Here is a video to show what the outside of the car looks like.
The car continues to be my daily driver and only car I own. I fixed the transmission tail shaft speedometer drive gear and it was actually a very easy job.
jtbo, the reduced height springs should not be an issue since the only part that was heated was 3 coils near the perch and the remainder of the spring was saturated with wet rags. Even if a crack were to occur it would be adjacent the perch itself.
It has recent shocks on all four wheels and new poly sway bar bushings. The handling is very tight, there is no steering slop, and minimal body roll. I spent much time with hard turns in a large parking lot and found it tended to under-steer a little. I removed two shims each side from the upper control arm pivot point to give the front wheels slight negative camber. After that change it is possible to break either the front or rear tires loose depending on throttle position during an extreme corner. It handles quite well, the hardest thing about taking very fast turns is the bench seat that does not conform to the body. I have no plans of installing bucket seats since the bench seat has great original upholstery, is quite comfortable, and is easy to stretch out and take a nap on.
I got rid of the Ford EEC/IV computer and am running a DIYPNP megasquirt computer with a set of Siemens Deka IV 60lb/hr injectors.
I installed a wide-band O2 sensor and found the factory computer was absolutely terrible. Sometimes it would run extremely rich (9:1)
at low RPM WOT. The worst thing was the vane air meter that somehow managed to bend its movable air flap.
Megasquirt is absolutely awesome, it uses a MAP sensor instead of the vane air meter and since I used autotune in tunerstudio the fuel ratio is always precise. I will post some pictures soon.
I found the Ford 2.3 engine does not like to run lean and needs an especially rich idle. It idles very smooth around 13.7:1 but feels rough and loses RPMs if I try to reduce fuel. It will go as lean as 15:1 at higher RPMs but for some reason needs a rich idle. Is this normal for a Ford 2.3?
I installed a new catalytic converter and the exhaust has almost zero detectable smell of unburned fuel. Combined the converter, turbocharger, and giant magnaflow muffler make for a whisper quiet exhaust.
The spray painted white-wall paint has held up quite well. It is due for a repaint due to a light sidewall tire rub while parallel parking.
