Progress Thread Therapy Car-- Freshening Up the Lower Intake

[Olivethefet]

I started pulling things apart last night and I have a few questions. First, when installing the upper intake to the lower do you guys use any RTV on the gasket that goes between the two? Second, do you guys use a thread locker or anti-seize on the bolts? I also noticed a lot of oil/gas in the upper. The PCV valve and filter are both new.

I was looking under the car last night at all of the cracks in the floor pan. Man I hope I can just weld them up. It's also amazing how dirty the car gets just sitting in the garage. I swear there is a spider village living under the car!

 

[2Blue2]

kids like spiders
jus saying...

 

[Olivethefet]

kids like spiders

I know mine does! We have several large garden spiders in the woods around the house. He goes out to check on them almost everyday. We have lots of black widows though, so that kinda worries me.

 

[Olivethefet]

One more question. My car does not have an EGR between the throttle body and the intake, but it also doesn't have an EGR delete spacer. Does it need one?

 

[Boostedpimp]

One more question. My car does not have an EGR between the throttle body and the intake, but it also doesn't have an EGR delete spacer. Does it need one?

If it doesn't have an EGR then it doesn't need the spacer between the intake and throttle body. Some people have issues with the throttle linkage so they still run the egr spacer with a block off plate but if it's been working good without the spacer just leave it

 

[Olivethefet]

The lower intake is now off. Now that it is off it appears that even if it wasn't the issue the gaskets really did need to be changed regardless. It was only a matter of time. I found a couple of issues along the way as well that I wasn't aware of. First, there was no gasket between the throttle body and the upper intake. Not sure why, but I'll get a new one. Second, the PCV valve has vanished! I installed one back there, but it is gone. I'll have to get a new one of those as well. Also of note is the crud in the block where the water enters the lower intake. I'll do my best to clean that up as well.

I'm guessing I need to do some kind of coolant system flush. The new thermostat housing that I installed is also rusting. I'm not running straight water in this thing. Its the green premixed stuff you get at the parts store. It's currently in the shop with a towel over the motor to keep stuff out of it. How hard is it to replace the wiring harness ends where it plugs into the injectors? All of mine are broke and a few were just barely holding on. In that vain I'll just go ahead and ask if anyone knows where to buy new harness plugs?

 

[90sickfox]

https://lmr.com/item/LRS-4411AK/ev1-fuel-injector-pigtail-kit

 

[Olivethefet]

Thanks for the link. For the price I'll have to pick up a set. I wasn't sure if someone knew where to buy the plastic end or if you could even replace the plastic end. I've seen some people on here do some clever stuff in the past. My parts list is growing.

 

[90sickfox]

Thanks for the link. For the price I'll have to pick up a set. I wasn't sure if someone knew where to buy the plastic end or if you could even replace the plastic end. I've seen some people on here do some clever stuff in the past. My parts list is growing.

You could replace just the plastic. The cheapest place is a local junk yard. Most ford's in the 80s used the same injectors and harness connectors. You can cut the wires at the yard and pull the wiring pins out at home. Just need a small pick. There's a red keeper that slides in the back of most ford connectors ( been a while since I looked at the injector harnesses ). Either way there is a tiny tab that locks the wire in. Release that little tab and the whole wire slides out. It isn't complicated at all. Not sure how the wires lock in those new ones. They are made different.

 

[Olivethefet]

The timing chain cover came in the other day. I'm going to wait to put it on until after I get finished with the intake. If I dont need to change it I'll just put it on the shelf for another project. I though I would share some pics of the new cover. Over all it seems like an alright unit. It is not nearly as nice as an original unit. You tell the casting is done cheaper. There are lots of sharp edges and places where there is extra material from again poor casting. It also says replacement cover on the front of it just in case the next guy was wondering. All of the above is also part of the reason I'm not in a hurry to put it on my car. I think it would work just fine. I just dont like the way it looks.

 

[RekeHavoc]

Thanks for the link. For the price I'll have to pick up a set. I wasn't sure if someone knew where to buy the plastic end or if you could even replace the plastic end. I've seen some people on here do some clever stuff in the past. My parts list is growing.

I replaced a few of mine recently. It is incredibly easy - just use a pick to remove the red retainer clip and a small screwdriver to remove the pins.

Check out Neomustangs on eBay if you want OEM replacements.

 

[Olivethefet]

@RekeHavoc Thanks for the link to the guy on eBay. I will have to get a set of plugs from him. $45 and you dont have to go to the junk yard is a deal in my book!

 

[Olivethefet]

I pulled the sensor off of the lower intake over the weekend, got a big barrel, filled it with water to cover the two halves of the intake and lit a fire under it! Exciting stuff. I put Dawn soap in the water as well. Did a decent job of cleaning everything up. I wanted to share a picture of the inlet air sensor I pulled off of the lower. I replaced it not that many miles ago, and this is what it looked like.

I'm going to clean it up before reinstalling it, but is this normal? I have a mission for the car and need it running at the beginning of next year. After that I plan to start digging into it and trying to figure out if it's just old gaskets and such that need to be replaced to help it run better or if it is just time for a rebuild. If I had to bet money or what I'm going to end up having to do my money would be on a rebuild. That wouldn't be the end of the world. Just time and money.

 

[Olivethefet]

I'm slowly getting the lower half of the intake cleaned up. I think its coming along nice.

I'm using a wire wheel to get to the easy stuff. I'm thinking about ordering some of these to clean between the runners.

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The plan would be to cut the loop off of the end of the brush and use the drill to spin it. I'm not trying to make it look new. Just better than it is. If/when I pull the motor to freshen it up I'll take the time to clean the whole bay. I probably wont even put this intake back on the motor at that point. As a matter of fact how do you guys think this intake compares to an Elelbrock intake? There is a guy in town that might do some horse trading with me with this intake. He sells Fox body parts. Just a thought.

 

[7991LXnSHO]

What intake is this? If it is a stock one, (the lower looks wrong to me), one of the Edelbrock intakes will flow better at a higher RPM range. But if they are imported stock heads. The gain will not be that great. A ported stock one (that someone is looking to get rid of an extra), or ported Explorer will be a better power range match.

 

[Olivethefet]

What intake is this?

This is a BBK SSI intake. I found a thread earlier about how this intake has an issue with the poorly designed fuel crossover line. My intake doesn't seem to have that issue. This intake will stay on the car until the car until it does a thing, more on that next year. At a later date I do want to change it to something else.

 

[7991LXnSHO]

This is a BBK SSI intake. I found a thread earlier about how this intake has an issue with the poorly designed fuel crossover line. My intake doesn't seem to have that issue. This intake will stay on the car until the car until it does a thing, more on that next year. At a later date I do want to change it to something else.

I had not thought about one of those for years. If you have a period one that does not leak, the cool factor is awesome, and the performance was good. I’d want to trade for it if I was at the parts place.

 

[Olivethefet]

@7991LXnSHO mine does not leak. Why must you complicate my life! Lol. I do like it for the simple fact that you never see them.

 

[Rdub6]

@7991LXnSHO mine does not leak. Why must you complicate my life! Lol. I do like it for the simple fact that you never see them.

Unique is cool, that’s for sure!

 

[Olivethefet]

I got the lower intake cleaned up about as much as I'm going to at this time last night. I could buy brushes and continue to clean and polish, but honestly everything under the hood is in need of a complete refresh, so it feels pointless to spend the time and energy to make it shiny. It looks way better than it did. When I got the car I had to replace the thermostat housing as the one on the car had rusted through in spots on the neck. I replaced it with a cast iron unit from RA. The new one, even though I painted it, is already rusting and looks bad. I was thinking about replacing it, but I dont want another cast iron unit if I can help it or a chrome unit. I dont like the chrome ones because I think they look cheap. I got on LMR and all they have are the units that I dont want, and they are sold out of the OE Ford units. I checked RA and they have OE Ford units, but they want $180 for them! It's kinda hard to justify spending $180 for a thermostat housing. I'm going to keep looking around, but does anyone have any leads on a quality replacement unit? The OE Ford unit would be nice, but not necessary. I dont mind if it has the plug in it for, I'm guessing, a sensor. I'm really just hoping to get a stainless steel or aluminum unit.