help a soldier

[riceslayer302]

hey guys, my best friend kevin is in Korea with the US Army. He's coming home in August on leave for 40 days, and then he's leaving for fort hood texas, and eventually Iraq.

He's got an 85GT that he used as a daily driver, he's fixing it up as he goes but its got a problem that we never fixed before he left. he needs new heads for the car, im not really sure whats wrong with it, but he put heads off an 89 on the car and it didnt run right after that. So im asking, if any of you guys have, or know someone who has, a set of stock 85 heads that they want to give away or sell to me for really cheap to put on the car before he gets home as a kind of welcome home present.im not sure about 79-84, but i think 85 heads are different from 86-93. if any of you in the new england can help me out let me know!

 

[Mustang5L5]

1985 heads are unique to that year only.


However, they are VERY similar to the E7's used on the 1987-1995 Mustangs. In fact there isn't much of a difference. I beleive the '85 heads are slightly lower compression.

His '85 should run fine with the newer heads. If it's not running right, i'd either consider a physical defect with the head installed, or error during the install.

What exactly is it doing wrong? It's possible an intake gasket didn't seat right allowing coolant to leak into the cylinder or a huge vac leak that goes unnoticed

 

[5.0Droptop]

+100

 

[riceslayer302]

i dont really know, i didnt do the work so i cant say, it was kinda a hackjob though haha he kinda just threw it together, the head on the passenger side might even be an E7 off the 89 and the drivers side might still be stock... i dont know, i heard it run after he did it and it wasnt sounding too good and i think its running on 7 cylinders now. not sure, ill have to get more info.

 

[PJC Racing]

Operator erro.

 

[25thmustang]

Hey Sam, if your interested I can check around with some guys I know. Someone should have something laying around. We used to have good E7s, but might have donated them to the school my dad works for. I can check for you though, and doing a head swap wont be free, but isn't real hard!

 

[riceslayer302]

yeah ide appreciate it keep an eye open, i wanna do this for him without him knowing for a welcome home present type thing but i dont wanna spend money cuz he just wants to drive it for 40 days then he's gone again.

 

[Mustang5L5]

I think it's more installation error than anything

 

[frcefedlx]

Maybe a tear down to see if indeed it is just a bad install first would be a good idea. That way You will know for sure what your working with and a better game plan.

 

[25thmustang]

The problem is without the heads or block being checked you might never know. I'd say tear it down before you do anything, and maybe try your best to see what happened and where it went wrong.

 

[deftsound]

sounds like the problem on my 86..

 

[riceslayer302]

i have to ask him, if i had the car at my place ide have it apart and ide fix it, but its sitting in his dads yard right now so i dont wanna just go over and start pulling a car apart in the guys yard haha. he told me it needs new heads, but you guys are definately right we should wait and diagnose