Hello!

mikeah

Member
Dec 10, 2022
26
12
13
Clearwater, FL
I suppose I should create a thread introducing myself since I'm sure you'll see more of me. I have a 1988 T-Top Mustang (5.0 V8) that we've had in our family since I was born (90s child). This was my Dad's favorite car and his weekend projects usually involved this car. Back when I was in Middle School, we restored the interior of the Mustang and the paint to its former glory. I learned most of what I know about cars from this car (oil changes, alternator swaps, electric work, etc).

Since then, some years have passed and unfortunately with the time passing, my father passed unexpectedly (around 8 years ago). We've had the car with family while I've been unable to store the car, but now with my new location, etc I have the time and space to put resources and love into the car to keep the spirit of my father alive.

The first issues I tackled since the cars been back with me is improving some of our former electrical work (you don't want to see the old alternator harness haha -- I hope we didn't do this, but if we did it lasted a long time soooooo). Along with a cracked battery terminal, I'm ready to sort some more of the interior electrical out and restore some of the components to their former glory (LMR has been an amazing discovery for parts -- holy moly I didn't realize I could find so many restoration parts).

The next project(s) for this car is sorting out the idle/stalling at start to improve the drive-ability and reliability. It runs rough and the idle fluctuates a fair bit at start and if you don't give it a bit of support with some steady gas (around 1700-2000 RPM I think), it stalls out. After a couple of minutes helping it out, the car runs perfect and future starts are healthy and happy until the engine goes cold.

My guess is there's some kind of issue with the air/gas mixture at start, but I'm gonna have to do a smoke test this week on the air and vacuum system to see if we have a few leaks (I know for a fact the A/C vacuum reservoir is disconnected -- I have a replacement hose arriving today).

Other than that, I'm throwing a double-din headunit in so I can have wireless Android Auto/Apple Carplay along with a backup camera. Looking forward to getting things back to where they should be with this car. I'm sure my Dad would be excited with the work I have planned and I wish he could be a part of the project.

Let me know if you have any tips or tricks for when I'm working on this car. I'm learning more often than not to start super basic as it often is the most basic of things that are wrong.
 

Attachments

  • image000000.jpg
    image000000.jpg
    86.3 KB · Views: 39
  • PXL_20221211_185802036 (1).jpg
    PXL_20221211_185802036 (1).jpg
    686.5 KB · Views: 44
  • PXL_20221207_214021791.jpg
    PXL_20221207_214021791.jpg
    636.2 KB · Views: 40
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
  • Sponsors (?)


Do you still have the Crvini's hood with the cold air box? Those are cool!
Oh, and welcome to stangnet.
Yep, it's still installed and I don't plan to swap the hood, I really like the style. We got this hood surprisingly at a junkyard here in the Tampa, FL area many years ago (and for a stupid good deal as I recall). Unfortunately the air intake box (it's for this hood and a Cervini original part) is actually warped in a few spots now, so I have a new regular air intake box coming today from a junked Mustang to try to get a better seal/filtration.

If I can find the intake I'd love to get a new connection to the intakes on the hood, but so far I haven't had success in finding this (LMR has a few Cervini parts -- I think we have the Ram Air Hood 1.5" rise, but I don't know that this matches up).

Here's a picture for reference of some of the gaps and the hood intake.
 

Attachments

  • PXL_20221212_144703695.jpg
    PXL_20221212_144703695.jpg
    240.2 KB · Views: 36
  • PXL_20221212_144656203.jpg
    PXL_20221212_144656203.jpg
    147.2 KB · Views: 38
  • PXL_20221212_144648252.jpg
    PXL_20221212_144648252.jpg
    200.8 KB · Views: 37
  • PXL_20221212_144643656.jpg
    PXL_20221212_144643656.jpg
    284.5 KB · Views: 30
  • PXL_20221212_144638842.jpg
    PXL_20221212_144638842.jpg
    310.7 KB · Views: 33
It appears that a new seal on the lower portion of the box where the hood piece meets is all that's needed, I don't see the warped part.
Sorry I took a bad photo in the second image of the bottom. It's the 3rd plastic clip (clip furthest from the front of the car -- closest to the firewall) that's warped at the bottom. So 2 of the 3 clips are fitting into the air intake housing, but the 3rd is not able to and it creates a bit of a gap/lack of a proper seal at the bottom.

One thing I didn't consider was taking my heat gun to it and getting it hot and trying to move it bend it back a wee bit. Maybe I'll give that a whirl.
 
You could also try to add some foam type seal material in the area of the gap, you still may not be able to clip it but the extra material in the gap could help seal it up. I would try that before the heat gun routine.