On The Road Again....

The alternator problem was partly mine and partly Tuff Stuff. I plugged in the new alternator to the existing plug and got no juice coming out. After some investigation, two of the three wires leading into the alternator need current. One needs a direct 12v source and the other needs 12v but with a 220ohm resistor inline. I noticed in the wiring diagram that there is a 510ohm resistor run in parallel with the amp dash light. The wire from this resistor and light runs to the alternator plug and the resistance of the light is 510ohms as well. So according to ohms law, the alternator was 'seeing' a resistance of 255 ohms on that wire. So after a trip to Radio Shack, I was armed with a 220ohm resistor and I installed it in that wire and the alternator began sending 14v to the battery. I also found out that I should have received a plug and harness with the alternator which had the resistor in it, but it was not in the box. I knew the wiring would be the biggest hurdle in this process and it has been just that.

The exhaust was handled by the local Midas and they did a good job routing the pipes where I wanted them. One blemish on them was they did not install any doughnuts between the header and collector so I have an exhaust leak. I'll fix that soon enough.

The new rack and pinion from Total Control had been acting up but I found on their site a FAQ and it led me to the adjustments I needed to make so now the steering is almost perfect. It does not return to center without a bit of help but that is adjustable also.

I had an idle problem that was twofold. When I pulled codes, it said my TPS was giving too low of a voltage signal. So I replaced that and the code was gone but my fast idle was still there. The solution was simple in that it did not involve the computer. It seems I just had the timing advanced too far so I knocked it back a few degrees and the idle fell to where it should be.

I should be getting some new rear quarter panels soon and so a new paint job should follow. I'll stay with the original Poppy Red though.

Runs With Problems

I attached the hoses to the A/C and installed the serp belt. Put the key in and turned.......nothing happened. I had ran a wire to the starter relay located in the main underhood fuse box but had neglected to attach it. With it attached, the starter cranked and the motor roared to life. It was running but with terrible idle quality. I checked the codes and found out the TPS was reading a fault. I placed the multi-tester on the reference wire leading to the TPS and got a zero reading. I cut open the harness that I had just wrapped and found the culprit. I had cut out the EGR plug and after I consulted the wiring diagram, I saw that the TPS and EGR shared the reference and return legs so I had no power or signal to the TPS. Once I reattached these, the car started right up and settled into an even idle once the computer had some time to learn.

I cut and bent the downtube from the driver's side exhaust so it would clear the steering rack. I plan to take it to a muffler shop and get them to run the two pipes from the headers along the driveshaft as they pass under the seats and onto the mufflers. I noticed that the stock parking brake cables run right where I want the exhaust to go so I removed them. Lokar has a universal parking brake setup that I got and am running it up to the stock cable coming through the firewall. It is a clean system.

Now for the bad news. I had bought some braided fuel line from Summit Racing. It was a bulk roll of 25feet made by Spectre. After the lines had been connected for about a month, I noticed a leak starting on the fitting at the fuel rail. I tried to tighten the fittings with no luck. I thought I had installed the end wrong so I cut the line right at the fitting and was surprised at what I found. The rubber had started to delaminate. It was very soft and when I rubbed it with my finger, I got a black streak of rubber on my finger. The ethanol in the gas was eating the rubber. I called Summit and told them the problem and to their credit, they said they would send me a prepaid box to send the line back to them and they would refund my money. I decided to get some Aeroquip fuel line instead of a generic. Supposedly, it can handle the ethanol.

More bad news. I installed a Tuff Stuff powder coated alternator and found out it did not supply any voltage at all. I called the place I got it from (Pace Performance) and they contacted Tuff Stuff and got them to warranty it. I have sent it off and am awaiting their response.

I have the interior back together and am in the process of adding carpet to the trunk but that has stopped due to the fuel line problem.

Getting Close To Initial Startup

The A/C compressor is mounted where the smog pump was and the flat pieces of steel worked great as mounts. I used the mounting points of the smog pump and ran the 5 inch pieces downward to the mounts on the compressor. The pulley appears to be in plane with the other accessories.

The clutch bleeding problem was an easy fix due to a suggestion from a friend. He said that I don't have enough free play on the link between the pedal and the master cylinder. So I loosened the two bolts holding the cylinder to the firewall and placed a pair of 1/4inch shims between them. This gave me about an 1/8inch of play and the fluid flowed easily to the slave cylinder. Now the clutch appears to work properly and I really like the short travel of the clutch pedal.

The power steering pressure hose problem has been solved as well. I have a Total Control Products power rack and the hose that came with that did not match the 1995 Mustang pump. I had an idea to take the pressure hose off of the donor 1995 Stang and see if it would fit on the Total Control rack. The factory hard line end screwed right into the pressure port on the rack! I then cut the end off of the return line and slid it onto the post on the back of the pump and put a hose clamp on it. So, power steering is taken care of.

This was a productive weekend with the A/C, clutch, and power steering all taken care of. If all goes well, I should have a new accessory belt (about 92.5 inches) and oil and filter and gas so I can start it up by Wed. Then I get to start chasing the wiring gremlins. I think I have the harness all set but you know there are always wiring problems.

I found some cast aluminum valve covers that are from an Explorer I think. I plan to powdercoat them and replace the stock steel ones.

Stay tuned, more to come.....

Step Forward and Two Steps Back!

As all of you Hot Rodders know, if something can go wrong, it will. I received the new A/C compressor and tried to install it on the drivers side in its stock position (on a 1995). It still hits the shock tower long before it gets into position. So Plan B is in effect. I will use the Sanden compressor where the smog pump was mounted on the passenger side of the car. This will entail the fabrication of some pieces of flat steel to enable the compressor to use the mounts for the smog pump. I have cut off the lowest mount and plan to use the two upper mounts and tie the lower part of the compressor to the block itself. There is an unused boss right behind the smog position.

I was able to finish the installation of the new fuel tank and AN braided lines. I should not have any fuel problems due to rust or age since all of the parts leading up to and from the fuel rail are new.

The ceramic coated Sanderson headers are in and there is barely enough space. The exhaust system is going to be reworked. Not only does the tail pipes physically contact the gas tank, but with the x-pipe configuration, I have no ground clearance. So, once I get it running, I plan to take it in for a new 2.5 inch exhaust from the headers to the mufflers and have the tail pipes bent so as to not touch the tank.

I tried to bleed the hydraulic clutch and had no luck at all. I can't get the master to send anything down the line to the slave. I plan to pull it off and bench bleed the whole thing and then reinstall.

The Tremec is in and ready to go. Starter installed. New alternator installed. Steering column reinstalled.

All in all, progress is being made, just too damn slowly!!

A/C Shenanigans

After the engine was installed, I noticed that the A/C compressor was quite close to the driver's shock tower. So close that the hose block that bolts onto the rear of the compressor would not fit.  I had touched on this subject in an earlier post. Anyway, since I don't want to cut into the shock tower, that leaves me with a need for a new compressor. The 95' Mustang uses a York compressor mount. A friend told me about a Sanden compressor that has the hose in/out ports on the top. There is also an adapter plate that allows the Sanden to bolt onto the York mount. This seems like the best way to go.

I powered up the PCM and started testing circuits and relays. So far, each sensor plug and relay has the expected voltage. Now I am waiting for parts to arrive so I can continue the work.

More to come...

Too Quick To Give Up

Once I had pulled out the Tremec, it was just sitting on the floor like a discarded Snickers wrapper, when I decided to pull the trans off of the scattershield. Once it was off, I noticed a hole on the spacer plate (between the bell and the trans). I placed the clutch fork from the '95 so that the pivot point was over the hole. The throwout bearing was precisely over the center hole in the scattershield! I had assumed that the scattershield was for the old style push linkage only. Anyway, I was able to weld a scrap piece of steel on the inside of the scattershield at the mounting point for the pivot, and then drill and tap the hole. This allows me to use the Tremec with the hydraulic clutch so I am back in business!

Got the wiring 95% ready for the initial startup of the motor. I am waiting for some parts to come in so I will focus and getting the A/C ready and tie up loose ends with the stereo system. There is no package shelf to install rear speakers in so I am at a loss of where to put them. Maybe some surface mount woofers will work. I have some investigation to do.

I will post pics as I go at     http://picasaweb.google.com/bradh.fb/MustangEFISwap#

As I continue to make progress, more will come!

The Best Laid Plans...

Oh how quickly plans can change. It has been a while since my last post due to many things. Some of the goings-on follows:
-There was an SFI scattershield on the Tremec. The clutch release fork was a 'push' style for use with the original '65 clutch pedal linkage. I did not notice this until after I drilled the firewall for the hydraulic clutch kit which is designed to replace the 'pull' style cable on the 1995 Mustang. So, no problem right? Swap out the scattershield for the 1995 bell housing. The Tremec has a different mounting pattern than the T-5, so it won't bolt up to the 5.0 housing. SVO sells a bellhousing to work with this setup but it is another $200. So, since I have a perfectly good T-5, I will install that in place of the Tremec. When the T-5 explodes, I will drop the $200 on a new bellhousing and install the Tremec.
-Integrating the donor harness into the existing harness has been an exercise in.......thought. Much of the new harness is not needed and it is easy to just start cutting it up. I decided to plan carefully my cuts and splices so as to avoid problems later and at the same time, reduce the clutter of the donor harness. If we start at the computer and come out toward the radiator, most of this portion of the harness will be retained. I plan to use the Constant Control Relay Module. This controls the fan, fuel pump, EEC, and A/C. As we continue counterclockwise, the harness comes to the Underhood Fuse Box. I am going to use this. It feeds the harness and with the circuits I won't be using (such as the ABS) I can use this 'extra' capacity for other things. On my harness, the Low Speed Fan Control relay does not seem to be used. The main power feed out of it dies at a connector before it reaches the fans. So I will attach the High Speed relay to the fan so that it will be controlled by the computer. The Starter relay is a no brainer as is the Fuel pump relay. I don't have ABS on the '65 so I plan to use that circuit to feed the Vintage Air system so it won't draw power from the old harness. I spliced in a relay into the headlight feed so the headlight switch will last as long as possible. They tend to burn out switching the high amp draw of the head lights. So, the old headlight feed is now on the switch leg of the relay and I have run power from the headlamp circuit on the new harness.

I removed the old gas tank and plan to install a new tank with an intank pump. The pic below shows the hole where the tank was and the new fuel filter which is installed on the bent down lip of the trunk floor.

From this pic, it appears I have placed the filter too close to the exhaust pipe, but there is plenty of room there. I will use AN fittings and braided line to feed fuel up to the fuel rail. I installed the Inertia Fuel Pump Shutoff switch in the trunk next to the amplifier along the forward wall of the trunk.

Here is the engine with most of the acessories in place. The stock A/C compressor's hose output hits the shock tower hard. I am currently looking for a compressor that has the outputs on the top and still has the serpentine pulley. I don't want to cut the shock tower.

There is still much to cover in this saga of old and new. Stay tuned!

Rough Harness Layout

I have roughly laid out the wiring harness with the fake foam block. Rough is the key term here. I had cut the hole in the firewall and pulled the harness through. The grommet was much to close to the end so I slid it down, away from the PCM plug. If I had it to do over, I would have done the motor swap before installing the A/C since it would have been cleaner to run the PCM harness over the plenum than under it like I have here. Hindsight is always 20/20.

I am going to cut large portions out of the '95's harness. But, to keep things simple, I want to get the car running with the harness as close to stock a possible so that I can limit the number of  'unknowns' if any problems arise. I figure I will run the A/C circuits separately from the engine harness to keep it simple. The Vintage Air setup is able to run by itself without any 'computer' control, so I want to keep that separate.

That leaves the fuel solenoid and pump. This should be straight forward. Just a line from the PCM back to the  solenoid powering the pump and Inertia Fuel Shut Off switch.

More to come....

Cleaning and Prep and Painting of Block

I have disassembled the motor as far as i plan to go. I rotated the block so that the intake and exhaust ports were not exposed to my cleaning. I used Gunk and a stiff brush and removed most of the old dirt and oil from ONE side of the block. I broke up the cleaning and painting into sections so that I would not get crap into the ports. After the Gunk, I wiped the block down and then used Oxysolve to remove the rust from the cleaned side.

You can see the Donor '95 in the background

After the Oxy had done its work, I again wiped the excess off and then broke out the mineral spirits to clean the oxy off the block. Finally, with the block clean, I sprayed that one side with black engine paint.

I have powder coated the accessory brackets and alternator housing, along with the timing chain cover. When I pulled the timing cover off, I noticed a bunch of slack in the chain so I found an extra double roller chain and installed it along with a new seal. I also put in a new water pump since everyone knows Fords water pumps are a weak link. After sitting for a few years, the extra $50 for a new pump is cheap insurance.

I obtained a billet steel SFI harmonic balancer. Slipped right on, no problem.

Removing the Donor Engine

The 1995 GT had sustained a drivers side front impact that tore the floor pan and pushed the front wheel into the drivers compartment. This damaged the exhaust manifold on the motor and nothing else. (Besides the body of course!)

The car had an alarm and stereo system installed by the previous owner. It was not a pro job. The speaker wire used as power was the first clue. Fortunately, the main harness was not butchered in this process.

I used a SawZall to cut the exhaust away from the motor and removed the wiring and plugs and pulled the motor. I should have labeled each plug as I pulled each apart. That would have saved me some time later. I used a wiring diagram to trace the circuits so it was not a big deal.

Once the motor was out, I started to disassemble it to check for any obvious problems. I pulled the intake and accessories off. The valve covers and oil pan quickly followed. I knew that the stock 5.0 pan would not clear the steering rack so that was discarded. I used a stock 65 front sump pan and pickup.

With the covers and pan off, I could see that the 6 years that the GT had sat, had not done much to the innards of the engine. No sludge or rust. The coolant had turned to ooze though. I am putting a new water pump on just in case. With the spark plugs removed and some oil squirted in each cylinder, the crank moved smoothly.

This motor is just a place saver. I am going to use this car as a daily driver and in my spare time, I will build either a 331 stroker or maybe a 410 stroker. I am leaning toward the 331 since the shorter block will make it an easy swap. Anyway, this is for a future blog.

The wiring harnesses were pulled out and unwrapped. They were in good shape without any detectable breaks. I plan to put the computer in the glove box. The only thing I put in there is the registration and insurance cards, so this seems to be a no brainer. Also, I am putting the stock AM radio back in the dash since I have moved up to iPods. I will run a patch cord up to the console from an amp in the trunk. This will plug directly into the ipod. I never listen to the radio so why not go stealth?

More coming....

The Beginning....

This blog will document an engine swap. Specifically a 1965 Mustang Convertible will receive an EFI 5.0 from a 1995 Mustang GT. The '65 will become a mild restomod with the main exterior clue being a set of larger wheels and tires. Underneath though, some go fast goodies have been installed. This blog is starting mid stream in the project. I will endevour to detail what has taken place up to this point and then, give a play by play on the future developments.

Some History:

The car was purchased from a used car dealer in San Diego in 1987. It was then driven across country to where I was living at the time, Washington, D.C.

It led a normal life of going to the store and school. It was and still is Poppy Red with a white top and interior with black carpet. A stock 289 2barrel and 4spd provided motion.

In the late 1990's a mild restoration was begun with grand plans. During this time, the following parts were installed:

Currie 9inch 3.50 with large drums

Aluminum driveshaft

Tremec 3550

CenterForce Dual friction clutch

Total Control Coil Over front suspension

13inch SSBC front discs

347 stroker motor from a builder in FL

Total Control Rack and Pinion

Sanderson Headers and Flowmaster exhaust

VintageAir A/C

Three core radiator

These parts were installed and some problems immediately arose:

The steering rack rubbed on the Cobra T oil pan

The SSBC calipers rubbed on the wheels

The exhaust had minimal ground clearance so it rubbed

The motor overheated

The steering was fixed relatively easily. The exhaust was tucked up as high as it could and it remains too low for my tastes but there is only so much space to work with. The big brakes were removed and put on the shelf. The motor was a completely different story.

A crate motor builder, with a good reputation, assembled the 347 with aluminum heads, good cam, roller rockers, all the goodies. It had a 4bbl carb ontop. The motor overheated so badly that the ceramic coated headers started to discolor. All the causes were investigated. Water pump, okay. Thermostat, okay. Radiator, okay. Collapsing hoses, none found. Heater core, okay. We did a compression check and found that two cylinders were at 60psi. Finally, the decision was made to pull the heads off of the block and look. Remember, this was built by professionals. When the heads were pulled we saw that on the head gasket, the embossed word, "FRONT" was toward the rear of the car. The cooling passages were completely covered up by the gasket. But the story does not end here. In the search for information, we went back to the paperwork supplied with the motor. A dyno sheet was included but the date on the sheet listed a day when the engine was not even assembled due to the lack of needed parts. So, we got a bogus dyno sheet, and head gaskets that were installed wrong. A call to the builder said that the guy who built the motor had been fired but since we pulled the heads off, he was not liable for any quality control issues. I can understand his point, but with the gasket snafu, and the 'liar' dyno sheet, I will tell all of my friends to stay away from that builder. An easy way to avoid this builder is not to use anyone from northern FL.

With a bad compression test, the mustang was parked and left for dead in the garage. That was 2002.

A few years ago, a totaled 1995 mustang gt was purchased from a salvage yard. The plan was to take the efi motor and put it in the '65. Along with the wiring nightmare this would entail, a new underdash wiring harness was purchased. Along with the new harness, a JME billet gauge cluster was obtained. All new gauges and a tach!!!