I tore into the Cobra today

[89 AZ SSP]

I had the same problem with my battery tray! Definately keep the pics coming.

[tman1257]

Well unfortuanately no news is bad news. I have had to put the Cobra on the back burner for a little bit due to some stuff that came up on my house and taking care of some problems with my Mom's house. I am hoping to resume this soon. One question, does anybody have an idea how much the turbo 4 and trans weigh when bolted together? I am thinking I may have to take the trans out also to be able to do what I want and was wondering what the weight of them together is.

[Black 79 Cobra]

Thats unfortunate.

[kj_80Cobra]

I pulled out my 2.3T and RAD 4 speed at the same time but I have no idea what they weigh together. I will try to remember to look up the specs in the factory service manuals tonight. I don't know if it has the weights though.

[kj_80Cobra]

Sorry, no weights given in the service manual. My "wag" would be 450-550 lbs for engine and tranny.

[tman1257]

Well was able to make some progress today. Hopefully more tomorow. I didn't feel like tackling the exhaust bolts so I did the next best thing.

Sawzalls do wonders in a couple of minutes. I figured my exhaust was going to be needing some help anyway since the newer turbo 4's exhaust is different than the carb'd versions so a little cutting wouldn't matter. Then I ran into another problem. If you look close you can see my whole exhaust is now on the ground. Are there any hangers where the cat converter should be? The previous owner took the converter out and had a pipe put in there. My thoughts are that he never had a hanger replaced. Am I thinking right on this?

[tman1257]

Here's another question I have. Since I am going to be going to fuel injection I will need a return line to the tank. When I was unhooking everything I noticed a second line with the fuel line. Is this a return line? Did the turbo 4's of this year (79) come with a return line or am I looking at this wrong?

[89 AZ SSP]

I don't have much experience with these old foxes but I think it is a return line. Also you will have to change out your tank from what I have read.

[tman1257]

Well had some time today to do this.


Although I ran into one snag.

When my Dad and I put this engine in we accidently got the clutch cable tangled in between the crossover pipe and exhaust pipe. I had to take the cable off at the tranny so I could pull the motor out. Got that taken care of so now I am left with this.

Now the fun begins. Cleaning and rewiring.

[Hissing Cobra]

Nice work Tom. I can't remember if mine had a return line to the tank or not because it's been so long since we changed everything over. We installed brand new lines anyway but we reused the original factory clips to mount it to the floorboards.

Do you plan to keep the factory Air Conditioning system?

[tman1257]

I want to keep air in it as of now but don't know if I will need to reuse my original pump or if I will need to go to a newer one. The one issue with my original one is that is has been dry since about 1997 so I don't know if it is in useable shape yet. Didn't you say you had problems with the fittings on the lines not matching up to the newer style a.c. pump Pete?

[Hissing Cobra]

I did. Three months ago, I bought a brand new Air Conditioning system (minus the pump) for a 1990 Mustang LX. It cost a little over $400.00 from Advanced Auto and it included the Air Conditioning Evaporator core (goes inside the heater box, so the dash had to be removed), Receiver/Dryer unit (mounts on the firewall), Condensor, and all new lines. I installed everything and it was all a direct bolt in. We still have to charge it, wire it, and install the pressure switch to the top of the Receiver/Dryer unit. It won't take too long to wire it up and charge it and I hope to have it working soon. Oh, I had to relocate the cruise control too. I removed it from the passenger side shock tower and will use a cruise control unit from a '90 LX and it will be mounted behind the driver's side fender, which is how the factory did them on the '90's. Here's how it looks right now.



As you can see, I got rid of the block that was coming out through the firewall. That piece had been open since 2000 and I was told by many people that it would be useless. I decided to go with 1990 stuff as the '87-'93 cars seem to have any part available. If I went with 1979 stuff, I was afraid that I'd have problems in the future trying to get parts.

If you're going to keep it, you probably could update it to a later model setup for the EFI four cylinder models. Just a thought.

[kj_80Cobra]

Here's another question I have. Since I am going to be going to fuel injection I will need a return line to the tank. When I was unhooking everything I noticed a second line with the fuel line. Is this a return line? Did the turbo 4's of this year (79) come with a return line or am I looking at this wrong?

Yes they had a return line next to the supply line on the 2.3 & 2.3T cars. There is also a fuel vapor return line that runs from the tank to the canister on the passenger front frame rail.

[tman1257]

Pete, do you remember if there was a hanger for the exhaust on the catalytic converter when you took yours off?

[Hissing Cobra]

Pete, do you remember if there was a hanger for the exhaust on the catalytic converter when you took yours off?

It's been so long since I took it off, I honestly don't remember. Sorry!

[tman1257]

Well things progressed today but I did more than I thought about originally. I was doing some cleaning and saw how much crap was packed in the wheelwell covers and said what the hell and took them off and am glad I did.


This car has some, but not much rust on it so I figured this will make things better in the long run. I was surprised by how little rust had actually formed.









My town has a celebration in August called "Riverboat Days". I have usually tried to get it out for that but I don't know if that will happen this year. It will bum me out if I can't drive it this year, but at least I know this will help me out in the future with this car to do it right now since I have a good oppurtunity now.

[kj_80Cobra]

Pete, do you remember if there was a hanger for the exhaust on the catalytic converter when you took yours off?

Two rods attach to the upper catalytic converter heat shield that is between the converter and the floor pan. Those rods slip into a bracket attached to the tranny mount. The lower heat shield bolts to the upper heat shield surrounding the converter and supporting it.

[tman1257]

Two rods attach to the upper catalytic converter heat shield that is between the converter and the floor pan. Those rods slip into a bracket attached to the tranny mount. The lower heat shield bolts to the upper heat shield surrounding the converter and supporting it.

Thanks KJ!

[tman1257]

Well the front clip is off although I had to take the bumper cover and passenger fender off together due to a bolt problem. No pictures yet since my wife's nephew took my camera data cable and my good camera but I should be able to have some up tonight sometime. I am really glad I took this off now after seeing how much crud collected in the fenderwells and cover area. I can't afford to keep stripping it down at this time but I can afford to do a good cleaning on it.

[tman1257]

progress pictures






Here is the mound of crap that fell out of the passenger side when I took the fender off.

[tman1257]

I need the opinion of others on one issue with this car now. Would I be able to run an inline pump for this or do I need to swap out my fuel tank for a newer one so I can have an in tank pump?

[tman1257]

Did a little today before becoming completely frustrated. I took the wiper motor off and have been spraying the engine compartment and wheelwell areas with degreaser to try and clean it up. I started to work on getting the brake booster off and found the brake lines were in the way so I tried to take them off. No go. All of the nuts on them started to round off so I quit before I ruined them. Are these lines available from the aftermarket or do I need to have these custom made?



And here is a good shot showing why they make ibuprofen.

[Black 79 Cobra]

We put a racing in-line fuel pump. Kind of noisy but it will work. As for the brake lines, we bought all new lines and ran them ourself. You can buy brake line at any auto parts store, some stores sell 25 foot coils.

I've since updated my build thread, I've got pics of our set-up in there.

[tman1257]

Not much to update except frustration. I borrowed a power washer from a friend last week only to get it home and find it doesn't work. Messed with it for an hour and no go. Another friend brought his gas poewred one over yesterday. This was going good till I looked down and saw a puddle of oil that looked to be coming from the pump side of it. Shut it down to prevent any damage. I was about a third of the way with getting the paint off of the engine compartment too. Its gonna sit again now till I figure something out. At least the rust is not that bad where the battery tray was.

[roush235]

I hope posting your notes and pictures helps out with the frustrations. We've all been there too. For me, if it's not the car, it's the house..... sometimes I simply call it "the joys of home ownership."

Keep the pictures coming, the end product is going to be good.