1979 Coupe - The Medium Blue Bomber

[82GTforME]

Hey there Darran. I have just loved this from the very beginning. Having the same photobucket matters as you though.

One question.

The closest I've gotten to seeing your engine decal is this.



Q1: What kind of engine tag code does a 1980 engine have anyway?

Q2: It's also black, not blue like the others I've seen.



I'm sure that's because of the 1982 model year unbalance and non segamatized, non swiss cheesed later manifold revision

xctasy, that picture you posted is the closest I have been to the calibration sticker myself. I had not even laid eyes on it! It had some black overspray on it but it flaked off easily with a fingernail.

Similar to our other early 79 and there is some hand writing on it but this does not appear to have anything written in the right side. That side was still exposed to the road and elements so maybe it faded off over the years...


https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...E/IMG_5952.JPG

Here is the one from our other 79 with the 2.8:


http://s1337.photobucket.com/user/82...52397.jpg.html

Also to note, this car has the high altitude option so I expect some minor differences. Not sure exactly what but likely the carburetor. The reproduction emissions decals available are not the correct ones to this.


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[xctasy]

Thank you so much. I REALLY appreciate it.

It matches in with what Fox Chassis had for the 79 2.8, but the 5.0 looks like a new "Anumal".


see Page 1 , post #25.

http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...Identification

[82GTforME]

Thank you so much. I REALLY appreciate it.

It matches in with what Fox Chassis had for the 79 2.8, but the 5.0 looks like a new "Anumal".

see Page 1 , post #25.

http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...Identification

Glad it could help.

For our car, I dug a little more into the code after looking at it. I read the information in the other thread and Fox noted looking at the build sheets. Checking my scan of ours and the breakdown by FoxChassis, and I see the following for our engine:

I have no idea what the hand written "450M" on the decal signifies.

Line B
Emission Control - 8 = high-altitude emissions package
Imm Block Heater - [blank] = no immersion engine block heater
Engine, Tag Number - KJ304AB = 49-state calibration (K), Thermactor emissions with A/C (J), 5.0L engine (304), release level AB
Transmission, Code - W = C4 automatic transmission
Transmission, Part Number - D9ZP DA = automatic transmission (P) originally engineered for 1979 (D9) Mustang (Z), release level DA

Also in that thread, Fox doesn't look to have our car listed. The 79- KJ304AB in his list states "CA Emissions" where our car is a Colorado car with high-altitude emissions as noted.

[BMW Rider]

I wonder if that is an identifier of either the person who assembled the engine or test ran it.

[82GTforME]

I wonder if that is an identifier of either the person who assembled the engine or test ran it.

Not sure Ed. The 2.8 had what should be the correct info to get the calibration number from the book David posted about in the thread xctasy shared: http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthre...le-Calibration

I have to expect David's 79 Cobra is from Dearborn and they at least printed the calibration tags out

I have to say that without Foxchassis and Jeff(85GTTops) I would be as lost as a goose in the fog on some of this stuff. I have to thank both of them for their great help!

Well I found on Ebay a factory emission guide for 1979 and 1980 Fords. It covers every engine and every calibration along with the part #s. It is very sweet!

I was confused at how to find my Mustangs Vehicle Calibration, so I found out and scanned it in for all of you to see.



So looking at this



My Calibration is this (9-11A-RO) Date: 6-7-78

I had thought of making a reproduction of the decals possibly but would also like to see the correct vacuum diagram like is shown for David's car.

I glanced through RED'78's site but there are a lot of 302 variations to look through to figure out which might be ours. Deduction versus decoding may be difficult.

The various 79 calibration vacuum diagrams are here (BTW xctasy I noted there is one 3.3 scanned in here if you look through them):
http://myzephyrs.com/VAC_5.0/index.html

[xctasy]

RPM SETTING (PLANT OPTION) peeps.

A valid 1979 5.0 code would be like

Cougar/Thunderbird

5.0L KC326BB
5.0L KF326BA (Canada)
5.0L KF327AA
5.0L KF327BA
5.0L KF327BA (Canada)
5.0L KJ304AB (CA emissions)
5.0L KJ326AA
5.0L KJ326BB
5.0L KJ327BA
5.0L XJ326AA (CA emissions)
5.0L XJ326BA (CA emissions)

"450M" can only be the Median rpm the 1979 5.0 engine is set at when being calibrated. Its been rewritten on the tag in the wrong spot. No pen details are used in tags, they are a clip the ticket thing.

The 450 code for engines is part of the the Lima, Ohio Big block engine series for 1979, and its definitely not one of those. I'd say the 5.0 is from the Cleveland 2 plant, 4.2's normally from the Windsor plant.

464L is the lower rpm the 3.3 engine was calibrated at.


See the Red 78' info

[xctasy]

Hi Alt and CA emmissions are the same with the altitude compensator retuned for rpm. Nice work on getting the info...lot of fun.

[xctasy]

I wonder if that is an identifier of either the person who assembled the engine or test ran it.

Yes. Retune RPM mean is 450, and its a KJ 304 AB California spec to cover the Colorado cold start at altitude enissions. The tuning for destination states of California or Colorado was later on by the fender mounted compensator, or by using the sterner Cali Smog package to cover off cold start emissions. Canada option would have been the salted road durability package, which wouldnt have required all the CA emissions stuff. There wasnt a Rust Belt emissions package, as everything had to meet the 50000 mile durability or life time durability requirements for the heat stoves, catalysts and all the other 65 or more smog parts the 79s ran. Hi Alt emissions are based on hyperbarometric chamber and/or frozen over night cycles in hydrocarbon containers with bag houses. The tag ment the Government was serious about smog.

Nice to see 140 hp instead of 129 like some of the earlier M ii's were slugged with. Shame it went down to 120, 118, 115 and then 111 with the three versions of the 80, 81 and 82 auto 4.2's. That must have sucked for anyone who had ever driven an S code 390 or M code 351 4V automatic 69 Stang.

[82GTforME]

Hi Alt and CA emmissions are the same with the altitude compensator retuned for rpm. Nice work on getting the info...lot of fun.

Thanks for all of the info too. Not sure in the big scheme it means anything to this car other than getting a replacement decal to put on but it is neat to discover these little nuances. The CA emissions decal on the valve cover will be more of a challenge to redo or find I am sure. It may just get the standard off the shelf replacement. I doubt any would know the difference. Ever.

[82GTforME]

Over the last while I have been getting the last of the loose take off pieces either cleaned up, refurbished, repainted or even just cataloged and put away.

The steering rack was one items I knew I still had more work on. The rebuilt Cardone one I bought and put on our other '79 five or so years ago was painted black by them. While the originals look bare or as the one off this car was - a type of machine grey, my intent was to keep this one original looking. And i did not want to put this away as is knowing I had more work on it.

This is where it had left off:

Speaking of the TRW rack from the car. Again oversprayed in a quick hiding black paint coat like a lot of the undercarriage and surface rusted areas.

After cleaning, scrubbing, and going it over once pretty decently, I have decided I am going to retry this rack in the car. There do not seem to be rebuilt TRW racks on the shelves anymore and I am not enthused to send this out through RockAuto from Canada for a rebuild. I think if I had to rebuild or replace, I would replace with the Ford rack along with the hoses and the pump to do it right.

For now this one seems tight. Maybe this shows only 17k miles... I will spend some more time detailing and refinishing but this is a good starting point.





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[82GTforME]

Easiest for me to get the last of the rust off would be by submerging it in rust convertor. I did not really want to introduce any liquid into it so I took a more careful approach


https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...E/IMG_5825.JPG

I removed the bent lines and boots from the rack to better get into the tight spots. I expected a ferrule type compression fittings on these but found they had coppery looking hard gaskets. Here's hoping they don't leak in the future after being disturbed!


https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...E/IMG_5827.JPG

I used a die grinder and wire wheeled and end brushed what and where I could. The steel side of the rack had some pits in it so carefully used soaked rags of Evaporust to get as much as I could.


https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...E/IMG_5846.JPG

Compared to what it looked like before, I would say it came out alright.



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Not wanting all this hard work to deteriorate quick once on the road, I decided to prep and clearcoat it. I used this on the transmission case on the Tangerine car among other items and was happy with the results.



https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...E/IMG_5857.JPG
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I greased the external gear and the inner tie rod ends and put everything back together. Looks good and now I can say it is done and ready. If time was money into a part like this I could have bought a couple of replacements That is the way it is for me though!



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https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...E/IMG_5863.JPG

[Blainer]

Looking great! I might use some of your tricks on the light surface rust dust on my new find.

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[82GTforME]

I've been neglectful of this car for over 11 months. Covid, enjoying the cars that are running last year and maybe a little burn out have had me ignore it. It is my intent to get back on track this summer and forge ahead.

I am unsure whether the effort to manually strip the under coating is worth it and how far I want to go with it. I like the idea of a rotisserie or the wooden ones that bolt on and roll a car over but again not sure the value is there for the effort and will just add to the timeline. I have considered having a mobile blaster come and do the under carriage in my garage with dry ice or something similar but seriously want to keep third party costs down. For the Tangerine car I only went as far back as the tunnel and never touched the real axle. Not sure if this will be the same or I pull the 7.5 to check it out and detail it to the level I think I need to do.

The engine will finally come out this summer which will allow for laborious work to continue disassembling it, prepping accessories etc. Also not sure about the knock it had and the extent of the work that may be needed to rebuild it. It will also allow me to focus on the engine compartment prep that is one of the next steps I need to do prior to getting primer on the car.

Let us see how it goes this summer.

[BMW Rider]

Glad to hear your at least thinking about this project again.

[billkandi]

Anything new to report on this project? Still hibernating?

[82GTforME]

Anything new to report on this project? Still hibernating?

Hi Bill,

Yes the car work is still idle right now. Life and work are distractions to doing some of the things I would rather be doing. The car isn't going anywhere and will one day get some attention. I did write myself a list of what I need to do and where I left off so when I do get time to get back to it I will hopefully be better poised to make progress.

[82GTforME]

I've been neglectful of this car for over 11 months. Covid, enjoying the cars that are running last year and maybe a little burn out have had me ignore it. It is my intent to get back on track this summer and forge ahead.

The engine will finally come out this summer which will allow for laborious work to continue disassembling it, prepping accessories etc. Also not sure about the knock it had and the extent of the work that may be needed to rebuild it. It will also allow me to focus on the engine compartment prep that is one of the next steps I need to do prior to getting primer on the car.

Let us see how it goes this summer.

Well, well... Here we are much later than anticipated. Where did over three years of time go?

After talking about it more frequently lately with son #2 this year (he's now 23!) and looking at the covered project in the garage regularly.... (plus the stars finally aligning with some time off and a little motivation!) we made progress!

I actually did a pretty good job getting everything ready to just grab it and yank. One bolt on the trans cooler lines on the one side of the block near the oil pan was it.







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[cougman67]

I thought maybe you retired from fox mustangs. Nice too see you are still around.

[Lubner]

Good to see your still working on it .

[82GTforME]

I thought maybe you retired from fox mustangs. Nice too see you are still around.

The usual excuses but not currently planned to be retiring from the game just yet! I still have the same "backlog" of projects to get through over the long haul and if I don't get this one done, I will never get to those!

Good to see your still working on it .

Yes! Let us see how long this spurt of enthusiasm goes for! I hope a while!

[82GTforME]

I am not typically a tear and strip everything down in a hurry kind of guy, In my usual fashion, I like to be methodical and clean and prep parts and pieces as I take them off. This way I have a good understanding of what needs to be replaced or needs added work to get to the level I would like for the finished product. That and it makes it so much easier on the back end to just grab parts and install them for the reassembly.

I won't bore you with all of the before and after pictures but here are a few that only required some time and effort. For the more heavily crudded pieces I used a solvent bath and scrape/scrub. I also like to use TSP (trisodium phosphate) mixed with water for less intensive cleaning and softer scrubbing.









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[82GTforME]

So after three days of taking trim and accessories off I am slowly getting closer to a bare engine. With all of the take off parts plus all the previously removed vacuum lines and some smaller bits there is actually quite a lot to this project.




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[gr79]

Great pics and story.
When i did mine, tagged parts as much as possible with wired tags and a sharpie.
Drew diagrams and kept notes as needed for reassembly.
Especially bolts trying not to misplace any or have extra ones when done.
Still misplaced the oil pan bolts. Bought new then found them years later.
Cleaned and kitted the components in clear zip bags and boxes.
A 79 has 50 miles of vac hoses. Never did get everything exactly as it was but engine runs fine.
Factory shop manual was invaluable for details and order of procedures.
Did keep most of the old parts not used in the new build. Handy for later reference.
Wow tsp did the job. Went with solvent in the parts washer. Or used the one at work.

Keep forgetting to order a new v/c emissions sticker from NPD before they cost 20.00.

[Blainer]

If you need any specs on what I did to my 255, send me a pm or call. Nice progress Darran.

Sent from my motorola one 5G ace using Tapatalk

[82GTforME]

If you need any specs on what I did to my 255, send me a pm or call. Nice progress Darran.

Thanks Blaine. Once I get all the manual labor stuff done I need to figure out exactly what I am going to do with this original V8.