2023 what did you do to your fox today?

[ITdude87]

Final winter update (?)

- Installed the Ford Motorsport spark plug looms I picked up from eBay
- Installed a "Ford Motorsport" radiator cap (picked up from FEP member "ESCOGT" via Instagram - Thanks Mike!)
- Installed the Ford Motorsport quarter window decals. I removed the Ford logo/oval portion and just left the "Motorsport" portion of the graphics.
https://www.saleenperformance.com/pr...saleen-mustang
- Installed my new Motorcraft BXT56A battery

She's looking clean and proper under the hood.



ALSO - I started cold calling a few people looking for the original owner based on all the paperwork I have that came with the car. I pulled the needle out of the haystack and was able to find and get a hold of them! We had a solid 30-45 minute chat and was able to answer a few mysteries.....He did in fact install the 140mph speedo shortly after he purchased the car. He had the original speedo, but it was lost in a house fire many years ago. He was able to confirm with a verbal handshake that the car had less than ~200 miles when it was switched, so the mileage shown is accurate. He also installed the Koni shocks and struts, as well as (which was news to me) a Hurst shift-stop for improved feel. He actually still lives fairly close and we're going to try and link up for a beer this summer for some show+tell - We made each other's day. Super good dude, knowledgeable about everything, and was happy to hear the updates. I felt a little odd reaching out out-of-the-blue, but being a "car guy" he totally understood. He owns a shop still and I told him I'd bring it there should I ever need anything I didn't feel comfortable doing myself.

Spring is right around the corner now and I'm itching to get out of the road for the maiden cruise after all the work this winter. New window tint and a set of tires are on the list...Then I can finally say "it's done" for now.

[ZEN50]

Looking good!
Cool story on finding the original owner. So where is the car originally from?

[ITdude87]

Looking good!
Cool story on finding the original owner. So where is the car originally from?

Cheers Zen, thank you! It's allllllmost as cool as your Capri - which was basically my blueprint this whole time.

The car/original owner are from the Lansing area. His daughter lives in GR and I told him to give me a shout whenever he's in town when the weather gets nice to come have a look for old times sake. He said he's more of a 60's-70's classic guy, but always had a soft spot and wondered what happened to it.

[KevinK]

Funny you should mention tracking down the original owner. I found the previous owner to my 84 GT/turbo vert right here on FEP. Not only did I contact him but he offered me a ton of parts. In addition, he spent some time researching the car before he bought it and documented all of it on a post right here. So I got previous owner info too.

RIP Bryan Garret

[ITdude87]

KevinK - You can't beat that! Previous/original owners are a treasure trove of information, same with this forum. This is where I learned about Marti Reports and started to peel back the onion. There's something to be said about fox body/4-eye cars that have such a great and helpful community around them. It's great.

[Hans]

Lend my Mustang to my daughter today.
Ask me tomorrow if that worked out .


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[Hans]

Last month:
Had all rubber on the front suspension replaced by poly, man: it is a rough ride now.
From Cadillac like smoothness to dumptruck bumpyness. LOL .

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[ITdude87]

Looking at some photos a little closer, I realized the person I bought the car from had included the original "date coded" plug wires along with some other stuff in a box.

I figured "why the heck would I want/need those old things"....and I threw them away a while ago along with some old plugs, a crummy timing light, and and old serpentine belt.

I'm not too bent out of shape about it, but sheesh, I should have a least held onto those wires for the cool factor.

Looks like they said 1987 on them - My car was produced late 86', so who knows if they were truly the originals. Who cares at this point.

What's the deal with folks wanting those so bad? Is it purely for show car purposes, because I don't see much use and figured those would be a "consumable" like brake pads.

You bet I held onto that bad ass "demonstration cassette" LOL.

[gr79]

My Ranger was ordered 04/07/93, serialized 05/24/93, scheduled to be built 6/21/93.
Bucked and built 08/04/93, released 08/05/93 per Marti Report. Sold 08/27/93.

Likely Twin Cities plant restarted after summer shutdown to build out the 93 orders.
Is about in the time frame when model changeover happens.
In this case, a 94 Ranger was mostly carryover parts from 93 model year.
If anything, old plants shut down in summer because of hot working conditions inside.

On mine, OE plug wires were dated 1994. Engine was built late July 93 per engine tag.
Lima plant prob started changeover to some 94 2.3l parts early before the 94 TCty production officially started.

Running parts changes to a new part, after a certain date, can occur anytime in a model year.
Date is set to make sure parts chain is ramped up with the new part and old is pretty much used up.
Ideally, little or no leftover parts is desired if the parts have changed enough from prior year.

[Shoegazer GT]

Yesterday was the first day of Mustang season for me. No coolant leaks, still a little cold for the carb, but she started strong and ran like a champ.

Also dropped in new floor mats!

[mmb617]

Got mine out yesterday, first time since I think it was November. Weather was sunny and mid 50's so not too bad. I probably wouldn't have got it out if my son hadn't decided to drive his Mustang for the first time this year. He has a really nice '67, and when I saw him starting his it inspired me to run mine too.

My car always cranks for a good while before it get fuel up to the carb after sitting for months, but it seemed longer than usual so I did a little investigation and found the hand choke was stuck wide open. A little lube and work it a couple times and she fired up.

My car is the only stick vehicle I have and it always feels good to row the gears. I got a little too heavy on the throttle turning out of our driveway and kicked it sideways some, but that's real easy to do on street tires with the spool rear.

At any rate both my son and I were smiling after our rides.

[Hans]

Lend my Mustang to my daughter today.
Ask me tomorrow if that worked out .


Verstuurd vanaf mijn CPH2219 met Tapatalk

Car was returned u damaged. Daddy can sleep again.

Verstuurd vanaf mijn CPH2219 met Tapatalk

[Hans]

Took the old girl with the other old girl on a small trip sunday.
Walked in the Forrest, now Musty is covered in mud.

Verstuurd vanaf mijn CPH2219 met Tapatalk

[ITdude87]

Changed the oil+filter: Amsoil 10w-30 Signature Series.

I swear this will be the last 'update' until I get my tint and tires done when the weather gets nicer.

It was ~50 degrees and dry, and I just couldn't resist a quick hot lap around the block to see how she ran after all the work over the winter. It's running absolutely beautiful. Temp gauge reads right in the middle now, hood decal looks on point, LED's look crisp, and the motor is running like a top. Topped it up with about 2 gal (lots of warm ups and idling while working on it over the winter).

Side note - I've been running 'ethanol free/recreation gas' which is 90 octane here since I bought the car. I forgot where I read it, but I could have sworn there was something about the higher level of ethanol in modern gas compared to the late 80's that doesn't agree very well with the old 5.0's. Is this overkill? Thoughts?

[mmb617]

Side note - I've been running 'ethanol free/recreation gas' which is 90 octane here since I bought the car. I forgot where I read it, but I could have sworn there was something about the higher level of ethanol in modern gas compared to the late 80's that doesn't agree very well with the old 5.0's. Is this overkill? Thoughts?

I really can't quite make up my mind about where I stand on the whole ethanol gas issue. Until about 20 years ago there was very little ethanol gas sold in the US so our cars were not designed for it.

I don't agree with how it was basically forced on us. Where I live there are only a very few stations that sell non-ethanol gas and it's both considerably more expensive and lower octane than the 10% ethanol gas that's far more common. Nobody around here sells non-ethanol that's higher than 90 octane but the premium 10% ethanol gas is 93 octane. That probably doesn't matter to most people but I have close to 11:1 compression and want the extra octane.

I've read a lot about problems people have with the ethanol gas in older cars because it causes degradation in some types of rubber fuel lines. I've also heard it can cause some problems with components in older carburetors, so if I had a completely stock fuel system I might be leery of running the ethanol.

In my case there's nothing in my fuel system that's stock, and I've always run the 10% ethanol gas without encountering any problems.

[Shoegazer GT]

I, too, have heard about how ethanol can gum up carbs, eat through some rubbers, and even separate from the gas and absorb water. It sucks that so few people buy the nonoxygenated stuff in my area (and so few stations even carry it) that I'm positive the fuel I'm getting is stale.

I might have to swallow my pride and just run the premium stuff with ethanol - unless I'm in the right neighborhood.

[Chuck W]

Drove the LTS to work today.

Yesterday I had to replace the DS door glass in the TBird since I managed to shatter it while trying to fix a loose mount on the regulator.



Had a spare in storage, so now I can work on the rest of the projects I'm trying to finish up.

[ITdude87]

From the 86' manual:



I originally intended on only using the rec-gas while in storage for 5+ months to eliminate the possibility of excess condensation and any weird issues....However it's plentiful enough around here that I've just sort of stuck with it. Car ran totally fine on 93.