H.O. Upper stuff swap on LoPo - Does this produce noticable gains?

[knucklehead0202]

True story Derek, could use some more gas. Although I did about 275 miles on the tank when we took our first road trip. That was about 200 highway miles and 75 or so street driving. This is guesstimating because my odometer doesn't work but I know the highway mileage because I've been making that trip for 25 years or so. I drove it to work and back 3 or 4 days, which is a round trip about 20 miles a day. Plus distance to the highway, yeah, somewhere between 275 and 300 miles on that tank, not bad. I initially estimated it at 250, which put me at about 19mpg with how much gas it took on, but the more I've looked at it I did a good bit better than that. The whales hold almost 20 gallons though, and are better on gas. When I used to work closer, I could drive out to dad's and back, and still drive to work and back for 2 weeks before filling up. Now it's like 2 days Oh well, I like this car much better so it all evens out.

[pantera77]

Stock motor mounts are fine for most, last time I bought them they were $6 each on RA. You'll need swivel sockets to get to them with the lower control arms in place.

Also, factory radio upgrades are the best upgrades, who still uses CD's? Cassettes are where it's at.

[gadget73]

Mustang motor mounts aren't remotely close to compatible. Has to be stock type mounts. They are cake to do if you remove the lower control arms. Otherwise, F that noise. I did mine when I did the brake upgrade. When the motor went in, I used the original shot mounts. That actually was part of the cause for me nearly losing a finger from doing stupid things, but thats a story for another time.


The big gas tank thing I don't get. I get about 250 miles per bladder so the capacity is good IMO.

[knucklehead0202]

Mustang motor mounts aren't remotely close to compatible. Has to be stock type mounts. They are cake to do if you remove the lower control arms. Otherwise, F that noise. I did mine when I did the brake upgrade. When the motor went in, I used the original shot mounts. That actually was part of the cause for me nearly losing a finger from doing stupid things, but thats a story for another time.


The big gas tank thing I don't get. I get about 250 miles per bladder so the capacity is good IMO.

Yeah it's just kind of annoying hearing all these dildos with their stupid little cars talk about how they can go 500 miles on a tank. Our cars are huge so therefore should hold more gas and go pretty far, although I don't expect hybrid mileage. Screw those things...

[DerekTheGreat]

...Also, factory radio upgrades are the best upgrades, who still uses CD's? Cassettes are where it's at.

Cassettes wear out and so do the heads on the tape deck... Less moving parts usually means less things to go wrong. I'd rephrase that as "Who still uses CD's & cassettes when there are Ipods? I don't use the line out feature on my pod, I use the USB connector. I couldn't tell the difference on the home stereo between CD & USB connection. I also record stuff in .WAV format as MP3's are lossy. In the car though with wind/road & ass noise MP3's are just dandy though but the purist audio snob in me won't let me resort to MP3. Don't get me wrong though, I've got lots of Vinyl and love old tube stuff and old stuff in general. I'm a firm believer that with the right equipment and a good quality pressing, vinyl sounds better than CD's, I really enjoy the way vocals, strings & woodwind instruments sound... I like that tapes don't skip though. I ended up with so many factory decks as I wanted to try out all the styles, got every one except a factory JBL deck but I'm not sure theres a difference other than the Ford/JBL logo. What's more depressing is that even Pioneer's bottom of the barrel deck sounds better than all of the factory decks I auditioned. Factory stuff just adds too much mid/high range color and has a higher noise floor, yuck. Because of that I had to break down and do aftermarket despite my love for factory appearance.

...The big gas tank thing I don't get. I get about 250 miles per bladder so the capacity is good IMO.

Yeah it's just kind of annoying hearing all these dildos with their stupid little cars talk about how they can go 500 miles on a tank. Our cars are huge so therefore should hold more gas and go pretty far, although I don't expect hybrid mileage. Screw those things...

250 miles is BS, especially when you're road trippin'. Not so bad for a dude like me who only has a 15 mile round trip work commute but back when I had my 70 mile round trip duty I may have considered selling the thing. The anti siphon filler neck pisses me off too, gotta do stupid shit with the nozzle so it doesn't keep shutting off or puking precious gasoline allover my paint and ground. Not an issue once you find a station that doesn't piss it off but roadtrips or out of town excursions will really test your patience with that. I like extra capacity because it gives me peace of mind, you don't have to worry about the next fill up location as much. Plus, I used to go to my buddie's place in Canada a lot, and that's close to 100 miles one way. Gas is expensive in Canada plus when the exchange rate sucks it really sucks to have to stop & get gas. I not feel so comfy taking TC there unless filler neck is topped off haha. Right one with what Mr. Khead said, our cars were meant for the dude who had deep pockets and thus, what did they care about the price of gas? At least Chevy gave the Cadillac Brougham a nice large tank, ABS and a 350. If only their style was as cool as the TC's I might consider owning one of those too. I have a car problem lol.

[DerekTheGreat]

Oh, speaking of Chevy that GMC we bought is a turd. So many nickel & dimers killing our groove and nothing is really working out the way we thought it would. Couldn't get around to looking at either TC's air ride this weekend because of the damn needy GMC:
-New wiper motor installed (damn thing still wont properly respond to switch settings so maybe that's the issue)
-New VSS installed (Speedometer still doesn't work)
-New washer bottle & washer motor installed for the third time (Washer now works, yay!!!!)
-Throttle body rebuilt & previous owner's dumb vacuum hose work corrected (runs much better but still surgy when cold)
-Aftermarket radio installed (we've got tunes)
-Oil changy done
-Grease fittings for front end lubed up
-License plate lights fixed
-Clutch master cylinder cleaned out & refilled with fluid
-New fuel pump

That old Ford we're selling never gave us headaches at all. Starting to regret purchasing the damn thing. What a waste of money it's been and putting us further n further from a house and to top it off, now Ash has problems with her A/C on her Townie.

[gadget73]

Run a ground wire to the wiper motor case. I believe these grounded through the mounting screw, and if it gets crusty it does retarded stuff. A temporary wire connection will tell you if thats it.

[DerekTheGreat]

Funny thing is the original motor would usually only work when you hit the washer button so I got a JY one and plugged it in without installingit. Held it with one hand while fiddling with switch using the other. Of course at that point it didn't spaz out but next day and the delay settings don't exactly work, motor stays on when in off position but when you turn it off it will shut down eventually. Oh well, more responsive then the previous motor. All research keeps saying to replace a module which this truck doesn't have. Truck has some goofy one year only wiper motor or something. Speedometer cluster is at Specmo right now but I don't think that's the issue with it. I got some code that says "VSS short-circuit." Guessing rodents chewed on more than just the headlight wires.

[pantera77]

I just can't do aftermarket headunits, I have an unhealthy, deep-seated hatred for them. They always look so out of place. I know the cheapest walmart special will sound better then the stock Ford ones but at the cost of looking terrible. They make me angry, I hate them so much. Then again, in the car I only listen to cassettes and AM, so sound quality isn't a huge priority.

[gadget73]

If the stock ones had an ipod input, or would drive a sub without nonsense I'd be with you. Not a fan of the look of most aftermarket crap, but I hate tapes even more. I was so upset when the stock cd player in the Mark VII died for the third or fourth time and couldn't be made to go again. It looked and sounded right, and it had been modified for my ipod to work with. The POS Sony in there now works with the ipod but its ugly. It was free tho, so F it. The Eclipse in the Towncar just pisses me off. Its got too many layers of menus and the controls are so easily bumped to screw the whole thing up.

[DerekTheGreat]

I have an unhealthy, deep-seated hatred for Wal-Mart. Not that I've done some huge study but it seems to me their prices are cheaper at the expense of everything else, including their employees. Just like the company I work for is all about "globalization." Just a fancy under the radar word for "We're opening up more facilities overseas and pretty soon your job will be obsolete." Makes me think of the company "World Products." I've never looked into them but is that just a fancy name for "Made in China?"

Anyway, ten years ago aftermarket decks from the like of Alpine & Pioneer (their top shelf stuff) weren't so bad. Actually, if I had $,1500 I'd have bought the top of the line Pioneer to throw in my TC but that's just a head unit and needs other components to make it work. Plus I can't justify spending so much money on audio for a location & soundstage that's just so far from perfect. Companies like Focal make $1,000 pairs of speakers (which I think suck compared to $150 dollar/pair JBL power series - they fall short in the midrange to treble department and are just too hissy for me) and what not when at the end of the day it's a CAR. It turns out I've got a Sony in my car too, I never thought I'd buy a Sony product ever but Alpine & Pioneer's offerings really pissed me off, especially Pioneer with their lack of preset buttons. Plus it seems everything has gone to double din to keep pace with today's cars too. Sony's display (LCD) sucks balls but other than that it's got an equalizer, 5V preouts, front & rear USB inputs, legacy buttons (because who'd have thought 1-6 with a pause button would become part of menu option????) and you can customize it so that during the day the illumination is white face like the gauges but during the night it switches to green. I do not like that you can't save your settings into the fuckin' thing. Absolute bullshit. It was possible with my 2004 Alpine CDA-9835 so there's no reason why it couldn't be had today. It's like, do these fuckin' people even demo their products in the real world before going to market with them???

[DerekTheGreat]

I've seen manifolds with the rectangular ports but I've got the oval ports right?

[dmccaig]

Dear Panthers.

I stuck with the original headunit in my 89 CP because most of the new units look like jukeboxes and REQUIRE ATTENTION FROM THE ROAD. I hook up my phone through the cassette adapter and have a pioneer speakers in front, original in the rear. Works fine and I've got an iphone remote in the steering wheel which I don't use because it's easier to just cut the volume when music comes up I don't want.

Since most medical insurance won't pay for hearing aids I dunno why the enormous high dollar audio systems in cars with serious road noise. Headphones?

Donald

[DerekTheGreat]

Sounds like you ran into some of those mid teir Pioneers with their M.I.X. Traxx crap and all of the stupid lights that respond to the beat or whatever. Yes, those were designed for millennials and others who are into the "look at me" factor. I spent about a week looking into decks, new and somewhat old depending on their appearance and ended up with that Sony, GS-810xxxxx or other. There are somethings I don't like about it but seeing as I'm critical about sound it was a must have for me. I tried living with the factory deck plus Ford JBL goodies but when I'd jump in Ashley's with her $80 Pioneer I was blown away at the difference. It isn't all that obtrusive either and that's all she needs to be satisfied with the tunage. Have had her speaker level inputs feeding the Ford JBL Amp & JBL speakers for a little over a year now and so far, so good. Budget stereo system at its finest, I'm really impressed with how decent it sounds despite not having more than $150 in the whole set-up.

[DerekTheGreat]

Might be able to get this for cheap depending on how the auction goes:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw...ifold&_sacat=0
Is it an actual HO upper?