FivepointSlow's 4.6 Build

[FivepointSlow]

Had the day off today so of course I spent all of it working on the Mustang...
Spent 8 hours in the garage before I knew it... Didn't even stop to eat or anything

Started by yanking the front seats out, by yank out I of course mean removing the 3 bolts on the drivers side and the 2 bolts on the passenger side...
The rear seat was already out from when I ran the wiring for the subwoofer

Carpet is in really good shape, but pretty dirty.

Carpet cleaned up, now to install a hook for the floor mat so it stops getting jammed on the accelerator...

Also picked up new rear bolts so now both front seats will be properly bolted down

But wait.. It's not that easy!

Oh look at that.. There's no holes for the rear bolts on the passenger side... That would explain why the bolts where missing...

After some probing and a bit of cutting that problem is solved

Time to give the leather some loving

Can't forget the door cards and arm rest!

Back seat back in

And front seats back in

Didn't snag a pic but I promise the passenger side made it back in too

 

[FivepointSlow]

Jacked up the front of the car to do the front lip

And look what I found on my exhaust

I mean that's one way to do it I guess... Is anyone missing ~20 washers?
Off with the destroyed cobra lip

Better! will most likely go back to a cobra lip, but for now this was the cheap option to clean up the front end!

Finally I spent some time diagnosing my lack of AC. Compressor doesn't kick on, after some suggestions from 2 members here I tracked down the pressure switch on the accumulator and jumped it.
Low and behold the compressor kicks on. So now I have to see if I have good pressure in the system to decide if I need a new pressure switch or if I am going to be tracking down a freon leak...

 

[FivepointSlow]

Insured it today and took it out with my cousin's fiance Kevin.
Good excuse to break out my camera...

Was reminded of an intermittent issue, RPMS hang and sometimes will even climb up to 2k when in neutral. Only happens at stop lights, and after a few seconds they drop back down. Not sure what to make of it.

 

[98snakehorse]

Sounds to be IAC related

 

[g36 monkey]

Do a thorough check for vacuum leaks. Car is really looking good. So happy to see it being brought back to life.

 

[FivepointSlow]

Sounds to be IAC related

I was doing some research and I'm thinking it could be throttle position sensor related.
Once the car comes to a complete stop the RPMs settle right back down. It never does it immediately on start up, only after a few minutes of driving, and it doesnt always happen. Sometimes the car revs just fine, sometimes the revs creep up. When it does start to hang and creep, sometimes it stops randomly after awhile. It's real hit or miss. They usually hang around 2k. Which is obnoxious when I'm coming to a red and I'm rolling forward at 1mph and I'm just chilling at 2k rpms lol
I'm gonna do some more research tonight. The TPS is a $30 part so it cant hurt to try. But before I grab one in the morning I'm gonna see if IAC is worth a shot too.
Also going to try cleaning MAF. God knows when that was last cleaned and the air filter was filthy when I bought the car in the fall.

Do a thorough check for vacuum leaks. Car is really looking good. So happy to see it being brought back to life.

I dont really have a way to check thoroughly for vacuum leaks. I dont see anything obvious. I'm putting dye in my AC to check for leaks, when I have it at the shop on the lift with the black light looking for that, I'll see if we can check the vacuum system aswell.

And thanks, I'm thrilled with my progress so far and I really havent even put a dent into my plans for this thing.

 

[ttocs]

do a search on youtube on hot to do a smoke test for vac leaks and there are a number of vids that show how to use just a cigarette and a water bottle and some hose.

 

[g36 monkey]

Yea at-home vacuum tests are really easy!

 

[FivepointSlow]

Home vacuum tests are really easy when you have a vape... dont know why I didnt think of that before.
Only leak I could find was the tiniest one from the EGR valve... coming from the gasket.
Cleaned my MAF and IAC out, and checked the springs in the TPS and IAC. All seems well. Gonna keep an eye on it and if I run into the idle creep again I'll try swapping out my IAC.
Also gonna pickup a new EGR gasket just for piece of mind.

 

[FivepointSlow]

New rear rubber showed up the other day, so I got them mounted up as soon as I was able to roll my fenders. I don't want to talk about how that went. Lets just say RIP paint. And the inner and outer fender skins separated on the drivers side (most likely done when the tire contacted and yanked on the fender lip during its time with the previous owner) so that was fun to deal with.

It is crazy how these 295s are the same width as the 315 Falkens... tire manufacturers are wack

Also adjusted my LCAs to lower the back down about 1". Kept a bit of a raked look, the back is still approx 1/2" higher than the front, but definitely looks better than when the ass end was sky high

Don't think I ever shared my trunk floor.
Original plan was to make a false floor out of MDF board and use the majority of the spare tire well for a sub box with a flush mounted subwoofer, and a little piece of it to be used to hide an AirLift manifold and compressor along with their wiring and airlines. But since I am going to go with coilovers for now (still intend on getting this thing bagged just not quite yet) I wasn't going to bother with that just yet.
Then it came time to put the car back on the road this spring and I remembered I am missing my spare tire and jack. I had the thin board that sits ontop of the spare tire, but it was warped pretty bad from sitting over the hole with nothing underneath it.
And ontop of that the original carpet was worn so bad it had holes in it, and was stained pretty bad.
So in order to make my trunk useable, or to even make my temporary sub box not slide into the spare tire well, I needed to throw something together.
Picked up a piece of 15/32 plywood, and used my tattered carpet as a template. Cut it out in one piece, then ripped it to get it into the trunk, I ripped it along the right side so the big piece would cover the spare tire well and then the little piece would act as a filler, but so the seem wouldn't be directly over the well. Even this wasn't small enough to fit into the trunk easily, So I cut the large section again on the back side, got it in and lined up, and threw some brackets and screws into it to get it all connected again.

And to finish it off, ordered a new carpet from LMR. Which I tossed some staples into to keep it fixed pretty good to the floor, you can't see them really at all unless youre looking for them

I love seeing the back of my rear seats through the trunk TBH

 

[FivepointSlow]

Now to tackle these ungodly rear calipers.

Most people wouldn't notice, but I am a very detail oriented person...
So I dived in, wire brushed the calipers, cleaned out the god knows how old slide grease, re-greased, taped, painted, and boom. Also painted the rotor hats because god knows those will be looking funky in no time.

Much better

I have to dive back into the drivers side tomorrow AM. I was fighting with the spring clips on the new pads for awhile and I guess I lost because the outside pad on that side is not making full contact with the rotor... another plus from throwing some paint at the rotors... The remaining paint on the braking surface shows the pad isn't sitting correctly... Oh well another battle

 

[FivepointSlow]

Earlier today I went out to stretch her legs. Running fantastic. I havent had the hanging RPM problem come back up since cleaning out the IAC and MAF. But of course on my way back I popped a CEL. Same CEL that popped before I stored the car.

Not sure if this is an EVAP leak problem or a purge valve dying, but the CEL cleared itself by the end of the day after finally getting home, and then 2 short trips around town... Smelled like it may have been running a bit rich but otherwise was running fine.

 

[stangu]

It's good to know that this mustang is back on the road.
A few years ago I followed this project.
I still like it.

 

[FivepointSlow]

Went to check the spring clips on the rear drivers side pads because the outer pad isnt making full contact with the rotor... everything seems fine and the pad looks like it's making contact but I dont think the caliper is pulling the pad in evenly? Anyone know what would cause this?

In the process of checking I managed to strip out one of the caliper slides. Thought it was the bolt, went to home depot, got a bolt, nope it's the slide itself. 3 Napas later I found one with the part actually in stock (called them all before hand and they all gave me the "yea we got that"...) Got home threw it in, somehow managed to be early to work when I thought I was running late...

 

[FivepointSlow]

Went for a drive today and snagged some pictures

Added a can of R134a refrigerant to my AC system, my compressor now cycles on and off repeatedly (every 5 seconds). So thats progress I guess.. Gonna pickup another can and see if that doesn't work. Also was reminded my rear defroster does not work while I was trying to get to work on a muggy rainy day the other day.. Light doesn't even come on when I press it so I am assuming its the switch.

Otherwise I am happy to report the car is running great. No more idle creep issues...
Still waiting on my Redline Goods order.. Can't wait. They said it will be sent out by the end of the week!

 

[g36 monkey]

Glad it is running much better!

 

[FivepointSlow]

So I had some time to kill the other day and the state of my wheels has been driving me absolutely mental so I grabbed some 400 grit sandpaper I had kicking around and some metal polish and got to work on the lips of my wheels.
When I first got the car I tried going at them with just some metal polish but theyre corroded pretty badly and deep

Also did I mention this is a temporary quick fix to make them look semi presentable and I am lazy so I taped up the tires to keep them clean (I have tried polishing wheels mounted to tires before and it gets messy and the tires are never the same...) and I threw the car up on 4 jackstands and tossed it in 4th gear and let the car do most of the work....

Also totally threw the fronts on the rear just because lazy

Finished product..

They're by no means perfect and the fronts still have visible corrosion spots but the rears had it the worst and came out really good. Has a nice brushed look to them now because I only used 400 grit but I kinda dig it and it helps hide the corrosion I wasnt able to get out..

Tomorrow I am going to restrict the IAC to get some more exhaust pops and cleaner revs in my life.

 

[evilcw311]

I think they look awesome now. And it’s not lazy, it’s genius.

I was always told by my first boss in high school “Damn it Wann, work smarter not harder!” Then he’d sneak off to the office and crack open a few more cold ones.......... [emoji1787]


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[FivepointSlow]

Added another can to the system for a total of 32 oz (not necessarily 32 oz of freon, includes conditioners and other attitives, but the first can was marked 20 and the second was 12), but you get the idea
Compressor was cycling on for ~10-15 seconds on, 5-10 seconds off, etc after adding the whole other can. It was about 60 today so idk if that's good or not.
Ac was blowing decently cold air but not great. Definetly colder than ambient by 15? Degrees. Just a guess without a thermometer.
I tossed up the question on a FB page seeing if anyone knew the capacity of the system, didnt really get an answer. Mostly got told repeatedly I had a leak (yea no duh) and that I should have evacuated and pulled a vacuum on the system, which I did not realize was needed. However I also didnt think the system was completely empty, which seems to be the case.
Going to drop by my mechanic again and see if he can hook up his gauges if he has time and see what the high side looks like but currently the low side is 60 when compressors off, and floats between 22 and 44 psi as the compressor cycles on and off.
I'm not sure if the compressor is suppose to bring the psi down to 22 where it then cycles or if it's not suppose to be getting that low and has another method to cycle properly... I'm not familiar enough with the damn AC system to know... this is my first endeavor in a non functioning AC system. I guess I've been spoiled til now.

 

[07GtS197]

Yea its definitely low. Low side should stay steady but the exact head pressure is based on ambient temp so I couldnt say for sure what its supposed to be.

Any time refrigerant is low/empty you need to pull a vacuum or else you risk air getting in and contaminating the system (humidity) which destroys seals and corrodes the evaporator, condensor and hard lines from the inside out. Finding the leak should be easy to find in your case. Usually these systems fail at an o ring, compressor or evaporator. Hopefully its not the evaporator because that involves removing the dash. I had to replace the evaporator in my 07 gt and it was hell. Most shops will diagnose/pinpoint a leak for free.

Anyway good luck and keep us updated!


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