04-13-2015, 10:55 AM
Thank you everyone once again for your wheel opinions! Like I said, I still have a couple months to decide, so I'll take them all into cosideration :thumbup:.
It was also great to meet a bunch of you guys at the car show and autox this weekend! Even though I didn't have my car (read on for full info), I had a fantastic time. I believe I talked Matt's ear off about foxbodies and terminator cobras, but I sure did learn a lot (thanks man!).
Okay so onto where the issues began. For a couple months now, my car has been running strangely warm on the gauge on the dash. It was still within what Ford considered "normal" operating rage (again according to dash), but before it used to run in the lower ranges. I had my car checked out at the shop I trust, and they said everything was working perfectly, no issues. I figured the gauge must have gone bad after 20 years. Just to be sure, I had my dad take it by Performance Autosport to see the guys down there, and they looked it over and said nothing was wrong, the gauge was unreliable. So I continued to drive it as normal.
Fast forward to last week, and my header gasket on my drivers side went. I got that fixed, and decided not to do the other side at the same time because it seemed to be doing okay. She was ready for the drive to Harrisonburg!
I drove her up here on Friday. I thought she had a small exhaust leak under the car where we modified the midpipe to work with the longtubes, but I figured that is all it was and shouldn't have been a big issue. Well, I get to Harrisonburg, and she sounds like a tractor again. I figured one of the exhaust clamps had gone or something. Called my buddy Scott Stone (yeah the guy with the Camaro :lol
and he said bring it on over we can take a quick look at it. Sure enough, my passenger side header gasket had gone too. My parents had the other gasket (as you had to buy two, the shop I had my drivers side gave us the other one) and were going to bring it up Saturday morning. So, I figured we could swap it at the show, not too much of a big deal. Couple hours later, I walk up to take my car back to campus, annnnnnnd lets just say there was a large pool of coolant under the car, redecorating the North 38 parking lot green :lol:. Scott and I quickly got me to visitor parking, because we knew the car couldn't run, and tried to call Sam Spicer to let us in the MM garage for the night. We ran/pushed it down there, and lo and behold, the thermostat bolt had let go. Or so I thought. We ran out and grabbed a new thermostat, gasket, some coolant, and ran to Home Depot to try to match the bolt that we did have to make it work. We got back to the garage, take a look, and that's when I realized that the bolt didn't just come out, it snapped in half inside the thermostat housing. And also, to my dismay, this was when I realized that the thermostat housing was part of the lower intake plenum.
We could have drilled the bolt out, but I figured if we messed it up, the car wouldn't run for a while, and it would be stuck up here in Harrisonburg. So we pushed the car up the hill to visitor parking, knowing we would have to call a tow truck in the morning.
I woke up Saturday before the car show and called 3 different shops, who all said they wouldn't mess with it. I walked down the the entrance of C4, set up a barrier for the show, and Taylor carted me to North 38 while I called a tow truck to take it to Harrisonburg Ford.
So, as of right now, it is sitting at Harrisonburg Ford, hopefully being fixed as I type this. They are reinstalling the thermostat and housing, and putting on the header gasket for me.
Eh, it is what it is :lol: it got me here safe and that's what really matters. Had a great time this weekend though!
It was also great to meet a bunch of you guys at the car show and autox this weekend! Even though I didn't have my car (read on for full info), I had a fantastic time. I believe I talked Matt's ear off about foxbodies and terminator cobras, but I sure did learn a lot (thanks man!).
Okay so onto where the issues began. For a couple months now, my car has been running strangely warm on the gauge on the dash. It was still within what Ford considered "normal" operating rage (again according to dash), but before it used to run in the lower ranges. I had my car checked out at the shop I trust, and they said everything was working perfectly, no issues. I figured the gauge must have gone bad after 20 years. Just to be sure, I had my dad take it by Performance Autosport to see the guys down there, and they looked it over and said nothing was wrong, the gauge was unreliable. So I continued to drive it as normal.
Fast forward to last week, and my header gasket on my drivers side went. I got that fixed, and decided not to do the other side at the same time because it seemed to be doing okay. She was ready for the drive to Harrisonburg!
I drove her up here on Friday. I thought she had a small exhaust leak under the car where we modified the midpipe to work with the longtubes, but I figured that is all it was and shouldn't have been a big issue. Well, I get to Harrisonburg, and she sounds like a tractor again. I figured one of the exhaust clamps had gone or something. Called my buddy Scott Stone (yeah the guy with the Camaro :lol
and he said bring it on over we can take a quick look at it. Sure enough, my passenger side header gasket had gone too. My parents had the other gasket (as you had to buy two, the shop I had my drivers side gave us the other one) and were going to bring it up Saturday morning. So, I figured we could swap it at the show, not too much of a big deal. Couple hours later, I walk up to take my car back to campus, annnnnnnd lets just say there was a large pool of coolant under the car, redecorating the North 38 parking lot green :lol:. Scott and I quickly got me to visitor parking, because we knew the car couldn't run, and tried to call Sam Spicer to let us in the MM garage for the night. We ran/pushed it down there, and lo and behold, the thermostat bolt had let go. Or so I thought. We ran out and grabbed a new thermostat, gasket, some coolant, and ran to Home Depot to try to match the bolt that we did have to make it work. We got back to the garage, take a look, and that's when I realized that the bolt didn't just come out, it snapped in half inside the thermostat housing. And also, to my dismay, this was when I realized that the thermostat housing was part of the lower intake plenum. We could have drilled the bolt out, but I figured if we messed it up, the car wouldn't run for a while, and it would be stuck up here in Harrisonburg. So we pushed the car up the hill to visitor parking, knowing we would have to call a tow truck in the morning.
I woke up Saturday before the car show and called 3 different shops, who all said they wouldn't mess with it. I walked down the the entrance of C4, set up a barrier for the show, and Taylor carted me to North 38 while I called a tow truck to take it to Harrisonburg Ford.
So, as of right now, it is sitting at Harrisonburg Ford, hopefully being fixed as I type this. They are reinstalling the thermostat and housing, and putting on the header gasket for me.
Eh, it is what it is :lol: it got me here safe and that's what really matters. Had a great time this weekend though!
1995 Mustang Cobra- 1 of 717 Rio Red