My Mustang came from hell...

[Airbeast]

Within 5000 miles, the plastic intake cracked, I had the tranny out twice...once to change a bad throwout bearing, and the second time to change the clutch. Not sure what even happened, but I was coasting in 1st with the clutch in, felt a jolt and then there was nothing else. I thought something broke in the tranny but was surprised to see that all the friction material for some reason flew off the disc. Put a new clutch in, 300 miles later It spun the rod bearings on the 2 rear rods. This on a Ford reman engine with 30k. Not sure why it'd do that. All this in addition to a bunch of other stuff that isn't worth mentioning...

You can see what's left of the old clutch and all the shiny specs are metal.

I think I had more problems with this thing in 5000 miles than I ever had with any other cars combined.

If anyone has a used 8 bolt crank and matching rods they'd like to get rid of, please let me know...

I think at this point I'm just going to get this thing running again and sell it.

 

[the98stang]

Sounds like you bought an abused Mustang....most likely hit the rev limiter a few times to put stress on the rod bearings. An engine with low miles like that should not have problems. Either you F&*$#@ it up or the previous owner did.

 

[281CI96Coupe]

Sounds like you bought an abused Mustang....most likely hit the rev limiter a few times to put stress on the rod bearings. An engine with low miles like that should not have problems. Either you F&*$#@ it up or the previous owner did.

Before I even read 98stang's comment, that ran through my mind first. Someone really must of abused it when the car was fairly new....Those problems only come from abuse except the Intake manifold cracking.....thats prone to happen

I say go hardcore and build up everything the right way!

 

[streethorse]

A remanufactured engine is usually bad news.

 

[Airbeast]

Yeah who knows what it's history was... The engine sounded great though and when it spun I wasn't really even doing anything crazy.

Originally I was going to build it and twin turbo it but now I'm probably just going to get it running and sell it since I'm starting to personally hate this car. Then, get a newer one and start over

 

[mity2]

I feel your pain
my clutch blew apart a while back. happened between 2nd and 3rd shifting. Then after putting SPEC clutch in, TOB failed after 36miles, off comes trans again.
then after that, passenger side header gasket blew about 50 miles later.


that was fun summer....

 

[mustang462002]

I am terribly sorry for your troubles. I hope the mustang god will reward you.

 

[2002BLGT]

time for built motor from VT or MMR ....and centerforce clutch ....and trickflow intake ...........

 

[Scorcher2005]

Screw the trickflow intake. Go P51, HPS, or at the minimum a Bullit.

 

[tomustang]

spun bearings are usually the cause of low oil

99 intakes have a nylon crossover, prone to crack

can't tell you about the clutch, could've been install error

 

[BurningRubber]

Thats rough man. Sounds like a beaten horse, but look at it two ways...

1, youve replaced alot of stuff and it *should* be good to go.

2, its really from hell and you should sell it before the rest falls apart.

Its tough to decide if you are attached to a car.

 

[the98stang]

spun bearings are usually the cause of low oil

Or a high rev. I bet the previous owner took that b1tch to 7000RPM

 

[Airbeast]

spun bearings are usually the cause of low oil

99 intakes have a nylon crossover, prone to crack

can't tell you about the clutch, could've been install error

Yeah I think it took a gulp of air instead of oil. The guy never did the recall but I put the new style intake on so that's ok. I put the clutch in when I changed the throwout and pilot bearings so it for sure went in right. That's was just a strange thing it blew apart...

Or a high rev. I bet the previous owner took that b1tch to 7000RPM

Thought the rev limiter is 6200? Even 7000 should still be no excuse for them to spin. My friend runs entire races at 7000 with the gm 5.7 crate engine.


The good news...I dropped the crankshaft off to get turned. Only 90$. Gotta get some bearings and it'll be good to go again.

I'm done with this car though. As soon as I get it running, it's going up for sale. Unless the curse carries over, whoever gets it should have a pretty good engine though and a new clutch And other new stuff.

Here are some more pics...every rod bearing is damaged and two are spun. Also, one main bearing is damaged. I did this one in right My connecting rods are all ok though. Good thing I cut it off quick.

Slight amount of metal in the oilpan.

Main bearing

Some well done bearings.

 

[Airbeast]

Got the crankshaft turned...



New bearings...



Got it all together, fired it up found it knocking above 2000rpm. Thinking something was for sure wrong with the bearings again, I pulled the engine the next day. Only took me 2 hours to pull the engine the second time though and 4 hours to get it back in.




Took the engine apart, found nothing wrong with the bearings. Found one one of the cams a tooth retarded though. Not sure how that happened. I tripple checked it all. I think it may have jumped before the tensioner got filled with oil. So the noise was PTV. Then I was doing leak down tests to see if the valves were ok. All the valves were fine but but one piston had really bad blowby.


Did a compressions check and all had 180s, this one was 90. That explained the vibration it had when you floored it at low rpm. It was like that when I bought it.



Got a new piston and rings, got it back together, and the engine sounded great exept it would run and idle like crap time to time. My sensor VREF voltages were going crazy. I spent the whole next day tracing wiring trying to figure out what was going on. Finally, I took out the ECM and the connector to the ECM(inside the car) was filled with water. No idea how it got there. Also found a Diablo Delta chip I'm sure whatever tune they had on it was responsible for the broken piston. It would ping before. Yanked the chip out and it runs perfect. Going to be the first thing I'll check on the next used car I get.

Now it purrs and going up for sale

 

[CobraRed_96_GT]

god damn, get that thing out of sight. Surely previously owned by the devil. You definitely are experienced now tho. Wish you had better luck, what can i say

 

[the98stang]

holy old thread BATMAN!

 

[Airbeast]

Not THAT old

 

[eliteJAE]

wow dood, you seem REALLY mechanically inclined lol most people wouldve panicked and shot the car to hell just to feel better (i know i would ) good luck on your next buy.

 

[thomas91169]

sell it and get a 03/04 cobra

 

[Airbeast]

Thanks!

That first time I got it back together and it knocked, I really did want to just floor the hell out of it till something exploded or wreck it into a tree but glad I didn't now.

I think I'm going to try to get a Vette once I sell this thing. Or 03/04 Cobra. Always a gamble buying used Mustangs since most are so babied I wouldn't mind finding one with a blown engine so I can just go fresh from the start.