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Mustang Turbo project


ruin41

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Hi i just joined so i thought id share my current project. 1990 Mustang GTHO 5.0 Turbo. I have several others lying around waiting for time and motivation. 79 928 Porsche gloss black 5 speed manual, 81 XD falcon ute 351 cleve injected somewhat customised. 89 gt4 celica. 92 5.0 fairmont. 92 5.0 LTD limo. 95 XR6 ute manual. 96 BMW 740il for those days when i have to look my age :) The mustang is my daily driver when im not working on it.

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When i first got this car it didnt run as well as my fairmont or as economical. The air bag light came on sometimes and the check engine light came on now and then. I was driving it so i knew without even looking the engine was still there. I really put these down to probable wiring issues resulting from the right hand drive conversion. The lights always stayed out next time i started the car and i had even chucked it in neutral while driving and turned it off and on again, when the lights were on and they stayed out. When i put the turbo on it went from doing 100 miles per $50 of gas down to 50 miles per $50. Part of this was clearly the timing i had to back off to evade detonation, but there was something seriously wrong.

Tried lots of things and every time i changed something it seemed better but more often then not returned to its less than satisfactory state. Cleaned all sensors. Replaced o2's. New leads, plugs, cap, rotor, injector cleaner etc. Gradually it was getting better and finally i brought a tuner for it and with this allowing me to get the timing back etc i had finally got it back to 85 miles for $50 of gas. This wasnt bad when the increase in fuel prices was factored in, but it wasnt the end. Changes to the ecu often take a few days to settle if im not doing many miles and a couple of days after making the last change i jumped in to go down to the shop.

The car ran like crap the engine was physically rocking back and forth every time i tried to accellerate a little. Took it for a drive the following day and it wasnt any better but removed the last tuning changes id made and it seemed to get better. The next day took it for a run down the motorway in case it was a fouled plug that would clear itself but no such luck. Connected the code scanner and it said number 7 wasnt running right ... Great. ( read @##$% @##%$ @!!##%%$ ). Changed lead took it for a ride ...nope. Plug out ...smelt of fuel. Compression test ...bit low but there and my higher one was with all the plugs out. New plug... seemed smother. Reran scanner test still number 7 dead. Took number 8 plug out it was fine and ran comp test same as 7. Since it wasnt saying 7 and 8 faulty it wasnt going to be a blown gasket between the 2 so that only left injector.

Ordered a set of new 40lb injectors from the states and parked the car up. I thought briefly about just replacing the faulty one but it had been running on 6 and i didnt know which other injector it was. The injectors finally arrived on friday afternoon and with yesterday being cold and wet i put it off and fitted them today. What a difference ... no hesitation... smoothest idle its had since i got it .... boost comes on quicker ... far less pedal for the speed im doing. I sure hope this is what it was.... im running out of things to fix.

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When i first got this car my daily driver was a 5.0 fairmont so basically the same but a little heavier. It was doing 160k for $50 of gas and the mustang did 100 miles. The mustang speedo reads high so it was really doing more like 90 miles. My weekly commute was about $50 of gas so a little extra wasnt a big deal to be driving the mustang.

The best case recent return has been 80 miles with 50 / 50 local and motorway driving.

I have physically doubled the size of the injectors and my very first $50 of gas returned 100 miles.

Thats a 25% range increase and data logging indicates i have a long way to go with trimming the fuel up correctly.

Just goes to show what a leaky set of injectors really costs you if you ignore them or dont know they are leaking.

Got a wide band yesterday to help fine tune it.

I have been trying to keep this close to standard so i could revert back to a stock tune if need be for any reason, but since the injectors died and these ones are twice the size thats now gone.

It looks like its finally sorted the intermittent problem this has had since i got it so i can now go ahead and add the intercooler and the 90mm maf. Once these are on and i have it tuned i can start adding some boost and see what breaks first :)

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Hey there man, I just moved this over to the "Other Projects" section, still keen to hear about it, in a disturbing way, but being a 1990 it's not really in line with the rest of the project shenanigans, your Porsche and 'coon Ute would fit in the regular project area quite well indeed.

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  • 4 weeks later...

When i started this i knew i was in for a big learning curve and a whole lot of unexpected problems. Finally after 11 months of trial and error i have a car that goes somewhat well. Its far from finished, but i can finally put the running issues behind me and get on with doing the stuff i should have been doing 10 months ago like fitting the intercooler and a bigger MAF etc.

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