Aww shit, here we go again

[Crownvicman289]

I know I know, sleep is for the weak, but if the shoe fits. . .

[Crownvicman289]

Alright, pics dammit. I whipped out the USB cable just for this thread, so you guys should feel special. Motor, trans, driveshaft, and exhaust are in. However, while installing the h-pipe, I got oil dripped on my face thus indicating that I have an oil leak requiring, at a minimum, removal of trans and flywheel, possibly the recently installed motor as well. I have chosen to continue moving forward for now, as a step backward would have a very negative impact on my motivation. Today, after helping a friend get his 5.0 swapped fox running, I modded my harness to accept the relocated IAT sensor and MAF sensor, for which I currently do not have an EEC, but when I do find one it'll be plug and play. I'm rocking the MAF off a '95 Mustang, a bolt in mod for the A9L/A9P type EECs. Tomorrow, I'll install the charcoal can that I've been without for the entire existence of this car, wire it, plumb it, and wire up the (non-existent) AC to the fans. Once that's done, I'm going to fill the radiator with tap water and go for a start, since I'm 99.9% sure the fucking motor has to come back out. Before that happens, I'm going to sacrifice some rubber to the cause unless I have a gusher of a leak on the initial start. Once this nonsense is all wrapped up, I'm trailering it to Maaco for an el-cheapo paint job to make it one color again, and not baby fucking blue. I've got the bumper covers and lights removed among other things so there's less shit for those douchebags to overspray onto.







Also modded the h-pipe as it didn't fit the 1515s the same as it did the equal length shorties. Speaking of which, these 1515s suck a little. There's 4 individual flanges, which had shifted during their life which required me to swear a lot and throw wrenches during the install. Then the h-pipe seemed to fit about 1/2" farther forward with these vs their predecessors so I had to hack off the hangers to clear the trans cross member. Then I welded in an aux O2 bung for a wideband if I decide to try tuning the thing via AFPR (installed) and, if I get an A9L/A9P, via SAFC II which I can trigger in open loop for which the EEC cannot learn around. I also lost the rubber hose plugged with a spark plug and crimped/welded the air tube shut. Slowly but surely, I deghettofying this car to the point of legitimacy.

[Crownvicman289]

So unless you want a pic of a wiring harness, here's what was accomplished today. Wired the harness for MAF, relocated ACT from intake manifold to factory airbox with sweet, non-heatsoaking plastic ACT sensor that ohmed out the same as the old school metal 5.0 one that was located in the lower intake (traded my friend lower intakes for his GT40P that was not tapped for an ACT in the lower intake), re-added the charcoal canister plug and wiring which required dissecting the entire engine harness, and added a wire from my (non-existent) AC compressor to kick the e-fans on when the compressor is running, and mounted a Fox Mustang charcoal canister. I pitched the can back in 2001 when I first bought the car and chalked it up to unnecessary emissions bullshit. Years later, my refined nostrils find the lack of a charcoal canister offending, and thus I have reinstalled one. So tomorrow the plan is to ship my hogged out lopo EGR spacer, fit the Lightning EGR spacer that I bought while deployed, swap over to a 65mm Mustang TB so I can run the breather hose from my valve cover, and see if this oil leaking bastard runs, knocks, smokes, or whatever before yanking it to fix the leak if it checks good. If the motor runs good, I have Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (midshift, FML) to yank it, fix it, and reinstall it. Then it's off to Maaco for a 1 color paint job so I can show more than just engine bay shots.

[86VickyLX]

So unless you want a pic of a wiring harness, here's what was accomplished today. Wired the harness for MAF, relocated ACT from intake manifold to factory airbox with sweet, non-heatsoaking plastic ACT sensor that ohmed out the same as the old school metal 5.0 one that was located in the lower intake (traded my friend lower intakes for his GT40P that was not tapped for an ACT in the lower intake), re-added the charcoal canister plug and wiring which required dissecting the entire engine harness, and added a wire from my (non-existent) AC compressor to kick the e-fans on when the compressor is running, and mounted a Fox Mustang charcoal canister. I pitched the can back in 2001 when I first bought the car and chalked it up to unnecessary emissions bullshit. Years later, my refined nostrils find the lack of a charcoal canister offending, and thus I have reinstalled one. So tomorrow the plan is to ship my hogged out lopo EGR spacer, fit the Lightning EGR spacer that I bought while deployed, swap over to a 65mm Mustang TB so I can run the breather hose from my valve cover, and see if this oil leaking bastard runs, knocks, smokes, or whatever before yanking it to fix the leak if it checks good. If the motor runs good, I have Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (midshift, FML) to yank it, fix it, and reinstall it. Then it's off to Maaco for a 1 color paint job so I can show more than just engine bay shots.

They tend to run weird with the ACT relocated to the air box. The computer is programmed for an ACT in the intake.
The early explorer 5.0s have the throttle body that will accept our tps, and have that little breather nipple.

[Crownvicman289]

That would have been nice to know before I traded away my drilled/tapped lower P intake. Do you have a link to people with these issues? Are they on here, or should I scour the corral?

[86VickyLX]

I think Gadget73 ran his Towny with the IAT sensor in the filter housing... since then he's relocated it to the lower intake.

[gadget73]

It has to do with making the computer go into long term learning mode. It won't happen unless the sensor sees like 160 degrees or something. The ECM expects the sensor to be reading air within that manifold, which is way hotter than what you should be sucking into the air filter. Make it read much colder than whats at the manifold and it will either ignore the sensor as being out of range, or over-fuel things because it thinks you live in the arctic or something. Specifically, I had strange idle lope problems with mine when the sensor was in the air pipe, and it quit doing that shit when I put it where the ECM expected it to be.

[Crownvicman289]

Sweet titties, I love backtracking. I thought I'd trick the ECU into giving me more timing, that's what I get for thinking. So the goal tomorrow is to fire it up with no fluids, no belt, time it, and make sure it's not blowing oil everywhere and knocking like a sunofabitch. If it passes that test, then the next day I'll get fluids to it and get it up to operating temp and go for a quick blast. I guess I'll just plug an extra ACT sensor in and leave it flopping around under the hood, that has to be warmer than the airbox. If it acts OK at operating temp, then the next day I'm ripping the trans and shit off to find that oil leak, seal it up, and slam the thing back together with possible further deghettofication along the way. We'll see how much backtracking I suffer from that amount of work before I look at buttoning it all up for good. I actually have to go to work for the next 2 days, so that's why I plan to do so little. Gonna take some strategic leave to stack my days off and hopefully have it buttoned up before my next rotation. What a relief that will finally be.

[turbo2256b]

ACT in the intake originaly should be kept there. Some have claimed benifits relocating it. I sermise it was crutching some other issue do to performance mods done to the engine.

Ford moved the sensor to the inlet tube because it realy reflected the air temp in the intake better than positioned in the intake. They finaly figured the sensor positioned in the intake after full warm up was reflecting the temp of the manifold itself instead of the air. The air travels so quickly through the intake it dosent pick up that much temperature. Thus the move to the air inlet gave more accurate air temp readings which allowed better fuel and timing control. Unfortunaty the ECMs for each are calibrated differently. Upon using a tweecer on each style didnt see were the programing was different in charts that were modifyable withthe tweecer softwere.

[Crownvicman289]

I was thinking the same thing, unfortunately didn't think it would have such an adverse effect by seeing the true temp of the air coming in.

Well the car runs, it was a little clacky at first but shut up after a minute or so. I gotta figure some of that is probably piston slap as well, I was shocked at the cylinder wall clearances of the forged vs hyper pistons. I test fit a hyper slug from an Exploder in the block and it was noticeably better. I actually measured both pistons, but have long since forgotten the actual difference between the 2. Tomorrow I'll put fluids to it, warm it up, and take it for a spin. Guess I'll have to put the hood back on to keep the ACT nice and warm in an attempt to mimic factory function. If it gets too shitty, I'll just lay it by the exhaust so I'm not fighting unknown AFRs to determine if the block is good or not. There was also a good bit of assembly lube in there, so I bet the oil was fighting its way past that as well. It had 50psi oil pressure, so I think the bearings are OK. Didn't plastigage them, just eyeballed for copper there's almost none. Crank wasn't scored, nor were the existing bearings. We'll find out the truth tomorrow either way. I did prime the engine prior to installing the valve covers, but not as good as I had wanted to because the drill I was using started to stink and I kinda like it and didn't want to burn it up. All the lifters spit out something, so I think they'll be OK too.

On to more asspain though, apparently the HO valve covers don't jive with the Explorer intake. I had to spin the brake vacuum fitting at the back of the upper to get it to clear but there's just no way in Hell that the oil cap is going back on.

[86VickyLX]

On to more asspain though, apparently the HO valve covers don't jive with the Explorer intake. I had to spin the brake vacuum fitting at the back of the upper to get it to clear but there's just no way in Hell that the oil cap is going back on.

They had to do that with the HO in the 92 Grand Marquis too. Dave, 87GTVIC moved the neck over somehow. Made it possible to access.

[1990LTD]

I think he either cracked it off or cut it off and JB welded it on a proper angle to clear the plenum.

[Crownvicman289]

I think he either cracked it off or cut it off and JB welded it on a proper angle to clear the plenum.

That sounds like a lot of work. I just dug a smaller cap out of my box o shit and it fits perfectly. For some reason the flash won't come on on my stupid smart phone.

Well I filled it with straight water to check for leaks, of which there are none. Filled/plumbed power steering as well, but the pressure hose leaks at the swedge and the pump howls. Is that because I dumped clear fluid in it or is that because my car for some reason isn't jiving with the variable assist valve that I installed? Is it wide open without power? I unplugged it and nothing changed. The pump didn't howl before, but before I had all tranny fluid in it so that could also be the case. . . also have lots of lifters lightly clacking. If I tighten my h-pipe out back it'll probably be easier to hear. I'm going to get some engine flush stuff and finish off this first batch of oil. Hopefully they're just dirty. Motor has 25-30psi at idle and 45-50 off idle, doesn't smoke or sting at all, so the rest of it seems to be healthy. I let it idle at 200-210 for about 15 minutes which would have been more than enough for the 289 to kill all the bugs in a 4 block radius. I set the fuel pressure at 39psi and it has an off idle hesitation that's been buzzed about so much on here. On the flip side, the '94 Mustang MAF bolted to my airbox is now wired up and ready for action. When I first did the EFI swap, I also wired in the VSS, so an A9L/A9P is now plug and play if someone wants to sell me one cheap. Cheap is not $100 either like those crooks on the corral want for every last Mustang computer. I even remembered to change back the plug wires for the new firing order. I'll take it for a spin around the block tomorrow, then tear the trans and flywheel off to fix the small oil leak at the back of the engine. I'm hoping to have the lower drilled and tapped for the ACT no later than Sunday. If the lifters STFU, then I'll pretty much be done with it after that and I can move on to retrofitting AC and getting it painted.

[Crownvicman289]

Damn, no edit button. Well I did some poking around and it looks like I should have stuck with type F. I thought I was just using it before to get rid of it, but I guess that wasn't the case. I also tightened the over center adjuster on the steering box so if I went too far that might be it as well.

[Crownvicman289]

Well I drove it some, seemed pretty gutless. I won't pass judgment until I relocate that ACT sensor, I'm hoping day after tomorrow for that as I need a big ass motherfucking drill to spin the bit. I'll probably just slap the lights back in the thing and drive it bumperless on base since it does actually run, helluva lot easier than trailering the damn thing. The Vette really kills my perception of the power this thing puts out, I used to think it was relatively sprightly compared to my truck. Now I can't tell the diff between my truck and the Crown Vic. Bumping the fuel pressure from 39psi to 41psi got rid of the off idle stumble that so many have complained about, but the idle stunk. I don't know if it'll learn itself leaner, and I really shouldn't be screwing with the fuel pressure without my wideband hooked up to see the total effect. I didn't really drive it enough for it to learn anything anyway. So after that, and my gusher of a power steering leak, I ripped the trans off and found my leak; the top, right corner of the oil pan. The part where it transitions to the round section. That's where my Chinese pan wasn't quite to spec, and the bitch leaked. It didn't leak before because I had the shit cork gasket and siliconed them. This time, with the 1 piece gasket, I went without. With a good pan, there's no need for silicone, but with a Chinese pan there clearly is. Hopefully my external fix holds and I'll have it back together running tomorrow and also re-relocate the ACT to its original home, wiring only.