changed out the dash because the speedo wouldn't go high enough after the engine and transmission swap but he did a half-assed job on the reinstall. I'm still not sure what the factory maxed out at; I'm still trying to verify. Anyway it goes up to 140 mph now. I'll take it.
One other little detail about the 'Stang that's pretty cool: it has a fuel pump wired into the ash tray that's supposed to be like a kill switch. When I had my mechanics try to fix the car, none of them could figure out how to to start it. Awesome. The pump is loud as hell too. When you stand outside of car and I flip the switch, it sounds like Bob Villa drilling holes into a cabinet fixture. Upon starting the engine itself purs like a - like a - OK it sounds like a hurricane. There is no purring to speak of - just how I like it.
Also because it was Carb'd it won't hold idle in the cold unless I give it a ballz-load of gas so I had a Holley handchoke put in. I rock like a pimp in the cold now. Also just today I put in a K&N air filter which is about 1/2 in "less wide" than the Ford motor sports one that was previously in there. Now I "accelerbrate" like a champ every time the light turns green.
On the brightside, I never had a car that was soooooo fun to drive. Before this, there were two things I could never do: drive a manual, and destroy Honda Civics on Route 1. Now I can do both with a great deal of boner. The coolest thing I ever saw in my life was when my mechanic hotwired the distributor with cap off and then started it to show me the firing sequence. It looked like friggin 4th of July in there, thanks to my man and a little help from MSD.
Unfortunately I have no pics to share for several reasons: the paint job resembles the rest of the car before I gave it life (and I haven't had time to get it repainted so it's not worth showing off at this time), and I don't have a good hi-res digital camera nor am I cool enough to have a camera in my cellphone.
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 19
From:
RE: Hate Import Knight
All --,
Thanks for the well-wishes so far. It looks like there are two things that make this site go: great incite and pics from members/contributors. Hopefully I'll have something more valuable than just horror stories to contribute in the near future...
Viva la Fox!
Thanks for the well-wishes so far. It looks like there are two things that make this site go: great incite and pics from members/contributors. Hopefully I'll have something more valuable than just horror stories to contribute in the near future...
Viva la Fox!
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 19
From:
RE: Hate Import Knight
BTW:
I had it up over 100 for the first time late last night. Damn I love the 'Stang; best purchase of my life. I was passing people while in neutral. Score. I'm pretty sure driving it is better than sex...and I should know because I had sex once...
I had it up over 100 for the first time late last night. Damn I love the 'Stang; best purchase of my life. I was passing people while in neutral. Score. I'm pretty sure driving it is better than sex...and I should know because I had sex once...