Just bought a piece of crap, but I like it.. Please read.

[dkhl]

I just bought a piece of crap '85 5.0L .. the body has a bit of dents on it.. but it's nice.. black 5 spd what not.. didnt' pay too much for it.

Anyways the car has been sitting there for 3 months.. un touched and basically it has a rough time idling/starting. I'm going to do an overhaul in maintenance work on it, which is basically my first phase just getting it up and running and what not.

My question is.. anybody have some tips on improving reliability for this engine? If this was fuel injected, I would do a fuel systems cleaning on the vehicle which usually solves out all that problem, but it's carbed so I don't know how to clean out the fuel system on a carb.

 

[GroverDill]

rebuild the carb.

I want a 85 GT.

 

[dkhl]

Well, it's going to be replacing my daily driver right away. So I need to have it up and running almost right away.

I need to know tips for under say.. $200 right away that will help solve or at least decrease the amount of rough idling and what not on the vehicle. The transmission maybe shot on the vehicle too, so.. I don't know. It's definitely going to be a project car till I get done.

 

[GroverDill]

carb rebuild kit is 40 or so bucks...


I still want a decent 85 GT..

 

[jerry beach]

How old are you? Not making fun of you, just curious.

Prolly carb related as Grover suggested. Spend $20 and get a compression tester for it to make sure the motor is good. Dont throw $ at it if you dont know for sure whats wrong. I have been down that road, its not any fun. Get under it safely with stands and check out the leaks and wiggle the tires while they are off the ground to find suspension defects. An overall assessment must be made before putting cash into it. You are looking for major problems first, these are the things that need to be addressed right now. If they are overwhelming then it may not be worth it. If its fairly minor stuff, depending on your skill, you can fix it up pretty cheap.

 

[86bluecobra]

there are carb cleanning sprays. i bet there is even a fuel system clean if u want to dump it into your gas tank for a carb aswell. i agree to do the compression test. oh and your 85 GT has a 7.5 inch rear end. i would look at upgrading that to a 8.8 out of a 86 to 93 perferable with 3.73's. another issue is the 85-86 stangs have differant spindals then the 87-93's. in short us guys are running the 87-93 4 banger brakes. the 5.0L brakes aren't that good imagine what the 4 cyl brakes are like. maybe for safety look into that upgrade. other then that i would say the 4 heqad light look rocks. mind you im bias since i drive a 86

 

[HISSIN50]

you put up one of the best titles to a thread ever - just sounds funny.

as everyone said, get a rebuild kit and a repair manual and go to town. go slow and label stuff (i like to tear carbs apart on a white cafeteria tray since they have the edges - if a jet or washer gets away from you, the lip catches it).

or give it a once over like Jerry said. then if it looks alright and you are uncomfy with the carb stuff, you could do plugs and such (or 'what not' as you like to say. ) to see if you can get it to run decent enough w/o rebuilding the carb. i bet the fuel in there varnished though and you really should take it apart and clean it all up.

good luck.

 

[dkhl]

The car is 20 years old.. to say I give a **** about the condition of it would be a little overstated. It has scratches, it has dings, yes.. of course.. it's to be expected.

All I need to do is get the thing running smoothly... I probably should have said.. will a complete maintenance overhaul get rid of the rough idling problems I've been experiencing?

The car is a piece of junk, but then again.. it's Black, 5 Spd, looks nice... nothing an overhaul can't fix..

If the motor blows, the transmission goes haywire.. who cares!! I'll swap in a 351 with a TKO

 

[green]

#1 dont call the four eye a peice of junk, i,ll buy it if u dont like it

 

[dkhl]

I wasn't implying the 4'eye a piece of ****. I was implying my particular car a piece of **** lol... as in, it's no logner in ferrari show room condition. IT's the on\ly reason why I bought it personally..

More than likely I'll do a 351 swap eventually.

 

[Black1987Stang]

Me and my friend did this to my friends carbed 2.8L. Take off the air cleaner, put water in a spray bottle, and start spraying water down into the carb (not too much) with the car running. This worked really good on his since his has 136,000 miles and its carbed so its got plenty of carbon inside and since water cant be compressed it breaks up the carbon in the cylinders and it goes out the exhaust. Then we took it hard down the street to fully blow out all the carbon. After we did this it pulls harder and longer, idles better, and there is less mechanical noises from the engine. It might seem like a no-no to be putting water in your engine but we definitly felt a difference after doing it. Also think about all the cars using water injection. I would just recommend doing an oil change after it to fully get any unburnt water out of the system.

 

[JSSuper455]

Congrats on the car.. You should post a pic of this beasty!
:OT: You know I actually did the same thing not that long ago... I found a '70 Lemans for a fix-up driver. I didn't really get to do anything with it though cause when I was towing it home, I sold it at the gas station when I was filling my old truck.... I made about $500 though.

Anyhow good-luck with you car.