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Alright I thought I'd start a thread here for the T-bird. I am beginning an on the Cheap MS1 TBI swap on it and thought this would be a good time to highlight the Thunderbird as it will be the first thing I've done to it away from stock.
A little history on it:
The car was bought in Idaho, and apparently registered and lived in Colorado for a number of years. The interior is fantastic considering it's over 40 years old, this car was definitely kept indoors. But with that it was also obviously driven in the winter as there is lots of surface rust and then some pretty bad spots on the quarter panels behind the tires (keep in mind I'm from Southern California, my idea of bad might not be so bad for some of you more northern folks ;)) The car has been in at least two minor fender benders as I can tell by the re-paints and some trim "custom" fitting. I bought the car in Pueblo, Colorado at an Auto Pawn Shop, that's right a pawn shop for vehicles, I didn't know they existed until I found it online. I bought a one way plane ticket out there with a bag of tools checked in for luggage figuring either I'll buy and drive it home or I'll decide I don't want it and buy a ticket home. Got there, test drove the car, it ran good and stopped fine, a little rough around the edges but good enough for the highway. So I bought it complete with a full tank of gas and hit the highway. Ten miles out on my 700 mile drive home (conveniently all on highway 50) the engine died on me while cruising at 70mph :o Quick checking the carb was dry, which I knew the car had gas so it had to be the fuel filter plugging up or the fuel pump going out. Managed to get it fired back up (priming with Carb Cleaner ;)) and putted my way another ten miles to the next town where I bought a universal electric fuel pump and needed wiring and every fuel filter they had instock (3) for it. Soon as I cracked the fuel filter loose I could see bad news, the fuel poured out blood red :o
The tank is definitely rusted out. So I plug one filter in and hit the road I made it about 150 miles before it died again, plugged another filter in and off I went, same deal 150 miles later, pretty soon it was obvious I wasn't going to make it home on my supply of filters. No open parts stores to be found the rest of the way home either, it was sunday and getting late :-\ I ended up blowing out some of the filters which would net me about 50miles. Wouldn't have been so bad except it was late September and about 20*F outside and the fresh air vent was stuck wide open freezing my ass off and every stop and hiccup was painful but I made it, replaced the tank and all has been well. Here is a question on technicalities, I did a title search on it after I got it, and apparently the original owner sold it to the pawn shop (or I'm guessing perhaps one of his off spring that couldn't sell it locally if he had passed away?) so there is the Original Owner's name on the title, then the pawn shops name for a couple months then mine, dare I say I pretty much got it from the original owner??? Doesn't really matter, but I some times think about it. On to the car!
First here is the car:
It's a 10.5:1 4v 428FE powered and has nearly all the bells and whistles offered for the car. Power Seat, Power Windows, Vacuum Powered Doorlocks, Cruise Control, Low Fuel Light, 8-track/AM w/4-speakers, Power Antenna, Sequential Blinkers, Vacuum operated Trunk Release button in the Glove Box, Automatic Tilt-a-way steering wheel when the drivers door is opened (also vacuum operated), A/C (working on getting operational) and of course the back doors are suicide 8)
My plans for the car are to paint it black and tint the windows, basically lots of black with lots of chrome. Who knows when it will happen but thats the dream. It's the only car I own that I can see putting an air ride suspension and fairly large rims (17"-18"?) on it. Engine wise it's the low man on the pole priority wise so it will remain essentially stock (TBI excepting) until I get motivated for it. Ideas are simply bolting on some aluminum heads to tame the 10.5:1 compression (Thank God I live above 6500'!) and better intake and exhaust, to dropping the compression and running a turbo setup (where to find room under the hood? Not to mention all the vacuum accessories!) as I think the turbo spooling up sound would fit the look of the car.
Things I've done to it since I got: Replace the gas tank and sending unit (I'll have to post pictures of the old one, it's good for a laugh :D), repair the sequential blinker unit (it was bypassed), fixed the fresh air floor vent cable, put a Pertronix Ignitor in it, switched to an electric choke, repair the automatic head light door system, replace the power door lock switch, replaced the power window switches, fixed (kind of) the Cruise Control. I have 4 new power window motors and gears on the way here, the passenger front window gear/regulator is stripped but the other three windows work well enough, but I figured I'd replace them all anyways.
On to the MegaSquirt 1 and TBI installation (I really should be out working on it now :P)
This is the offending 600cfm Autolite 4300 with the replacement 650cfm Holley TBI
Locating the relay board, I didn't find anywhere to my liking and within reach of the DIYautotune cable under the hood so inside the car it goes. These pictures are right behind the glove box, the second picture is looking through the glove box door with the glove box removed. Notice the wire harness going through the firewall to the right of it, the third picture shows under the hood the same harness, so I'm going to put a hole next to it. The vacuum solenoids to the left of it are for the vacuum doorlocks, one is for the front doors and the other is for the back doors and the electric relay there is the emergency flasher relay.
[img]http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/85/l_09c6d6eb4993fec8e756cd27ceb59d13.jpg[img]
The MegaSquirt itself I'm mounting in the center console behind a removable storage compartment. Notice the new power window switches, and the door lock switch (bottom left switch).
Placing the MS in the console.
The storage compartment now interferes with the computer, so I'm going to cut about 2" out of it to clearance the MegaSquirt. The back of the compartment is sloped, so I'm really only going to be shortening up the upper part to about even with the lower part.
From the side:
You can see the MS unit back there and the DIYautotune cable. The hacked green wire there is a previous owner's legacy, it has something to do with the brake lights because when I disconnect it the brakelights stop working and I haven't taken the time or cared enough (since it works) to fix it or make it nicer.
To add to the convience, a spare vacuum port through the firewall to tap into for the MegaSquirts onboard MAP sensor :D It sits right between where the MS is being mounted and the Relay Board.
That's all I got for now, I have some screws to go permanently mount the relay board and MS unit, as well as some grommets for the hole I'm going to drill in the firewall. I'm hoping to have most the wiring done by the end of today, then I'll focus on the fuel side of the system. With the theme of being cheap I'm going to try and run the system with out a sump or surge tank and just be cautious as the tank gets low (or just keep it 1/2 full since I'm an optimist :P) and figure a solution to that later. The return line I'll tap into the filler neck, which is very easily removable (like three or four bolts and some wiggling) and I'll let it air dry over night then drill into it out on my driveway.
Questions?
A little history on it:
The car was bought in Idaho, and apparently registered and lived in Colorado for a number of years. The interior is fantastic considering it's over 40 years old, this car was definitely kept indoors. But with that it was also obviously driven in the winter as there is lots of surface rust and then some pretty bad spots on the quarter panels behind the tires (keep in mind I'm from Southern California, my idea of bad might not be so bad for some of you more northern folks ;)) The car has been in at least two minor fender benders as I can tell by the re-paints and some trim "custom" fitting. I bought the car in Pueblo, Colorado at an Auto Pawn Shop, that's right a pawn shop for vehicles, I didn't know they existed until I found it online. I bought a one way plane ticket out there with a bag of tools checked in for luggage figuring either I'll buy and drive it home or I'll decide I don't want it and buy a ticket home. Got there, test drove the car, it ran good and stopped fine, a little rough around the edges but good enough for the highway. So I bought it complete with a full tank of gas and hit the highway. Ten miles out on my 700 mile drive home (conveniently all on highway 50) the engine died on me while cruising at 70mph :o Quick checking the carb was dry, which I knew the car had gas so it had to be the fuel filter plugging up or the fuel pump going out. Managed to get it fired back up (priming with Carb Cleaner ;)) and putted my way another ten miles to the next town where I bought a universal electric fuel pump and needed wiring and every fuel filter they had instock (3) for it. Soon as I cracked the fuel filter loose I could see bad news, the fuel poured out blood red :o
The tank is definitely rusted out. So I plug one filter in and hit the road I made it about 150 miles before it died again, plugged another filter in and off I went, same deal 150 miles later, pretty soon it was obvious I wasn't going to make it home on my supply of filters. No open parts stores to be found the rest of the way home either, it was sunday and getting late :-\ I ended up blowing out some of the filters which would net me about 50miles. Wouldn't have been so bad except it was late September and about 20*F outside and the fresh air vent was stuck wide open freezing my ass off and every stop and hiccup was painful but I made it, replaced the tank and all has been well. Here is a question on technicalities, I did a title search on it after I got it, and apparently the original owner sold it to the pawn shop (or I'm guessing perhaps one of his off spring that couldn't sell it locally if he had passed away?) so there is the Original Owner's name on the title, then the pawn shops name for a couple months then mine, dare I say I pretty much got it from the original owner??? Doesn't really matter, but I some times think about it. On to the car!First here is the car:
It's a 10.5:1 4v 428FE powered and has nearly all the bells and whistles offered for the car. Power Seat, Power Windows, Vacuum Powered Doorlocks, Cruise Control, Low Fuel Light, 8-track/AM w/4-speakers, Power Antenna, Sequential Blinkers, Vacuum operated Trunk Release button in the Glove Box, Automatic Tilt-a-way steering wheel when the drivers door is opened (also vacuum operated), A/C (working on getting operational) and of course the back doors are suicide 8)
My plans for the car are to paint it black and tint the windows, basically lots of black with lots of chrome. Who knows when it will happen but thats the dream. It's the only car I own that I can see putting an air ride suspension and fairly large rims (17"-18"?) on it. Engine wise it's the low man on the pole priority wise so it will remain essentially stock (TBI excepting) until I get motivated for it. Ideas are simply bolting on some aluminum heads to tame the 10.5:1 compression (Thank God I live above 6500'!) and better intake and exhaust, to dropping the compression and running a turbo setup (where to find room under the hood? Not to mention all the vacuum accessories!) as I think the turbo spooling up sound would fit the look of the car.
Things I've done to it since I got: Replace the gas tank and sending unit (I'll have to post pictures of the old one, it's good for a laugh :D), repair the sequential blinker unit (it was bypassed), fixed the fresh air floor vent cable, put a Pertronix Ignitor in it, switched to an electric choke, repair the automatic head light door system, replace the power door lock switch, replaced the power window switches, fixed (kind of) the Cruise Control. I have 4 new power window motors and gears on the way here, the passenger front window gear/regulator is stripped but the other three windows work well enough, but I figured I'd replace them all anyways.
On to the MegaSquirt 1 and TBI installation (I really should be out working on it now :P)
This is the offending 600cfm Autolite 4300 with the replacement 650cfm Holley TBI
Locating the relay board, I didn't find anywhere to my liking and within reach of the DIYautotune cable under the hood so inside the car it goes. These pictures are right behind the glove box, the second picture is looking through the glove box door with the glove box removed. Notice the wire harness going through the firewall to the right of it, the third picture shows under the hood the same harness, so I'm going to put a hole next to it. The vacuum solenoids to the left of it are for the vacuum doorlocks, one is for the front doors and the other is for the back doors and the electric relay there is the emergency flasher relay.
[img]http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/85/l_09c6d6eb4993fec8e756cd27ceb59d13.jpg[img]
The MegaSquirt itself I'm mounting in the center console behind a removable storage compartment. Notice the new power window switches, and the door lock switch (bottom left switch).
Placing the MS in the console.
The storage compartment now interferes with the computer, so I'm going to cut about 2" out of it to clearance the MegaSquirt. The back of the compartment is sloped, so I'm really only going to be shortening up the upper part to about even with the lower part.
From the side:
You can see the MS unit back there and the DIYautotune cable. The hacked green wire there is a previous owner's legacy, it has something to do with the brake lights because when I disconnect it the brakelights stop working and I haven't taken the time or cared enough (since it works) to fix it or make it nicer.
To add to the convience, a spare vacuum port through the firewall to tap into for the MegaSquirts onboard MAP sensor :D It sits right between where the MS is being mounted and the Relay Board.
That's all I got for now, I have some screws to go permanently mount the relay board and MS unit, as well as some grommets for the hole I'm going to drill in the firewall. I'm hoping to have most the wiring done by the end of today, then I'll focus on the fuel side of the system. With the theme of being cheap I'm going to try and run the system with out a sump or surge tank and just be cautious as the tank gets low (or just keep it 1/2 full since I'm an optimist :P) and figure a solution to that later. The return line I'll tap into the filler neck, which is very easily removable (like three or four bolts and some wiggling) and I'll let it air dry over night then drill into it out on my driveway.
Questions?
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