Our 1986 GT Project

[Drewstang]

While rebuilding my 86 Thunderbird I decided I wanted to pick up another Fox Mustang to drive around to cruises and stuff with our kids. I started looking around on Craigslist and ran accross this 86 GT for sale just north of us about a month ago. I headed out the next day to look it over and liked what I saw and left a deposit, but couldn't pick it up until this past weekend due to the ice and snow we have received.
The pic from his for sale ad:






Finally getting up the muddy rutted driveway to load it up:


Unloaded at home:


And what I'll be working on to fix:

[Drewstang]

I ran the door tag and it turns out this car was an auto car. My wife doesn't drive the 5 speed too well so I decided to pull the T5 and put it back to an auto.


I need to pull the engine to get to the strut tower rust hole:






And once it was out I could see it was worse than I thought so the k-member has to come out also:








Luckily I was given a very large section from a donor car with this car so the repair won't be too bad. While the control arms were out I pulled the worn out ball joints.

[Drewstang]

And since I'm somewhat new here this car will not be getting an aero nose or dash or LS1 but I will be adding SN95 brakes and Bullitt Rims for now. I'm converting the 5.0 back to EFI since the wiring and ECU is still there, but I will convert it to mass air to help with tuning. I've got a long way to go, but I hope to have it driveable by spring. All of the soft brake hoses were toast and someone cut the e-brake cables, as you can see the wiring under the dash is going to be fun too but I'm trying to save it and make it a little better at the same time.

[Travis T]

They always end up being more of a project than they look like don't they? Down in NC I'm just not use to seeing that kind of rust in a car. I'm doing the SN95 conversion and Bullitt rims on my 84 GT too.

[Drewstang]

Yeah they do. I think I'm on 19 or 20th Mustang. This rust is becoming more common around here, this car came from Cincinnati originally.

[Travis T]

Looks like it has had plenty of mistreatment, but I'll be watching this because it's good to see another one get saved instead of driven further into the ground. I've always liked the 85-86 GTs especially.

[Telmaer Hinton]

I love the t-tops!

[Drewstang]

I haven't rode in a car with T-tops in 15 years, my brother bought a 86 Iroc with T-tops. It was always nice to pop out the tops and ride around on nice days.

[STANGMAN116]

congrats!!!

[wraithracing]

Congratulations and good luck with the project!

I am sure there are plenty of members here that will help you anyway possible to complete your GT!

Trey

[Drewstang]

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone. My day job is slowing the progress during the week but I made it out there for a few hours last night. Since this engine is unknown to me, I wanted to check it out and make sure it was a roller cam engine and see what pistons are in there. I borrowed a bore scope and pulled out the plugs to check it out:




Looks like some decent carbon buildup on 87+ pistons. The VIN on the block does not match the car and there is much more light gray paint on this engine than I have ever seen on un restored engines, leads me to believe I might have a good long block. I pulled the intake, valve covers, and timing cover to prep for the EFI conversion.








Over all it looks good minus a small piece of the block that is broken:




Looks like its a stock cam:


For now, I need to decide how to proceed with the engine. I can take the engine as it sits to the machine shop for the block repair, or I could tear it down and go for a full rebuild which would impact the budget and push the completion back several months.

[huck01955]

Very nice car cant wait to see more

[Drewstang]

Once I was done checking out the engine and letting the PB blaster soak into the Prop Valve, I made my way over to the strut tower to begin cutting and grinding out the old metal. I wanted to do something a little different for this project so I setup a Go Pro camera to shoot pics every minute. Here's what I got:










[/QUOTE]

The frame rail is toast between the rear of the strut tower to the sway bar mount. I have a large section of donor car frame to repair this so its no big deal to me. I'll get some better shots of the repair in progress when I head back out tonight.

[FoxChassis]

If you post the partial VIN from the block and the trans, I might be able to tell you what they're from.

[Drewstang]

I can barely read the last 3 digits from the block, the stamping / engraving is very light. Where on the trans or bell housing would the VIN be located?

[FoxChassis]

I might be able to do something with the digits you can read from the block, if I also know the casting number (E6SE, E7TE, F1SE, etc) and date (looks like a small plate with screws and three or four number and letters) by the starter mount.

On the passenger side of the main case either where it would bolt to the bellhousing or the flat pad between the fill and drain plugs.

[jws4621]

Nice looking car. Sucks when they become more than you originally thought.

I like the wheels for some reason any idea what they are? I have never seen those in 4 lug.

[Drewstang]

I might be able to do something with the digits you can read from the block, if I also know the casting number (E6SE, E7TE, F1SE, etc) and date (looks like a small plate with screws and three or four number and letters) by the starter mount.

On the passenger side of the main case either where it would bolt to the bellhousing or the flat pad between the fill and drain plugs.

I'll look when I get home tonight, I'm almost certain the block is a E7 since it has the "XXX" in the valley.

Nice looking car. Sucks when they become more than you originally thought.

I like the wheels for some reason any idea what they are? I have never seen those in 4 lug.

They are Billet Specialties 16" x 7" 4 lug. I'm not sure which model they are, but I will be selling them soon as I picked up a set of Bullitts a while back.

[FoxChassis]

XXX in the block valley doesn't mean anything. Neither does YYY.

XXX has been seen on non-roller blocks, and before 1987, and YYY has been seen on roller blocks.

[Travis T]

I know why the block is broken there - someone has broken off a water pump bolt in the past. How much of the original thread is left? If the bolt will still thread in, I'm not sure I'd mess with fixing that block as it's almost impossible to get someone who can weld a cast iron piece that big as you have to preheat the entire thing in an oven. I had some cracks in my 50's flathead V8 and no one would touch that and they were minor.

[Drewstang]

XXX in the block valley doesn't mean anything. Neither does YYY.

XXX has been seen on non-roller blocks, and before 1987, and YYY has been seen on roller blocks.

Ahh, I was unaware of that. I haven't seen very many non-roller blocks as I've only worked with 87+ cars for the most part. I will report back the casting number tonight.

I know why the block is broken there - someone has broken off a water pump bolt in the past. How much of the original thread is left? If the bolt will still thread in, I'm not sure I'd mess with fixing that block as it's almost impossible to get someone who can weld a cast iron piece that big as you have to preheat the entire thing in an oven. I had some cracks in my 50's flathead V8 and no one would touch that and they were minor.

I've had one broken in the same spot and a local machine shop was able to braze or weld the spot and then clean the threads. Although on that one, I had the piece that was broken off and it was a clean break. I'm going to contact them today and see what they want me to do. Loading the engine onto a trailer and running it up to them is difficult, but I can load the bare block into the trunk of my Taurus and take it to them fairly easily.

There is a little thread left, but I don't think there is enough to get a solid purchase to prevent a water leak.

[Travis T]

Cool that you have a shop that can fix that. In the little Podunk area I live in, no one can do that type of work which was probably my problem.

[Drewstang]

Cool that you have a shop that can fix that. In the little Podunk area I live in, no one can do that type of work which was probably my problem.

They are pretty good, they even offer lay-a-way on engine work and builds.

[Drewstang]

I don't have time to work on it tonight but I got the pics off the block and trans.




Top of the block:


Trans:


Better pic of the wheels:

[FoxChassis]

Block is from a 1985 model. I'm seeing "82" at the end of that VIN so if the block is from a Mustang I have narrowed it down to about 530 possible VINs. Could narrow it further if I could see what's before the 82.

E5AE-C3B = block originally engineered for a 1985 (E5) generic Ford (A) model
5C16 = cast on March 16, 1985

Transmission is from a 1984 5.0L hatchback. The complete VIN is 1FABP28M2EF235971.