Holy worn cap and rotor batman! ('91 Foxie)
 

So I changed the spark plugs and wires, along with the dizzy cap and rotor on the '91 Foxie and wow! I honestly didn't believe they could get THIS bad! Lets hope this gets me out of my 5-9mpg I'm getting and up to around 15-17 like it should! I also broke some tiny hoses under the air intake hose, one was black, and the other was white, no idea what they were, but no CEL and performance doesn't seem to be effected.

The car is also so much snappier it's not even funny, I'm so glad I took the time to do this.

http://imageshack.com/a/img674/2680/9TWK25.jpg

http://imageshack.com/a/img537/7599/qkahBn.jpg

http://imageshack.com/a/img674/1061/4MY0ZH.jpg

Picture of broken hoses. They are so brittle they just snapped, I wasn't being rough or neglectful.

http://imageshack.com/a/img911/7656/ayFith.jpg

Sadly, I've seen worse.

The tiny lines are vacuum lines, but I dont know what for. I would strongly suggest replacing them.

I've seen worse as well. It's amazing how bad they can get and still run.

Bad cap/rotor on a fox body reminds me of my friend's old mustang. He bought an '86 SVO and was showing it off to me. He got on it a bit and it instantly died! We pulled over and popped the hood... The rotor had exploded! Pieces of the cap and rotor were everywhere. I think it was just caused by a loose screw on the rotor and an new cap and rotor and it was good to go.

Yea they are to the emissions system, I'll be buying vacuum line tomorrow and fixing it.

LOL! I don't know about his, but mine was showing clear signs something was wrong. It was missing really bad, wouldn't Downshift right, slew of other things. Now that I replaced it, I barely have to touch the throttle to get it to Downshift, and it's running way better in pretty much every way. Tomorrow I'm clean the mass airflow sensor, throttle body and IAC. Then it's onto 3.73 rear end, 5-lug conversion and completely new suspension from the ground up.

Reminds me of replacing my mom's (rear) brake rotors and calipers because the pads fell out on the road and she continued to drive it for a day or two. If I were you, I'd be going through the brakes next!

Yea brakes first, then suspension, 3.73 rear end, then 5-lug conversion. If the 5-lug conversion kit wasn't 1,600$ it would be a little higher on the list but, yea...

That's a lot of money. I could sell my Civic twice over to fund that! :p

I could buy 3 POS KIA's for that!!

I'd look around some more... basic 5-lug kit is only $400:
Alloy USA Complete Mustang 5-Lug Conversion Kit - 28 Spline KIT (87-93 5.0L) - Free Shipping
And if you are fine junkyard scrounging, you can probably cut that in half.

These are simple cars with cheap, plentiful parts. The high-dollar stuff is not much of an improvement over the cheap parts.

For $1600, you could probably find a beater SN95 Mustang and get your brakes, lower gears, and 5-lug conversion all at once!

It's easier and cheaper to plan it all out and try to hit em all at the same time.
Is there a whole rear end assembly from another mustang or other car, that you can swap in that would already have the ratio, lugs, and brakes? Changing or modifying any rear suspension components becomes ridiculously easy when there's no rear end in the way.

My 3rd gen camaro had different front and rear wheel offsets, and a limited 2.77 that performed like an open. So I got a new gear ratio, limited slip that actually worked, and right width for a common whell off set, and it all had 1/4 the miles for $500 At the same time I put in subframe connectors, which boxed in and welded to the rear control arm mounts, replaced the control arms, custom boxed in the panhard rod mount, replaced the panhard rod, and had I wanted to, the springs were already out.

But yea, it was still just a money pit. Streetbikes, dirtbikes, racing modded up quads... We're all much better ROI in terms of fun to burning cash ratio IMO

I want 31 spindle, not 28. I also don't want used parts, unless I physically have a mechanic with me so I don't forget anything. That's my main delema.

Haha that's nothing, 185 AFR heads are ~1700, 331 Stroker kit is ~1,000, 1,600 for brake conversion, 250 for 3.73 rear end, 75mm throttle body is 300, etc etc. I think total for what I'm going to spend in the end (minus labor) is going to be around 10k. It's less than 1/3 what I would pay for a new mustang, and I'll have the body style I like. Everything after 93 I hate, so yea.

hey figured i would share some info with you since your workin on a ford.

these engines are kind of funny bc of the simple sort of electronics they used

i found this out on my own, and i share it with anyone who works on these engines:

all of the following can be removed easily with out upsetting the computer. the only thing the computer cares about is if the vacuum modules and other feed back sensors are plugged into the harness. you can remove the egr, all the crap for the air injection, all the goofy vacuum stuff (but make sure you keep vacuum going to your dash for your air vent controls), the air pump, the cat, all of it can be removed without upsetting the computer, as long as every single electrical "thing" is plugged into the harness. this really makes for alot more room in the engine bay and a lot simpler motor. its way easier to keep it clean too. i have some old pics somewhere i might show you if you want. but when i got rid of all that crap that does absolutely nothing important for performance or fuel economy i was very satisfied. probly 150 lbs all of the above parts removed. they were literally pumping in air before the cat to help burn un burned fuel, and pumping air in after the cat so that the emissions were "cleaner" or just adulterated with air to look cleaner. also look at your intake hoses and get rid of the velocity stacks between the throttle body and the air filter. they choke the engine big time with those.

Am I in the wrong place? I spent two Svenmobiles and two Davemobiles for my car!

stroker kit? A turbo setup will give you 3x the power

I hate Turbos on big engines. I want all motor. A.K.A old school.

Problem is, I live in Cali, and they are very strict on smog here. I don't fancy paying 200$ every 2 years to pass smog, so I gotta keep it smog legal.

When were turbos invented? :)

I think it's easier to get everything you need when you get a used assembly vs new

Skip the throttle body, terrible on the street. #1 worst "why didn't you just set you're money on fire?" mod I've seen in action. Makes 1/4 throttle feel like half throttle, and 3/4 to full feels like no change u till you're almost revved out. If you already have more torque, lower gear ratio, you don't want a touchier throttle

I plan on dragging this car at the salt flats eventually though ;-;.

Then I'll second ksa8907... Stroker kit?

If you haven't already, check the timing. They were supposed to be set at 8 degrees advanced from the factory, but they always seemed to be around 4-6 degrees when we used to get our hands on them in "stock" condition. Depending on the quality of gas you use and the heat range of spark plugs, you can usually bump it up to aound 12 degrees advanced, but if you don't want to do that at least make sure it's where it was supposed to be set at the factory.

Those 3.73:1 gears might be counterproductive then...

Yea but most of my time will be around town, so yea.

Figuring the .67 4th, 3.73rear and throwing in a set of 245/50-16, 5000rpm would be 152mph, 6000 would be 183mph. But that would be a zero converter slip. So I think Balt would need to get cracking with the aero mods to ever run out of gear
If it's going to be driven though, try to build it for being driven

I have been up to 140 in this car the way it is right now on a trip out to Barstow once. So I don't think 183 would be that far of a stretch with shorter gearing :P.

Anyway, that's why I'm building it the way I am. It's the reason I'm going 3.73 instead of 3.55 and 331 Stroker instead of 347/turbo. If I build all motor, I can work an maintenance it all myself. Less stuff to wear out. I don't want to have to worry in the future about a turbo going out or burning a hole in the block with nitrous (I do plan on running it eventually). I just want a DD that can haul ass, but still gets reasonable mpg around town. I know a couple guys that did almost exactly what I want to do, and they average 17-20 around town an 27-31 on the freeway at 60-65mph.

Damn yo you crazyy I have to see this thing when you are done.

It's gonna be 2-3 years unless I can find a part time job haha. I still have almost 1,000$ to put into the insight before I start working on this car.

And im just going to leave this here LMAO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLADky-3biQ

Says the video isn't available, but I know what that is, and that's how I used to drive around town. There is a reason my neighbors won't let their daughter near my stang, and why my neighbors down the street put up cinder block walls :P.

You should make a build thread for the mustang!!!

I have one here on ecomodder but it wasn't getting much attention so I ditched it. I'll revive it later today and updated it with all my progress +pics of the grill block.

[Edit]: I guess I didn't start a thread on the widow, I'll start one later on today.

You know, that might be why it did not receive any attention... :)

In spite of how BAD it may look, those distributor wear (worn?) patterns are actually quite typical...even back in the points & condensor days. Today's higher-voltage systems "eat" metal slightly more than in the old days.

One "trick" to SLOW (but never can STOP) such "pitting/erosion" is to lightly wipe each metal surface (cap studs as well as rotor arm) with dielectric (silicon) grease.

Well, I had a major incident with the stang about an hour ago. I went to go start it and it started up and made this god awful, ear splitting 'SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH' sound, so I shut it down, popped the hood and my belt was smoking. I think one of the pulleys seized and it's dragging the belt across that pulley. I didnt have the time to check it, and I'm headed to L.A in the morning, but I just thought I would inform you guys. Also sorry for the lack of a thread, I was extremely busy all day.

Sorry, I hope that you are able to figure out the problem without too many Xist adventures. Good luck!