M7 87 DD SR5

[BlackStar]

New guy, but i figured a good way to get to know everyone is do a build thread. Little info about me, I'm 23, live in Sun City CA and have had about 5 mustangs, so this is my first import. I will also ask some pretty noobish questions in this thread, so discussion is welcome.

I bought the car on 12/28/11 for 400 with a blown head gasket. Originally teal, its been rattle canned white, and has an original black interior. Supra rims and lowered.

Pics:

[BlackStar]

12/29/11

got to work stripping the interor, smelled pretty musky inside! I'm also gonna redo my janky stereo wiring and use my old sony tape deck for a more period correct interior. and cause tapes are cool.



A smoker had the car at one point, the headliner was really dirty, and the insulation underneath stank! I recently got a shampooer to clean fabric, so this is gonna be its first test, cleaning the seats and carpet.

I also found a haynes manaul, i think the car wants to be fixed :lol!:

[BlackStar]

forgot to mention, i haven't jacked the car up yet, but crawled under a little bit. Apparently, the car may have a decent suspension, orange megan racing springs, and the struts are still good, not sure on the brand. the rears are red, and not to old, not sure on the front. I'm gonna jack the car up a bit today, maybe i can catch a glimpse

[BlackStar]

update 12/30/11

Got the head off the engine, moving right along.



looks like I have a new carb, it sure is clean and silver, nothing sticks too



more ovaltine please!

head off




underside.




so i have some questions now. As you can seen in the last picture, i have a stuck bolt sort of, i can get it out by taking the cam out, but i really don't want to, since everything is set at TDC. which leads me to another question, do i need new head bolts? My car has over 200k, and i know in fords they tend to strech and need to be replaced. or can i get away with just re-using them?

On the head gasket, i noticed it was part metal(and some mushy other stuff, idk what it was), and unbroken. How is it blown? i take it the softer stuff gave way and led to the coolant/oil mixture?

as you can see in the pictures, i got internal ruts, both in the cylinders, on the valves and not show, but on the rockers arms n such. how can i clean this up? I figure since i have it there, its probably in the internals too. i was figuring on getting some cheap vatozone oil, and try and flush out more of the old junk oil after i put the enginer back together(i would trun the engine by hand) but what should i do?

[bt20v]

good work so far when I blew my head gasket I rebuilt the motor. New rings and bearings and took the block and other misc parts to a machine shop to clean for me. Im sure some local fellows can direct you to a good shop. if moneys tight wipe the cyl down with oil let them soak then turn the motor over by hand should get most of the reminance off.

[BlackStar]

update 1/14/2012

yesterday i started on yanking out the engine, it was a pain, took me till today to get it off! but now the junk engine and transmisson are out of the car

new engine hoist


the owner before used straight water for coolant, look at all that muck!


all cleaned up



gettin the f-bomb out











wink


I noticed on the heater core outlets, i'm missing one Can i just get a large screw in fitting, and screw it into that hole? I do want a working heater


and I have this old Formuling steering wheels i have had for a few years. Is there an adapter hub to use it on an AE86?


now time to search for a shortblock

[dr.occa]

Dynamat the heater core holes.

Hmmm, HOA is gunning for you Blackstar .

[BlackStar]

I'm actually lucky, This is the second big project I have done at my house, the first was a transmission conversion on a mustang. My neighbors actually think its cool that I can do wokr like this with only hand tools and a little mechanical know how. also cleaning up everynight helps too

[BlackStar]

got a second late update, I got my 7A shortblock. not great pics, but the cylinders look great! engine is dirty though, and needs a good cleaning



I also got a GTS block and a partical GTS longblokc for free, thouhg I am told the lonblock needs to be re-bult.

my A series family




I have loads of 7A questions now, i'll post them up tomorrow

[dr.occa]

I need to get my hands on a 7A block one of these days.

We need some light in those pictures.

[BlackStar]

sorry about that, i was way tired. I yanked out the old 4ac and trans in the morning, and drove an hour out to pick up the engines. I'm still sore! i'll get some new pics in a few

[JDMwhiteboy]

Lol my heater core did the same thing!

[daveskatesallday]

12/29/11

got to work stripping the interor, smelled pretty musky inside! I'm also gonna redo my janky stereo wiring and use my old sony tape deck for a more period correct interior. and cause tapes are cool.



A smoker had the car at one point, the headliner was really dirty, and the insulation underneath stank! I recently got a shampooer to clean fabric, so this is gonna be its first test, cleaning the seats and carpet.

I also found a haynes manaul, i think the car wants to be fixed :lol!:

Good work, do you intend on painting the bare metal at all?

[BlackStar]

its actually not bare, the car was a teal blue color. I do want to repaint the car whole and black (panda), but I am just going to do the trunk jams and door jams. I want to see how much of the engine bay paint can be saved. apparently having it a different color then the body is "cool"

[yotarolla]

nice choice for your first import, are you going EFI or stay with a carb setup?