My XB GT - Mechanicals
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First Impressions Last
I test drove the GT once prior to buying it. I was offered some assistance from a stranger (at the time) who had noticed my post online and offered to come with me to look at the car. One Saturday morning we headed out to drive the GT and have a better look at it. I have to say after driving it I was rather disappointed. I had dreamed of it being a powerful fire breathing 351 V8. In actual fact it was nothing of the sort. Sluggish is a good word to describe it. Their was practically no guts to it. You could put your foot flat to the floor and hardly accelerate at all. Steering was also a problem as it wandered all over the road.
The previous owner was an older gent and had done all the work himself on the car. For some reason he had gotten it into his head that he wanted the car to be more fuel efficient and with this in mind he replaced the stock GT cam with a different mystery cam. He said this one was easier on fuel. He said he changed the heads for the same reason but upon inspection they are correct 2v open chamber heads. He removed the kick down from the FMX auto and disabled the choke. Consequently the car ran like a dog, had no power and was hard to control. But I still bought it due to its rare colour and the fact it was a hardtop and within my price range.
Blown Budget
After buying the car I drove it to my brother in laws house. He had a bit of a look over it and noticed a rag joint in the steering column was not joining correctly. This was a possible explanation for the wandering steering. I will here and now warn everybody of the costs of buying one of these cars. Costs that most people will dismiss whilst buying the car and feel later on. I bought this car thinking all it would need to fix its terrible performance would be a replacement cam and heads. The previous owner assured me the cam and heads were still in his garage and went with the car. I have now discovered the cam is not the original cam and the heads he gave me are 2v closed chamber heads and not original either. A little down, I decided to concentrate on getting the car passed for Rego as it was due to be registered again at the end of the month. Assuming it was going to pass a Rego check is another mistake. The car came back needing two front seat belts, Brake pads and Rotors, Calipers were fouling disc rotors, sway bar was rubbing something. Sump guard was hitting the sump. Tail Light globe socket was faulty. Suspension tower bolts were too short as spacers had been used. Headlight switch was faulty. So as you can see work was needed. Another mistake is setting your budget too low. The budget I refer to is the amount you want to spend on it straight away to modify it to your liking. My budget was $1500.
I have been looking at the performance side of the problem though. I have now had the engine completely rebuilt and a new cam has gone in. I stuck with the open chamber heads but had the block decked to increase compression. The heads also were fitted with 4v intake valves and throated out a little. I have not had a chance to have it dynoed again yet to get some idea of what effect the new engine has had. The car has only just been run in and it is overheating when stationary. Also, for no apparent reason the car lost all power whilst driving at 110km/h on the freeway. The engine still ran but the car had no power at all when the accelerator was pushed down. More things to look at.
The Plan
My plan for this car is to make it a very nice streeter. I am not interested in taking the car to the track. I am not interested in taking the car down the 1/4. I want the car to be nice and torquey. Have power on tap up to 4000 rpm. I have noticed a lot of people are in favor of all out power based on peak power readings. Attaining the highest horsepower reading on a piece of paper seems to drive a lot of people. I am not interested in the car's peak power. Ideally I would like to improve the car slowly. Each piece of the puzzle would be bought to compliment low end power. Where possible I will buy parts that improve the cars top end horsepower but only if this dosnt hurt torque down low. If I can build a car with approx 300 Horsepower at the fly (standard XBGT figures) but with ample power throughout the normal road driving speeds. I will be very happy. I have to admit right now I am no mechanic. Far from it. I am learning as I go. For those interested I have had the car dyno'd prior to the rebuild for a baseline. It gave out 148.5 horsepower at the rear wheels and bugger all torque. I will post the dyno printout as soon as I acquire a scanner. Though that figure was given when the car was running super rich. So rich it couldnt be measured on the dyno. I have since had the carby rebuilt also so that should (fingers crossed) have solved the rich running problem that would have been robbing the car of power. Time will tell I guess. I have a set of extractors ready to go on and want to get a twin set of 2.5-3" straight through system. I also have plans to change the diff ratio to around 3.25 or 3.5:1 instead of the 2.75:1 it is at the moment. This will really help its performance especially considering the FMX. After all this is done I will take stock of the situation, get a final dyno and hopefully be happy with that.
Sunroof Issue
Whilst on a run recently I was enjoying the trip in the warm weather. The sky was overcast so the sun wasn't too harsh. I opened the sun roof a few inches to increase cabin air flow to cool the cars interior down. Upon arriving at my destination and trying to close the sun roof it wouldn't close properly. From the outside of the car it looks like the sun roof is hanging down in one corner, and the rest of it isn't lined up properly. I took the lining off the interior and revealed the problem.
Focusing on the section that is highlighted by my below average use of the paint tool in photoshop. Notice how towards the left of the area there is a round hole that is empty and attached to the sun roof. Now see the part to the right that is blurry and looks like a lever. Those two parts are supposed to be together. On the other side of the lever device there is a bolt type protrusion that is supposed to be in the empty hole.
Apparently this is a guide problem and can be rectified easily. Although not necessarily cheaply. I have been advised this will set me back around $300 or so. Will wait and see how much the end result costs!
Another
view of the other side. The winder is at the same position for both these
shots. Notice this side is much closer to the hole it needs to be in. Also,
in this shot you can actually just make out the bolt the hole needs sitting
just next to the hole. Not the one with the spring, above that. Another interesting
thing is if you ever have sunroof problems on your old classic ford and those
parts that have the spring and bolts are not moving when you wind the handle
you are in trouble. I have been advised these are real expensive and rare.
UPDATE: I have taken the car down to Dave Shaw automotive and had the sunroof repaired. Works perfect now. Dave worked over the sunroof slowly and carefully and made sure it was all working prefect. Even used some very rare ford parts, like a paddlepop stick and broken edge of a razor. Apparently Ford used these same parts in alot of the sunrooves he has taken apart. I was lucky my cables were ok and i wasnt up for that as an extra cost.
SEAT BELTS
I mentioned earlier that my seat belts in the front got knocked back due to them being frayed. For anybody interested in seeing how little it takes to get knocked bach (atleast by the mechanic i went to) check out the following pic.
These two photographs are of two seperate seat belts. The frayed areas depicted are the only frayed sections on either seat belts.
The New Engine
After getting a replacement cam put in I thought I was on the way to ending the mechanical side of the restoration. Atleast for the performance side of the equation. Was I ever wrong. The first drive after the new cam went in was to Nelson Bay for a club run. I left home with a full sump of oil and arrived at the bay with my oil pressure on 0 and no oil left. I returned to the mechanic who did the job and all he offered was it couldnt be related to the cam and it is a 30 year old car mate. After having a long talk to another mechanic and a few friends I decided to have the engine completely rebuilt instead of chasing one thing after another. I had my mechanic sorted and was refered to a machine shop so I was set.
I ended up using the existing 2v open chamber heads but had the block decked to increase the compression. Installed 4v intake valves and had the heads modified for unleaded fuels. A new cam went in as well replacing the cam I just put in. It was in for all of a week or two. The rest of the engine is all pretty stock and really just got a freshen up with new parts. Time will tell if this was a good decision or not.
DYNO READOUTS
1ST DYNO
A little disappointing really
Costs of owning
This part of the site, is to give people an idea of just how much cash it takes to buy one of these cars and own it for one year. I will not include the purchase price for the vehicle as this will vary for all cars. But is meant to be an indication of costs involved with the upkeep and yearly running expenses. Of course, not all cars will have the same running costs. Some will have more, some less. This is just my story. I hope it serves to enlighten anybody considering one of these cars to the potential costs involved, the commitment required, and removes the blinkers often worn by a buyer when looking at a potential pride and joy. I will list all parts purchased for this car. If work was carried out by a mechanic, the price of labor will be included in the estimate of money spent. Also, Registration and associated pink slips, services, and other general upkeep costs will be included in the total cost estimate, but will not be mentioned in the list of parts/work performed. I have not included insurance as this varies wildly depending on too many factors and is not necessary to fully insure a vehicle.
05/01/2005
Major service
Choke repaired
Kickdown rod re-attached
Rego inspection performed
11/01/2005
Dyno power runs performed
13/01/2005
Front brake pads, Rotors replaced
Front calipers repaired
Two front seat belts replaced
Headlight switch replaced
20/01/2005
Tail light socket replaced
2/02/2005
Sunroof fixed
9/02/2005
Mass of wires under dash rationalised
16/02/2005
New Cam put into car. Changed lifters, timing gear/chain etc etc.
Estimate of money spent on car to date including labor, parts, shipping etc: $4137
LATEST UPDATE
When I bought this car I knew it was not painted in its proper colour scheme as it rolled off the Ford production line. Drespite the previous owner promising that is how it came from Ford, I learned that indeed that is how it came to him as I met the owner who owned it before him. I knew I had to get it back to looking original and made a deal with myself to make sure that happened. The time came recently and I took the plunge and had the car sprayed back to original colour scheme. The parts of the car that were incorrect were the front and rear bumpers, virtually the whole back of the car. The decals were also wrong as they had been painted in the middle of them in gold. There was also a repair that was needed on the left rear quarter as it had been damaged prior to our owning it and the previous owner half assed repaired it pre sale.
I have to say I had my doubts the paint would be matched well enough and I would be left with a car that didnt look good at all. The car was at the painters a total of two weeks and although I dropped in several times I did not see it painted until I picked it up. So it was really with alot of nerves that I turned up to collect her from the spray painter. I need not have worried though as I think he did an excellent job and couldnt be happier with his work. Check out the pics for yourselves.
Bumper and decal change. New Wheels.
Bumper change, overriders taken off. Looks much better in my opinion
Big change here. bumper changed, honeycomb changed, boot lip changed.
Decal changed, wheels changed. Mud flaps will remain to protect paint but removed for shows.
Overall view. Wheels, Bumper, honeycomb, boot lip all changed.
Overall I am very happy with the new look of the car. I didnt mind the old lok but in the back of my mind I always knew it wasnt original looking and its great to get the car back to how Ford intended it to look. Thoughts?