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

My brother gave me the car in 2008, when I was 14. I worked on it off and on as a 14 year old dork for a while. In 2011 (at 16), I drove my car to high school for a week and it gave me nothing but problems. It wouldn't stop surging at idle, no matter what I did. The car looked like this:






It went through a lot of paint changes after that:
To clarify, the German flag was to promote my school's German club, and I was to participate in the Homecoming parade. This didn't happen because the car wouldn't run right that week.






The last time I made a post about my build here was in 2012, here, and the last time I drove the car under it's own power was that year, in January 2012, and it wasn't enjoyable-- the central fuel injection didn't work out for me, my tune wasn't the best, and then the oil pressure light kept coming on. That was when I found that my crank was walking an eighth of an inch:
The photo is of the crank several months after it was taken out of the motor, which is why it's rusty.


Here's what the engine bay looked like with the CFI:



So yeah, that was engine rebuild time. And then everything went down from there. I had everything I needed (or so I thought), I even bought a nice Summit cam. Then the block I was going to use turned out to be bad, then when I bought a mostly complete roller motor, the rods were bad and the pistons were beat up from detonation. The cam I had was for a non-roller motor too.

While I saved up the money for parts and ran into a lot more obstacles, including school, a crazy now-ex-girlfriend, and a job, I worked on the exterior:

2012:




2013:


2014: I installed the wonderful Wink mirror and replaced almost all the steering components over Spring break.


With the sun visors removed for the Wink mirror, the holes they screwed in to are available to mount stuff (like this tach) with!


I scored some SN95 Mustang Mach 1 wheels off of Craigslist recently:


I must say, I've learned a lot since I first drove the car. Considering the amount of time that has passed, not a whole lot got done drivetrain-wise, which I am sad to admit. But since the start of this year (my first year at college-- Western Washington University), I have been doing a lot more with the old Maverick. I still have to assemble the bottom end with the new pistons and rods I bought in 2013, and I (FINALLY) recently acquired a set of GT40 heads! Having finally got the heads I wanted, and with the start of summer coming up, you will all see a lot more of me in the near future! It really has been a while.

Recently I have been working on the technicalities associated with installing port fuel injection in the car, and here you'll see some difficulties:



The biggest problems are:
-The Idle Air Control (IAC) valve won't clear the hood in its factory location. This means I either have to rotate the throttle body (which means I'll have to make a new throttle cable bracket), or relocate the IAC valve and use hoses to connect to the intake.
-Clearance for the oil filler. The valve covers are from the 1990 Fox body Mustang motor whose block I'm using. Factory Explorer valve covers have a bend and clear the throttle body, but they're steel, ugly, and have limited clearance for upgraded valvetrain components. I could remover the elbow between the intake and throttle body, but then I would have to find a tight enough rubber elbow to not hit the shock tower and brace, and make a new throttle cable bracket.
-Driver's side shock tower brace. I can't make a tubular one and bend it around the intake, because that won't be strong at all. So far all I can think of is just redrill the holes for the brace closer to the driver's side of the car and make a straight or almost straight tubular brace.

Hopefully I didn't make any typos, lol.

 

Nice progress since you got the car!

Have you looked at a '94-'95 Mustang 5.0 upper intake manifold? The throttle body and air take is curved toward the front of the car and may offer more clearance for this application.

 

Thank you!

And I chose the Explorer intake because it flows significantly better than the Mustang HO intake. Normally it wouldn't be worth it, but since I got the GT40 heads, the intake should be better than the stock Mustang one to maximize hp. The Explorer intake's runners are nearly identical to the Cobra 5.0 intake.

I mostly want the horsepower because I want my automatic with 3.00 gears to beat my friend's five speed '89 Taurus SHO.

I figure that I can probably use the valve covers that were on the carb'd motor with the filler cap's PCV hole plugged and the breather going to the throttle body for now. I'd just need a long-ish funnel for oil filling-- Since the motor's going to be rebuilt the only filling I'll have to do is during oil changes anyway!

 

Great job on the Maverick. Looks like you have the bug. Keep the pictures and the great ideas coming.

 

What throttle body are you using??? Should not be a issue with one of the '93-earlier Mustang type...

 

Factory '97 Explorer 65mm throttle body. The Explorers have more hood clearance so I guess that's why they rotated the TB. From the looks of that picture, it looks like I should be able to eliminate the elbow, flip the throttle body, and use a Mustang intake hose and throttle cable bracket. Thanks!

 

Congrats on getting this going in the right direction.

Would that valve cover with the filler clear if swapped to the driver side? Probably will hit the intake, but worth looking into.

 

Amazing that you havn't given up. Keep at it. Someday it will come together. I love my wink mirror

 

back! And what a great job you're doing! I've never heard of a wink mirror... I guess I learned something new today, thanks! Glad to see that you've stuck with your plans to finish your car. It will all come together, and when it does, you can look back and be proud of what you've accomplished.

 

Not meaning to get off topic. The wink mirror is one of the best things I added to my car. It allows me to see all around me by glancing up. The useless visors get gone. Looks cool IMO. Brings the 70's car feel into the 80's

 

Thanks all! I'm really glad to be back.

Jeff: I tried that, the filler hits. I will get more pictures this weekend because the perspective is not very good in this photo. I will also try a couple more sets of steel valve covers I have lying around.

And yeah, the Wink mirror is fantastic, especially for cars with limited rear visibility like ours! They're about $25 on Amazon now and I would highly recommend them for anyone who doesn't mind the look and removing the sun visors.

 

Cool to see how many times it has changed over time

 

Thanks, I thought so too! That's why I'm glad I finally compiled all of my pictures of the car into one thread. I have been thinking about your signature and how fitting it is to my project too. Somehow it's inspiring.

 

October update!

My coworker that had been helping me with my motor decided he didn't have time to help me, so I was forced out on my own to find another machinist. My buddy was kind enough to hook me up with Eastside Machining and I am very happy with the results.

I'm back to school at WWU now so work is getting done slowly but surely when I come back on weekends. Here are photos of the progress:

My girlfriend helping me clean up the old C4:


My custom 2.5" Y-pipe since I'm running single exhaust for now:


My custom over-under made from Summit mandrel bends:


Champion three row with the Taurus fan fitted (turns out my buddy with a first gen SHO and I have the same fan now lol):


Me after a day prepping the underside of the car for paint:


Gas pedal adapted to use a Thunderbird cable:


Making a custom plywood (for now) cold air intake that goes in the battery tray:



Pulling the mock-up motor out of the car:


Picking up the new motor from the machinist:


Got some valve covers on the motor (unfortunately I can't use these as they are for carbureted applications):


Junkyard Explorer lower intake before and after blasting:




Oil pan, flexplate, timing cover, balancer fitted:


Clearcoated lower intake, injectors, water pump pulley (that I powdercoated), thermostat housing fitted:


I really like this shot. I have taken all of these pictures with my phone so they aren't great resolution.:



The motor as it sits right now in my garage back home:


It has oil in it, it's covered up, and all I have to do is powdercoat the Fox body valve covers I'm going to use, clean the upper intake up a bit more, swap out some bolts on the accessories for stainless (I went with stainless everything where I could), and a couple other things before I can drop it in! The goal is to have the motor at least in the car by the 1st of the year. It doesn't have to crank or fire up but I want to have it in there.

One question I have:

Do you guys think it's feasible to drop the motor in with the accessories bolted up (including the starter)?

Also: I figured out the filler neck/TB problem:

I came up with this solution, but I found something else that works even better for now. I'm embarrassed to admit it involves PVC drain pipe, but ya know whatever works is good for now.
I also figured out the hood clearance issue by harvesting the throttle bracket from a Fox body throttle body and welding it on to the Explorer one.

 

Looking good ...

My passenger header goes in my car easily, but the starter can't be there at the time. Might just be my set-up, but worth looking at prior to install.