OK here is the skinny. Gonna be long winded.
Bought car 3 years ago. Pretty close to stock with
vortech s/c already installed. It only had 27,000 original miles on it. I bought it for a DD, wanted something fun to drive. At the time I was driving 275 miles every weekend and this made it fun. But I never red lined the car or drove it like a young punk. I'm 35, grew up with a mechanic step father, learned a lot of things restoring my 78 jeep. Stepfather has since passed away and now I look to this forum for help.
So I put a lot of highway miles on car for two years then I moved and no more long distance driving. The car now has 70,000 miles on it. All highway almost.
Car specs when I bought it:
1. Vortech v2 supercharger with fmu
2. Single core aluminum radiator
3. Mac shorty headers
4.
Flowmaster american thunder exhaust with h-pipe
5. Subframe connectors
6. Stage 3 clutch with firewall adjustment
I replaced the heater core right after I bought it. I also had it dyno'd about a year after owning it. Guy told me it was a good running car for the setup. 285hp. He said he would like to upgrade injectors, throttle body, do some bypass and get rid of fmu. Then chip it. I didn't have the money for that. He said care was fine.
I had a fluxuating idle issue at the time too. Replace IAC, cleaned maf, but in the end it was the tps so that's new too thanks to the dyno guy.
The car had a single core aluminum radiator. Undersized for a blown fox I think but nonetheless it was a great car for long time. Especially for being very close to stock. About 6 months ago I noticed I was losing a little coolant via the overflow tank. Ended up renting a block tester and the fluid turned green. Replaced head gaskets for first time. What a task back then.
now I can do it with fn eyes closed...
Anyway gaskets were fine, no burn outs in gasket. I had exhaust leaking into coolant. No coolant in oil. Still had original head gaskets, I got pics, they said ford on them. I installed felpro 9333. I did a crap load of research to make sure I did it right. One thing I never knew however was to clean bolt holes with tap.
Got it going again and 1 month later it was doing it again. Same issue as before. Exhaust in coolant but i had a little bit in oil this time. I was convinced it was a cooling problem for some reason so I replaced water pump and hoses and thermostat. Installed a 2300cfm electric fan. Replaced head gaskets with felpro 9333. Didn't clean bolt holes.
Happened again about 3-4 weeks later. This time I was showin off to a buddy, car was running good so I thought after cooling system is now OK. I did a couple burn outs and all of sudden I could tell something seemed weird I could tell. Looked down and the temp shot up like a rocket. I parked the car immediately at buddy's house and had a couple beers.
2 hours later I drive it home, seemed fine first mile but then it started overheating so I shut it off and coasted down every road on way home with engine off. I would only start it to get momentum then shut her off again.
This time I had water in oil. Bought a new new dual core radiator and replaced gaskets with felpro 9333.
Now the whole coolant system has been replaced. I put her back together after third time. I drove it for 2 weeks thinking finally have it(yeah I know, idiot). I drove car like a grandma these two weeks. Started losing fluid again, very little but I could tell. I drove it another week and finally parked it. I bought a truck and payed off car. I tore it apart for 4th time and this the only time I had a burn mark in gasket. Right above #7 cylinder next to the water jacket.
By the way, I had heads resurfaced after the second and third time. Second time the passenger side was a little warped. Third time the driver side was a little warped. This last time I has them pressure test and magna flux and they came no issues and still flat.
So here I am, talking to you guys for advice. I prepped engine and tranny to come out with cherry picker tomorrow afternoon. Will have it tested and go from there. The deck is flat on block I used straight edge and .015 feeler guage cross pattern and it was good.
Question about timing. I never set timing first 2 times, I just dropped the dizzy back in same place. 3rd time I turned engine so I had to time it. I timed it to idle 10 degree tdc. Didn't do total timing. I that plug I removed to time engine I was told controls the idle if its off a little. So I figured after find 10 degree and it running good, I plugged it back in and didn't think anymore about it. Am I correct with this?