1995 Mustang GT - Can we get it smogged in Cali ???

[DualQuadDave]

Crower, I think, used to have a 5.0 HO Speed Density going that was basically a highlift stock cam w/ a narrower ls3. Worked great. Will try to find it for you

[DCx]

Crower, I think, used to have a 5.0 HO Speed Density going that was basically a highlift stock cam w/ a narrower ls3. Worked great. Will try to find it for you

I think you are referring to the Crower 15511 cam

278/282
0.468 lift
114 LSA

stock is:
298/282
0.444 lift
115 LSA

Finally got the cam out of this thing! Its a good thing I did. It ended up having a brand new B303 cam! I guess back to stock we go?!?!?!?



Engine and trickflow intake are so clean!





Im pretty sure this guys combo of parts made this car run like crap and he just parked it. look how shot these sparkplugs are



Looks like I will be ordering some new lifters, cam, gaskets, and hardware. The timing set looked stock so I will add a billet roller setup. The push rods and lifters looked re-used. I will measure for pushrod length, buy hardened units and get some new Ford Racing lifters. I will probably leave the heads as is. Debating on painting the (eww) to hide them from the smog tech.


I will be spraying the stock intake with some single stage PPG silver this weekend. Will probably spray the front accessory brackets with the same silver. I will be replacing the tensioner and idler pulleys, they are so damn noisy and rusty.

[DualQuadDave]

No, it wasn't 15511. Specs are different, although that was a good cam. Congrats on the clean motor, looks basically new. Yeah, eBay the B cam. Take my advice and spend a few bucks on good drop in lifters. On a SBF, makes a huge difference in performance. Same with the valve springs. Let me do a little more research on the cam. Standby

[DualQuadDave]

Ok, I could not find the grind I remembered from back in the day. Maybe it was a Lunati cam. It was basically a HO cam on roads, thick it was 212/212 and around .490 lift or so. Either way, I found these 2 cams for you. Either should run good, Both have negative overlap to get you through emissions, yet still make decent power. Comp 35-310-8 or Howard's 220238-2. I prefer the Comp.

[DCx]

ah shucks, I ended up getting the Melling stock grind cam. Found a good deal on it through partshawk. Im just going to run that cam with the cobra pedestal rockers, should net .475 lift but not much duration.

I did order ARP everything: cam bolt, cam retainer, balancer, water pump/timing cover, intake, header, lower intake. I also got new ford racing lifters, comp hardened pushrods in stock length ($39), ford racing intake gaskets (gt40x specific) and a new cloyes true roller timing set. Oh, and I got a 1 piece oil pan gasket and new arp bolts. I am not a fan of the china studs that are in the pan. It was a royal pain to pull the studs out to remove the timing cover.

Still a no go on the CARB-EO sticker from trickflow. They wrote me an email and stated the sticker was shipped on the 20th. The 20th? what month? August or September? lol what a joke they are.

A new street burner upper is $300 from summit, in stock, ready to ship. Just not sure if the upper alone will come with a CARB-EO sticker. Im starting to think they dont exist, I have never seen on on the forums or google picture search, then again, Ive never seen a BBK sticker on the web, yet; I own one.

[DCx]

Work on the motor and car has been pretty slow. Kind of a pain to work on it since its marooned at my folks house. I spent the last few weekends finishing renovations on my house.

Got some good news and some bad news... Trick Flow finally delivered on a Carb-EO sticker for a street burner intake, bad news is the part number listed is for a silver finish intake, not black, different part number. Additionally, all Trick Flow intakes have no part numbers on them at all. Bottom side of the intake has "TFS-SBF-EFI-2U" cast in the bottom. "2U" is a track heat "1U" is a street burner. one would need to do some deep google work and read forums and look at photos to figure that one out. Both intakes are identical to the naked eye. Shall I slap the Trick Flow back on it and take it to the smog shop with my shiny new sticker? here is a link to the executive order pdf, no part number or product description listed. 1995 mustang gt used for testing

https://arb.parts/Executive-Order/D-369-3




okay bad news time... I think I need a new timing cover. I was cleaning the gasket surface and noticed some huge globs of RTV stuck to the gasket. After cleaning it up some I found 4 pretty large chunks out of the water pump mounting flange.







Would you run this timing cover and just goop it with RTV or buy a replacement for $65 from LMR?

[ryeguy2006a]

I'd say if the only difference between the two intakes is really just the color, I'd slap on that sticker. Then make sure you get a good tune on the car before you go to smog so that it passes without issues.

[arcane73]

Would you run this timing cover and just goop it with RTV or buy a replacement for $65 from LMR?

I'm no expert, but I'd replace it. I just replaced mine with the Ford Performance one because of a minor crack. Unless you have access to a way to build that back up with weld and then have it machined smooth again, I'd spend the $65.

[DCx]

I passed on the budget timing cover. It has mixed reviews and a dorman replacement got horrible reviews. Summit had a ford racing cover in stock so I just bought that. part number M-6059-A50

I tried to order a CARB compliant 4 cat system from rockauto and when I tried to check out it said it could not be shipped to California due to not receiving a prop 65 warning. So a California and New York emissions legal part cant ship because they didn't approve a hazardous materials warning label? this is ridiculous. Looks like all the magnaflow 2.5" carb legal systems are out of stock or built to order. I will have to make some phone calls tomorrow. I found one website that said the magnaflow system can no longer be shipped to California?

I really don't want to buy 4 stand alone cats and cobble it together myself, each cat by themselves is $400.

since rockauto ditched my exhaust setup I just bought new ac parts, suction/discharge hose, liquid line, receiver dryer, and condenser. I picked up the timing cover and a new Stewart stage 1 water pump and some remflex header gaskets from summit


Waiting on parts again...

[DCx]

I made a few phone calls and found a Magnaflow CARB legal stainless 4 cat X pipe ready to ship. It was costly but I was able to use a 20% off coupon code. Hott exhaust hooked it up!





I should have everything to get the car running and rolling soon. I just need to swap the cam and gaskets on the engine and swap out the front bearing retainer and speedo gears on my T5.

[DCx]

I tore into the 5.0 yesterday and changed all the gaskets. I installed the melling cam, timing set, new timing cover, new water pump and oil pan gasket. I used ARP fasteners throughout.


I did discover the engine has some TRW or speed pro pistons. Do these look forged? part number was 255-98

[jaybee]

Your piston skirts obviously have some sort of coating, but that isn't necessarily an indication. Can you get a camera in there far enough to look up into the bottom of the piston? Might need a scope for that, unfortunately. A cast piston will probably show you some casting marks on the inside. One of those might be just above the counterweight on the right side of the picture. The inside of the piston should also look a little grainy from the casting process, whereas the inside of a forged piston is much smoother. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ai2pnnTcEg

[DCx]

Progress has ben pretty slow between work, winterizing my home and finishing some renovation projects. I did make some progress on the car on Thanksgiving. I completed the following:


Removed the Radiator and Condenser
Removed 50% of the blue tape on the wiring
Installed Steeda double hook clutch quadrant and firewall adjuster
Cleaned and degreased all the front accessories and brackets
Cleaned and degreased the bellhousing
Cleaned and degreased the T5, discovered it has a steel bearing retainer in excellent shape
Notched and relocated the rear brake line bracket to clear my BMR upper torque box bar
Installed new braided rear brake hose
Installed my BMR lower control arms
Installed the rear axle in the car


I was hung up on the rear brake line forever. The banjo bolt for the rear hose was wrecked, mushroomed out and needed replaced. Finally got a new one, took forever to ship because of the holiday.


I want to installed autometer water temp and oil pressure gauges in the dash clock pod, Thinking of drilling and tapping a hole in the trick flow intake for the water temp sensor, I want to retain the stock gauges as well. Does anyone know if an oil pressure extension adaptor will fit without interfering with the AC compressor?


I will probably order a Maximum Motor Sports steering shaft next since the engine is out of the car. I hear they really improve the steering feel but its $320!











New rear brakes, brake hoses, shocks and quad shocks will be installed this weekend. Hopefully I can get the valve train and intake manifold installed soon. Now that the radiator is out of the car I will probably install the flywheel and clutch before dropping it back in. Anyone know if the engine can go back in with the headers and trans attached at the same time? man that would save a lot of time and headaches.

[DCx]

Forgot to add this...

Broke the fuel rail rear crossover hose while removing the injectors. Guess ill just use some 5/16 hose and clamps to fix it. I would step up to an aftermarket set of fuel rails but moving the regulator externally would probably be a red flag and fail the smog visual inspection. Among other bad things, I found extra O rings jammed in the fuel rail.

[DCx]

Finally got some projects completed. I ordered some much needed parts, package was delivered to wrong house, then recovered. Gotta love package delivery during the Holiday season.

Took the tail shaft off the transmission and replaced the speedo gears. Went with the LMR 3.73 gear kit. Yellow drive gear and Red driven gear. while I was in there I added a new tail shaft output shaft seal and replaced the front bearing retainer. There was an existing steel bearing retainer that seemed brand new, but due to the excessive amounts of RTV and questionable seal, I changed it anyway. I now realize, I should have removed the top cover and ordered some bronze shift fork pads... I did use an anaerobic sealant, so tail shaft removal should be easy.

RTV much?


Everything inside looked very clean and spins nicely



Next up was the valvetrain. I was super duper upset to find out my new ford performance lifters would not install with the heads on the engine. Just too much material to tilt into the corner lifter bores. In went the old ones... installed without a hitch. I did add new comp cams magnum stock length pushrods. I set the rocker arms up using this guide:

https://www.centuryperformance.com/v...procedure.html

I was able to set zero lash and lock each rocker down to 22 foot pounds with 1/4 of a turn from 12 oclock position. Engine turns over my hand easily, very smooth.




Next up was cleaning all of the fuel injectors out with a crappy ebay kit that allowed me to spray carb cleaner through them with a 12v drill battery. All injectors opened and closed under command and sprayed out carb cleaner nicely. They received new O rings. I made new fuel lines using Fragola, Parker-push-lok hose and matching Fragola oetiker clamps. better safe than sorry. Hose was a BEAR to twist and install on the fuel rail barbs. Heated it with a hair dryer and used some lube.



Lastly, installed the intake T-stat, valve covers. I used some new steel core rubber O-ring style valve cover gaskets from LMR along with ARP studs and LMR's ARP intake bolt kit with water pipe stud. I used the recommended felpro intake gaskets for GT40x heads.



It probably wont last long but that summit racing timing tape is awesome, very accurate. As mentioned before, new steward water pump, ford performance timing cover, and ARP everything, including balancer bolt.

[DCx]

Its been forever since I updated this thread. I have been busy on other mustang forums. But I am happy to report we have a runner and we are ready for smog!

Back in January I had the car hauled up to my house here in the Mountains and began thrashing on it. I basically removed all of the blue tape and re wrapped all of the electrical and replaced just about every connector for the engine sensors due to them being broken or melted. Replaced every inch of vacuum hose with silicone hoses. I cut up the supplied BBK egr tube and fabbed it up to the intake.























- - - Updated - - -

I got the car stated today but not without a pile of diagnostics. I was having a no fuel pump issue so I tested all the wires at the CCRM. I was only getting 2 volts to the fuel pump for some reason, all other pins were good except ECU voltage was only 2 volts as well. I yanked the computer out and tested the 60 pin, everything checked out as far as constant power and grounds so I plugged in the CCRM again and tested for PCM voltage at the 60 pin. bingo, 12v. With key on I tripped the fuel pump at the diagnostic port, it ran! so conclusion, I think I didnt tighten the CCRM plug enough before hand. After all that BS, I could not get it to start. Tested for spark at the coil, good to go, votage at the injectors, fuel pressure was around 36psi. Im an idiot and had the distributor 180 out. I followed an amazing video on youtube about setting initial timing. I set the balancer at 10 degrees BTC, dropped the distributor in and then twisted it until the skinny #1 hall effect sensor lined up with the center of the PIP sensor, this placed the rotor exactly at #1. Removed the spout connector and the engine instantly came to life after doing this.



I had absolutely ZERO idle hunting, it ran about 1000 rpm then calmed down to a stable 850ish idle, giving it some throttle never stalled the engine. I let it run until the low speed fan came on. I set the timing to 10* with the spout removed. Shut the car down and installed the spout. Started it back up and still had zero idle issues. Timing from the ECU is about 20-22* at hot idle.

Quick video of it running. Sorry for the smoke alarm, it was a bit smoky from the new exhaust

https://youtu.be/02GAScmyyZM

[DCx]

Forgot to add I am running the 95 Cobra J4J1 computer I got off ebay.

So I guess I technically have a Fo-Bra Mustang now.

[ryeguy2006a]

Congrats! Wishing you luck on the Smog test. Looks like you did a great job finding all of the right parts.

[DCx]

Ran into an issue running the car on jack stands. I diagnosed it as my GT500 finned aluminum diff cover rubbing on the ring gear and differential. I posted a thread about it on a mustang forum.

What's your opinion on this?

https://www.corral.net/threads/95-mu...tures.2517875/

[DCx]

Happy to report I PASSED THE SMOG TEST! the car is now registered, insured and road worthy.

Its been a long mission chasing little issues but I got it all sorted out! I've put over 100 legal miles on the car and its never missed a beat!

I ended up installing tailpipes on the car, they were needed for the smog check. Im glad I did. The car sounds amazing now.

https://youtu.be/GylmTt4oMWE