94 Mustang GT: Daily Driver Motor: Engine Block Prep

An update on this engine is long overdue!

Thread chasing:
I took the block into the center of my garage and chased almost every single thread in the motor.  The reason I say almost every thread is because I found ANOTHER broken bolt.  It is a timing cover bolt, lower left.  That will also need to be extracted.  I would have never noticed it if I didn't chase all the threads.  The chasing of the threads went well for the most part.  I was honestly amazed at how much junk came out of the threads.  I took my time and went through everything.  I mean everything.  Each time the thread chaser came out, I cleaned it with the air gun.  This process took a good chunk of time.

Cleaning the gasket surfaces
Next I cleaned up all the gasket surfaces.  I scraped with a plastic scraper and used some other methods to get the surfaces really cleaned up.  This was a fairly straight forward process.  It was pretty easy since the engine was on an engine stand where I could spin it around.

Cleaning the block
The last thing I did was clean the engine.  I did this outside due to ventilation reasons.  I have a 2 gallon parts washer - it's pretty small.  I ran an extension cord out to where the parts washer sat - right in front of the engine stand.  I have a HUGE catch pan - the type they use under washing machines.  I plumbed this to return the drippings from the block back to the parts washer.  Then I connected a 4 foot tube to the parts washer nozzle.  I used this to apply the parts washer solution to the engine block while I cleaned it with a parts cleaner brush.  There was some splashing (I was wearing eye protection) but for the most part everything did drip back into the pan and subsequently into the parts washer.  This process went on for a while.  It was pretty amazing how much dirt and debris came off of the block.  I also realized that when I spun the block, a bunch spilled out.  It took some time, but after a while the block was looking pretty good!

Next I employed the compressed air gun to dry off the block.  This again made for a lot of splatter, but it did dry everything out pretty quickly.  The last step was to coat the block with some WD40.  I have it in a handheld sprayer, so I was able to adjust the nozzle to a fine mist.  I coated the block, let it drip for a bit, turned it over and coated everything else.  I went through that process twice.

Once it was done dripping, I used the garbage bag and wrapped it up again.  It went back into it's resting place until 7/22/2014.

Dropping it off for honing.
A very close friend of mine had agreed to help me do the cylinder wall correction and finishing hone on the block.  He is a machinist and toolmaker, so he has a LOT of experience here.  The problem is that he was not able to make time for me in almost a year - so I decided to look elsewhere.  On a recommendation, I reached out to a machinist in a nearby town.  After speaking with him, I dropped off the block on 7/22 so that he can put it under his honing machine.  He will also be extracting that broken bolt!  Hopefully he doesn't run into any unforseen issues!

94 Mustang GT: Odometer fix and LED bulbs

At 226,000 miles, the odometer stopped working.  This was a serious nuisance for me, because I track all of my fuel, repairs,  scheduled service, everything using an app on my iPhone called Gas Cubby.  Since I got the car, I have 488 entries and $27,685 tracked since January 2009!  There is a great how-to video on youtube created by latemodel restoration on how to do the replacement.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k_DbsSxRg8

You can buy the replacement gears from a variety of different vendors.  I went right to eBay for mine.  They showed up a few days later.  I also ordered some replacement LED bulbs for the dashboard (set of 10).  There are only 5 bulbs in the dash cluster.  There are another two in the heater controls.  There are yet another two for the license plate illumination.  I wound up with one bulb left over, which was fine.  It's always nice to have a spare.  Here is a link to the bulbs:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/150793635333?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

I followed the youtube vid exactly and it didn't take long to have the odometer gears replaced.  The next step was to pull out the bulbs and put the new LED bulbs in there.  This can be a bit tricky because the new LED bulbs have a polarity to them.  There is two different ways to install them, and only one way will work.  I had to install them all, then plug the dash back in and turn the lights on.  then I found which ones I had installed incorrectly.  I pulled them, turned them around, and they all worked.  

I moved on to the heater controls.  I removed the shift boot and the trim for the radio.  This opened up a can of worms for me even before I got to remove the heater controls.  

The shift boot was pulling away from the trim, and the trim had pulled away from the bezel.  I had to unplug the cig lighter connections, and the shift knob so that I could get that in my hands.  I spent some time here and made some repairs.  

I also found that the vents had broken away from the console trim.  Once I had that in my hand (had to disconnect the radio), I needed to do some repairs here as well.  I employed some super glue and clamps to keep things in place while it cured.  Now I could get back to the heater controls.

I removed the torx screws that held in the heater controls.  I was able to pull the controls out enough to get my hand behind there and remove the bulbs.  I put the new ones in and hit the lights.  I had to rotate one of them because it didn't light up.  After rotating the bulb, it came to life.  I re-installed the heater controls.  After some time, I re-installed the trim for the radio with the vents.  Then re-installed shifter boot, shift knob and cig lighter connections.  

Finally I got to the license plate I opened the trunk and removed the retaining screws for the bulb casing.  It isn't a true phillips head screw.  It pushes in, which spreads the housing.  I was able to loosen it enough to get my fingers around the head and pull it out.  Then the rest of the retainer comes out.  the bulb housing twists to come out of the plastic outer housing.  I replaced the bulbs and re-installed everything.  Now the license plate bulbs were MUCH brighter!

So that was it!  The odometer works now, the dash bulbs are worlds better and the license plate bulbs have new life.  I wish I would have done this LED mod a long time ago. It was super easy and the dash looks worlds better!

94 Mustang GT: Interior Parts and Fog Light Mod

I have made some progress with the interior!

Sun Visors:  

The sun visors were replaced with new ones.  I removed the molding going across the top of the windshield on the inside.  Then removed all the screws for the sun visors where they bolt to the windshield frame.  Then I unplugged the visor.  I ran new wires from the visor lights to the connection since the wires weren't long enough.  Installation was the reverse of the removal.  It was pretty simple actually.  While I was at it, I also routed the wire for the Valentine V1 Radar detector (it is hardwired) to hide the wire a bit better.  I also did the same with the microphone for the bluetooth.  

Door Cups:

The door cups on both sides were broken, cracked, chipped and generally in bad shape.  I picked up a set of 03 cobra convertible door cups and installed them.  It was pretty easy to pop out the old ones, remove the screw that holds the switches there, and install the new ones.  I had to be very careful not to break any of the tabs - those are really fragile!  

Fog Light Mod:

The fog lights cannot be turned on without the headlights being on.  This defeats the purpose of having fog lights.  Fog lights work best WITHOUT the headlights being on.  There is a modification you can do so that the fog lights work when the driving lights are on ( the setting just before the headlights come on). There is a great video on Youtube for this mod:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvQGD1Fq23Q

I followed the video exactly - it was pretty much the same for my 94 GT convertible.  Now I have fog lights with the parking lights on!