The Surgury

Pulling the motor for several reasons.

1. T5
2. re gasketing everything
3. I'm OCD about dirty engine bays (dont laugh)
4. The car sat in a three sided building, 15 miles from town, in the middle of a field, for two years, Theres mouse refuse EVRYWHERE, and when I first got the car eveytime I opened the hood for someone their first comment was on how many mice it had.. It annoyed me :p

So...

AOD crossmember/driveshaft from an 5.0 tbird
T5/bellhousing from a mustang
non automatic TC computer

Look for this stuff in the cassifieds soon:

Nearly perfect 88 TC shell (no title)(was a five speed, prolly willing to throw in the stock motor and T5 for the right moneys :p )
89 Thunderbird LX (might keep the 5.0/AOD)
89 Super Coupe (might keep the supercharged 3.8)(no title)
N/A mustang 2.3 motor
2 A4LD (one unknown, one functions, and has bright red fluid)
2 TC upper/lowers
1 TC exaust man.
2 88 TC exausts (one stock)(one hacked on)

List is of course subject to change.. anyone see anything I've missed of the parts cars that I might want? I intend to finish this having my modded motor in the car, and a spare 5sp TC drive train for when I breaks it :p

How much am I into this so far?

1 $500 pontiac
and an additional $300 for the parts cars.

add my $1500.00 budget and I'll have a nice TC for under $2300, and by the way it'll whip up on smallblocks That is of course assuming this motor has the potential ive heard. :p

you really need to reconsider the bellhousing you are thinking about using. you can make the cable one work but id go with the hydrolic bell..

What about issues with the slave cyl? Never met a hydro clutch I liked. On the other hand I should get more "feel" out of the cable setup.

I like the hyd system and I have a few years experience with cable. The hyd is smooth and easy. No binding and little if any increase in effort with stage 2 and 3 clutch setups

The slave slides into a bracket cast in the bellhousing. It's that simple. Bleed it like a brake system the first time and you are good to go

Gotten a TON of good info here Hyd, it is.

Does the VAM have to sit in its stock location? Or can I turn it on it's side?

as long as its ether upright or upsidedown its should be fine, keep it as level as you can. The angle of how the door sits can change the response, but other then that you can move it were ever you please

If you decide to go the blow through route then it wont matter if you put it at a funny 36* angle

Josh

the bt vam from what ive read seems to be a logical mod. the only problem is rigging it up. thats my next project. joy!

YAY warmth. It was 40ish today Motor and trans are out. These 2.3's come out quite nicely overall, of course, this being the first one I didnt have a spare yoke to put in the trans, so it puked everywhere, but no matter, now I have a yoke.

She's in real good shape overall, didn't find any surprises in the empty bay (welds/rust) a bit of surface rust on the inboard sides of the strut towers, came right off with a wire wheel. She seems to have had a chronic oil leak, as the tranny tunnel and firewall had a THICK coating, of gunk, upon removal, pretty sheetmetal. I'm currently removing items from the inner fenderwells, there are seeds and fuzz EVERYWHERE dang mices. Engine wiring harness was unspliced, I'll have to replace a few pigtails due to rotten/broken clips, but thats it.

Now the bad news, the manifold I had off another car is cracked. Upon closer inspection the manifold on the car is cracked. Looks like 40bobs gettin a piece of this action :p

Got back with my turbo guy, scored a FMIC/tubing for my TC intercoolers (it's still in the box) He's doing up an S-10 currently, it has a 454, and twin IHI's Anyway, also scored an HKS BOV, the internal wastegate setup (sans actuator), my turbo IS a ball bearing, and he DID have the feed flange for it, as well as a complete oil feed line (All new)

ALso aquired a nice oil cooler/remote filter mount setup

Till next time

:p

When installing the oil cooler/remote filter mount it would be wise to invest in an oil thermostat, earl's plumbing sells a nice one that has 3 ports for you to hook up any sensors you may want with it.

Oil doesn't work like it should cold, oil should be at the same operating temp as your coolant is(around 180*-195*)

I don't know how much boost your going to be pushing but if you decide to go past the 20psi range it'll be best to upgrade to an external wastegate.

Josh