Progress Thread New To Me 1988 GT - trying to set up vacuum lines for upper intake question

I would also not directly spray any exposed electrical connections/connectors with high pressure water, don't soak the alternator (probably best to cover it?) and the battery and obviously don't get the air filter wet. I think the leaving the engine running thing is so you don't "shock" the metal if it was hot with the cold water your spraying - but i'm not sure how important that is.

I've never cleaned an engine bay with a pressure washer so don't take my word as gospel but these are just some things i typically see when reading about engine cleaning.
 
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I would suggest you run it around some for a month or so before cleaning... Make sure its running well before you "clean it and it won't start or doesn't run well" ....You will know that its due to the cleaning ( water)
Plugged fuel filter... I have seen computers actually have to reset a bit after installing a new filter from a completely clogged one like yours..... Drive it some so your electronics get used to getting fuel in the system...
Just my 2 cents...
 
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I would suggest you run it around some for a month or so before cleaning... Make sure its running well before you "clean it and it won't start or doesn't run well" ....You will know that its due to the cleaning ( water)
Plugged fuel filter... I have seen computers actually have to reset a bit after installing a new filter from a completely clogged one like yours..... Drive it some so your electronics get used to getting fuel in the system...
Just my 2 cents...
Great advice, thanks! I don't know if I will wait a month but I will definitely get some miles on it before cleaning the engine and engine bay.
 
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I would also not directly spray any exposed electrical connections/connectors with high pressure water, don't soak the alternator (probably best to cover it?) and the battery and obviously don't get the air filter wet. I think the leaving the engine running thing is so you don't "shock" the metal if it was hot with the cold water your spraying - but i'm not sure how important that is.

I've never cleaned an engine bay with a pressure washer so don't take my word as gospel but these are just some things i typically see when reading about engine cleaning.
Good idea about covering the alternator. It has the stock air intake on it so at least that is helpful and not worrying about getting the air filter wet.
 
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I was able to take the car out today and put about 10 or 15 miles on it. I mostly ran around town. It is getting warm on me when I drive it, I checked it with a digital thermometer and it got up to about 215. It doesn't get hot if I let it idle in the driveway.

I was planning on adding some coolant system flush and then back flushing the coolant system. Most of the backflush kits that have the T to backflush I think want you to splice it into the heater hose. I do not want to touch the heater hoses that go into the heater core.

What is the best way to backflush the system? I was also planning on installing a new 180 thermostat and gasket.
 
Simple inexpensive diagnostics first..
Make sure your fan is spinning in the correct direction ( drawing in air)...
Make sure the outside fins of your radiator or condenser are not plugged up.. I fought an overheating car I bought and when I pulled the radiator and blew air through it, it was like blowing clean a shop vac filter... The exterior fins were full...
New thermostat would not hurt....
 
Simple inexpensive diagnostics first..
Make sure your fan is spinning in the correct direction ( drawing in air)...
Make sure the outside fins of your radiator or condenser are not plugged up.. I fought an overheating car I bought and when I pulled the radiator and blew air through it, it was like blowing clean a shop vac filter... The exterior fins were full...
New thermostat would not hurt....
The fan is blowing the correct way, pulling air from the front.

Very good thought about the radiator fins being clogged up. There was evidence of an animal living under the hood and building a nest. I took the blow off gun and blew air through the condenser into the radiator and some stuff came out.

I will probably pull the radiator tomorrow so I can blow the whole thing off. Will report back. Thanks for the suggestion. I will probably also replace the thermostat while I'm at it.

The coolant system needs flushed because the fluid is black.
 
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Stock thermostat is 195 deg. The ECU is expecting that so don’t run a 180.
A HUGE point here.... A cooler T stat on a computer car will think its not warmed up and richen up the mixture and your car will not run right and will get very bad fuel mileage...... Seen this myself in a couple of friends cars...
 
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I worked on flushing the cooling system for a while yesterday, it was very dirty. As I mentioned earlier, the fluid was black. I added a bottle of flush, ran it for a while then flushed the block and radiator until the water ran clean. I'll have to post a picture of my driveway and the drain pan but there was A LOT of black stuff that came out. I was able to get the plug out of the RH side of the block so I know the block is clean also. I pulled the thermostat yesterday before I had to quit working on it. I'm going to stick the garden hose in the intake, flush it there. I pulled the radiator. I am going to flush it more with the hose now that it is out of the car. The fins have a little bit of debris in them but now too much. I will be blowing and hosing them out. I bought a new 195* thermostat and bypass hose I will be installing. There is some light rust on the radiator support so I'll probably spray some rust converter on that while the radiator is out and maybe spray a quick coat of paint on the radiator since it is out.

My driver's front seatbelt is stuck all the way out and won't retract. I would like to fix this since I'm driving the car now. I've done some Google searching about fixing them but wasn't able to find anything. A lot of people have made threads about seatbelt problems in these cars but don't really say what the remedy was or what they did. I was thinking of removing the seatbelt assembly and seeing if I can figure out how to fix it. Do any of you know about fixing the seatbelts? I would like to try and fix this seatbelt before buying a new front set from LMR for $250.
 
I think there are services available where you can send your seatbelts in to have them refreshed and repaired. I saw an ad on Instagram recently for this. If i remember the name of the company i'll reply back but in the meantime you could search for like 'seat belt repair foxbody' or the like on Google.