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2000 V6 Mustang - A Work In Progress My Previous Blog Entries |
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A Little Update | |||||
| Well, my caliper froze and ruined the brake pad on my driver side so I scrounged enough money using my phone price adjustment to replace my brake pads. The one on the passenger rear would NOT go on, so I had to reuse the one good pad I had left as the outboard pad on that side. The car stops kinda uneven now but at least its not grinding and ruining my rims anymore.
Also, I have developed a bad leak in (hopefully) my lower intake gasket. Either that, or the head gasket is blown. I am putting water/coolant mix in it every day that I drive more than 10 minutes. I have to take short trips because I cant afford to blow another engine. Oh, and I still cant check my oil because I cant afford the $600++ to get my oil pan replaced and new oil dipstick put in. Seems about right... I am less than 6 months from paying it off, it's about time for it to nickel and dime me to death until I cant afford to bandaid-fix it enough to keep it running. C'est la vie. | |||||
A lot of updates... | |||||
| Well, first off... I actually got to go visit my son Austin in Jacksonville FL for the first time in over a year and we had a great time. He has grown like a weed and his voice has gotten that much deeper. Good times were had and God provided us a safe trip there and back.
On a side note, I can not believe the stupidity of the highway supervisors that dictate when to do construction. We actually avoided the unreal 2 hour delay on I-10 in Jacksonville like we normally hit, only to run into an hour and a half delay coming through Georgia... We went 21 miles in a little under 2 hours because they decided it would be a good time to do construction on the Saturday that was the frist day of spring break for Georgia schools. Absolutely ridiculous. Anyway, Lisa's car has been having problems lately. Running fine, but hardly any acceleration. I changed the plugs and wires and that seemed to make it run a little better, but didnt fix the pickup problem. What a pain in the butt that was. The #6 spark plug boot had been pushed way too far down onto the plug and had melted itself onto it. A friend of mine named David had to come save my sanity and suggested I break the plug off and hope it didnt snap off mid-thread in the block. The good Lord saw fit that it worked and we got the old plug out. Long story short, the acceleration problem ended up being due to a almost completely clogged catalytic converter. We were quoted $477 for spark plug and wire change and $788 for catalytic converter change. We ended up doing both for less than $200. Mike's Mufflers on Deleware Ave in Lexington did the welding and it fixed the problem. About my car, the only real update is that I got my Windstar Upper Intake on and fabbed up. I can't really notice a difference except it now requires a little more time to warm up on cold cold mornings, but then again, I haven't taken it on the highway or anything to see if the topend power difference is there. I have to take my headers back off yet again and regrind the rubbing points in my engine bay where they hit the engind mounts because the rattling is driving me nuts and is probably damaging the headers in the process. Lastly, my oil dipstick tube broke off in my stang right at the engine block. I have had the headers off twice trying to get to it with different methods and nothing has worked yet. I am about at wits end because I dont have the tools or the patience to hoist the engine and pull the oil pan. I have a temporary fix on it right now, but who knows how long that will last.
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One step closer to being done... | |||||
| Finally got my MAC longtubes installed. Did it myself in my driveway. Got my previous XPipe modified to work with the longtubes and am good to go. Mike at Mikes Auto on Deleware Street in Lexington did it for me for a very reasonable price. I am very pleased with the results.
For anyone looking to do this themselves, go ahead and try it. It wasn't that hard to do, and definitely worth doing yourself compared to paying a shop $300+ for it. I hate to use an old cliche, but I will... "If I can do it, anyone can !". | |||||
It has begun | |||||
Well, I have begun my longtube install in my driveway. Wish me luck. I am going to follow instructions that I have found numerous places and hope for the best. One thing I have found so far that I am NOT happy about is that my mechanic that replaced my engine pulled a lazy move that could have caused me way more issues that I could have imagined. He told me that he replaced all the plugs, wires, and clips with brand new parts. Well, i just removed my spark plugs less than 3 weeks after the engine work and five out of the six of them are charred severely and are Champion plugs, and the sixth one is a MOTORCRAFT plug that looks like it has 20K or better mileage on it. It happens to be the one that was hardest to get to before I deleted my EGR yesterday. I am sure that you can't read the brand names, but trust me that these cant POSSIBLY be new plugs. I am going to wait til I calm down before I call them just to keep from embarrassing myself screaming like an idiot.
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All fixed up. | |||||
| Well, turns out I evidently screwed the oil filter on crooked the last time I did an oil change. It never developed a single problem until that day, but that was all it took.
I finally got it back yesterday. I am so happy I danced a jig. We got the engine swap done from a 98 F150 for roughly the same price as a low mileage 2000 mustang engine would have cost. From everything I have read, the F150 engine is built a little sturdier so that is a good thing. 102K on the original engine wasn't bad for a Ford I guess... Anyway, the shop did right by me and I am no longer upset at the whole turn of events that lead up to this. I won't go back and edit my original comments because that would make me appear to be shady. I will simply state that the mechanic had never heard of a 4.2 swap before so I guess I would have been a little skiddish about it too if I hadn't researched it to death. Thank God it's all done now!! I am going to keep a close eye on the fluids and make sure everything appears in good working order. The clutch is acting kind of funny every 20 or so times I press it down, so I will get him to check into that tomorrow. I am so excited!! | |||||
Not fixed right - by US Muffler in Lexington | |||||
| Well, I got my car back home, Thank you God :) I missed having it here and am very glad it's back where it belongs. It was worked on over the last few days and after returning from the men's conference, I picked her back up and brought her home.
However, I am NOT happy in the least bit. After taking forever to "order a new engine", and having to show him how to tell which engine to get (internal or external balanced) and having him tell me a 4.2 out of a F150 wouldn't fit my car, I was really worried about having him work on it. Evidently I had good reason to be worried. It shimmies and shakes like it has tourrettes while sitting idle at a stoplight and runs quite rough between idling up to about 30 MPH. He called me earlier today to say the engine "replacement" was complete but that he couldn't get it out of first-second gear and asked if I wanted him to look at it and fix it. I spoke with him later and he said that he had to take the shifter out to look at the tranny and realized that there was a "bolt loose" and that he had fixed it. I'm sure he will charge me labor for that as well even though there was no bolts loose when it was towed into the shop. Turns out, he got an engine from a 2000 Winstar van. It wasn't built to withstand the weight of a flywheel for a 5speed and therefore there is no way to keep it from vibrating so bad. I am afraid to drive it any more because if he did screw up the balancing on it, it could lead to major engine problems very quickly. I will update this website when we get it running right and get the bill adjusted accordingly. | |||||
Car is down for the count... | |||||
| The inevitible happened. My car has taken a nosedive. I knew it was coming. I don't run it ragged or do burnouts or race whatsoever, let alone ever taking it to the track. I dont floor it from stoplight to stoplight or speed like a fool, I just knew it would happen by the time I got it paid off. I am less than a year away from that and now it happened.
I don't know whats wrong with it and my mechanic doesnt seem interested in actually turning a wrench enough to take it apart to see if it can be fixed. It could be something as simple as a blown gasket or something, but it won't even begin to turn over. It just makes a noise and that's all. It appears to have spewed oil all over the pulleys, alternator, battery, belt, etc... I just hope that it can be fixed correctly and very soon.
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In limbo... | |||||
| My car went dead Monday morning. No warning whatsoever. I am not sure what I am going to do as of now because even the mechanic doesnt know how bad it is yet. I don't have any money to trade it in so I am going to have to just wait and see what the verdict is on what it will cost to fix it. Will update as it unfolds. | |||||
The Dark Knight Project | |||||
| Come on folks !
Now is the time, before it's too late. In case you have no idea, The Dark Knight is the BEST Batman movie to date (yes, even Nicholson's version of the joker included). The movie itself is kind of slow at times, but the overall performance was outstanding. Yet, this past weekend, TDK was not number 1 at the box office. As of the time I type this, it fell to number two behind "Tropic Thunder" for this weekend. As of now, TDK has pulled in $471 million. The craptastic movie "Titanic" still sits at $600 million (these numbers reflect cost of ticket at the time) although it took them re-releasing it to the theatres to do so. So, let me issue a challenge to all the car guys/gals and anyone else reading this. Today is Tuesday, August 19th. I challenge everyone to go see TDK at least once between now and August 31st. I have already seen it three times and am looking to go again !! I have no idea what date they are planning on pulling it out of the movie houses, but if it is still making money, I doubt they will do so. There is no way TDK should be beaten by Titanic, regardless how many times Titanic was re-released at the box office. So, take your children (even if they sleep through it), your wife/girlfriend (or both at the same time if you are so bold), your neighbor, your mom/dad, your long lost friend, your worst enemy, or some stranger begging change on the corner. JUST GO SEE IT !! See it again if you've already seen it... it just gets better every time - you notice more innuendo and hidden clues every time you do so !! Anyone interested in making it a group outing, leave me a message on my TDK Guestbook. Also, please leave me feedback on my TDK Guestbook if you took my challenge !! Thanks ! | |||||
Warmer weather | |||||
| Well, warmer weather has finally arrived. It only took 3 extra weeks to see 70 degree weather, but at least it is here. Along with warmer weather, comes more chances to get together, meet new people, and work on cars :)
For anyone within 50 miles of Lexington, I invite you to come hang out with us car nuts at Parkette Drive-In on thursday evenings. People start showing up around 8:30 or 9:00 at night and usually hang out until after 11 or so. The business hasn't re-opened yet, but due to the lack of violence and destruction of property, the owners have yet to ever run anyone off, or ask that we not come. There are usually between 60-75 cars every week, and usually close to 100 people or so. As long as nothing ever gets damaged or stolen, I would venture to say that the new owners will likely never mind us coming. We have had police officers drive by dozens of times and not once have they ever stopped in and asked us to leave. There are actually a couple of officers that come in thier personal vehicles. Come on out and join us in the fun. If you do come, look for my car and stop by and chat a minute. I'm usually the shy guy walking around looking at other cars but not instigating conversation, though I will always speak to anyone that speaks first :) Hope to see you there! By the way, if you have a minute, post up your car pictures on my OTHER COOL CARS page. Mustang or not, if its your special project/baby/daily driver, post it anyway... Thanks! |
| Verse of the moment : In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. - Genesis 1:1 - |