What did you do with your Thunderbird Today?

[KevinVarnes]

Tire pressure is important. Mydrive is 90% highway at 60-65mph. Do you have ability to check fuel trims? I use forscan to monitor mine.

He's OBD-I so no fuel trim data.
I used to get just above 30 in my old '92 V6 on the highway when it was in proper tune.

 

[Generalee0527]

When I was driving 120 miles/day, I could tell tire pressure, oil age, trans fluid age, and suspension wear just from how the car drove.
I could tell gas mileage pretty well too.
I change oil every 2500 mi, trans fluid every 25k, and air filter every oil change. I got 21-25mpg, although by a random thing of following a state trooper into maryville for a week, I found out the non-hooning mpg was 35mpg@80-85mph. Difference was everyone got out of the way ,lol.

So you're saying the Nascar drafting to conserve fuel was a hoax? The CD is what drew me to the bird in the first place. Slick as glass when everything is right. My rear shocks are dead and so I may be a little lower than stock.

 

[White Lincoln]

Tire pressure is important. Mydrive is 90% highway at 60-65mph. Do you have ability to check fuel trims? I use forscan to monitor mine.

Nah, I was just using the gas station reciepts. So, I used about an 1/4 of a tank and gone 60+ miles. That is better than I have seen in years.

 

[1997ThunderbirdLXV6]

Today...I just admired it. Especially its freshly shampooed scent. Interior feels brand new again.

 

[XR7-4.6]

That’s like when I got my ACC carpet, the black carpet I had in it before was from a smoker car and the rubber backer was crumbling apart from dry rot. I got it as clean as it ever could get and black carpet hides many sins but it still had a mustiness I eventually went noseblind to. Putting the ACC in its place practically gave it new car smell

 

[Grog6]

Our cars seem to hit best mileage 80-90mph, so the aerodynamics are great.
I was nowhere near close enough to a trooper to draft him,lol.
Staying 100yds back is close enough to get the benefit without getting busted.
I've drafted many a semi, tho; bastards blocking traffic, I burn their gas.

 

[XR7-4.6]

Our cars seem to hit best mileage 80-90mph, so the aerodynamics are great.
I was nowhere near close enough to a trooper to draft him,lol.
Staying 100yds back is close enough to get the benefit without getting busted.
I've drafted many a semi, tho; bastards blocking traffic, I burn their gas.

With 3.08s perhaps. Best I ever got in my car with 3.55s was 29mpg averaging 65ish. Cougars aren’t as slippery as Tbirds either, they’re pretty much the same Cd as SN95/New Edge Mustangs at .36, Tbirds and Marks are like .32 or .31 IIRC

Classy style isn’t always efficient

 

[Vicinity]

Today...I just admired it. Especially its freshly shampooed scent. Interior feels brand new again.

Almost there

 

[XR7-4.6]

Almost there

View attachment 11812

 

[1997ThunderbirdLXV6]

Nothing yet, but what I  might do to my Thunderbird today is this:

With headlights on, wire turn signals front and back such that the respective side parking light is off while turn signal is in use, thereby making the turn signal stand out more. In other words, turn signals cycle bright/off instead of bright/dim.

With relays, this is actually fairly easy to do. But is it worth the effort?

I think signaling would improve. Having grown up in Germany, where turn signals are always a separate feature, I find the combined turn/parking assemblies somewhat compromised.

 

[XR7-4.6]

It doesn’t look like it but I got a LOT done this afternoon since I last worked on it.

First and least interesting to anyone a new coolant gauge sender and pigtail(I had previously used a 2 wire 96+ sender which had been causing some problems for me and I had to add an unsightly ground wire I just looped around an inspection plate bolt.



FINALLY painted my custom power steering reservoir brackets. Ones a modified COP bracket from a gen 2 Mark, the lower bracket I made from some aluminum flat stock



Got all my pulleys back on, they were all loose and just kind of set in place for the last photo, also bought a new belt today since the old gatorback was definitely done.



EGR now fully deleted. It’s not really a brag as I like what EGR does and this tube is MINT, but I do like how removing just those three components from the intake makes it look I can actually see the back of the fuel rails now! I even put the cap that didn’t fit me headers on the manifold… I’m doing the Kooks like next week but why not?(plus I’d like to see if I can shake down any potential idle issues in the tune in the evenings this week…. And I miss driving it)






Other than that I changed the oil, initially discouraged by all the water that was gushing out but then remembered I took the water pump off with the timing cover off… “oh yeah”

after that I finally summoned the courage to spin it over with the starter and plugs still out to build oil pressure(I actually wanted to do that before I put the valve covers on but that want got obliterated by progress inertia). When I first started spinning it it was all clickity clack as I painstakingly bled all 32 lash adjusters but after about 10 seconds of spinning it went silent. So either all of the followers fell off or it built good oil pressure (I’m always paranoid by what I don’t see with my own eyes lol).

Gonna keep going on it, plugs, coils etc and get the base tune in. If it’s not too late I’ll probably fire it up tonight

 

[Kenz]

EGR now fully deleted.

 

[Grog6]

Think I'll get hassled for this sticker?
Thankfully, my cat cant read.

 

[theterminator93]

Matt! Put all that stuff in your build thread!

 

[XR7-4.6]

Matt! Put all that stuff in your build thread!

O ye of little faith, I have a typically long winded project summary for it incoming for there when complete

Notice how I haven’t actually shared my cam degreeing process yet? You’ll see! A few pics of the engine don’t really show what I haven’t shown before

 

[Vicinity]

Went for a good drive with the bird and finally saw a clean Cougar in the wilderness. White paint, I'd guess 94. Caught up to him and we exchanged hand signals. Good vibes. If we were in a parking lot I'dda directed him to the forum

 

[Grog6]

We need to make stickers.
I have a stack of the old stickers Michelle sent me. I should sell them on ebay, and post a link on the other place,lol. $5 each,lol.

 

[White Lincoln]

...I use forscan to monitor mine.

Generalee, I failed to mention in my last post to you about the mileage on my car that my car may have an OBDII reader under the glove box, but the car still uses OBDI.

Any suggestions for another product, preferably "free" to get gas mileage results? So far, I have used a little more than 1/3 of a tank and gone 100 miles. I would calculate that to be about 250+ per tank if kept up my current habit of stop and go, peddle to the metal (sometimes) and otherwise light on the throttle driving. Thanks for the suggestion though!

 

[Kidd-7]

Cougar…
I replaced the passenger window motor and repaired some leaks in the windshield sprayers.

 

[Generalee0527]

Generalee, I failed to mention in my last post to you about the mileage on my car that my car may have an OBDII reader under the glove box, but the car still uses OBDI.

Any suggestions for another product, preferably "free" to get gas mileage results? So far, I have used a little more than 1/3 of a tank and gone 100 miles. I would calculate that to be about 250+ per tank if kept up my current habit of stop and go, peddle to the metal (sometimes) and otherwise light on the throttle driving. Thanks for the suggestion though!

Good Ole Obd1. I just spent the WHOLE day trying to get my son's '94 f150 5.0l straitened out. Ran like shit. Sounds like it has a miss on take off, won't engage 4th without bucking like a bull hit w/ hot stick. Finally figured it was egr related but cleaning the gunk out didn't help. Seems it isn't getting vacum. Replaced fuel pump in front tank because the rear pump fills it when running rear pump. Replaced plugs for just because I hadn't put those in. Swapped the distributor w/ one I replace the pick-up in and then it wouldn't fire. Son took opportunity to try some of my favorite curse words and he is getting it.. He went inside (had to tell mom on me for fnn it up) so I started checking power to coil and to distributer and found the plug needed persuasion to connect. After that I started it and checked timing to find it was way retarded ( no not me, previous mechanic before we bought it). Got it to 10 deg. W/o spout and locked it down. Plug in the spout and hey not too bad. Off to fill up the tank and sweet the damn gauge works now. Got home and unplugged egr and nope no suck. Unplugged the vacuum regulator and a spare plug on intake tree and plugged it in to see what it would idle like. Soon smooth. Now who said old technology can't be fixed. It can frustrate the hell out of anyone. I'm hoping this will fix the shift into 4th so I don't have to take it back to trans shop. They have been reliable to me for 20 years so I'm hopeful the repeat customer discount pays off.

 

[White Lincoln]

Good Ole Obd1. I just spent the WHOLE day trying to get my son's '94 f150 5.0l straitened out. Ran like shit. Sounds like it has a miss on take off, won't engage 4th without bucking like a bull hit w/ hot stick. Finally figured it was egr related but cleaning the gunk out didn't help. Seems it isn't getting vacum. Replaced fuel pump in front tank because the rear pump fills it when running rear pump. Replaced plugs for just because I hadn't put those in. Swapped the distributor w/ one I replace the pick-up in and then it wouldn't fire. Son took opportunity to try some of my favorite curse words and he is getting it.. He went inside (had to tell mom on me for fnn it up) so I started checking power to coil and to distributer and found the plug needed persuasion to connect. After that I started it and checked timing to find it was way retarded ( no not me, previous mechanic before we bought it). Got it to 10 deg. W/o spout and locked it down. Plug in the spout and hey not too bad. Off to fill up the tank and sweet the damn gauge works now. Got home and unplugged egr and nope no suck. Unplugged the vacuum regulator and a spare plug on intake tree and plugged it in to see what it would idle like. Soon smooth. Now who said old technology can't be fixed. It can frustrate the hell out of anyone. I'm hoping this will fix the shift into 4th so I don't have to take it back to trans shop. They have been reliable to me for 20 years so I'm hopeful the repeat customer discount pays off.

Yep, been there, done that. Had the same issue with car ran like crap. Two mechanics had no clue either. I found the time was at 4.5 deg. Put it at 10 and it has been running great ever since. It still has issues, but they are related to the car being so old and, as you said, 'good ole OBD1' tells you that you have to find the problem cause I can't help you. Glad you found the issue and got that part fixed.

 

[Generalee0527]

Yep, been there, done that. Had the same issue with car ran like crap. Two mechanics had no clue either. I found the time was at 4.5 deg. Put it at 10 and it has been running great ever since. It still has issues, but they are related to the car being so old and, as you said, 'good ole OBD1' tells you that you have to find the problem cause I can't help you. Glad you found the issue and got that part fixed.

Back in 95 or 96 I took my '84 Gt to one of those precision tune places and they set timing to spec and it would hardly run. The carbs you could set by sound and be fine. Of course I had a ball of carbon on end of plug thanks to a leaking valve guide. And they couldn't figure out why it was down on power. That's when I stopped letting people I don't know work on my stuff. I'm a slow learner but I don't forget much.

 

[CDsDontBurn]

I'm looking at buying the Caddy Brembo calipers. The 14" look awesome but definitely overkill for my mostly stock power output. So the 13" Caddy Brembo calipers will likely be the go-to calipers for me.

Last week I dropped off the front shocks to the machine shop for modification. He's a bit scared of doing the mod, but I told him it's fine and that it's been done before. I told him to both shave off a hair of the ID of the tube and to shave off the paint of the Bilstein unit.

Other than that, I haven't done anything else to mine since stripping down the front suspension.

I'm planning on dropping the transmission soon, but the home improvement projects are taking priority right now.

 

[Grog6]

Have you considered a .22 cal air rifle to cure your groundhog problem, or does CA ban those too?
If you're going thru your trans, this is the guide I used:

How to: - 4R70W Transmission Rebuild Diary

Foreward to this Diary: I have only been building transmissions now for about 4 years or so. I do not claim to be a pro, expert or genius about this topic. Yet, I have been wrenching for 30 years now and at one time did work for FORD. (Seems like another life). I have built engines, component...

www.explorerforum.com

I've built 3.5 of them like this, and they don't fail, even with my constant hooning.

 

[CDsDontBurn]

If you're going thru your trans, this is the guide I used:

How to: - 4R70W Transmission Rebuild Diary

Foreward to this Diary: I have only been building transmissions now for about 4 years or so. I do not claim to be a pro, expert or genius about this topic. Yet, I have been wrenching for 30 years now and at one time did work for FORD. (Seems like another life). I have built engines, component...

www.explorerforum.com

I've built 3.5 of them like this, and they don't fail, even with my constant hooning.

Transmission shop has quoted me $250 for the pump or $900 for a complete rebuild.

I like the idea of doing the rebuild myself, but I don't have the tools for it, nor the space.

 

[XR7-4.6]

Transmission shop has quoted me $250 for the pump or $900 for a complete rebuild.

I like the idea of doing the rebuild myself, but I don't have the tools for it, nor the space.

I thought you were 5-speed swapping? Either way, I rebuilt my 99 4R70w with the worlds most janky snap ring pliers as my primary specialty tool. If the front pump is your only issue you don’t even need those.

 

[Grog6]

There are good instructions with pix in that thread. The only tools you need for the pump is some 8mm bolts, a slide hammer, and vaselene. Some lint free rags are nice, but old tshirts will work. A slide hammer is to get it out, and can be improvised with a wrench and claw hammer.

 

[CDsDontBurn]

I thought you were 5-speed swapping? Either way, I rebuilt my 99 4R70w with the worlds most janky snap ring pliers as my primary specialty tool. If the front pump is your only issue you don’t even need those.

I am, but because California, I need the AT reinstalled for emissions purposes. Afterwards, I'll put in the MT and take it to the referee to make it legit. It'll give me 2yrs from passing emissions testing to make it a (CA) legit mod.

 

[Grog6]

What's the prob with the pump?

 

[CDsDontBurn]

What's the prob with the pump?

It leaks like a sieve!

Well, not the pump itself, but rather the seal is broken so it leaks from there.

This is the day I brought my T-Bird into my garage. I added 4qts of ATF so it could move under its own power. Literally, all I did, was take it for a single 10mph lap around the block and backed it into my garage. Once parked, I lifted it. Not even 10min had passed from when I parked my car to when I took this picture and this is what was under the car.