'86 SVO Project

[cobra_4]

All right, now that I'm back and caught up at work, time for an update!! Like I said, the car did great on the way down, ran around great at the beach and back home. My passanger side window motor did go out Saturday night and my compressor is living on borrowed time. But for the most part it did great! I'm excited to drive it a bunch at home now that it's done.


Some of you may have saw it in over photos, but I swapped wheels while I was down there. Here is how she looks now!

[svono50]

You got a set of Fox Saleen wheels on there...they look great and are a perfect match to the color. Very nice indeed!

[cobra_4]

Been a while since I've updated this, drove the car to Foxtoberfest, did great, then it say most of the winter.

So its been a while since I updated this thread, but there has been some discussion of the car in other threads, but I figured for the sake of the car's history, I'd update this one.


I got the car out last month or so to drive and noticed a little smoke inside the car, after the initial panic, I realized it was coming out of the hvac floor vents and after some reasearch, I was pretty sure it was caused by antifreeze, most likely a heater core.


Hoping it was just a very small leak, I decided to drive the car last week and move forward with plans to take it to the SEFB dragon run. The more I drove it, the more the smoke went away. But then Sunday, it all fell apart. i was at the parts store picking up some things for another project when I noticed a few drops of antifreeze on the ground under the car. In a way it was a relief because I could finally pinpoint the leak. It was basically dripping down from what would be the heater core area. So I got the car home and pulled the gigantic air inlet off so I could see what was going on.





Once I could see what was going on, I noticed the heater hoses were ancient, not factory unit's, looked like they had been replaced with some straight hose? Looked like it worked though, so I sourced some out and decided that would be a great place to start. Pulled the first one off, no problems, pulled the second one off, found the leak!!!








So that sucks. But I bypassed it for the time being and decided to put it back together. But I must not have gotten the inlet on right, the car won't hold boost. At this point, I got pissed off and put it in the garage. I hated the idea of bypassing the heater core anyway. Plus Im not 100% sure that's where all the leaks are, there is a hose that runs under the car that looks old. Plus I found a few other things I just didn't like for the kind of abuse the car would be taking on the dragon.


One of those things.....



Not seeing it? Look at the header bolts, missing! I'd replaced a few before Mustang Week, but apparently I have more issues, so I'm gonna source a whole new set.




So I'm going to trailer the car to my buddy who is also my mechanic in a few weeks and leave it with him for a while. Gonna replace all the heater hoses, radiator hoses, belts, etc. Also going to replace the rear shocks, they are bad wore out.


I'm also going to do the long overdue lowering springs(or cut a coil, haven't decided)!!


I've been back and fourth on selling or keeping the car but after looking at some trade options and figuring how much money I have in this one and how much money I need to put in it to make it where I really want it VS how much money I'd have to sink in another car starting from scratch I've decided I'm just going to fix the small things, move forward with the other issues and be happy with it.




Other future planned mods, hopefully between now and Mustang Week are as follows.


Big aluminum radiator
Bigger electric fan
New CD Player & speakers with a small sub in the back
Aftermarket steering wheel
A few odd and end restoration pieces

[svono50]

Glad you found the leak, not too uncommon of a failure. Many folks in the past have re-soldered the inlet/outlet tubes on replacement heater cores and even soldered in reinforcement braces between the two tubes to help strengthen them. My wife's former 86 GT had the exact same failure when I tried to remove the hoses when doing some other work on her engine.

As for your header bolts, that is just crazy to lose (3) of them and it looks like at least (2) were starting to back out as well. The header bolts can be a pain, you need to re-check them regularly to make sure they don't loosen up through heat cycling. Make sure you get new bolts that are intended to be used on exhaust headers, so you get the proper material and heat resistance. Good luck.

[SVOeric]

Yeah, That header looks like the old Rod (RIP) Header. the flange is stainless. I'm not sure you're aware, but stainless expands faster than mild steel when heated. it was a serious concern with all of those headers.

There were some people that tried using different bolt locking systems, to hold the bolts in, but what I think was finally found was that the heads of the bolts are actually being stretched away from the rest of the bolt, due to the stainless steel expansion.

So even if you do lock the bolts in, they are still going to need re-torquing ever few months, and likely replacement ever year or so, to keep from breaking the heads off.

[cobra_4]

I wondered if I didn't have a crappy header. What would you recommend as a replacement??

[SVOeric]

actually, it's one of the best headers around

and the better ones available are copies of this. Unfortunately there's not a big market for aftermarket headers for these cars.

Most of the headers available point the turbo flange up, which I don't really like much. I'd probably say you have one of the best headers out.

It's a good header, but you just have to keep an eye on the bolts.

[GAboySVO]

Get some Stage 8 fasteners and call it done.

[Bruce]

I made up and welded on standoffs on my Rods header. This made mounting the header and tightening the bolts much easier. I can now use full size heads on the bolts and brought them out far enough to safety wire them in place.

[GAboySVO]

I made up and welded on standoffs on my Rods header. This made mounting the header and tightening the bolts much easier. I can now use full size heads on the bolts and brought them out far enough to safety wire them in place.

Me too.


With my aluminum head, I use studs now.

[cobra_4]

Get some Stage 8 fasteners and call it done.

Link to buy?

[svono50]

Not sure if any of our supporting vendors carry them, but there are a lot of online suppliers that carry kits. Looks like the #4928 kit is for our 2.3L engines, at least per Summit Racing's website. Interesting when you look up the #4928 kit on Stage 8's site, it is for a pack of (10) fasteners vs (8) on Summit?!? Going list price is between $42-50.

Here are links to Stage 8 and Summit's pages:

http://store.stage8.com/p/4928-10mm-...eader-bolt-kit

http://www.*****************/parts/stg-4928/overview/

[Bruce]

I tried Stage 8 fasteners and they didn't take the heat well. I had to grind clearance in the pointer part and the c clips turned to mush. But I forget if that was the header to head or the turbo mounting bolts. GAboysvo you are the one that inspired me to do it.

[Johnnym]

Retorque on a regular basis. Like every oil change or something. I have never had mine even be loose even though I still check them on a regular basis.

[cobra_4]

Okay been kinda slack on the updates here. Got the heater core bypassed for now. I've put some miles on the car in the past few months, seems to be all systems go for Mustang Week!

Right now it's just clean, clean, clean and get her ready for a return trip to the beach, this time in the enclosed trailer!