The first order of business was to pull the transmission and get it repaired. The owner had told me he had replaced the AOD with a C4 and in fact this was the 2nd C4 in the car. After researching the car a bit it was clear it still had the factory 2.73 gears in it. Humm.... Paxton supercharger + 2.73 gears + C4 with 3000 stall converter = definitely not a marriage made in heaven. Especially if you are the transmission stuck in the middle of it all. So this car had gone through 1 AOD and 2 C4s. Not a stunning record. We got the C4 out and ready to send off to Transmissions-To-Go.

I was thinking of going back to AOD, but the guys at the shop convinced me a C4 was going to be better for the budget and the driving experience especially with 2.73 gears. They also showed me that the "rebuilt" transmission had never been cracked open before and it had the pan fill case which was stronger. The old converter was identified as a TCI 3000 stall which I opted to replace with a mild 2200 stall replacement.

The converter required a special flexplate to work, but the sourced flexplate didn't have the required holes for the converter drain plugs. I had to hunt high and low for plugs that would be even with the surface of the converter so we could complete the installation. The fun didn't stop there as the dipstick tube refused to thread back into the pan. I finally gave up and ordered one with flexible steel braided hosing for the tube. It threaded in first time.

The car moved under it's own power for the first time. While we were waiting on the transmission we had pulled the upper intake and swapped in my old 19lbs/hr injectors that I took off my (hatch) car with about 30K miles on them.

We also addressed the intake plumbing.

Once we have the car starting and moving there are some things that need attention. 1) The rear shocks are blown out. 2) You have to start the car with a screw driver 3) The vacuum booster has a hole in it 4) none of the gauges work outside of the tach 5) The drivers seat is more like a toilet seat with a huge depression in the middle. 6) Not all of the lights are working. 7) Dry rotted tires all around.

Then there are my personal problems with all the plastic and "whiteness".

 

One of the huge advantages this project had was the treasure trove of parts stashed in my garage for fox body mustangs. Case in point: The white painted pony wheels with the dry rotted tires were not getting it, but checking boxes revealed two 9" wide 10 hole reproductions from LMR.

Paired up with a some nice factory, 7", 10 holes for the front and the stock look was coming back. I found some 265/60s for the back matching 205s for the front. The 265s required removing the quad shock. Flipping it was not enough to get the required clearance.

 

right on and great story!

 

Great Story, Keep it going.

 

Not gonna lie, I love the look of the GT ground effects on a notchback. I debated doing it on my auto-x car but decided against the extra weight and hassle. Great story!

 

I am not a plastic fanatic. Especially when they are attached with deck screws. Even the GT side molding was attached with deck or drywall screws, filled in and painted over. Let me tell you it didn't age well...

 

We had the project rolling...literally, so now we needed to get it to stop. The rushing air sound under the dash that got worse when you pushed on the brake and went away when you disconnected the vacuum line to the booster pointed us to replacing the booster. If you have never done this one before, the bolts under the dash will increase your language scores. We used this opportunity to pull out the drivers seat and try to address the toilet seat depression, which made more room to fit under the dash. We finally got the old one out...

I am not sure if the replacement was different but it felt like it had way more boost that even a stock booster. The result was the brakes were fully operational and felt the best I have ever felt stock mustang brakes feel.


Next up was the tear down of the toilet seat and see what we could do about fixing it.

Luckily we had picked up a seat out of a 2002 mustang and robbed parts off of that seat to rebuild our seat. The results were not perfect, but they were comfortable enough for an hour or two drive. Amazingly the regatta blue seat skins were in really good shape.

We also picked up a steering column from a 91 mustang in hopes we could rob the needed parts from it to revive or tilt 89 column. Our column was in pretty rough shape.

With a little bit of luck, there were enough internal parts in the 91 column and with a new key lock we were now able to start it with an actual key for the first time. When the car was broken into years ago the thieves chiseled out the passenger door lock. This required some work to get a new lock cylinder to even fit back into the door.

My son was really itching to get the car inspected so we could get the plates on it. I took it to a local Dobbs Tire and Auto and laughed all the way there because the blown rear shocks were still on the car. Would they even notice? It turns out they didn't, but what they did notice was a headlight with no bright and a bad inner tire rod. Back at the garage I got the bright idea that it would be easier to replace the entire rack with one I had pulled off of my car when I converted to manual steering with only 73K miles on it as opposed to the 130K+ on the existing rack.

Anyone who has done this job will tell you the rack is not that hard, but the lines will definitely increase your language scores. Never again will I ever install a rack without the lines threaded into the rack first.

Once this job was completed we passed inspection and were able to put plates on the car. One thing that needed immediate help was the car didn't have any mufflers and was just using the 4 factory cats for noise reduction. I had a stock cat back tucked away in the back of the garage. The factory H pipe was in pretty bad shape so I took the opportunity to sell off the cats of which only 3 were any good and bought a BBK 2.5" catted X pipe. The new exhaust quieted the car down and reduced the ire of the neighbors.

At this point, I only got to see the car on weekends or if there was an issue. My son was driving the car to band practice and work. I did get a call one day. Bring the set of stubby ratchets to QT...and maybe a flashlight. When I got there he took the wrenches and squirmed under the car. I saw him wrench on something then climb out. He climbed behind the wheel, hit the key and the car fired right up. I asked what was the issue and he said the starter wasn't engaging the flywheel. He said that will get him home where he can better tighten down both bolts. I was impressed he troubleshot the problem and new exactly what tools he needed.

 

Sounds like the car - and your son are coming along nicely.

 

Do you remember when I mentioned the pick and pull battery?

It was 1" too tall to fit under the hood in the factory battery tray. When new batteries are $120+ what do you do? You remove the factory battery tray and sit the battery down on the frame rail and ratchet strap it to the fender. It was done early on and worked so well I forgot about it when we took it in for inspection. Did they even notice? Nawwww....

The plan has always been to run it until it dies and replace it with a mustang specific one and reinstall the factory battery tray. I would be remiss if I didn't tell you it has been pulled a couple of times and taken to the auto parts store for testing when we had a no start condition. Every time the battery came back testing fine and we ended up tracking down more corroded or sketchy wiring that caused the issue.

Oh yeah, cringe worthy...

 

I mentioned I am not a plastic fanatic so I began removing all the excess plastic and vinyl graphics. It had a lower front facia screwed on with deck screws. The previous owner had also cut out the cross bar with the ford logo in the opening between the headlights. I found an aftermarket front nose used in Kansas City and it was even white. Well, bright white, not the factory white.

We also added repo headlights and corner lights to complete the transformation.

 

Plastic and vinyl left overs...

Nothing more fun than removing 15 year old crispy vinyl from plastic.

 

That wiring is scary. I cringe to think what else lurks hidden in there.

 

Look on the bright side. You can learn a lot from other people's mistakes. The other factor is the high school is only 2 miles from the house, where he is working is only 5 miles from the house, and I have the luxury of working from home.

The previous owner was serious about his stereo which had him hacking places to get power. Not sure why he did not just run his own feed to the battery and put a fuse on it. Everybody makes choices and we will be covering what mods he did to the trunk in a future post. I hope you like glitter...

 

Well, it is certainly a great learning experience for your son.

 

When my son started driving Project White Trash (PWT) I wanted to make sure there was a spare tire, jack, and lug wrench in the trunk in case he needed them. When we pulled all the goodies out of the trunk, we found the previous owner had placed a plywood board over the spare tire well and cut two holes for subwoofers. The plywood was sealed to the floor of the trunk with what appeared to be liquid nails.

The spare tire well itself was full of clear epoxy and... glitter? Just imagine my son grinding out all this glitter epoxy stuff out of the wheel well for hours. As you can imagine he got coated in glitter. When he went inside the house to get a drink, his mom stops him with the stink eye and ask him what has he been doing. "How did you get covered in glitter?"

Maybe the subwoofers were clear and there was a light in the well. Didn't really matter. At the end of the day we needed the well for a spare tire.

Not long after this the radiator and water pump both sprang leaks. It always helps when you have a 2 pass, aluminum, race radiator on the shelf. Looking at this radiator, I bet you can guess what was set to start leaking next.

The heater core actually made it through the winter, but my son insisted we fix the sagging driver side door. This is another one of those jobs that will increase your word scores. Cutting out the pins is a bounty of fun and joy.

We used the repair kit from LMR and it went well enough that my son decided the passenger door worked just fine. Another one of the upgrades we wanted to perform was a 3g alternator upgrade and to remove the supercharger bracket. We also wanted to get all of the accessories back to their factory locations. The flush mount bolts in the supercharger bracket were frozen in the aluminum mounting bracket, so it was a good thing we went with the LMR kit that came with a 3g specific bracket to replace it. The frozen bolts made removal of the factory bracket with the supercharger bracket still attached that much harder.

It did require an expedition to uncover the lost bracket of the air pump needed for stock setup.

Luckily, my original air pump with the required bracket was hidden away in a crate.

One of the things that bugged me about this car was the carbon fiber vinyl on the instrument cluster that was peeling up. Of course when I touched it, it just got worse. The only gauge that worked was the tach when we got it. I managed to get the speedometer working and the oil pressure gauge. I finally broke down and ordered a 140MPH replacement cluster for an 89, which is like a 1/2 year availability from a recycler in Kansas City for a large sum of money. I got it installed and the fuel and water temperature gauges still refused to work. We swapped senders, but it was no bueno. I mounted an old Summit Racing 2" temp gauge and matching sender so we could have a clue on engine temperature. We used the trip odometer and filled up when it hit 100 miles.

 

Certainly helps to have a big pile of Fox Body spares sitting in boxes within arms reach.

 

When i slowly converted my 89 hatch to strip duty, I packed away every item, bolt and bracket. Over the 30+ years I have owned my hatch, it has been through several configurations and there are lots of left over parts packed away. If I had room to store it and I didn't need the $$$ to finance the next upgrade, it got packed away.

I am going through some of my stores to determine if I can clear out some stuff to make some more room. I found things like fox body specific Lakewood slapper bars, a pair of stainless steel Supertrap mufflers, E7s with 1.84/1.54 valves, and tons of other stuff.

 

I hope your son appreciates what a great DAD he has!
It’s so great to have someone to teach you about the hobby, and it must be great for you as well. Nothing better than having a mentor to learn from. The Bond between you two will hopefully last forever.
I have to laugh at the fact that I had to teach my late father the correct way to do a job.
He was more of a roofing shingles and bondo kind of guy!
Love your project and keep on posting about it, as I think you have an audience.
Scott

 

The project slowed down quite a bit as my son headed off to college and my wife forbid me to do work without my son involved. He was out doing Door Dash in it over the winter break with the heater core still bypassed. This past spring the track opened and I decided to sneak off and make a few baseline passes at a Friday Midnight Madness. While the kids are away the Dads will play...

I wasn't expecting much with a basically bone stock motor with 130K+ miles and a 2.73 gear.

I took PWT to Gateway…err Worldwide Technologies Raceway to get a baseline on our project car. One of the first things I found out was technology marches on. They no longer hand out paper time slips. You must download the WWT Slips app on your phone to get your times. You can also use the Pit Pay app to pay for your event entry and sign all the waivers.

Back at the Sledger Racing Ranch I gave PWT a quick one over and tossed in my helmet and a small bag of tools. I found a corner marker light out and ended up borrowing one from my other Mustang. I also borrowed my coil cover to hide the wiring mess. I also spent some time improving on the bungee cord battery hold down with some stealth zip ties to give the battery that false sense of security needed to pass tech’s battery shake test. I checked the oil only to find it close to 2 quarts over filled. Someone filled it up to the word “full” not noticing the long arrow pointing down to the top of the hatched area down below. I really didn’t have time to fix it, so I figured I would hit the car wash and wash off all the leaking oil on my way to the track.

I haven’t gotten to spend to much time behind the wheel of PWT so I am tossing in some of my impressions. First up is the wind noise. The door seals are basically non-existent. The next thing that stood out was the RPM. It seemed like I was expending a lot more RPM to keep up with traffic. The car has 2.73 gears (supposedly, it came with them) so 2500 RPM should be 75MPH but I could hardly keep up with traffic. Steering feels like I am twisting a piece of rubber. I wonder if the rag joint is worn out.

At the track I was hoping for some 14 second time slips. I know back in the day the magazine guys were busting off 14.30s with bone stock, 5 speed, 2.73 cars. I watched a stock, 3.27 geared, AoD Mustang bust off 9.25s at Coles County Dragway (1/8 mi) with my own eyes. Using the NHRA conversion for 1/8 mile to ¼ mile of 1.57 nets a 14.52. A high 14 seemed possible. For the first pass I let the transmission shift itself because the stock shifter and the C4 didn’t always agree on gates. My first pass resulted in a pedestrian 15.84 at 89.46 MPH. The 60ft was a sun dial bending 2.469. The 1/8 Mile MPH was 70.53. My very first pass in my old Mustang at Coles County the MPH was 75.

Since the car was shifting at 4700 I decided to shift the car manually the second round. I shifted at 5200 RPM and crossed the finish line in 2nd gear. That netted me a 15.62 at 89.22 MPH. The 1/8 mile MPH registered at 71.04 which turned out to be the best of the night. When you manually shift you pull the lever back into 1st and then at 5200 you push the lever forward in the pops into 2nd. The problem is the lever will not move any more forward unless you push the button on the handle to unlock the handle and because the shifter gates and the transmission shifter positions don’t line up you have to hunt for 3rd. Sounds simple, but at 90MPH with a motor thrashing and little familiarity it was a little unnerving.

I tried hooking up a timing light to check the timing and found that the harmonic balancer was a mass of rust. I tried to bump the starter and find timing marks with my flashlight so I could highlight them but was unsuccessful in finding them. This car did have a blower on it previously, so it is possible the timing is retarded which would help explain the loss of power normally aspirated. Something to check back at the Sledger Racing compound.

I made two more passes, but it was more of the same. 15.64 at 89.64 MPH and 15.74 at 89.56 MPH were the results. I need to verify the timing and pull the passenger kick panel and verify there is not a chip in the computer messing with the tune. I also need to drain out some of the excess oil out of the crank case.

I had a lot of fun. I had forgotten how much fun a stock Mustang could be. I already have a couple of ideas to try next time out.

 

Great story, I'm following the build. Your son has no idea how lucky he is to have a car enthusiast dad. These fox body oil dip sticks are NOT accurate at all. What you have there is likely 5 quarts in the engine, most of my foxes read similar to your "overfull" picture. I think Ford put something out regarding this. I'm sure somebody else will chime in.

 

My new favorite thread. Keep up the great work.

 

Well race fans, we left off last time with an underwhelming 15.62 at 89.56 MPH. In the meantime, I cleaned off the harmonic balancer and found the factory timing marks hidden under the layers of rust. I took a black sharpie and marked the 0 degree mark and the 10 degree BTDC mark. The factory timing spec is 10 degrees BTDC. When I checked the timing, it was set at 6 degrees BTDC. Based on previous experience I used the dial back feature on the timing light to dial in 13 degrees BTDC. With the timing set to 13 the car sounded better at idle, and the throttle response was crisper than a fresh head of lettuce.

Another change I made was to install an electric fan and replace the broken-up, factory, plastic fan and mechanical clutch assembly. The though being it would free up some power since the engine didn’t have to accelerate this assembly as it rev’ed through the gears and the parasitic losses of turning the fan itself. I also took this opportunity to replace the 2-inch-thick aluminum race radiator with a heavy-duty factory style with plastic end tanks. The big thick aluminum radiator doesn’t weigh that much more than the stock one until you fill them with fluids. The thinner stock style with the electric fan weighs just a little more than the big aluminum radiator with the stock fan shroud. When they are full of fluid, the thinner stock radiator will be lighter, and that weight removal is in front of the front wheels where you need it the most.

On our last outing we did notice the oil was a little over filled. We used this opportunity to drain some out and swap on an empty oil filter to get the oil level back into the normal range. Draining the front sump that usually holds about a cup of oil a couple of times and swapping on a new oil filter that was empty did the trick. The oil filter on the 5.0L Fords holds close to a quart of oil. After all the draining I did have to add back ½ of a quart to get it on the “true” full mark.

Other than some maintenance items which included a new ignition switch and a new negative battery cable end, the only other item I picked up was a shorter (70.5”) serpentine drive belt. Back in the day they were simply called short belts. You would swap them onto the car and the routing would allow you to bypass the power steering pump and the air pump. It should improve performance by reducing parasitic drag on the engine.

I made my first couple of passes at the track right off the street and without the short belt installed. Temperatures were much warmer than the last outing where temps were in the 40s and 50s. The temp for the first pass was 77 degrees. The car spun off the line and recorded a 2.42 60 foot (barf) which resulted in a 15.35 at 93.66 MPH. Just looking at the MPH difference between the previous 89.56 and the 93.66 says we have uncovered 40+ HP. For my second pass I switched over to the left lane and was rewarded with a slightly better 2.35 60 foot and a resulting 15.15 at 93.56 MPH. If I could just put down a decent 60 foot, 14s are there for the taking. The next pass was anticlimactic as a starting line staging snafu resulted in no times on my time slip. I did notice that where previously the transmission was shifting at 4700 RPM 2-3 it was now shifting at 5400 RPM. The 1-2 shift was still happening at 4700 RPM but I guess I was flexing the firewall the longer I stood on the gas and was now achieving the 5400 RPM 2-3 shift. This was something I would monitor as night progressed.

At this point I decided to park the car for a while and let it cool off. I also took the opportunity to swap on the short belt and to hit the food stand for a track burger. With my stomach now happy, I strapped into PWT and headed back to the staging lanes. I worried the additional power boost from the short belt would make the starting line even trickier than before. I launched gingerly and then poured on the coal. The 1-2 shift happened at 4700 and (after flexing the firewall) the 2-3 shift popped at 5400 RPM. The result was a slightly improved 60 foot time of 2.33 and a frustratingly close 15.01 at 94.12 MPH.

Once again, a REAL 60 foot would put us in the 14s. I used to do this in the Dart on street tires. What was the magic formula? OK, stop driving this thing like it is an AWD, twin turbo Fusion and go back to the Dart days. Let’s see… it was a medium-hard hit to set the suspension then quickly roll to WOT. The Dart had more suspension action than this Mustang, but it certainly worth a try. For the next pass I practice the med-hard hit to set the suspension before I stage the car. I launch with the med-hard hit and I roll the gas on the floorboard a lot quicker so that I have time to flex the firewall and the 1-2 shift now happens at 5200 RPM. The 2-3 pops like clockwork at 5400 RPM. The resulting 60 foot time came up all zeroes on the time slip, but more importantly the ET was 14.90 at 94.06 MPH.

Can we repeat the feat? …maybe with a 60 foot time recorded this time? I head up for another pass and once again take some time to practice the “hit” before I stage the car. I roll the car in as shallow and wait for the tree to activate. I get what feels like a good hit and a get a good fast roll to pin the gas pedal flexing on the firewall and watch as the 1-2 shift happens at 5400 RPM. The 2-3 shift remains constant at 5400 RPM. The time slip shows a MUCH improved 2.18 60 foot and slightly improved 14.86 at 94.02 MPH.

We now have a firm grip on the 14s! What will it take to get into the 13s? Can it be done without cracking open the motor? Stay tuned for the next Race Report!

 

Santa thought it was important to keep my son engaged on the project and brought him one AFR Enforcer head for Xmas. He got another Enforcer head head for his birthday in February. We wanted to keep a somewhat stock appearance so we decided to find a non-EGR, Explorer intake. It also helps when you have a Tom Moss in the neighborhood. Tom ported my Cobra intake that I used on my 11 second 5.0L combo. Searching through Ebay I found a good deal on a lower intake in good condition. Once I acquired the lower I reached out to Tom and we met up. Tom took all the critical measurements from the Enforcer heads and he took my lower for some of his magic.

I began looking for a camshaft small enough for this project and I am really considering just using the stock cam. I am using a really old desktop dyno program and it really likes a small cam for this combo. In the mean time I found a non-EGR upper intake for a great price, but as it turned out (as expected) it was in a little rougher shape.

The Explorer this upper intake came off must have been drinking oil. It took a bunch of carb cleaner and elbow grease to get all the gunk out.

 

What about the infamous B cam?

 

As yummy as the mighty B cam sounds, the 2.73 gear and the 2,200 stall converter (tight) were the limiting factors. We really needed things to start happening off idle, which is something the B cam isn't known for. The old desktop dyno program really liked cams like the old XE258HR. One popped up on marketplace but disappeared before I got a chance to respond.

While I kept one eye on the marketplace, I began researching headers. I have always run 4 into 1 headers as that is what has always been available for fox body mustangs. One of the things that kept coming up was tri-Y headers produce more bottom end torque. I still have not found a back to back test of tri-Ys against 4:1 headers. Tri-Ys were very popular on early mustangs. One of the things that concerns me is the difference in firing order between the early 302s and the late model 5.0L (302). How would this affect how the Tri-Y operates? I ended up buying a set off Ebay for $150. I mocked them up on my engine stand and they look like they will clear the starter and since my car has a C4, things are looking good there. I already have the o2 bungs left over from another project. The plan is to have them connect to the existing catted X pipe.

BBK actually is going to make this easier as these days when they ship you a catted X pipe they cut the head pipe halfway between the cat and the header flange to reduce shipping costs by having a much smaller box. They give you these pipe to pipe sleeve clamps to put it back together. Now after I drop the headers in I need to get a pipe bent to fill in the space.

 

Sadly, this project is going to slow down a bunch. Last night lightning struck the house and burned it down. Well, surprisingly the garage survived and PWT is still intact. There is more story to get you all fully caught up but progress after that will be slow.

Fenton home catches fire after lightning strike