Anyone know how easy anyone can get at our engines?

[bluevenom867]

Oh, they still could get it. They would mess up the body some and all but the parts is what they are after. I guess you could say it's what's on the inside that counts. I am sure it would make it more difficult.

What I am talking about is the kind of pickups on the back of some kinds of wreckers and tow-trucks. It's like a big T but with parts that come from the side of the T that wrap around the wheels, up and they are out of there. I had my old beater towed once, the tow truck driver didn't even get out of the truck. He drove up, backed up, and just was up and ready to go, took about 10 seconds, faster than the hood latch. I followed him in my grandmother's Volvo 240, could hardly keep up with the F-350 Powerstroke in the tow truck.

Don't they have to pick them up from the back because if the e-brake was on and they lifted it from the front wouldn't the rear tires drag when they move?

 

[CKYlndSpd21]

with my fox its real easy to get under the hood, two hood pins and your in because the previous owner was too lazy to fix the cable

 

[shttygtstang]

with my fox its real easy to get under the hood, two hood pins and your in because the previous owner was too lazy to fix the cable

were do you live

 

[larrendeuce]

Of course like many other threads, this has gone way off topic. As far as keeping people from taking your car, before the Mustang I had a bronco that I put a bunch of money into, sound system, interior, etc. I also added a viper responder alarm, it comes with the pager. Whenever it would go off, I'd run right out to see what was going on. Someone bangs a door into your car, it goes off. Parked out front, trash truck comes by, it goes off. Touch the car, it will go off. I don't know of any one thing you can to do prevent theft thats better then this.

 

[87GT 306]

You all forgot to mention how easy it is to get into t top cars.

Lets not forget to mention verts either. My first 5.0 was a vert and I had it for sale in front of my house and woke up one morning and someone had cut the entire rear glass convertible panel out and stole all of my stereo components. The F*&#er's even took the 5.0 badges off. As for anyone popping your hood and stealing somethin I doubt that would ever happen. Its not like you can get a set of headers off in 3 minutes without cutting up ur hands and making alot of noise. Same goes for an intake or something like that.

 

[crazypete]

Ultimate solution:

Get your ignition box wired inside the cabin and put everything on snap connectors. Unplug and take the whole darn ignition system with you. Stealing is now impossible unless some thief is walking around with an MSD/Crane in his pocket. For stock ignitions....unplug your EEC and take with. It can be moved up behind the glovebox. There's just enough wire to do it.

Towtruckwise:

When you park, turn the wheels to the lock. They simply CANNOT up and take off without trying to tow a car hanging halfway into the next lane and that would attract a whole ton of suspicion and get them pulled over. They can get your back wheels but not your fronts. They cant tow it cause the nose would swing out and the back wheels are locked from being in gear/park with the brake up. Then they would have to smash the windows, break the lock and straighten the wheel but now they're no longer taking it in 10 seconds and silently.

 

[xplo89gt]

How about just popping the distributer cap and taking the rotor. Fits right in your pocket.

 

[bluevenom867]

How about just popping the distributer cap and taking the rotor. Fits right in your pocket.

Thats not a bad idea.How about the wire that goes from the coil to the cap though, it would be a little easier to take off.

 

[Lynx331]

Taking out the rotor from under the cap is not a bad idea... but still i want to keep people out from under my hood. Does anyone know who manufactures that cover to cover up the hood latch assembly??

 

[CKYlndSpd21]

were do you live

well it wouldnt matter if my latch worked anyways you could get in just as quick whether it worked or didnt work

 

[crazypete]

Cut one of your fuel lines in an out of the place way and slip hose into the gap over the fuel lines and worm clamp them down. Then get one of those gilluotine looking screw clamps and tighten it down when you need saftey. There will be just enough fuel pressure to idle but not enough to drive off with the car. They will just think you car is a beater and abandon it a block down.

Everyone fiddles with the ignition. Clamping a fuel hose is just ingeneous evil.

For the hood latch....go to a junkyard and get a rear hatch lock assembly from one of the GT's with power hatch locks. The motor release mechanism can be rigged to the hood latch release lever. You can cut the actuator out and attach it to the hood release and it will cover the release lever so noone can get at it from the underside. Then cut the cables and wire up the release. This is extreme but is the best thing short of getting hood pins with padlocks.

Actually.......

Toss the entire hood latch mechanism and attach a plate with an "eye" in it. Make a matching plate for the frame and make them so the eyes line up when the hood is closed. Then slip a padlock through there and you're all set. Weld the bolts and it is bulletproof. You will need to crawl under the car to open the hood but this is the most secure sleeper way to do it.

 

[BlueThunder1988]

How about just popping the distributer cap and taking the rotor. Fits right in your pocket.

Reminds me of a story I read in a similar thread where someone had done this at a car show and still had their car stolen--someone else was having problems starting their stang--turns out, their ROTOR had been stolen!

 

[ss93cobra]

A buddy of mine told me to watch something. He crawled under my car, about 12 seconds later.... pop... My hood popped. Needless to say it definatly scared the crap outta me. I never realized how easily anyone can get at our engines. All you have to do is get ur hand up there and his this little tab and your in. Making all of our hard earned performance parts open game for basically anyone. I was wondering if anyone knew some way i could lock my hood? I thought of hood pins with locks on them, but then i would have to drill my hood... not something i really wanna do. Anyone have any other methods of locking their hood shut? ANyone ever hear of this before?

Back to the topic, 5.0 Mustang did a write up on the block plate for the latch @ 1 year ago. I'll see if i can find the company's name in a back issue for you.

 

[MYFIVE0-HO]

The company that makes that block plate is GRC performance (grcperformance.com) They are in southern CA. (949)457-1875. I think that it is like 70 bucks or so.

 

[ss93cobra]

Well, that saves me from looking through a mound of magazines tonight!

 

[xplo89gt]

Reminds me of a story I read in a similar thread where someone had done this at a car show and still had their car stolen--someone else was having problems starting their stang--turns out, their ROTOR had been stolen!

Haha. That's a persistent and professional thief.

 

[crunchie12268]

Those lock down hood pins are easy to get into also. Just get some pliers and press down on the hood, it presses the locks up and then you twist them. I had to do this on my car for a while.

 

[Wil]

As for anyone popping your hood and stealing somethin I doubt that would ever happen. Its not like you can get a set of headers off in 3 minutes without cutting up ur hands and making alot of noise. Same goes for an intake or something like that.

That's not true, about 3 months ago someone popped my hood in stole my upper intake, tb, cai, and ignition box right in front of my house. I woke up the next morning and couldn't believe it. I'm finally getting my car back on Saturday after 3 months of repair (from theft) and paint job. From now on, my car gets parking in the garage ONLY.

 

[roush69racing]

Yeah, no matter what you can do, someone can always tow it away. Tow truck's equipped correctly can pick up your car and be off with it in a few seconds. They can do it right in public and although people might notice, they'll figure it was probally a repo man or something and walk on.

My car sits in the garage, but my truck is still vernerable, and they can still get to the car although they would have to get the truck out of the way first. Hopefully they would steal the truck because it is fully insured and not personalized. If they came into the garage, that's home invasion. I've got a view of the whole driveway and about 100 feet after that, and I have an semi-auto rifle with a few 30 and 40 round clips full of balistic tip bullets, and I was in the USMC, now that a thief can't bypass. Instead of me trying to find peices of my car, we'll be looking for peices of thug.

throw this brother an AMEN, yea gun control being able to hit your target.

 

[89MustangGX]

Towtruckwise:

When you park, turn the wheels to the lock. They simply CANNOT up and take off without trying to tow a car hanging halfway into the next lane and that would attract a whole ton of suspicion and get them pulled over. They can get your back wheels but not your fronts. They cant tow it cause the nose would swing out and the back wheels are locked from being in gear/park with the brake up. Then they would have to smash the windows, break the lock and straighten the wheel but now they're no longer taking it in 10 seconds and silently.

That doesn't work. Some tow trucks, especially the ones used for repos, have telescoping booms that will go side to side as well as front and back with opening and closing jaws. Even with the wheels locked, parked against a curb, in traffic, if it took more than 30 seconds to pick the car up and go I'd be surprised.