Geeze. IT has been a while. This car has been my everyday conveyance for almost two years and 10,000 miles. It had (up until recently) performed flawlessly rain or shine.
Slow and lousy to drive but reliable as gravity. The brakes are great and were a critical upgrade. The rear end brought with it the drawback of going from a 2.92 differential to a 3.73. Acceleration was peppier but top speed was reduced and keeping up with traffic on the freeway was impossible. As a car guy you are always collecting new pieces as they come up though. I got very lucky and found this locally.
That is a small six bellhousing and adapter plate to fit a T5 transmission. Being that I already had a few T5's this was a no brainer.
Then a customer asked if I would pull the engine and transmission out of his Mustang so he could prep it for a V8 install.
The motor was a 200ci that tested beautifully. 172-175psi compression across all six cylinders and 8% leakdown
I plastiguaged the rods and mains which were at 0.003" and called it a winner so it was treated to all new gaskets and seals
And then a few months later found the time to throw it all in.
But it ran terribly. Just dreadful. I tried everything. New ignition system, new carb. Nothing helped. I tested the motor out again after running it for a week and it read from 125-145 psi compression across the cylinders. leakdown numbers were all over the place. Bad valves! But how? Everything was fine before. Take the old head and did a quick and dirty valve lap job and toss it on.
Result! It is now perfect. Super smooth, slick shifting close ratio transmission. A bump in power from the extra 500cc's of displacement and gearing that allows the car to accelerate and still cruise on the freeway.
I also treated it to a nice new 160amp alternator
It still generates more attention than the grey car
Slow and lousy to drive but reliable as gravity. The brakes are great and were a critical upgrade. The rear end brought with it the drawback of going from a 2.92 differential to a 3.73. Acceleration was peppier but top speed was reduced and keeping up with traffic on the freeway was impossible. As a car guy you are always collecting new pieces as they come up though. I got very lucky and found this locally.
That is a small six bellhousing and adapter plate to fit a T5 transmission. Being that I already had a few T5's this was a no brainer.
Then a customer asked if I would pull the engine and transmission out of his Mustang so he could prep it for a V8 install.
The motor was a 200ci that tested beautifully. 172-175psi compression across all six cylinders and 8% leakdown
I plastiguaged the rods and mains which were at 0.003" and called it a winner so it was treated to all new gaskets and seals
And then a few months later found the time to throw it all in.
But it ran terribly. Just dreadful. I tried everything. New ignition system, new carb. Nothing helped. I tested the motor out again after running it for a week and it read from 125-145 psi compression across the cylinders. leakdown numbers were all over the place. Bad valves! But how? Everything was fine before. Take the old head and did a quick and dirty valve lap job and toss it on.
Result! It is now perfect. Super smooth, slick shifting close ratio transmission. A bump in power from the extra 500cc's of displacement and gearing that allows the car to accelerate and still cruise on the freeway.
I also treated it to a nice new 160amp alternator
It still generates more attention than the grey car