metaruss

Another few months since the last update (better than almost 2 years).  Not much has changed with the car except that it has been my daily driver since the trans blew on the Shadow in early June.  On a positive note, I now have all the parts needed to restore the suspension.  On an even more positive note, we now own a home and I have a garage!  The mighty resurrection will surely follow soon….

Long time, no update.  Now that I am living in an apartment, little has changed with this car.  Stills runs pretty good, but the trip back from SDAC with those bad tires ruined what was left of the original struts.  To become safe for the roads, the cars needs struts/shocks (probably Konis), lower ball joints, tires, and bushings (polyurethane).  In its current condition, the car becomes rather unstable above 50mph, but I still take it on the 5 minute drive to work to keep it alive.  The motor is still the same, piston slap and all.  Still makes good power, though.  The car also got flooded when our parking lot flooded twice last year.  I was able to dry it out, but now I find that it leaks water in the rain.  Grrr….

SDAC-10 = the best time I have ever had with cars in my entire life.  I finally got to put faces to some of the names that I have known for years now.  The Chicagoland folks were probably the rowdiest bunch there.

The highlight was definitely the performance driving school.  It was done at Michigan Speedway (NASCAR).  The road course included almost a full mile of track oval, allowing me to achieve speeds of over 120 MPH!  My 3rd session was in the pouring rain, which resulted in a spin-out on one lap and some hydroplaning through the cones on turn 1 on the lap after.  Not long after I flew through the cones, someone smashed their nice 1987 Shelby GLHS into the wall on turn 1 due to hydroplaning as well.  Big bummer.

My first trip to the drag strip went fairly well.  My time slips are below.  The only things I did to the car were empty the trunk and remove the muffler.  I drove very consistent low-15s most for the day.  The ND Computer was only giving me 13-14psi of boost (should be 16), so I borrowed a G-valve.  Unfortunately, the ball was not seating and I only got 3-4psi and ran high 16s.  I fixed the G-valve and set my boost to 18psi.  The engine would break-up real bad above 4700 RPM.  The 8th light on the A/F gauge was flashing at those speeds, so I raised the fuel pressure.  I also gapped the plug down a bit.  From then on, I couldn’t get traction (see my 60-foot times).  I finally got a run in the 14s with 20psi of boost: 14.918 sec @ 94.68 mph.  I KNOW the car can do deep 14s if I could just hook it up.  The treads on my tires were full of track rubber because I couldn’t find a clean spot.  All in all, I had a great time.

I certainly got a lot of runs, as the track was not busy at all.  I wish the track stayed open after the SDAC events for more runs.  Many of the other drag racers were having car troubles and everyone seemed to have trouble with traction.  Anyway, it was a blast.  I’ll definitely try to bring the car to more local events to work on my launch techniques.

After dealing with all kinds of problems with paint on that fender, I finally got the car ready.  The doors are back together and everything is installed.  One of the power door lock motors was frozen, so I will have to find another.  I even had time to paint the upper door trim and the mirrors to match the new lower trim pieces a bit better.  I also resealed the valve cover and got the A/C working (just this evening).  All I need to do is wash the car tomorrow and take off!

The car has been sitting for a very long time.  I started working on the rust on the left, front fender a few weeks ago.  The Shelby Dodge Automobile Convention 10 is coming up in July 8, so I am starting a campaign to get the car ready.  I need to get the power window and door lock motors installed, as well as the power mirrors (the doors are already taken apart).  I also need to replace the weather stripping along the bottom of the door windows.  Mechanically, the car is sound.  I would like to have air conditioning for the trip as well, so I will pull the A/C heater unit to flush the crud out of the evaporator coil (the compressor was rusting, internally).  I will replace the plugged heater core while it is out.

I’ve signed-up for all the events, which includes a performance driving school and drag racing.  I won’t bother with the car shows.  🙂  The car is going to take a beating, so hopefully it will be able to make the trip there and back.

A few more weird things happened lately.  First the long, steel fuel line on the fuel rail cracked at one of the bends, causing the rail to depressurize when I accelerated.  Then I started getting very bad hesitation.  it got to the point where the engine would not even want to run under any load, then would suddenly be fine.  Turned out to be the ignition coil mounting bolt, which was stripped out.  Now all is good and the car is flying.

The next thing that needs attention is the tires.  There appears to be flat spots from a 4 wheel lockup (panic stop).  It has been doing this since I bought the car.  I’m not sure if the tires can be salvaged, but the vibration is very annoying at high speeds.

For the first time in a while, less bad news.  🙂  I finally got the Conquest intercooler installed last week.  I found some 90-degree 2-1/8″ I.D. hoses for the connections under the front cross member.  I found them at Trak Auto for some kind of Ford van.  The rest of the plumbing consists of mandrel-bent and straight exhaust pipe.  The turbo-to-intercooler run is two 2″ mandrel bent pipes and some straight hose.  The intercooler-to-throttle body run is two 2-1/4″ mandrel bent pipes and a long 2-1/4″ straight pipe.  All connections were made with bits of truck radiator hose and many stainless hose clamps.

Now that this car is intercooled, I return boost control back to the logic module.  So now the 16psi ND computer can do it’s thing.  No more pinging at 13psi either.  While I was at it, I relocated the MAP sensor to the firewall right next to the brake booster.  I made an aluminum heat shield to protect the sensor and solenoids from the turbo.  I took great care in replumbing the vacuum lines such that critical sensors will not be effected by other vacuum devices.  These include the MAP sensor and fuel pressure regulator.  Now the funky fuel curve problem is gone.

The setup worked great for about a week until I started getting problems where the engine would QUIT just as I would start to accelerate.  I also noticed an erratic idle speed.  I have have always had a code 15, so I just unplugged the frickin’ speed/distance sensor–problem solved.  I don’t have cruise, an automatic, or electronic speedometer, so the usefulness of the sensor is questionable anyway.

In other news, the piston slap is as bad as ever and the engine is consuming oil, though I don’t notice any smoke or smell at all, nor do I see any in the coolant, etc.  I loose about a quart every 1000-2000 miles.  I’m sure it’s just the rings.  Blow-by is horrible…the dipstick isn’t blowing out, but it is very tight in the tube.  Oil is coming out of the oil cap and it just recently blew some RTV out of the valve cover seal.  Due to the Shadow’s current condition, the Shelby is now my daily driver.  I hope it holds up….

Well, the weekly strife with this car continues.  Monday it barfed out the block core plug behind starter…it had rusted out from the inside.  I replaced it with a expanding rubber core plug (Expand-Tite), which seems to be holding.  The next plug down has some evidence of a very slow leak.  Looks like that one is next.

The piston slap is slowly getting worse.  I think I should start thinking seriously about building-up a new, solid bottom end for this thing.  No screwing around this time….  *sigh*

Still no leaks, trans fluid, coolant, or otherwise.  The tires are severely out of balance or out of round.  I will try to get them balanced.  That metal-to-metal squeak turned out to be my 2.5″ exhaust rubbing on the rear axle cross members.  That Dynomax muffler is very heavy and it has stretched the stock mount.

Other than that, the car needs new ball joints and outer tie rod ends (boots are gone).  A new set of bushings will probably be good too.  I may just try to find a ’89+ K-frame and put the new ball joints and polyurethane bushings right on it.

Well, I wanted to get started pulling the trans last night.  This is the first time I got near it since I discovered the left side of the trans, axle, and engine bay covered in trans fluid on Saturday.  I jacked up the car and grabbed the axle.  It was not sloppy at all, compared to how it was before I installed the stabilizer bearing.  Then from the topside, I noticed trans fluid all over the TOP of the trans as well.  It appeared to be coming from the top of the shifter plane (slider) selector lever.  There is a plastic cap on the shaft, which I assume is the gear case vent (it’s not on the bearing retainer plate like on the A525/A520/A555).  I am in the habit of overfilling my trannies by about 1/2 quart.  It works fine on the A520s.  On the A568, it seems to puke the extra oil out.  The oil would run into a webbed area of the top of the trans, fill it up with oil, then it would run down the side, right over the left-side axle.  It appears that this is where the oil is coming from.  I cleaned the whole thing up with acetone so that it is dry and drained the excess fluid from the case (it was still very high).  I then proceeded to address a coolant leak from that stupid head (helicoils).  I may just have lucked out.

I fixed the coolant leaks at the thermostat housing by using the solvent-safe PFTE thread tape with Master #2 Gasketmaker (not RTV, this stuff stays soft).  It appears to be holding up just fine.

I have no doubt that this tranny needs to at least have the diff re-shimmed.  Perhaps even new spiders.  But, it looks like it may be salvageable otherwise.  The stabilizer bearing appears to be doing its job.