Progress Thread Let's try this again...

I think I sort of fixed it.

Apparently part of the conversion requires you to pull the vacuum hose from the MAP sensor. For some reason I forgot to do that, so I pulled it off and plugged the hose with a screw and a zip tie. I figure it’s a temporary fix until I can get a vacuum cap and cap it off at the tree.

After all that, the car started and ran like garbage for a little bit before it evened out. It still idles a little low and I think it’s running a bit rich, but the throttle response is way faster and it seems to rev much smoother as well. When I pushed the gas pedal on speed density, I could hear the throttle body open and suck in a gulp of air before the engine would do anything. Now it’s instant.

General karthief said:

Show us the end of that wire.

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I’ll try to snag a picture after work tomorrow.

Here’s the end of the wire:

General karthief said:

Radio antenna wire, follow it through the kick panel wall to the top of the fender (behind the inner fender panel.)

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That would also explain why my signal has been bad, thanks!

I’m also thinking about upgrading the top end. Would I need new injectors for a mild cam and trick flow heads?

I think I’m just going to buy the parts separately rather than get the kit, because from what I’ve read the gt-40 intake flows pretty well, so I really would only need the heads and cam. It has a 1985 rotating assembly, so valve clearance shouldn’t be a big issue.

Obviously, I want to get this MAF thing and potential vacuum leaks ironed out before I do anything else to the motor.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/tfs-k525-432-370

I've been eyeing this kit for the mustang since it includes everything but the intake manifold. How does this look to you guys? Would the cam be too aggressive for reliable street use? The description said their test engine made 430hp, but I'm guessing that wasn't a stock engine.

I'm giving up on the headlight covers. I can't get them to fit right, so now my car has holes in it's face and the double-sided tape pulled off some trim paint from the headlight buckets. I'm planning on having somebody take care of those this weekend. The guy I bought it from runs a body shop and he said he'd be willing to take care of any holes I made with the covers, I assume he'd be able to take care of the paint as well.

I was also pointed to a local guy that specializes in dyno tuning fuel injected mustangs by the restoration shop (I think they're getting tired of seeing me), so I'm planning on taking the car there as well. Even if everything is fine, I'm a little curious as to what hp numbers I'm making and he could also probably help me piece together a top end kit that would work.

I'm still taking the car in to the resto shop to get the wiring looked at for the window motor. I tried fixing it last weekend and after some fiddling I thought I had it set up properly, but then neither of the windows would roll down, so right now the door panel is in the trunk and I have some wires taped up and hanging out in the interior. Electricity is hard.

So all in all, it's looking like it's going to be a busy weekend.

General karthief said:

If you look at the page you linked scroll down to the questions and about the 4th one lists the test engine as a 306ci, a little more compression, super competition hooker headers with 4" collectors, a 3" exhaust and a carb/ air gap intake setup so it was kinda skewed.

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Ok, I didn’t see that part. I’m ok with not making that kind of hp, 430 seems like the upper limit of what would be useable in a 3000 lb car on skinny street tires. This kit seems to be what I’m looking for, then. I’ll do some more research, but today’s payday and I have a bonus coming, so it should be a reasonable upgrade.

Here are some pictures of what I’ve been talking about with the wiring, I’ll add a short description to each.


This is a cut black wire that I found when looking for the gray STI connector for the obd1 reader. I have no idea what it is or what it does, so if you guys have any ideas, that would be appreciated. It doesn’t seem to be hurting anything, so I’m ok with letting it be for now.



This gray connector is what I was hoping was the STI connector, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Any ideas on what it does?



And finally, this is how I wired up the passenger side window switch. I followed a chart and I think I did it right, but it still didn’t work.

After doing some reading, I think there's something wrong with my vacuum setup. This is probably going to sound like a really stupid question, but the MAP sensor isn't supposed to be connected to the vacuum tree, is it? Because that's what I disconnected it from when I did the conversion. I have no idea what's going on under the manifold itself.

I'm just trying to pinpoint why it idles so rough sometimes. On startup it's pretty bad until it warms up.