dangerranger83's 97 T-bird

[dangerranger83]

Figured I would start a thread on the car instead of flooding my trucks thread.

Details. 1997 Ford Thunderbirdbird with a 4.6 liter auto trans. Bought it for $750. Doesn't burn any oil or anything it's not suppose to and does not trip any fluids. It does however have the factory intake on it that are known to crack on the front coolant crsss over and this one does have a very tiny crack that I'm going to fix. Does have it body rusty that I'm told is in the typical areas but the underbody was rino lined by one of the owners and other then the heat shields starting to rust, the floors are in great shape. Just put two new rear tires on it yesterday and the fronts will be in a couple of weeks. And yes you will see in the pictures that one of the PO rotated the fronts to opposite sides by will get that changed back when new tires are put on.

The cancer spots....

How the underbody looks...

The engine...

The leak in the intake...

I don't recommend anybody doing this and if you do, you do this at you own risk. TRS or anybody is at fault if something were to happen.

Okay now that I have said that this is what I'm talking about. It is my first time doing this. I do have a video, this is a screen shot of it.

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[dangerranger83]

Anybody know where the a/c condenser its on these cars? Can't find it for my life for some reason.

After driving 50 city miles, only burned a little more then an 1/8 of a tank of fuel.

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[dangerranger83]

Fixed the front intake coolant leak but now I need to find the exact location on the rear by cylinder number 8 lash that I discovered the other day while cleaning up the engine bay a bit. The coolant is leaking on the injector and I'm not sure if that is causing the miss/hesitation/etc.. I get when the engine is warmed up and when I go to accelerate or speed up, doesn't do it all the time though.

The "fix"

And the other leak...

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[dangerranger83]

Have random hesitation so I got some codes pulled despite no CEL and got my temp sensors, evap solenoid and o2 sensor. Checked the plugs and they are all new motorcraft platinums so that's not a problem.

Will need a new battery soon and cable ends.

Next year, hoping this intake will last, I will be doing the PI intake swap on it.

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[85_Ranger4x4]

Old coolant has been known to make the aluminum crossover pipe swell and bust the plastic intake. I am not too up on cars but I have been semi envious of the aluminum intake in my brother's '97 F-150...

It also isn't unheard of for the same neglected vehicle to need intake gaskets.

Did you pull all the plugs or just the one? After spending a night broadside to a blizzard it took about 2 weeks for me short out a coilpack from the snow that accumulated in #7. You might check that to make sure you don't have a hole with coolant in it.

Also if they ran the plugs too long they can kill coilpacks too, I think the unipacks like what you have are more durable than the COP coils that I have though. Either way more plug gap = more load.

 

[dangerranger83]

I have the coil packs and they are worse then the COP, give why Ford went to them.

I have the factory intake, all plastic and it had a slow leak so PI intake well happen since they cost about the same to replace plus 10-15rwhp gain too.

I pulled them all and a clean bill of health.

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[dangerranger83]

Whoever changed out the coolant temp sensor last put the wrong one for the computer/cooling fan in, they instead put one for the dash gauge in and forced the harness connector on it, same with the dash gauge but didn't fix that one. This did now fix the problem of my cooling fan running non stop, it now turn on only when it needs to.

Also the air charge temp sensor had spider web all over, got that and the MAF cleaned. Seems to run better now.

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[dangerranger83]

Yesterday went out to leave for work, went to try and start the car and it wouldn't do it, everything else electrically worked though. I knew the battery cable clamps were going to need replaced when I got it. So drove the ranger to work yesterday.

Today woke up and it it's raining outside but he'll or high water had to change them. The negative was the bad one so a quick trip to AutoZone, in the only vehicle I have left that has the problem of a windshield wiper that stops working due to the connecting bushing is shot, $6 later got a clamp set and got the negative clamp changed before the rain stated to really come down on me. Good news is, the car starts again. Bad news, still have to change the positive one.

Well get pictures later, didn't want to rain soak my phone.

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[simpler=better]

you're going to love this car. Word on the street is around 30mpgees if you accelerate like a snail and keep it around 55.

 

[dangerranger83]

There are times I drive it like I stole it and 55mph is rare as in town I do the speed limit and the highway I'm doing 75mph.

The worse I have gotten was 13mpg. Right now I'm getting 16-18 and that's better then the 7-8 that my ranger gets due to the trans choice (low gearing). But I plan on doing an efi swap in the future on it.

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[dangerranger83]

Well finally got the money to get front tires put on it along with getting the front runs turned around. No more steering wheel wobble, hard turning while stopped, etc.... Also pulled out a bag of sound deadening out of the quarter panel that is known to cause them to root out like mine has started to do. At first it looked like a bag of drugs.





Next is to get a new idler pulley since mine is staying to talk to me and get a new intake with the metal coolant crossover.

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[dangerranger83]

As of last night the driver side door wouldn't close unless I lifted it up because of the door sag so I guess it's time to change the pin and bushings in the hinges. Got everything I need to do the job thanks to some research, other then a floor jack to hold the door up and a drill. Hopefully be able to do this Sunday.

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[dangerranger83]

I replaced the pins and bushings but I fear that it's more of a band aid because of how long is had this problem so I'm going to have to replace the hinges soon and that's a project and a half from what I've read.

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[dangerranger83]

Just ordered a used passenger/driver side top door hinge for $24 off a guy on Facebook. It's coming off the passenger side of the donar car so it should be in better shape then a driverside setting as my passenger side hinges have zero play in them.

Question is finding a lower one for a decent price then doing the long process of changing them out which involves taking the side kick plates and what not out to get access to other things.

And these doors only weigh a ton each. Be happy to get this project done.

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[dangerranger83]

Well went to a ranger meet yesturday but didn't make it but istead got stranded on I69 brcause the temp sensor fitting popped out of the intake. Got rescued by Lonnie Smith and can't thank him enough.





Have a line on one for $75 but it has the metal coolant crossover.

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