Head Gasket Trouble - Pull Engine

jrichker · Oct 19, 2015

stang89bidges said:
First, thanks @jrichker , I was looking at some other version of your idle checklist, didn't see the above...

Second, I was looking at your current checklist(found up to date). Can you elaborate on this a little more?

Any car that has a 3G or high output current alternator needs a 4 gauge ground wire running from the block to the chassis ground where the battery pigtail ground connects. The 3G has a 130 amp capacity, so you wire the power side with 4 gauge wire. It stands to reason that the ground side handles just as much current, so it needs to be 4 gauge too.

I upgraded to the high output alternator(3G). It came with a 4awg wire to alternator. At this time I replaced both battery terminals/cables with 2awg wires. Huge. My question is why does the chassis need 4awg wire when the alternator is grounded to the engine, which in my case has a 2awg ground from battery? It doesn't use the chassis right? What am I missing?

All non engine mounted electrical equipment uses chassis or body ground for the return path to the battery and alternator.
The battery is only used for starting unless the alternator isn't putting out sufficient electrical power to run things.
If you are going to pass 130 amps of return current to the alternator, you better have a cable connected from the chassis or body to the engine that will handle that much current. The battery to chassis or body ground is a 10 gauge wire capable of handling 30 amps max.

stang89bidges · Oct 19, 2015

I see.

I have a 2awg ground from battery to the engine.
I have the original flat braided ground strap going from the engine head to the firewall.
I have a 10awg wire splitting from the battery terminal to the body fender.

That's it.... I think....

So your saying my power wire from alternator to battery at 4awg is good. The alternator is grounded via engine and my 2awg from battery to engine is good and is basically grounding the alternator fine.

But what your also saying is that all my other stuff NOT grounded via my engine 2awg like my guages in car, my stereo, my fuel pump, etc all are grounded via my small firewall mounted flat strap or my 10awg wire from battery to body fender and this is NOT ok? I guess I figured the alternator is making a big circuit from itself to engine via power 4awg and ground 2awg and all my accessories only need the 10awg from either firewall or fender.

If I were to upgrade the ground to 4awg from my engine to my chassis and NOT upgrade my ground from battery to chassis, wouldn't that create a path for alternator to go but yet not be the least resistance because my battery to chassis is only 10awg via the body firewall or fender? So that would mean the ground would continue to complete its circuit via the motor to battery?

I'm just making sure I have this correct as I want to learn this and I am a BIG NEWB to the electricity in our cars...

Thanks in advance!

jrichker · Oct 19, 2015

stang89bidges said:
I see.

I have a 2awg ground from battery to the engine.
I have the original flat braided ground strap going from the engine head to the firewall.
I have a 10awg wire splitting from the battery terminal to the body fender.

That's it.... I think....

So your saying my power wire from alternator to battery at 4awg is good. The alternator is grounded via engine and my 2awg from battery to engine is good and is basically grounding the alternator fine.

But what your also saying is that all my other stuff NOT grounded via my engine 2awg like my guages in car, my stereo, my fuel pump, etc all are grounded via my small firewall mounted flat strap or my 10awg wire from battery to body fender and this is NOT ok? I guess I figured the alternator is making a big circuit from itself to engine via power 4awg and ground 2awg and all my accessories only need the 10awg from either firewall or fender.

If I were to upgrade the ground to 4awg from my engine to my chassis and NOT upgrade my ground from battery to chassis, wouldn't that create a path for alternator to go but yet not be the least resistance because my battery to chassis is only 10awg via the body firewall or fender? So that would mean the ground would continue to complete its circuit via the motor to battery?

I'm just making sure I have this correct as I want to learn this and I am a BIG NEWB to the electricity in our cars...

Thanks in advance!

Very much simplified drawing to illustrate the principle...

Notice that all the accessory grounds are separate from the battery ground on the engine block. The sum of all the accessory ground current has to make its way back to the alternator power ground to the car body. That's the reason for the separate 4 gauge power ground.

stang89bidges · Nov 17, 2015

Well, after replacing my TPS and fixing that issue(car is running great ever since then) I basically stuck the car in the garage, changed the oil, let it sit for the past month or so. Gettin the bug to drive it again. I have some issues after the rebuild and the heads and intake upgrade I need to work out. Then I saw my new A-Pillar 3-guage pod I bought from LMR that's been sitting around for like 6 months. Started working on all this. So I had to take the dash apart a bit to get to the a-pillar stuff and wiring and thought, "while i'm in here" lets do the fog light switch fix cuz I installed new HID headlights and they shut off while driving and that is not cool at 90mph pitch black. Then I remember how dark my guage cluster is at night and I have been wanting to get LED bulbs so I tell myself "while im here".....

This f'n car is going to be the death of me. I have all this going on. Just ordered the LED bulbs from superbrightleds.com I take pictures of EVERYTHING I do too. I have so many updates still like installing 2 different electric fan kits I need to post. I need to get on the ball. And I need to figure out when to draw the line... Now I remember why our women scream and yell at us...

stang89bidges · Nov 25, 2015

Ive had this new A-Pillar gauge pod assembly from lmr for 6 months and finally decided to tackle the project last weekend. I also decided to replace all the old factory bulbs in my gauge cluster while i was there. And of course build a new headlight and fog relay wire harness too but I'm leaving that to another post.

I got all my bulbs from superbrightleds.com. I did my research from others experiences and I'm really happy with the results, it's like driving a new car.

Here is the gauge pillar all setup. Boost, oil pressure, water temp guages. Boost and oil i used the plastic line that came with the gauges even though some said to use copper or stainless. Connections in directions are easy enough to follow.

Steel braided upgrade lines can be found here http://www.summitracing.com/search/...ne-kits/hose-material/braided-stainless-steel

Tip: Wrap your plastic lines in vacume line in case something goes wrong down the road! Thanks @mikestang63 for this tip.

Tip: Make sure everything is tight on gauge first, mock them up, then feed wire through pillar holes first and install on gauge out of pillar before you push them into their homes. And not all the way so you can turn them straight after you put the assembly in car.

Here I show the light connections I used for gauge illumination. Pretty simply. I used one side for ground, the other for power. Those connectors make an easy daisy chain for all 3 bulbs and allow for easy disassembly if I need to replace down the road. I used 16awg wire.

I found a long piece of house electrical wire for my fishING through car. Stiff enough but also ply-able .

I pushed the tubing and water probe only through firewall. All together through throttle pedal boot. I already had wires in there. When I finished I sealed in back up by squeezing some black silicone in the hole. It spread around the wires on its own.

Tip: The plastic line for oil was just barely long enough to run to stock location and have enough slack to keep away from engine heat. I also pre-wrapped all the plastic line with electrical tape for protection.

Went to hardware store and got another T-fitting and a male connector fitting. If I remember right they were all 1/4". Everything else came with gauges. I have a vortech blower that is oil fed through this fitting and I wanted to keep my stock gauge working. Otherwise a single T-fitting is all you need.

Here is my water probe installed. Everything in package. Ran under upper intake plenum along with wire harness. Installed in stock location. Eventually I may hook stock gauge back up in the rear intake port.

I connected ground to body just inside door jam behind plastic panel. Already had another connection there. I then connected power feed to the stock dimmer switch. It's the lone wire in the connector. If your looking at connector installed in dash it's wire in the far right of connector. Forgot to take a picture. Just used a quick connect type connector.

Ok pillar install done. Time for stock gauge cluster illumination upgrade.

You can do your own research on how to disassemble and visa versa.

Here is my parts list.

They go here.

Red circles get CW5. They shine in all directions and you need it. Yellow circles get W4-90 they are various warnings indicators(brake, seatbelt, check engine). Don't replace the bottom AMP/battery indicator LED doesn't have enough current so it will stay on all the time. Green circles get G4-90 for turn signals, blue circle gets B4-90 for high beam indicator. I would replace the RPM needle with WLED-xHP5-CAR because it's brighter than CW5. 75 lm versus 30 lm. This gauges reflector is a bit duller than the others because of design, bulb is too far away I think. But it's still better!

Here are some various pics.

CW5 cool white gives off a hint of blue and turns the white numbers and marks a hint of green. Old dull dash screen probably.

I wiped the LEDS with a clean rag after pushing them into sockets just in case.

Going 40mph

Going 70mph

Here is a video showing difference between original bulb vs new LED.

Tags: guage, gauges, pillar, a pillar, a-pillar, gauge cluster, 1989, mustang, gt, fox mustang gauge cluster, led, illumination upgrade, oil gauge install, water temp gauge install, boost gauge install

mikestang63 · Nov 25, 2015

stang89bidges said:
Ive had this new A-Pillar gauge pod assembly from lmr for 6 months and finally decided to tackle the project last weekend. I also decided to replace all the old factory bulbs in my gauge cluster while i was there. And of course build a new headlight and fog relay wire harness too but I'm leaving that to another post.

I got all my bulbs from superbrightleds.com. I did my research from others experiences and I'm really happy with the results, it's like driving a new car.

Here is the gauge pillar all setup. Boost, oil pressure, water temp guages. Boost and oil i used the plastic line that came with the gauges even though some said to use copper or stainless. Connections in directions are easy enough to follow.

Tip: Make sure everything is tight on gauge first, mock them up, then feed wire through pillar holes first and install on gauge out of pillar before you push them into their homes. And not all the way so you can turn them straight after you put the assembly in car.

Here I show the light connections I used for gauge illumination. Pretty simply. I used one side for ground, the other for power. Those connectors make an easy daisy chain for all 3 bulbs and allow for easy disassembly if I need to replace down the road. I used 16awg wire.

I found a long piece of house electrical wire for my fishING through car. Stiff enough but also ply-able .

I pushed the tubing and water probe only through firewall. All together through throttle pedal boot. I already had wires in there. When I finished I sealed in back up by squeezing some black silicone in the hole. It spread around the wires on its own.

Tip: The plastic line for oil was just barely long enough to run to stock location and have enough slack to keep away from engine heat. I also pre-wrapped all the plastic line with electrical tape for protection.

Went to hardware store and got another T-fitting and a male connector fitting. If I remember right they were all 1/4". Everything else came with gauges. I have a vortech blower that is oil fed through this fitting and I wanted to keep my stock gauge working. Otherwise a single T-fitting is all you need.

Here is my water probe installed. Everything in package. Ran under upper intake plenum along with wire harness. Installed in stock location. Eventually I may hook stock gauge back up in the rear intake port.

I connected ground to body just inside door jam behind plastic panel. Already had another connection there. I then connected power feed to the stock dimmer switch. It's the lone wire in the connector. If your looking at connector installed in dash it's wire in the far right of connector. Forgot to take a picture. Just used a quick connect type connector.

Ok pillar install done. Time for stock gauge cluster illumination upgrade.

You can do your own research on how to disassemble and visa versa.

Here is my parts list.

They go here.

Red circles get CW5. They shine in all directions and you need it. Yellow circles get W4-90 they are various warnings indicators(brake, seatbelt, check engine). Don't replace the bottom AMP/battery indicator LED doesn't have enough current so it will stay on all the time. Green circles get G4-90 for turn signals, blue circle gets B4-90 for high beam indicator. I would replace the RPM needle with WLED-xHP5-CAR because it's brighter than CW5. 75 lm versus 30 lm. This gauges reflector is a bit duller than the others because of design, bulb is too far away I think. But it's still better!

Here are some various pics.

CW5 cool white gives off a hint of blue and turns the white numbers and marks a hint of green. Old dull dash screen probably.

I wiped the LEDS with a clean rag after pushing them into sockets just in case.

Going 40mph

Going 70mph

Tags: guage, guages, pillar, a pillar, a-pillar, gauge cluster, 1989, mustang, gt, fox mustang gauge cluster, led, illumination upgrade, oil gauge install, water temp gauge install, boost gauge install

very nice! If I can make one suggestion. At a minimum put some plastic wire loom or cut some vacuum line around those plastic oil and water lines. Hot oil or water is not something you want spraying around.

stang89bidges · Nov 25, 2015

mikestang63 said:
very nice! If I can make one suggestion. At a minimum put some plastic wire loom or cut some vacuum line around those plastic oil and water lines. Hot oil or water is not something you want spraying around.

That is a great suggestion sir. I only wrapped it in electrical tape. I like the idea of using vacume line! I will be doing this modification to my install for sure.

stang89bidges · Nov 25, 2015

I modified my post. Added mikestang suggestion and I also forgot to include my old vs new video! check it out, video is at the end of the thread.

mikestang63 · Nov 25, 2015

stang89bidges · Nov 25, 2015

Stacey David rocks. Another great tip. I will end up using this one more than once...

elarm1 · Nov 26, 2015

Those LEDs look great! I may have to give them a shot

stang89bidges · Nov 27, 2015

Thanks. Don't forget that RPM LED, it needs the 75 lm since it's reflector is so far away from needle and face. And I didn't replace the 4 bulbs in the warning indicators bottom right of dash cluster, oil level, wash fluid, etc. Those could use red LED's if you decide to swap them.

mikestang63 · Nov 27, 2015

stang89bidges said:
Thanks. Don't forget that RPM LED, it needs the 75 lm since it's reflector is so far away from needle and face. And I didn't replace the 4 bulbs in the warning indicators bottom right of dash cluster, oil level, wash fluid, etc. Those could use red LED's if you decide to swap them.

I cant remember but I believe you do not replace the battery (alternator charging) light as it needs the resistance of the stock bulb to function properly.

stykthyn · Nov 27, 2015

mikestang63 said:
I cant remember but I believe you do not replace the battery (alternator charging) light as it needs the resistance of the stock bulb to function properly.

correct. that one stays the same.

stang89bidges · Nov 28, 2015

Yeah I mention that in my original post and it's marked in my photo as the only bulb without a colored circle. I was talking about the 4 lights in the little white cluster bottom right of dash.

TOOLOW91 · Nov 29, 2015

Do yourself a favor . Ditch that crap plastic line. Auto meter even sells a steel braided 6ft line i just used it on my buddies car. I have one on my car as well its much safer. other wise it looks great man

stang89bidges · Nov 30, 2015

That my friend was a little pricey for me with these temporary gauges. I plan on replacing the whole cluster with a Dakota Digital some day. Love these clusters.

1987- 89 Ford Mustang VHX Instruments

Then I will replace 2 of the gauges in the a-pillar with A/F ratio and oil temp.

That's my current thoughts anyway...

stang89bidges · Dec 4, 2015

I always assumed my MAF tunnel was factory as the meter itself was but after replying to another thread I didn't think about it being an aftermarket vortech piece that came with my s/c kit. It was already installed when I bought the car.

Is this stock tunnel? Obviously the cold air shroud isnt...

This is my stock meter.

Sent from my Samsung Note 4 using Tapatalk

a91what · Dec 4, 2015

What's the inside measurement? Stock is 55mm I think. That's just over 2".... you can get a 94-95 piece that's just under 3"

stang89bidges · Dec 4, 2015

a91what said:
What's the inside measurement? Stock is 55mm I think. That's just over 2".... you can get a 94-95 piece that's just under 3"

That was just a measurement from inlet to outlet for another member. And that's why I'm asking if anyone can tell if my tunnel/pipe is the stock unit or a replacement?

Sent from my Samsung Note 4 using Tapatalk

Head Gasket Trouble - Pull Engine

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