What did you do with your Thunderbird Today?

White Lincoln said:
Today (actually yesterday) I ran codes on the car. I noticed that the idle was low after finishing the exhaust and it seems to be missing every once in a while at idle. the codes came back that the idle was correct (and has not been an issue after running the tester) and that I still have 137/173 codes and I bet its the injectors are just crap and dumping fuel into into the intake, or at least one or two are crap.
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I had read in an article while researching mis-firing, the issue could be the coil, wires or plugs. I got to thinking that I was messing around the plug wires disconnecting and reconnecting my O2's so I went around and pushed all my plug wires in. I ran the car again and the mis-firing went away, but I do have a hesitation, slight, but if you listen, you can hear it. The idle is staying at 750 and the car does act up sometimes, but I blame age more than anything. :P

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Apparently the Focus wanted to join in on the fun of brake projects. Did only the left side in the summer and put off the right because it seemed… okey… and well I was lazy. Well it went bad bad this morning! Real bad!

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Drove it home for 5 miles using the handbrake, when I was using the pedal it smelled like car fire

All fixed though. Gotta love the sight of fresh steel on a salty car

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By the time you get home tomorrow that will no longer be fresh steel.
 
Kidd-7 said:
By the time you get home tomorrow that will no longer be fresh steel.
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I was almost tempted to spray the thing with header paint which I do do to the Cougar rotors which has preserved the areas the pads don’t touch, but the Focus is where I like to exercise lazy maintenance 😆
 
XR7-4.6 said:
Apparently the Focus wanted to join in on the fun of brake projects. Did only the left side in the summer and put off the right because it seemed… okey… and well I was lazy. Well it went bad bad this morning! Real bad!

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Drove it home for 5 miles using the handbrake, when I was using the pedal it smelled like car fire

All fixed though. Gotta love the sight of fresh steel on a salty car

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sometimes things go that way..
 
White Lincoln said:
I had read in an article while researching mis-firing, the issue could be the coil, wires or plugs. I got to thinking that I was messing around the plug wires disconnecting and reconnecting my O2's so I went around and pushed all my plug wires in. I ran the car again and the mis-firing went away, but I do have a hesitation, slight, but if you listen, you can hear it. The idle is staying at 750 and the car does act up sometimes, but I blame age more than anything. :P

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Try resetting the eec, and let it relearn with all cylinders working.
 
Getting to the point where I’m going to throw this supercharger in the trash.
I filled the system up with coolant last night, then pressure tested it and found the whole left side was leaking coolant. So, I have to take it all off for a second time.
I decided to reuse my intake manifold gaskets cause they still looked good, and they’re only 3 years old but I knew I should have changed them anyways. I guess it’s partially my fault this time. 🤦🏻‍♂️

Has anyone had luck with the Mhale steel intake manifold gaskets? Part # MS20314
 
KevinVarnes said:
Maybe a stupid question, but is there a mismatch on the coolant ports (NPI versus PI)? I don't know anything about your engine combo. Also, if you throw it in the trash, let me know where you live (preferably before trash day).
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I have PI heads, and I had the blower ported for PI heads, the passenger side didn’t leak at all, only the drivers side, I’m assuming the gasket must have a crack I missed. I haven’t pulled it apart yet.
 
Ericv8thunderbird said:
I have PI heads, and I had the blower ported for PI heads, the passenger side didn’t leak at all, only the drivers side, I’m assuming the gasket must have a crack I missed. I haven’t pulled it apart yet.
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I believe this is the problem, by ported for PI heads I take it to mean it’s an npi SVO and the ports were reshaped to match the heads?

If so it would still have the npi “kickout” on the water passage. The easy solution is simply do the same as us who’ve run PI intakes on npi heads and dab RTV on that port protrusion, only upside down in your case with the intake being meant for npi
 
XR7-4.6 said:
I believe this is the problem, by ported for PI heads I take it to mean it’s an npi SVO and the ports were reshaped to match the heads?

If so it would still have the npi “kickout” on the water passage. The easy solution is simply do the same as us who’ve run PI intakes on npi heads and dab RTV on that port protrusion, only upside down in your case with the intake being meant for npi
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Yeah, Stiegemeier did the PI porting to match my PI heads.
Most of the leak was coming from the front at the drivers side. Here is a pic sent from Stiegemeier. The rear of the blower is the left side of the picture.
 

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Ericv8thunderbird said:
Yeah, Stiegemeier did the PI porting to match my PI heads.
Most of the leak was coming from the front at the drivers side. Here is a pic sent from Stiegemeier. The rear of the blower is the left side of the picture.
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Interesting, those do look like the PI coolant port shapes, but that pitting around them is definitely not going to get a good seal.
 
XR7-4.6 said:
Interesting, those do look like the PI coolant port shapes, but that pitting around them is definitely not going to get a good seal.
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Exactly what I was thinking, I’ll go ahead and order some of the water pump rtv and fill in the pitting. I also have new intake manifold gaskets on order.

Hopefully this fixes it. 🤞🏻
 
Ericv8thunderbird said:
Yeah, Stiegemeier did the PI porting to match my PI heads.
Most of the leak was coming from the front at the drivers side. Here is a pic sent from Stiegemeier. The rear of the blower is the left side of the picture.
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Don't insects have 8 legs?

Just kidding, very nice intake Eric! I hope it is fixed now.
 
On an engine, I'd use the ultra black. I used a pick tool on the pitting,to get all the aluminum rust out of the pits. after they were clean, I filled them with rtv first, and then glued the gasket down to it. Running a block sander across the gasket flanges can help find all the pits. Hot water dissolves the oxide, so it leaks.
 
I was able to put 5 hours in on the cougars today. I pulled 4 bolts out of the trans on lazarus, and finally got the taillight installed on the red cougar. I've got to swap wheels on the two, and some oTher parts, and I finished pumping the third 5 gallon gas can out of the red one, so there' less than 3 gal left,lol. When I swap wheels I'll pull the rest off the bolts holding in the engine in laz. I'd like to get it on a stand for evalualuation.
I pulled together the stuff to put the arp studs in the teksid block.
I'm going to install the studs with permatex 1, like the oil galley plugs.
Comments?
 
Got the new fuel pump installed finally. It's almost completely silent except for a slight whooshing sound under the hood. I am assuming that is the much higher flow going through the return back into the tank.
Cougar fires up instantly now, old pump was defiantly going out!

Thought I found a washer, but it was the remains of the hole I drilled for the handbrake swap :LOL:

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The inspection tag with four signatures is interesting! Wonder if modern car gas tanks go through that many inspections?:unsure:

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Changed the oil in my 95 XR7 today. This is the 3rd time I've changed it since I've owned and I will say I'd rather change the plugs on my modified SC twice, than do an oil change this car....the filter orientation is horrible.
 
Kurt K said:
Changed the oil in my 95 XR7 today. This is the 3rd time I've changed it since I've owned and I will say I'd rather change the plugs on my modified SC twice, than do an oil change this car....the filter orientation is horrible.
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That's why oil filter relocations are so popular. :)
 
I just pay the dealer to do it.
 
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