What should I do?

Avarus · Jan 9, 2013

First off, hello! How are you all doing? It has been quite a while since I was last here. I moved back in with my folks, got a new job, and so on... But I do have a question for you all... and that's what should I do? So, as most of you may or may not know, a while back I traveled 200 miles down
to GA to buy a 95 Mustang GT modded 5.0 for about 4000 bucks... and it broke
down on the trip back. With the assistance of my dad, we got it home and fixed
it, and I fixed several wiring issues within the car, including shorts
preventing the exterior lights and internal dash lights from working as
intended. Now the only "issue" internally is the fact that the instrument
cluster needles are incorrect due to the previous owner pulling them off for
aftermarket gauge faces and not replacing them correctly. Not even 3 months
after getting it back on the road, I have managed to break a valve spring in 2-3
places, bent a push rod, and possibly bent the valve. At this point I have not
pulled the heads to see what all kind of damaged was acquired, but it is obvious
that this car was some kids project gone wrong, and I bought it. So, at this
point I am left with a couple options, rebuild the motor that's in it, and hope
I have no more major issues... track down and rebuild another motor... or sell
it as a roller and take my losses... What do you all think I should do? I ask
you all because I figure most of you have more experience with these types of
situations. Thanks in advance!

rz5.0 · Jan 9, 2013

Parts for these cars are cheap..you might have paid a Lil too much for the car. But i it's to late to think about that.. Just fix it. The electrical was prob the hardest part. There is a procedure for resetting the gauges i believe.. Or they should reset them selfs i can't remembers. The mechanical part is easy.. Heads for this cars are dirty cheap, but i would not spend money on fixing then or reusing the stock ones. Find at least some gt 40 heads. If you want to redo a motor try finding one out of a explorer. Come with better heads and intake. Just swap in a better cam.

CC'S95GT · Jan 9, 2013

what kind of mods was done to the engine?
what is the goal after it's fixed? daily driver with light mods? weekend track duty with heavy mods?
I have over 200,000 mi on my stock 5.0 and still running strong. I'm planning on doing a gt-40 5.0 swap (from an exploder) this year sometime for a bit more pwr.
If yours have some nice alumnium heads and your $ is tight, you could sell the alumnium heads and just get some gt-40's for cheap. and have money left over other stuff like gaskets and vlv springs for the exploder heads etc.

Avarus · Jan 9, 2013

it actually already had GT40 heads... also has the b303 cam and 4.10 gears... the problem was that it had the b303 cam, and stock valve springs, which is why they broke, causing the issue im in right now

Orange 94 · Jan 9, 2013

Fix it. Fix it. Fix it!

Stanimal · Jan 9, 2013

i dont think the cam made the springs break, the b303 has duration not lift, lift is what causes springs to break. b303 just keeps the valves open longer then stock. I think what happened is either you had the rpm's too high, either in one shot or repeatedly high rpm driving, or the previous owner over rev'd it and fatigued the springs. Seeing as your gauges are off, you could have floated the valves many times and not known it unless you knew what to listen for. Im saying this in the nicest way possible, but depending on how many miles you have driven it since purchase, would help determine if its your fault or previous owners fault, but the cam is not at fault

Avarus · Jan 9, 2013

I didn't drive it much, and when I did I drove normally xD like I said I only had it for a few months... I assumed bigger cam meant more pressure on the springs, and I assumed stock springs could only handle the stress of a stock cam

Stanimal · Jan 9, 2013

especially if you have gt40 heads, a b303 cam wont break springs. something else happened, and you should find out what before you make plans of rebuilding so you know what to fix, be it a mechanical problem, or driver error. the 2 most used cams are b303 and e303. the b303 has a little more duration then the e303, but the b303 has a lot less lift then the e303. in the end, it could just be metal fatigue and nothing is actually wrong at all other then age and wear.

Raffaelli · Jan 9, 2013

More than likely it has the original explorer valve springs in it. Which aren't capable of handling a lame ho cam.

Pull the heads, get a valve job and new springs, (truck flow, comp, or my favorite AlexParts valve springs) and put it back together.

Everything plus machine work shouldn't be more than 4-500.

chris91 · Jan 9, 2013

Ditch the alphabet cam too. So many better choices for off the shelf cams. If you really want to make good usable power go with a custom grind cam from Ed Curtis with Flotech.

Stanimal · Jan 9, 2013

custom cams are good, but unless you have the supporting mods are completely pointless. custom cam should be your very last mod, so that you can tell the cam company exactly what you have and what you want. if you want something now, buy a off the shelf. if you want to build big down the road and use a custom cam, keep the "alphabet" cam and wait until you have the heads, intake manifold, and bottom end you want. so sense buying a cam now then buying another down the road.