[ice445]

Installed Mach and fixed the footwell lighting. Since this is a 5/98 build car, this is one of the very last built to get the footwell lights. Durasel always sells good stuff, mach sounds way better as always lol. One of the original tweeters was blown too so its a much more enjoyable experience now.

 

[ice445]

Just did my first mpg measurement. She's averageing 21mpg overall. Very impressive for winter!

 

[ice445]

Replaced this today. Engine is much quieter, didn't realize what an awful screeching racket this was making. It had progressed past the birds chirping. It felt very loose and there was a substantial amount of up and down play on the gear. Got the flickering oil light of death at idle the other day after a highway drive, wondering if this had something to do with that. Gonna do an oil change as well (and get rid of the fram filter lmao) and see if it comes back. If it does, no big deal really. I'll just switch to a 5W40 and keep trucking, lol.

 

[sheila]

^ Fram, "The Orange Can of Doom!", lol!!!

 

[chartmaker]

^ Fram, "The Orange Can of Doom!", lol!!!

I prefer MC at Wallyworld. Low cost, available. Low risk. Cabin filter is not so important as to brand.
-chart-

 

[ice445]

Well, the news isnt good. Lol. The picture speaks for itself. Fresh 5w30 oil and filter fixed the light, which is good. But the engine is on borrowed time. There's a couple possibilities here as to what happened. One is fuel dilution from when the car was running too rich (the oil was very thin and watery but not emulsified, and more came out than 5 quarts) Another is that I didn't do a good enough job keeping the dust and debris of the decking/sanding process of my head job out of the engine. I did struggle somewhat with that because the die grinder was good at making my towels and such fly away, lol. Definitely need a better strategy for that next time. Third possibility is this is from the bores that had pitting/corrosion from sitting with coolant in them. Fourth is that the Fram filter didn't do a very good job filtering. Probably a combination of all of these, honestly.

I'm gonna change the oil again in 1000 miles and see if there's an improvement. Otherwise I'll just keep driving until rodney says hello, lol. Overall I'm not too upset, this car has taught me a lot, through the good and the bad. Vulcan engines are also a dime a dozen

 

[Automender12345]

Could it be a leaking passage of the head gasket of coolant to an oil passage? Are you losing any coolant?

 

[ice445]

Could it be a leaking passage of the head gasket of coolant to an oil passage? Are you losing any coolant?

I lose a small amount of coolant every week, but I can smell it coming off the front of the car. Until I find that leak, I can't conclusively say that I dont have another head issue. The lower plastic t hose has a small crack and sometimes I've caught it leaving a small puddle in that area. Could be the rad as well, I lack a pressure tester to confirm. With that said, I have none of the other symptoms that I did pre repair. Possible that I missed a small crack somewhere, but I don't remember seeing any substantial water in the oil after cracking the drain plug except when I did the timing cover. I never ran the engine on that oil though.

That oil in the picture was after 1500mi. I definitely should have changed it earlier, now that I think about it.

 

[Automender12345]

I ran a 1983 Chevy S10 Blazer that had a intake gasket failure and it dumped so much water into the oil it condensed in the old style air filter housing. I am talking standing water in the housing and drove it 20 miles and kept adding water. I fixed the gasket and it lasted many years after that.

 

[ice445]

I ran a 1983 Chevy S10 Blazer that had a intake gasket failure and it dumped so much water into the oil it condensed in the old style air filter housing. I am talking standing water in the housing and drove it 20 miles and kept adding water. I fixed the gasket and it lasted many years after that.

Dang, that's bad lol. Impressive though. I think the engine is still okay, it definitely shaved some life off, but I'm going to change the oil again in 500 miles and see if the glitter is just as bad. If it's gone, it should be fine. Otherwise there's obviously a countdown to rod knock going on. I didn't see any big chunks, and the only glitter was floating on the surface like that. I'll cut open the oil filter to see if it caught any or if it was stuck in bypass mode for some reason, just for curiosity sake.

The nice thing is a fresh fill of 5W30 synth blend and a Motorcraft FL-400S fixed the flickering oil light at hot idle completely. I drove the car for a solid 45 minutes straight yesterday including on the highway and it didn't show up once. Still in business, for now

 

[ice445]

She's still running great. 100 miles left until oil change #2. Need to unclog the driver's side sprayer jet for the windshield, it's barely letting any fluid out while the passenger side is shooting onto the roof, lol.

 

[ice445]

Two weeks of snow and perilous winter weather so far. This is probably the best car I've ever driven in snow. Not having traction control other than my foot is quite nice. Plus these skinny 15 inch wheels (with new appropriate tires) cut through the snow on the road like butter. It's amazing. You have to truly go out of your way or mat the throttle to get any spin at all.

 

[chartmaker]

Yes but would is start in Zero in Dallas?. Deep South in deep do do. I had '85 LTD start at -24F and drove 70 miles of 2 lane and temp gage never moved. At least it started.
15 and sunny here in the NORTH country of NY. 2.7" white stuff predicted tomorrow. Just enough to whiten the yard.

 

[sheila]

My '94/'95 gen2 Vulcans were "tanks" in the snow. Best "winter beaters" I've owned, lol!

 

[Automender12345]

Never had issues with snow with my Taurus. My daughter ran Ice and Snow tires on hers and it truly was a tank in the snow and ice. Tires had extra sticky soft rubber that was porous that would let the melted ice flow the rubber. THat rubber was only the top 1/2 of the total thread.

 

[ice445]

Found the coolant leak finally. The metal barb/fitting for the lower reservoir hose to the T is rotted and leaks. Easiest way to fix this? I can't find that actual hose anywhere to replace it. Is it a 1inch diameter? I could just cut out the fitting and replace with a plastic one I suppose.

 

[Automender12345]

Found the coolant leak finally. The metal barb/fitting for the lower reservoir hose to the T is rotted and leaks. Easiest way to fix this? I can't find that actual hose anywhere to replace it. Is it a 1inch diameter? I could just cut out the fitting and replace with a plastic one I suppose.
View attachment 217660

I replaced the same pipe five years ago and they were available on RockAuto. I was worried that it would rust away, someone posted years ago they had a leak there. I may have the original pipe but it would take too long to send it out to you. Thinking the new pipe had a plastic nipple. I believe the nipple is used because the hoses are two different sizes.

 

[ice445]

I replaced the same pipe five years ago and they were available on RockAuto. I was worried that it would rust away, someone posted years ago they had a leak there. I may have the original pipe but it would take too long to send it out to you. Thinking the new pipe had a plastic nipple. I believe the nipple is used because the hoses are two different sizes.

I found this one for an 03, but it seems like I'd still have to buy a nipple for it to fit it onto the lower?

 

[Automender12345]

It may slip directly on the lower radiator hose. May have to cut the installed hose on the lower rad hose. It was too long ago to remember.

 

[ice445]

Nothing much to report, still humming along. Over 3000 miles since the engine overhaul and she's still running with no issues. Now that the weather is getting warmer I'll be driving the Mustang more. I've decided to slowly recondition this vehicle when time allows over the summer. Since the prices of used vehicles have shot way up from all this free money handed out, I'll just keep it around. Should have quite a few miles left in it. I've also found I just enjoy these third gens a lot, and they're getting harder to find in decent shape. I plan on swapping in a newer Vulcan longblock (because the glitter situation doesn't inspire long term confidence) and doing a suspension overhaul at the minimum. We'll see what else gets done. Some other odds and ends are needed, like the driver's seat since the cushion has gone a bit flat. And I definitely have to do something about the head unit so I can use bluetooth without a transmitter. Modern phones don't even have headphone jacks for aux input anymore.