200,000 mile GT build

[Akurma]

It was surprisingly nice out today so I made the best of it.

Decided to tackle the broken bolt from the seat swap last weekend. It broke clean off inside the car but the rest of the thread was sticking out the bottom. Before I broke out the drill and tap set I decided to try heating it up with a propane torch and see if it would even spin. To my surprise after about ten or so minutes I was able to get it to spin. Spent another 15 or so minutes slowly threading it out the bottom on the car. Utterly shocked it came out like that and was fully prepared to spend a good chunk of the day drilling it out. Got to take the easy wins when you can right?



After that I just drove it around town and put some fresh 93 octane in the tank and enjoyed it. I noticed the coolant temp gauge doing some weird jolting. Going to start with a new sensor and keep an eye on it. Besides that its running great and I love how the Mach 1 seats feel, Especially the side bolsters! Going to call my rust repair guy this week and see when he can take a look at the rear end rust to give me an estimate.

Shameful for me to say that was pretty low on my priority list and I frankly forgot about it. Lol I'll tack that on the list after I get the car dynod and go through the suspension. Wonder if the bracket needs to be slotted a little to drop it down. Or if the bar up top needs influence

It's low down on my list as well lol, its one of those "i'll get around to it eventually" fixes. if one of us gets around to it before the other we'll have to let each other know how we fixed it

I put a bead of silicon on one side of washer to face crank and bolt it back in

For the time being I am keeping an eye on the leak and oil level. I don't drive it much for this reason but plan to tackle it over the winter.

 

[joe65]

I just checked in today after not being on for a while. Cool to see you driving the car. I noticed the broken bolt thing, i have the same exact deal on my drivers seat. I'm also jealous of the Mach 1 seats. They are so much better than the GT seats.

 

[Akurma]

It's been awhile, I'd like to say I've been just cruising around enjoy this thing since I last posted, but unfortunately not so much.

I have driven it a little over 200 miles since the new motor. For the most part it runs and drives great! However it isn't without its issues. The oil leak from the crank pulley I'm still dealing with. I had the crank seal replaced I thought all was good until I realized there is now a leak coming from the front of the oil pan. (See video below, Warning the audio is very loud lol.) It's possible this has always been leaking in addition to the crank seal and I just couldn't tell. I did double check all the oil pan bolts and snugged up a few of them a tiny bit. This didn't help, it still leaks just as bad as before. Looks like I'm going to be dropping the oil pan and replacing the gasket.

This motor has a windage tray, I've heard fitment issues with these trays so I'm wondering if the gasket got messed up during install or if the pan itself is bent/warped. I am debating on either ditching this oil pan all together and picking up a new stock pan. Also considering ditching the windage tray completely or swapping it out with a S197 GT500 windage tray as that has a built in gasket. However they need to be modified a bit.

As always, open to suggestions/feedback

https://flic.kr/p/2owK749

While I was underneath the car looking at the oil leak situation. I also discovered another leak. on the driver side of the bellhousing I caught the glint of green coolant. Not exactly sure where it is coming from exactly. If I had to guess either the coolant hose running under the intake manifold has a weep. Or the back of the driver side head is leaking somewhere. hopefully nothing serious, I'll investigate further. In the second picture below you can see to the right of the inspection cover bolt a thin darker line of dried coolant.

Oddly enough I've never noticed a coolant burning smell or low coolant. So it is definitely a slow slow leak.. or it just started leaking lol.





Last and least of my issues, I noticed almost every time I opened my trunk I would get drips of water. Finally figured out it was coming from the license plate lights. These are new replacement lenses and I put LEDs in there as well. Well.. they both trashed and the light socket is also most likely toast. Not a big issue just an annoyance and yet another thing this car is fighting me on lol.






On the bright side I did get an awesome 35th anniversary bezel! @joe65 thanks again I still need to get around to installing it but I've always liked the look of these bezels. And seeing as my car is a 1999 its fitting.

 

[joe65]

It's been awhile, I'd like to say I've been just cruising around enjoy this thing since I last posted, but unfortunately not so much.

I have driven it a little over 200 miles since the new motor. For the most part it runs and drives great! However it isn't without its issues. The oil leak from the crank pulley I'm still dealing with. I had the crank seal replaced I thought all was good until I realized there is now a leak coming from the front of the oil pan. (See video below, Warning the audio is very loud lol.) It's possible this has always been leaking in addition to the crank seal and I just couldn't tell. I did double check all the oil pan bolts and snugged up a few of them a tiny bit. This didn't help, it still leaks just as bad as before. Looks like I'm going to be dropping the oil pan and replacing the gasket.

This motor has a windage tray, I've heard fitment issues with these trays so I'm wondering if the gasket got messed up during install or if the pan itself is bent/warped. I am debating on either ditching this oil pan all together and picking up a new stock pan. Also considering ditching the windage tray completely or swapping it out with a S197 GT500 windage tray as that has a built in gasket. However they need to be modified a bit.

As always, open to suggestions/feedback

View attachment 25452

View attachment 25453

View attachment 25454

https://flic.kr/p/2owK749

While I was underneath the car looking at the oil leak situation. I also discovered another leak. on the driver side of the bellhousing I caught the glint of green coolant. Not exactly sure where it is coming from exactly. If I had to guess either the coolant hose running under the intake manifold has a weep. Or the back of the driver side head is leaking somewhere. hopefully nothing serious, I'll investigate further. In the second picture below you can see to the right of the inspection cover bolt a thin darker line of dried coolant.

Oddly enough I've never noticed a coolant burning smell or low coolant. So it is definitely a slow slow leak.. or it just started leaking lol.

View attachment 25456

View attachment 25457

Last and least of my issues, I noticed almost every time I opened my trunk I would get drips of water. Finally figured out it was coming from the license plate lights. These are new replacement lenses and I put LEDs in there as well. Well.. they both trashed and the light socket is also most likely toast. Not a big issue just an annoyance and yet another thing this car is fighting me on lol.

View attachment 25458

View attachment 25459


On the bright side I did get an awesome 35th anniversary bezel! @joe65 thanks again I still need to get around to installing it but I've always liked the look of these bezels. And seeing as my car is a 1999 its fitting.

View attachment 25460

Glad it worked out. I was lazy and didn’t even clean it up before I sent it. Yes makes sense on a 99.

 

[joemomma]

Are those the replacements from LMR? Look like the ones I got. They're "OK" as far as quality goes, thankfully I haven't noticed any leaks.

 

[Akurma]

Are those the replacements from LMR? Look like the ones I got. They're "OK" as far as quality goes, thankfully I haven't noticed any leaks.

Yes! I got them off of LMR. Maybe I just got a bad batch or something.

 

[Akurma]

Set out to replace the oil pan gasket and oil pan with a stock unit as I really don't need an 8qt pan for the kind of driving I'll be doing with this car, which is 99% street with the occasional drag/autocross event. Key phrase here was "set out."





Drove the car into the garage, put it up on jack stands and crawled under and drain the oil. All looked good while the oil is draining, no odd color or glitter which is a good sign after ~225 miles on this engine. I collected a sample that I'll send off to Blackstone Labs for analysis just for peace of mind. I wiped down the underside of the car from the oil residue that has accumulated from the leak. Oil pan bolts are super easy to get to thanks to the tubular K-member or so I thought.

Thanks to the wonderful designer who made this oil pan, the rear two bolts are impossible to get without taking the transmission out.... I wish I was exaggerating but I spent a good 6-8hrs this past weekend trying everything I could think of to get these two pesky nuts off the damn studs. every single wrench, ratchet, allen key, special & custom tool combo you could think of, I tried it. There is just enough room to slide a box end wrench in and around the nut and thats it. I even loosened all the lower transmission bolts and transmission mount and jacked the trans up a but to see if it would move just enough for me to get in there. No luck, even with the transmission backed off a 1/2 inch I still don't have enough of a swing to get the wrench to turn.

I considered getting one of those long reach sanding belts and just grinding the nut away but am hesitant as I don't want to introduce metal shavings into the oil pan. Also thought about one of those nut breaking/splitting tools but again, dont think I have enough room in there for that either.

First picture is of driver side, second is from passenger side with the starter removed.







Extremely unmotivated and also annoyed at myself before the engine even went in the car I considered changing the pan out. I threw in the towel and left it there after wasting so much time on it this weekend. Current plan is to remove the transmission this coming weekend and hope for the best.

On the bright, or maybe concerning side is that the entire time I was under the car I didn't see any trace of coolant around the transmission bellhousing like I did in the last post. Not even a hint.

 

[weendoggy]

Set out to replace the oil pan gasket and oil pan with a stock unit as I really don't need an 8qt pan for the kind of driving I'll be doing with this car, which is 99% street with the occasional drag/autocross event. Key phrase here was "set out."

First picture is of driver side, second is from passenger side with the starter removed.

Extremely unmotivated and also annoyed at myself before the engine even went in the car I considered changing the pan out. I threw in the towel and left it there after wasting so much time on it this weekend. Current plan is to remove the transmission this coming weekend and hope for the best.

On the bright, or maybe concerning side is that the entire time I was under the car I didn't see any trace of coolant around the transmission bellhousing like I did in the last post. Not even a hint.

So, does the "other" pan pose the same issue? If so, I'd be replacing both with an allen head bolt and remove the stud all together. jmo

 

[Akurma]

So, does the "other" pan pose the same issue? If so, I'd be replacing both with an allen head bolt and remove the stud all together. jmo

I'm replacing it with a stock pan. The stock one is beveled on these two bolts to allow access to them. I'm getting rid of the studs in favor of bolts anyway.

I'm debating on ditching the windage tray all together or possibly using a GT500 tray as that is an all in one tray & gasket. But I've heard mixed thing on if the GT500 needs some modifications to fit or not.

 

[optionizerSS]

Set out to replace the oil pan gasket and oil pan with a stock unit as I really don't need an 8qt pan for the kind of driving I'll be doing with this car, which is 99% street with the occasional drag/autocross event. Key phrase here was "set out."

View attachment 25604

View attachment 25605

Drove the car into the garage, put it up on jack stands and crawled under and drain the oil. All looked good while the oil is draining, no odd color or glitter which is a good sign after ~225 miles on this engine. I collected a sample that I'll send off to Blackstone Labs for analysis just for peace of mind. I wiped down the underside of the car from the oil residue that has accumulated from the leak. Oil pan bolts are super easy to get to thanks to the tubular K-member or so I thought.

Thanks to the wonderful designer who made this oil pan, the rear two bolts are impossible to get without taking the transmission out.... I wish I was exaggerating but I spent a good 6-8hrs this past weekend trying everything I could think of to get these two pesky nuts off the damn studs. every single wrench, ratchet, allen key, special & custom tool combo you could think of, I tried it. There is just enough room to slide a box end wrench in and around the nut and thats it. I even loosened all the lower transmission bolts and transmission mount and jacked the trans up a but to see if it would move just enough for me to get in there. No luck, even with the transmission backed off a 1/2 inch I still don't have enough of a swing to get the wrench to turn.

I considered getting one of those long reach sanding belts and just grinding the nut away but am hesitant as I don't want to introduce metal shavings into the oil pan. Also thought about one of those nut breaking/splitting tools but again, dont think I have enough room in there for that either.

First picture is of driver side, second is from passenger side with the starter removed.

View attachment 25606

View attachment 25607

View attachment 25608


On the bright, or maybe concerning side is that the entire time I was under the car I didn't see any trace of coolant around the transmission bellhousing like I did in the last post. Not even a hint.

Can you talk more about this coolant near the trans? We have a 1995 GT 5.0 auto and after bringing it home the first day it sat in the garage for a week due to weather. Pulled it out a week later and there were 3 distinct AF 'drips' on my garage floor. I had already moved the car but by my guesstimation it would have been near the back of the block or close to it. Checked the AF level and been monitoring it but nothing since then. Drove it over 200 miles since and have not noticed anything since.

 

[joe65]

Set out to replace the oil pan gasket and oil pan with a stock unit as I really don't need an 8qt pan for the kind of driving I'll be doing with this car, which is 99% street with the occasional drag/autocross event. Key phrase here was "set out."

View attachment 25604

View attachment 25605

Drove the car into the garage, put it up on jack stands and crawled under and drain the oil. All looked good while the oil is draining, no odd color or glitter which is a good sign after ~225 miles on this engine. I collected a sample that I'll send off to Blackstone Labs for analysis just for peace of mind. I wiped down the underside of the car from the oil residue that has accumulated from the leak. Oil pan bolts are super easy to get to thanks to the tubular K-member or so I thought.

Thanks to the wonderful designer who made this oil pan, the rear two bolts are impossible to get without taking the transmission out.... I wish I was exaggerating but I spent a good 6-8hrs this past weekend trying everything I could think of to get these two pesky nuts off the damn studs. every single wrench, ratchet, allen key, special & custom tool combo you could think of, I tried it. There is just enough room to slide a box end wrench in and around the nut and thats it. I even loosened all the lower transmission bolts and transmission mount and jacked the trans up a but to see if it would move just enough for me to get in there. No luck, even with the transmission backed off a 1/2 inch I still don't have enough of a swing to get the wrench to turn.

I considered getting one of those long reach sanding belts and just grinding the nut away but am hesitant as I don't want to introduce metal shavings into the oil pan. Also thought about one of those nut breaking/splitting tools but again, dont think I have enough room in there for that either.

First picture is of driver side, second is from passenger side with the starter removed.

View attachment 25606

View attachment 25607

View attachment 25608

Extremely unmotivated and also annoyed at myself before the engine even went in the car I considered changing the pan out. I threw in the towel and left it there after wasting so much time on it this weekend. Current plan is to remove the transmission this coming weekend and hope for the best.

On the bright, or maybe concerning side is that the entire time I was under the car I didn't see any trace of coolant around the transmission bellhousing like I did in the last post. Not even a hint.

I feel your pain man. Seems like the kind of luck i have. Seeing the last pic reminded me of a ratchet i just saw advertised that had a really small ratched click. like it barely moved and was catching to rotate. Not sure it would help but i'll look and see if i can find it.

 

[d.garza18]

It's been awhile, I'd like to say I've been just cruising around enjoy this thing since I last posted, but unfortunately not so much.

I have driven it a little over 200 miles since the new motor. For the most part it runs and drives great! However it isn't without its issues. The oil leak from the crank pulley I'm still dealing with. I had the crank seal replaced I thought all was good until I realized there is now a leak coming from the front of the oil pan. (See video below, Warning the audio is very loud lol.) It's possible this has always been leaking in addition to the crank seal and I just couldn't tell. I did double check all the oil pan bolts and snugged up a few of them a tiny bit. This didn't help, it still leaks just as bad as before. Looks like I'm going to be dropping the oil pan and replacing the gasket.

This motor has a windage tray, I've heard fitment issues with these trays so I'm wondering if the gasket got messed up during install or if the pan itself is bent/warped. I am debating on either ditching this oil pan all together and picking up a new stock pan. Also considering ditching the windage tray completely or swapping it out with a S197 GT500 windage tray as that has a built in gasket. However they need to be modified a bit.

As always, open to suggestions/feedback

View attachment 25452

View attachment 25453

View attachment 25454

https://flic.kr/p/2owK749

While I was underneath the car looking at the oil leak situation. I also discovered another leak. on the driver side of the bellhousing I caught the glint of green coolant. Not exactly sure where it is coming from exactly. If I had to guess either the coolant hose running under the intake manifold has a weep. Or the back of the driver side head is leaking somewhere. hopefully nothing serious, I'll investigate further. In the second picture below you can see to the right of the inspection cover bolt a thin darker line of dried coolant.

Oddly enough I've never noticed a coolant burning smell or low coolant. So it is definitely a slow slow leak.. or it just started leaking lol.

View attachment 25456

View attachment 25457

Last and least of my issues, I noticed almost every time I opened my trunk I would get drips of water. Finally figured out it was coming from the license plate lights. These are new replacement lenses and I put LEDs in there as well. Well.. they both trashed and the light socket is also most likely toast. Not a big issue just an annoyance and yet another thing this car is fighting me on lol.

View attachment 25458

View attachment 25459


On the bright side I did get an awesome 35th anniversary bezel! @joe65 thanks again I still need to get around to installing it but I've always liked the look of these bezels. And seeing as my car is a 1999 its fitting.

View attachment 25460

I rebuilt a 3v and it came back a few months later with a pan leak. Removed it and cleaned it slapped a new gasket on with some silicone in the front where it mates to the timing cover and all is well. Also as far as the coolant leak I’d suggest intake weep, but I have had one recently end up being a bad freeze plug, and to get to it I had to remove transmission

 

[d.garza18]

Set out to replace the oil pan gasket and oil pan with a stock unit as I really don't need an 8qt pan for the kind of driving I'll be doing with this car, which is 99% street with the occasional drag/autocross event. Key phrase here was "set out."

View attachment 25604

View attachment 25605

Drove the car into the garage, put it up on jack stands and crawled under and drain the oil. All looked good while the oil is draining, no odd color or glitter which is a good sign after ~225 miles on this engine. I collected a sample that I'll send off to Blackstone Labs for analysis just for peace of mind. I wiped down the underside of the car from the oil residue that has accumulated from the leak. Oil pan bolts are super easy to get to thanks to the tubular K-member or so I thought.

Thanks to the wonderful designer who made this oil pan, the rear two bolts are impossible to get without taking the transmission out.... I wish I was exaggerating but I spent a good 6-8hrs this past weekend trying everything I could think of to get these two pesky nuts off the damn studs. every single wrench, ratchet, allen key, special & custom tool combo you could think of, I tried it. There is just enough room to slide a box end wrench in and around the nut and thats it. I even loosened all the lower transmission bolts and transmission mount and jacked the trans up a but to see if it would move just enough for me to get in there. No luck, even with the transmission backed off a 1/2 inch I still don't have enough of a swing to get the wrench to turn.

I considered getting one of those long reach sanding belts and just grinding the nut away but am hesitant as I don't want to introduce metal shavings into the oil pan. Also thought about one of those nut breaking/splitting tools but again, dont think I have enough room in there for that either.

First picture is of driver side, second is from passenger side with the starter removed.

View attachment 25606

View attachment 25607

View attachment 25608

Extremely unmotivated and also annoyed at myself before the engine even went in the car I considered changing the pan out. I threw in the towel and left it there after wasting so much time on it this weekend. Current plan is to remove the transmission this coming weekend and hope for the best.

On the bright, or maybe concerning side is that the entire time I was under the car I didn't see any trace of coolant around the transmission bellhousing like I did in the last post. Not even a hint.

I took the cover off the transmission believe it’s a 18’m-17mm wrench, and it gave me enough room with a 3/8 extension

 

[Akurma]

Well spent another weekend trying to get those two rear oil pan bolts out without having to completely remove the transmission. I threw in the towel and went about removing the trans. Those two top trans bolts are ungodly annoying when doing it on your back on jack stands. On a lift, no problem. Struggles for a good while just trying to get those top two. Ended up pulling the intake manifold off to give me easy access to the top to bolts. Wasn't what I wanted to do but here we are. Before I took the intake manifold off I pressure tested the coolant system as I wanted to find the source of those few drips. Pressurized the system and let it sit for 15 minutes. Zilch, zero, nada. No signs of a coolant leak, or hissing sound and no pressure loss. In the last picture, I noticed some dried/crusty coolant around the driver front coolant passage gasket. I'm going to replace the intake manifold gaskets as it might just be a bad gasket. But Not sure where/what else to do at this point or if I should stop looking for a problem that may not really exist.









Have been trying to track down where and why I'm finding tiny bits of serpentine belt. I think I've narrowed it down but am not exactly sure. all the black dust was hiding behind the Procharger. I think the tensioner and the idler pulley are coming in contact with each other and running the back side of the belt. Absolutely no idea how to go about fixing it. Maybe a smaller idler pulley or a different serpentine belt?

 

[Akurma]

Can you talk more about this coolant near the trans? We have a 1995 GT 5.0 auto and after bringing it home the first day it sat in the garage for a week due to weather. Pulled it out a week later and there were 3 distinct AF 'drips' on my garage floor. I had already moved the car but by my guesstimation it would have been near the back of the block or close to it. Checked the AF level and been monitoring it but nothing since then. Drove it over 200 miles since and have not noticed anything since.

Your guess is as good as mine! I haven't found the source of the weep either, even after pressurizing the system. If I do find it I will be sure to post my findings.

I feel your pain man. Seems like the kind of luck i have. Seeing the last pic reminded me of a ratchet i just saw advertised that had a really small ratched click. like it barely moved and was catching to rotate. Not sure it would help but i'll look and see if i can find it.

It's always something! Constantly 1 step forward 2 steps back this entire build.

I rebuilt a 3v and it came back a few months later with a pan leak. Removed it and cleaned it slapped a new gasket on with some silicone in the front where it mates to the timing cover and all is well. Also as far as the coolant leak I’d suggest intake weep, but I have had one recently end up being a bad freeze plug, and to get to it I had to remove transmission

After pressurizing the coolant system I couldn't find a single source of a leak other than the front driver side coolant passage under the intake manifold. Highly doubt it leaked and made its way down and around the trans from there.

 

[Akurma]

It's Been a productive few weekends, not as productive as I'd like but productive, nonetheless. The pan was a huge PITA to get off, but I finally did get it off, not without a fight. After taking the manifold off I used 10.9 bolts in the trans bolt thread on the block to lift the motor up. I've done it this way before with no issue, but I guess there's a first time for everything. The bolt snapped clean off in the block.







I did get very lucky and with a bolt extractor i got it to come out enough to get a pair of pliers on it and thread it out by hand thankfully. Once that was done with, I gingerly lifted the motor back up again making sure the chain wasn't binding or anything as I have no idea why that bolt snapped. Crawled under the car and fought with the oil pan some more. Realized the Pickup tube was getting caught in the baffling of the pan. Removed the pickup tube and the pan finally came of and out from under the car.







On the bright side everything looks great inside the engine! Also thought it was cool that the pickup tube had "SN95-4v" on it. this weekend the goal is to have it all back together and running as I have an alignment and suspension adjustment appointment on the 15th... We'll see if i make it.

 

[Akurma]

Completely for to update this, oops

I was under a bit of a time crunch to get the car back on the road and running for an alignment appointment i had already paid for. A week after my last post i finished up the oil pan and replaced it with a stock replacement pan. Went on within a few minutes, spent more time adjusting oil pickup tube clearance than it took me to install the pan itself. All buttoned up and no leaks.. at least from the pan gasket. more on that later.

I forgot to take a picture of the new oil pan, but enjoy a few inside shot of my motor!






Put the intake manifold back on and reinstalled the transmission. Pennzoil Synchromesh was next to impossible to find and I had no choice but to run Mercon ATF. Will see how I like it but it'll do for now.







After filling it back up with 6qts of oil and letting it run for a bit it started leaking oil yet again from the crank pulley area. I now believe oil is leaking out past the crank bolt somehow and getting slung all over. Either that or there's something wrong with this harmonic balancer and its not fitting snuggly around the crank/crank seal. At this point I'm done dealing with it, time to take it to mechanic and pay them to diagnose and fix the issue.

Despite the oil leak I have been driving it here and there and man it drives amazingly after the alignment! Everything is so tight and responsive. Its a nice feeling to see all the suspension parts I upgraded come together and work as intended. Need to find a reputable shop to take this to for the oil leak but in the mean time i'm just enjoying it and topping off before each drive.

 

[lwarrior1016]

Nice update!

For your crank pulley, are you putting rtv on the crank key before you press the balancer on? Finish off with a dab of rtv to fill in the hole where the key is in the balancer?

At this point, you may just need a new balancer and crank seal. That’s all a shop is going to do.

 

[RAU03MACH]

looks like you had some issues
looks like your ganging on it looks good

 

[Akurma]

Nice update!

For your crank pulley, are you putting rtv on the crank key before you press the balancer on? Finish off with a dab of rtv to fill in the hole where the key is in the balancer?

At this point, you may just need a new balancer and crank seal. That’s all a shop is going to do.

Yes I did put RTV on the keyway before sliding the crank balancer on. I had a local shop do the the front crank seal and it made no difference, the area it was leaking from lead me to believe it may have been a bad oil pan gasket thus the replacement. A new crank pulley might bot be a bad idea might just be a poorly fitting one.

looks like you had some issues
looks like your ganging on it looks good

Two steps forward one step back with this car hahah