What did you do with your Thunderbird Today?

Ordered a new brake booster and master cylinder just to be safe. There was some rust I would have had to touch up on the booster, so I decided not to be a cheap ass and order one. Almost ordered the intake, but I'm to cheap today. Tomorrow might be the day for that.
 
It's supposed to be 50 today, so I'll be out installing a radiator. :) It snowed yesterday, but it was so dry it didn't stick. But it was 32 last night. Kaatu hates it when I don't let him out nights,lol.
 
Did a little porting on the exhaust side of one of the heads today. Harbor freight die grinder and 6” bits. Does a great job cutting and pretty much roughed it up enough where I can do the final with some sanding bits. Overall pretty pumped to see how it turns out.


www.moddedmustangs.com

THE 2-Valve PI DIY Head Porting Thread – Detailed How-To...

www.moddedmustangs.com www.moddedmustangs.com

All work is based on this post I found on modded mustangs. Pretty much this porting and a valve job the guy claims around 200-220cfm. Compared to the stock 160cfm (I think that’s stock) should make a lil more power!


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Swapped out my LR knuckle w/ one I snagged at JY a few weeks ago. Damn hub was shot. I'll probably get some imported replacement and pop in the new timken bearing and swap back. Noticed the top control arm bushing was powdered. Damn is there anything that hasn't worn out yet? I noticed the compensator arm bushing looked thin. Well I guess I can start planning for a spring rebuild of rear suspension since shocks are shot🤔
 
I did not work on the car today; I spent the day making fireworks. Some things are still legal. :)
Grilled burgers outside, awesome day for december. But of course, it's supposed to be 20 tonight, and possible snow. :roll:
 
Generalee0527 said:
Swapped out my LR knuckle w/ one I snagged at JY a few weeks ago. Damn hub was shot. I'll probably get some imported replacement and pop in the new timken bearing and swap back. Noticed the top control arm bushing was powdered. Damn is there anything that hasn't worn out yet? I noticed the compensator arm bushing looked thin. Well I guess I can start planning for a spring rebuild of rear suspension since shocks are shot🤔
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The toe compensators don’t actually have bushings, they’re essentially ball joints, and like ball joints when the dust boots go bad grit can get in and wear them out

I feel your pain, I lost a genuine Cobra hub in the summer. Moreover my Focus needed motor mounts, throttle body, valve cover gaskets, plugs, ac condenser, front and rear sway bar links, new brake rotors(again!) washer fluid pump, even the stupid hood prop bushing failed! Things have a way of cascading with old cars
 
Had a lil time today and got to do a lil porting. Pretty much roughed up all the exhaust port side, no valve side just yet and 1 of the intake ports of 1 head.

So far looking decent for about 2 hours of work, still need some more work but I’m happy with it.

Question, would it make sense to port the exhaust manifolds??


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IMO not really. I’d say if you do take off the random ring that sticks up in the RH manifold exit and smooth around the hump in the LH that the steering shaft passes through. Beyond that I’d just opt for headers
 
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Dropped the trans pan, wiped it out and cleaned the magnet. Chased one bolt hole. Someone had put a 13mm headed one in there for some reason. It wasn't even tight. It had four slots in the first five treads, which were tapered down. Poor man's tap? One of the other regular bolts threaded in ok after the chasing but I didn't tighten it as much as the rest of them.
Drained and filled the supercharger, too, so I'm good for a while there!
Chandar8 said:
Recovered shitbird today from the car theif and got a gift from them.
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Any new stains? 😯
 
Chingon1 said:
Had a lil time today and got to do a lil porting. Pretty much roughed up all the exhaust port side, no valve side just yet and 1 of the intake ports of 1 head.

So far looking decent for about 2 hours of work, still need some more work but I’m happy with it.

Question, would it make sense to port the exhaust manifolds??


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What are you doing to ensure the ports are the same size for each cylinder. I've seen some guys bend a light wire into an L shape to the desired width of the port so they can cut to that size. And I'm not sure on a 4.6, but most SBF stuff you can port to the gasket size.
 
@XR7-4.6 i thought so, the manifolds just look too twisted up and narrow for any real work. I did see somebody who had passed away was selling super ported manifolds a while back. Not sure his name but he cut em u pretty big specially the exit side.

@Zep5.0 in the post it shows you exactly which tools, not sure the name but it looks like 2 rods that are able to open and close and then a dial gauge to measure that. First he measures before the intake port, it’s about 1.2” and he recommends opening to 1.4”.

I figured port matching the intake side wouldn’t do much buuuut I will say I’d sleep better at night knowing the ports actually flow into each other instead of hitting on the lip
 
Ericv8thunderbird said:
Another step closer, but the link bar on the right side is hitting my console top, I guess I’ll have to trim the link bar a little bit.
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I had to reshape my linkbar when I switched from the manual SC console to the 97 console, same issue where the straight bar wouldn’t clear the auto top anymore

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I need to get out in the garage and dig out the cougar grills I have, and make a mold out of it. I'm going to make a mold and cast one out of metal. I also bought some high temp molding clay, that might be ususable in a thermite process; a Ti grill would cost about 100 for materials, chromium about 50. Aluminum I could melt and pour.
 
Speaking of Cougar grilles…

I was getting some junk out of the crawl space yesterday and completely forgot I did this in like 08 or 09ish??? before realizing “naaaah”

BMW later copied it :BMW:

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As far as what I did, I took the battery and brought it indoors since the car’s parked for the season, threw it on the trickle charger since I’ve activated the interior lights a few dozen times since parked. 4/18 on the date label 🫣

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It's pretty easy to measure the condition of a lead -acid battery Do a good overnight charge, then let it cool. A well charged one, after cooling to room temp is 2.25v per cell. as long as that's good, the other test is internal resistance. I use a old sealed beam headlight. It draws ~15A. Open voltage-loaded voltage/current=batt internal resistance. If it drops a volt at 15a, that's not bad; a200A start stays above 8V, which our eec needs to start and run. (Internal regulator is 5V, but it needs 3v of 'headroom to work, so 8v minimum) 1/15=0.06 ohm times 200a=starting volts drop.12.6-drop=starting voltage .
If you want to measure capacity, leave the load connected until the voltage drops to ~10v.
How long it takes is the reserve capacity. A couple of charge discharge cycles can bring one back from high internal resistance.
 
They're the same chemistry; they just overheat in places if you charge or discharge them too fast.
They should measure the same.
 
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