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My LX is getting a new heart - 3.0L swap

Shift cables are in. They were a pain to get past/over the power steering line, as I was afraid to kink them :o

I aligned the shifter with the tool Starjammir loaned me, and WOW!!!! Shifting is very smooth. At first when I did a 1st to 2nd shift, I thought there was a problem like it was missing second, as there was no effort, but then looked down and saw it in second :laugh:

However, during our testing, the car failed to start! I heard the tell-tail clicking of a dead battery :confused: Come to find out the battery had dropped to 10.6V. I jumped the car, and did a voltage check, and only 11.2V. Upon further inspection, I found the problem....the "headlight flicker fix" is backwards :nonono:
We connected the wire (orange in my car) in the harness to the alternator, instead of the wiring from the plug to the alternator :blackeye:

I'll fix that tomorrow, and hopefully then I'll have some juice....AND THEN THE ROAD TEST!!!!!! (and data logging for Joey)
 
Congrats Chas I hope to get mine started tomorrow sometime then I'll start the process of tuning. Anyway congrats on getting the swap this far I hope to be done soon too!
 
Chas said:
... I found the problem....the "headlight flicker fix" is backwards :nonono:
We connected the wire (orange in my car) in the harness to the alternator, instead of the wiring from the plug to the alternator :blackeye:

I'll fix that tomorrow, and hopefully then I'll have some juice....AND THEN THE ROAD TEST!!!!!! (and data logging for Joey)
Click to expand...

Nice. Good job on the cables. As for the "wiring fix", that's what i was trying to tell u, remember? U felt it was the other way:). Here's the firstt time i did it.

http://www.contour.org/ceg-vb/showthread.php?64659-battery-light-on/page4
 
BAD SVT said:
Nice. Good job on the cables. As for the "wiring fix", that's what i was trying to tell u, remember? U felt it was the other way:). Here's the firstt time i did it.

http://www.contour.org/ceg-vb/showthread.php?64659-battery-light-on/page4
Click to expand...

I remember questioning which wire we cut, but not which end to splice :) Oh well, it's an easy fix to set right. I'll double check the wire (as mine is orange that we cut) with my multimeter at the fuse terminal by the battery (mine should be fuse position #7).
 
Chas said:
I remember questioning which wire we cut, but not which end to splice :) Oh well, it's an easy fix to set right. I'll double check the wire (as mine is orange that we cut) with my multimeter at the fuse terminal by the battery (mine should be fuse position #7).
Click to expand...

Fair enough. Glad its all fixed. Looks like u're on the last stretch. By my calculations, she should be ready to hit the road:)
 
So I put all the covers and bumper on. torqued the wheels, lowered the car and........off I went around the neighborhood :laugh:

First impressions was with the shifter. So much smoother than before :shocked: Pretty close to the black SVT, but probably smooth as the cables in the the LX are new. Then was the torque. I didn't get on the car too hard, but the power increase was noticeable, and much less effort than the stuttering 2.5L.

NOW THE BAD :mad:

I still have a leak!!!! When I came back to the garage, I saw some drips on the ground, and smelt burning. What I thought was residual PS fluid is probably engine oil. After tracing the leak upwards, I can see oil in the valley between the heads. It looks like the oil was leaking from the MTX, and I freaked out!!!! but saw there was oil in the engine valley, and then saw it's trail down.

So, the new question is what would cause oil in the valley? I can only think of the PCV box. Would that leak enough to spill out? Is there anything on the heads that can leak into the valley?
 
Did you add the pcv box to that motor? If it's leaking from the valley, that does seem like the best guest. Luckily it doesn't take that much time to remove the intake manifolds.... so check it out ;)
 
Chas said:
So I put all the covers and bumper on. torqued the wheels, lowered the car and........off I went around the neighborhood :laugh:

First impressions was with the shifter. So much smoother than before :shocked: Pretty close to the black SVT, but probably smooth as the cables in the the LX are new. Then was the torque. I didn't get on the car too hard, but the power increase was noticeable, and much less effort than the stuttering 2.5L.

NOW THE BAD :mad:

I still have a leak!!!! When I came back to the garage, I saw some drips on the ground, and smelt burning. What I thought was residual PS fluid is probably engine oil. After tracing the leak upwards, I can see oil in the valley between the heads. It looks like the oil was leaking from the MTX, and I freaked out!!!! but saw there was oil in the engine valley, and then saw it's trail down.

So, the new question is what would cause oil in the valley? I can only think of the PCV box. Would that leak enough to spill out? Is there anything on the heads that can leak into the valley?
Click to expand...

Thats weird:confused:. Unfortunately for u, all ur fluids are royal purple, which makes it even tougher to pinpoint the leak's source;). If there's oil in the heads, then its 2 things. 1) Pcv box 2) Power steering pump. Considering there was a leak there earlier, my guess would be the pump. For some odd reason, our pumps tend to start leaking when they sit for a while. I've no idea why:shrug:. But by all means, check the black breather box first. If that checks out, then there's a p.s leak somewhere. Hope that helps.
 
Ok, thanks guys. I'm goin to get some UV dye for the PS on the way home. When I add it to the small tank by the strut tower, how fast will that fluid be circulated into the PS system??
 
So good news! I may not have a PS/oil leak. After adding the dye, and running the car for data logging for the tune, I can't see any dye, AND no more oil has dripped down! I think what might have happened is when I had the hard PS line disconnected for 24hrs to let the black RTV set up (nicked the line while cutting off the old flare nut), the fluid leaked down into the valley. I had the hoses covered/plugged with Scott shop towels, but they were soaked when I removed them.

On a down side, the SCT Live link program for data logging keeps freezing in the middle of my log. I sent Joey all the files I could get, and hopefully it's enough for him to improve the tune. Once SCT has had their engineers fix the glitch, I'll do a full data log, but who knows how long that will be!
 
Still no oil leaks!! The small leak from one of the engine coolant hoses is still dripping occasionally, but I'll fix that soon.

I took the car by my local mechanic's house, and we scanned the car, and looked at the live data. A couple of things came up:

TPS is 18% at idle <-- is this normal. (it is smooth all the way to 99%) (65mm mustang TB w/ SVT TPS)

Upper O2's read 0.005 to 0.030 (not the normal 0.850~)

Obviously I need to change the upper O2's, but what's everyone reading on their TPS %??
 
Thanks. I didn't think that would be an issue. I'm going to replace the upper O2's in the next couple of days and see what changes.

The codes I wrote down was 1504 idle issue, and 0300 (pending) random misfire across all clyinders. When the car is above idle, it is very responsive and smooth; I can't feel any misses. Only idle is rough/wandering.
 
Joey called me this morning after looking at the data log. He said that the MAF reading looks low, indicating an air leak somewhere. Also, the O2's do show movement, but only after it has been given some gas.

I'm not sure if I want to sink $100 in O2's if they are not bad. I did disconnect the MAF, and the car didn't really run any better. I also removed the accordion, and stuck my hand over the TB opening with the car running. It built a vacuum against my hand slowly, but once it built, it was very strong! Is that normal, or is my IAC not letting air in?
 
To see if the IAC is opening more than it should (or stuck open), you could clamp a vice-grip on the IAC hose and slowly tighten it.

Other than that, did you double check that the EGR pipe is tight? Did you use new intake gaskets?
 
morbid said:
To see if the IAC is opening more than it should (or stuck open), you could clamp a vice-grip on the IAC hose and slowly tighten it.

Other than that, did you double check that the EGR pipe is tight? Did you use new intake gaskets?
Click to expand...

The IAC hose is the one the mousing fix cap goes in? When I start to close the line the engine should die?

I don't have an EGR, but the cap Pole provides in his kit for the header bung is very tight. I did use new intake, TB and EGR gaskets. I couldn't get a new IAC gasket, so I used a small amount of black RTV with the old gasket.
 
Sorry... re-reading what you said, an open IAC wouldn't cause the MAF to read low. Have you tried spraying starter fluid around the IAC... and the other sealed intake areas too?

Did Joey say that the maf readings looked good at higher rpm?
 
I did spray carb cleaner in suspect areas with no noticeable difference.

Joey wasn't too specific, but it did sound like he was referring to running/higher RPM is where that MAF looked low.
 
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