96 Stang GT Questions

Welcome to SN! I'd love to see some pics of your '96, too. To answer your questions:

1. Hard to say how many miles are left. Best thing to do is get an idea of how many miles you get to a tank of gas and then use the trip OD as a reference along with the gas gauge. I usually fill mine up every 300 miles (I get about 21 MPG's, so nearly 15 gallons on the fill up). I'd definitely recommend replacing the fuel filter, pvc valve, air filter, AND your spark plugs. If this car is new to you, you may have no idea when this standard maintenance was done on it. It would also be a good idea to flush the radiator, and change the trans fluid, rear diff fluid, and oil. If you're looking to increase performance AND gas mileage, consider buying a catted mid-pipe and definitely do the PI intake/cam swap. Those 3 mods alone will net you in the neighborhood of 30 RWHP and should also increase gas mileage assuming you're not on the throttle more.

2. Grinding often could be a couple of things. You may have worn out syncros or the clutch isn't disengaging fully. However, if the transmission is popping out of gear that's almost a given that its the syncros. I'd also check for clutch adjustment. These cars come with an self adjusting cable. Take your clutch pedal and pull it up with your hand or foot in its highest position, then press the pedal all the way to the floor. Do this a few times and it should tighten up the clutch cable and may allow the cluch to disengage fully when shifting.

3. It's not terribly uncommon for your engine to be burning some oil. If you're sitting at idle and you suddenly rev the engine, does it smoke? If it does then it may be a sign of worn rings. If you're on the highway and let off the gas and then suddenly get back on the throttle, does it smoke? If so you may have worn valve seals. I wouldn't bother rebuilding the engine unless you're doing it for performance. These engines regularily run well into 300,000 miles. Regarding compression testing, there is no magic number, as altitude, temperature, and atmospheric pressure all play into what you'll show on the comp test. The thing to look for when compression testing is that all cylinders are within 10-15% of one another. If you have 7 cylinders around 150psi and then the 8th cylinder is only 100 psi that would be concerning.

4. I'd check your tires for flat spots and have them balanced.

5. Droning noise could be a number of things, including d/s u-joints, mufflers, etc... I'd suggest having someone listen to it and report back with more detailed specifics on the noise.

Hope that helps, let us know if you have more questions.

Compression numbers are more of a cylinder to cylinder thing. They should all read about 15 psi apart. I would be surprised if all of them are low.

When checking your front tires for play, there will always be some left to right. I would only worry if the opposite front tire didn't move. Up and down is how you check for wheel bearings. Put the car close to the ground and get a bar under the wheel and pull up. That's how you test the ball joints.

Never drive your car until it is that low on fuel. Start looking for gas stations when the gauge reads just under a quarter.

Well, I have a 96' GT also. Tho it is a auto car. About a year after I bought it it started burning oil the same way and at stop lights and such where it was allowed to idle it would blow blue smoke and it got worse after the o/r X pipe went on. Some of the older 4.6L's had started having valve seal issues as the miles went on as was the case with mine. Pulling the plugs will tell you, for me the only seal that was bad was the number 8 cyl and the only way to fix it in the short run is to install new seals.

I've since gone with a PI motor swap and installed new seals the the old one and sold it to the kid down the road for his F150.