It's been a while. (Very pic heavy)

It goes motor in, header, then starter? Good to know. I have the 88300s so that's probably going to end up being the case.

 

If you can talk your girlfriend into cleaning up a C4, NOTHING about this project can stop you!

 

I guess that's one way to look at it! She definitely does what she can to help out, and I'm grateful for that.

 

......

 

Progress!

 

Awesome.

 

It's so close. I got the starter, headers, and steering all together and such. It took a lot of persuasion via torch and ball peen hammer to get the cylinder #5 tube to clear the steering even with the drop bracket. Also yes, that's drain pipe on the intake for now until I can get my hands on aluminum.

I'm back at school now that winter break's over but I'm hoping I'll be able to start it this weekend.

 

Nice work can't wait to see it running

 

Update!

Several weekends later, I've got everything all wired up and plumbed, fixed some issues with the
MegaSquirt and timing, heavily persuaded the headers to clear everything, and got the car fired up on Tuesday! I will post pics and a video this weekend when I'm home again.

More updates to come, as I will be allowed to use the university's dyno to fully dial in the tune in a couple weeks. I'm excited to see what kind of power I'm going to make.

I would like to hear some guesses on what it's going to put down to the wheels.

The setup is:
-Freshly rebuilt roller 302+.030"
-1990 Fox body stock cam
-Stock lifters and rockers with Comp pushrods
-Stock rebuilt Explorer GT40 heads with upgraded springs
-Summit flat top pistons (I believe compression ratio will be between 9 and 9.5:1)
-Hedman longtube headers
-Mandrel bent single exhaust with glasspacks (shouldn't flow too badly IMO)
-Lightly ported Explorer intake with 65mm throttle body (should flow similar to aftermarket Fox body intakes)
-Cold air intake with K&N filter
-Ford TFI dizzy, MSD Blaster coil, Summit 8mm plug wires, MSD 5, so ignition is not a weak point.
-MegaSquirt II of course, so the tune is up to me, which means the fuel and ignition timing curve will be dyno tuned.
-20,000 miles on a rebuilt C4.

My (admittedly very broad) estimate is between 250-320hp at the crank and 210-280hp at the wheels.

 

Auto trans suck hp.
190-200 rwhp.

 

Wow just read through this thread, I love the dedication you have to this car! Great work, and to my surprise I like the red engine/cream body color combo.

My buddy has and engine similar to your setup, but with a cobra cam and stock explorer block, and stock mustang computer. It's in an 86 crown vic with an AOD, but he put down about 220hp/260TQ to the wheels, if it helps you.

Keep up the good work! I look forward to the updates

 

I have a 1988 Mustang GT with an engine similarly built to yours. It has a stock bottom end with factory forged pistons, e303 cam, HEAVILY ported e7 heads with 1.60 exhaust and 1.90 intake valves, the explorer gt40 intake upper and lower, modified 65mm Explorer throttlebody, 70MM maf, Mac shorty headers, underdrive pullies, Romac Balancer and Fidanza aluminum flywheel, 7qt canton pan and windage tray, centerforce dual friction clutch, MSD coil, BBK cold air intake, BBK x-pipe, MAC catback, stock distributor and TFI module. I'm running the factory computer with a stock tune on it, and it still screams. Figure these cars make 215-225 HP stock, depending on year. With the bolt-ons, cam, heads, etc I estimate I'm around 280-300 crank, a bit less at the tires. With the 5 speed and 3.73 rear gears, it makes for one heck of a fun ride.

Are you running a speed density or a MAF setup? If you need a bigger MAF for cheap, you can get one out of a 94-98 Mustang, v6 or GT, doesn't matter. You have to take apart the stock air box and unbolt it from inside. It's held in with 4 bolts. You can either buy the adapter online to bolt on to the front of the MAF to accept piping/filter, or you can do what I did. I removed the sensor portion from the actual housing, and trimmed the flange off with the 4 bolt holes. I then chucked it up in the lathe at work and cleaned it up nice and added a lip for the cold air intake to seal to. Once installed, it looks factory and plugs directly into your stock harness and plays nicely with the computer, but lets in quite a bit more air into the engine. Aftermarket mass air flow sensors can run anywhere from $80 used up past $150, this cost me $25 from the local junkyard and a few hours of my time.

 

Great progress! Too bad about those headers. Were they supposed to fit your Maverick?

Hope you are not using a student loan for the parts and machine shop work. haha kinda.

 

Nice thread. Great to see progress. That has definitely came a long way! Keep up the good work. It will all be worth it when you get it all sorted out. It will be a great ride!

 

Got it all back together now! I got it fired up and even drove it a bit, and I'm starting to work out the kinks in the tune. I need to get the fast idle worked out because for now I have it wired to a switch on the dash lol.

Without the bumper it reminds me of Facelessnumber's car-- I think I will black out the bumper in the future.

zeidrach, the MegaSquirt uses a speed density system so no need for a MAF, but good to know.

Thanks for the kind words all!

For some reason I can't get the turn signals to work right now. They worked last year when they were all LED so I don't think it's because of the LEDs. I cleaned the fuse block and I replaced the flashers and still the turn signals only work when the headlights and parking lights are off. The hazards don't work any of the time pretty much. The turn signal indicator lights in the instrument cluster don't work, but all the other cluster lights work. I cleaned all the contacts on the instrument cluster connector. I'm stumped. I'm thinking it's got to be the turn signal switch but I don't know. I will clean the grounds on the front marker lights and see if that does it first.