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

[DCx]

I just bought a house in the San Bernardino Mountains and just needed another car to throw at the corners on my way home, what better way than a fox platform mustang GT with a 5 speed!







I Picked up this gem for $1500 less than a mile from my folks house. I've been watching it dry rot for the last decade and finally decided to make an offer on it. I bought it without even really looking at it. The old lady I got it from gave me her power of attorney paperwork and a clean Arizona title. I went to AAA for a planned non-op but since its from out of state I need a VIN verification by either AAA, highway patrol, or a VIN service, but either way its mine now.

I was really surprised to see how clean the interior was and all of the notable modifications done to the car. Here is a short list of what I have found on it so far:

Trick Flow - Street heat (or burner) intake manifold
no-name Aluminum 94-95 intake throttle body spacer
Trick Flow Twisted wedge heads
Trick Flow Valve covers
Ford racing aluminum drive shaft
Aluminum radiator
30mm front sway bar
24lb injectors
Ford racing plug wires
75mm Granitelli MAF
Adjustable fuel pressure regulator
BBK cold air intake
BBK underdrive pulleys
MAC direct fit 1 5/8 shorty headers
welded Magnaflow mufflers
Way too much 90s-2000s stereo equipemt (jensen single disc head unit, 10 disc changer, jensen 4 channel amp, two sub boxes with 10s and miles of wires. I promptly ripped it all out. I was very please to see they used metra plugs and dint damage any of the factory stuff.

Everything electrical on the car works when tested with a new battery, even the old Clifford alarm starter relay and door locks functioned. I will probably rip that out too. I put fresh oil and gas in it and it cranked and cranked but had no fuel pressure. I dropped the tank and found a completely seized fuel pump with a rotted fuel feed hose. The tank vent and filler tube grommets were toast as well. I pretty much stopped right there and immediately order parts from LMR.

So far I have picked up:
BMR single adjustable upper and lower rear control arms with spherical bushings
J&M spherical dif bushings
LMR lowering springs
LMR caster camber plates
LMR bump steer kit
Steeda clutch quadrant and cable
BBK bolt in frame connectors with seat supports
KYB shocks and struts
Prothane bushings (front control arms, sway bar, end links, rack, coil springs
Walbro 155lph fuel pump
LMR NVX wheels 18x9 and 18x10 with 275/32/28 and 285/35/18 tires
Cobra front calipers, pads, brake hoses and rotors
GT rear rotors and pads
Moog ball joints
(MUCH MUCH MORE TO COME)

The car has a cobbled together exhaust. It only had one cat and the H pipe was missing. The whole exhaust from front to back was welded as one piece. Looks like I will have to bit the bullet and buy new a new CARB compliant mid pipe. My only options are a magnaflow X with 4 cats for $2600 or the rockauto special for $1700. Im thinking magnaflow...



Unless I find some CARB numbers on the intake manifold I will have to swap in the stock GT intake manifold, maf, injectors, and airbox to pass the visual. The car still has the smog pump, egr and it had a horribly welded system of tubing to connect the cats to the air pump solenoids.

I'm wondering if it indeed has the full Trick Flow top end kit, Will I find roller rockers and a cam in this thing? From the looks of it the car still has the stock 2.73 rear gears and T5 shifter. Own knows if its had a clutch or flywheel put in it? Time will tell.

More to come.

[DCx]

Wanted to keep a 5 spoke design wheel. Saleen wheels were out of stock and I didn't want 17" cobras so I settled for these. $1650 mounted, balanced and shipped to me.

[jaybee]

The SN95 gets the least respect of any Mustang other than the Mustang II, but I liked the look when they were new and I'd drive one for sure...especially if I could get one in that shape for what you paid! I like the looks of the New Edge versions, but I'm not sure I'd enjoy messing with the 2v engines. On the other hand, Lincoln Aviator and Navigator engines are plentiful 4v versions which would make a good basis for a Mach I clone.

[Bugzilla]

Glad to see another project going on in the SB mountains! You somewhere up the 18? I am close to where Waterman turns into the 18.

[DCx]

Glad to see another project going on in the SB mountains! You somewhere up the 18? I am close to where Waterman turns into the 18.

san bernardino native here! Im up the 138 in crestline, close to cedar pines. I scored a kick a$$ house with an attached two car garage and carport with a small shop in the back. My folks and all my cars are down the mountain off waterman

[DCx]

Its been hectic moving and renovating my new house. Ive just been collecting parts for the Mustang. I did manage to rebuild the front suspension, rear axle, and drop the T5, bellhousing and clutch.

Added poly bushings to the stock front control arms along with new moog ball joints, sve lowering springs, cobra brakes, poly steering rack bushings, kyb struts and SVE caster camber plates. Still need to install my SVE bump steer tie rods and poly sway bar bushings.







The 8.8 went together easily with the aide of my vice. I added all new koyo beaings and a ford racing 3.73 gear set along with a gt500 diff cover, ford racing pinion flange and axle bearings. used a nifty lube locker differential gasket too along with arp cover bolts.

I re used my stock pinion shim, crushed the pinion to 23 inch pounds and set the back lash at .010 using the supplied shim packs. tooth pattern looked good. just going to send it.













spherical housing bushings added as well.

I dumped the T5 out of the car. discovered a worn cobra clutch which had multiple hot spots, ford racing clutch fork, perfect pivot stud and a stock 50oz flywheel. Tail housing has lots of rtv like they tried to stop a leak or something? i have to remove it for speedo gears, i will use the correct anaerobic sealant.



Tag on the T5 is correct for a 94-94 gt. fluid was clean and it shifted into all gears nicely.

I added some BBK bolt in subframe connectors and picked up a RAM hdx clutch, mcleod light weight steel sfi flywheel and a mcleod clutch fork. new ford racing roller pilot bearing and bolts. will probably switch to ARP. I also discovered this car might have a new short block in it. the oil pan has studs and all the freeze plugs on the engine are brand new. some have those melting tabs to void the warranty if it overheats.

more pics to come.

[DualQuadDave]

Neat car, brings back tons of memories. The "bolt in" sub connectors are junk, just weld them in, will learned this a million years ago on my own Fox. You have a bunch of power waiting in modern valvetrain for it. All the old school stuff is heavily and kills the ability to rev. Modern beehive springs, steel rockers, and better lifters/pushrods will make that thing rock. The intake manifold is so-so. The Holley Systemax 2 is the good one from back in the day, or go modern and put a Hi Ram on it. 75mm throttle body minimum. Times have changed, bigger is better.

I don't know what coil springs you have, but the old SVO 5300-C springs were absolutely awesome back in the day.

[DCx]

Neat car, brings back tons of memories. The "bolt in" sub connectors are junk, just weld them in, will learned this a million years ago on my own Fox. You have a bunch of power waiting in modern valvetrain for it. All the old school stuff is heavily and kills the ability to rev. Modern beehive springs, steel rockers, and better lifters/pushrods will make that thing rock. The intake manifold is so-so. The Holley Systemax 2 is the good one from back in the day, or go modern and put a Hi Ram on it. 75mm throttle body minimum. Times have changed, bigger is better.

I don't know what coil springs you have, but the old SVO 5300-C springs were absolutely awesome back in the day.

I made another discovery on the engine. I took a peek down the trickflow oil filler tube and low and behold I have a set of crane 1.7 cobra roller rockers. Guess these were standard on the cobra and licensed by ford racing? So in order to check everything out I picked up some steel w/ rubber O ring gasket valve cover gaskets and some arp studs for cast valve covers.

Among other things I ordered some BMR tubular torque box reinforcements and a Stifflers tubular trans crossmember with polly bushings. I also picked up the appropriate trickflow intake adaptor elbow (in black of course) and an egr tube spacer. I neglected to order the 3/8 upper intake spacer so I will order that next.

American muscle sells a 75mm billet throttle body for under $200 that seems to be the new favorite among sn95 guys. I will also pick up a new cold air intake, I thought I had a BBK but upon further inspection its a crappy ebay special in chrome that's now pitted and rusted.

Since the car is nearly a shell I will probably pull the motor out. check the gaskets and clean all the rat turds and garbage out of the intake. I also want to re-gasket whatever I can and change the thermostat. After all, I was told this thing sat for 10 years. All of the trick silicone vacuum lines added from the previous owner are cracked and junk. I will also need to tackle new fuel lines. The rubber hose is cracking and someone used a hose clamp on the plastic quick connect for the return. Will go PTFE with appropriate Russell fittings for the fuel rails.

I long while back I picked up a complete top end from a stock 95gt engine. I have a factory upper and lower intake with elbow, throttle body and EGR, Air box and stock MAF.

I absolutely need to pass California emissions! I finally got the VIN verified and the title in my name. Car is on non opp

[DCx]

Crane rockers



BMR Tubular upper and lower torque box reinforcement



Stifflers T5 crossmember (possible TKX in the future lol)



Maximum Motorsports K member brace



Random Ignition components, ARP clutch and flywheel bolts, TFS intake elbow

[DCx]

I crawled under my car today to check out the back of the cylinder heads. To my dismay, they are not trick flow like I imagined. They are actually old ford racing GT40x aluminum heads. with SVO engraved on the backs and fronts. I did some digging and looks like ford offered a new crate engine with a e303 cam and these heads.. may be why the block and parts look so new. I will defiantly remove it for further inspection.

found an old post on stang.net and a user described my exact combo, trickflow track heat intake, pro m75mm maf, aluminum gt40x heads, 24lb injectors.

Ford claims 340hp, 310 torque

ford part number FMS-M-6007-XE3M

[DualQuadDave]

DM me when you get it out and apart. If the shortblock is ok, I would change up some parts and make it mo-better. Sell the GT40x heads/rockers/E-cam. Buy some TEA TW heads and will help you pick a cam that will pass emissions. Keep the intake for now, maybe port it some. Might have to slap the stock intake ion it to pass emissions from a visual standpoint. Maybe

[DCx]

Finally took the intake manifold off. I had to order some crows feet to remove the EGR tube from the EGR valve. Came right off with a 1" flare fitting a small extension and a long breaker bar.

I discovered the intake was missing the back nuts on the rear studs and all of the vacuum lines were rock hard and broke when I yanked them. There was absolutely no way I would have gotten this engine to idle with the vacuum lines like that. Also discovered the intake is a Track Heat, it has "2U" cast in the bottom.

I called Trickflow and they are mailing me out the CARB sticker for a street burner intake, BBK was kind enough to send me a sticker for their air intake even though I dont actually own one lol.

The heads are indeed GT40X castings sporting ARP head bolts and Crane 1.7 cobra rockers. Look how clean these castings are!





The lifters must have relaxed because the rockers can wiggle around some.

Called it quits on the top end until I can yank it out and clean it up. I finally got around to installing my BMR torque box reinforcements. What a major pain they were to install. I had to elongate almost every hole in the brackets to get everything to align. I had to beat in the floors with a hammer to fit the upper control arm bolts in. I also had to drill the rivets out of the brake hose bracket. It needs surgery to fit up next to the cross bar. I also have to wrap the cross bar with 5/8 heater hose to protect the fuel lines. The pinion snubber bracket will get hacked up as well. Adjusted my BMR upper control arms to stock length and locked them down. Everything is loose for the time being.





I will most likely return the top end to stock form for smog. I doubt the MAC headers will re-install, each primary tube bolts to the head and I hear they warp bad over time. Dont want to strip my heads putting them back on. I will most likely get some BBK unequal length, they are carb legal and come with a new EGR tube.

[DualQuadDave]

I agree with what you are saying, best to slap a stock topend on it and get through smog, then figure it out. If you can find some SVO or FMS stainless 1 5/8 shorty headers, they were the best quality. I have nearly every brand back in the day. The SVO's were good for the $$$. Bassani is also super nice. For shorty headers, un equal length is fine. I do like an X pipe w/ shortys. I made good power w/ that combo back in the day. FYI, if you are going to stick with the Track Heat intake, you may. Just send out the X heads and have them ported/decked/springs. Ported they flow in the 250-260cfm range, about what the Track Heat intake flows. May be easier/cheaper to maximize the combo you have vs starting over.

[MTBSully]

Awesome scoop up! Ive had probably 15 new edge 99-4 mustangs, cobras, mach 1s etc. Great cars and endless aftermarket support for them. Looking forward to following the progress!

[DCx]

Progress taking the car apart has been so slow! I still havent installed the rear end or pulled the motor, just been stacking up the parts. I picked up a SVE engine lift plate, new fuel pump hanger and the last freakin set of BBK unequal shorties on the planet. I called BBK, no ETA on headers, summit, jegs, lethal, beefcake and almost all ebay sellers drop ship straight from BBK. I messaged a 6-7 ebay sellers and finally found one that had them on hand, guy was nice enough to give me a small discount and ship them immediately. I know the chrome will rust right off, but the CARB EO number is loud and proud on the #5 primary tube and I got a new EGR flow tube with them. The 3/8 thick flange looks very sturdy, gaskets supplied, not so much. Also, they came with 3/4" bolts, barely allows any thread engagement, I will have to step up to 1". I would leave the MACs untouched but the previous owner used tiny bolts to hold the dip stick on, and the bolt backed out, gasket looks burnt around the #6 tube.

I cleaned my stock ebay score upper and lower GT intake last weekend. Thank goodness for some well needed rain, I totally ruined the street out front of my remote mountain house. Used super clean, easy off oven cleaner and a pressure washer. The intake was so full of oil and crap the ports were 1/2 the diameter they were supposed to be. I had to drive a long wood screw into the PCV screen to yank it out. It was a complete solid mass of oil and crap. The harsh cleaners really tarnished the aluminum but im going to paint them anyway, if I choose to use them.

So far Trickflow has been a total let down on the customer service. I have called 3 times and spoke to customer service about getting a CARB EO sticker for a streetburner intake. They take down my name, address and assure me it will be sent out asap. Nothing yet, its been 3 weeks of bugging them. BBK was awesome to deal with and sent me a CARB EO sticker for a cold air I dont even own, 2 day turn around.

I have been wondering about the computer (EEC) in the car. I hear to properly run 24lb injectors on a GT computer it needs a chip and tune. I scored a 1995 cobra EEC, J4J1, on ebay for $200, its preset for a stock 70mm MAF and 24lb injectors. I may use it if I return the top end to stock. I removed the passenger kick panel and verified I have a GT computer, T4m0, but I found somethin odd... the same blue electrical tape all over my engine harness is wrapped around the computer lengthwise... could it be holding in a chip or tuner? wouldent that be nice to find a quarter horse or tweecer on the car. But kowing me and the lack of attention and cobbled together parts of this car it will probably be a something dumb like a JET or superchip.

It rained a lot today, I will yank out the computer tomorrow and verify.

I didnt want to open up the engine further than necessary but I need to see what camshaft is in this thing. Im reading my 302x heads were sold as bare castings, no idea who built them, springs used, valves, push rod length.

what a can of worms just to pass the Cali sniffer.

[DCx]

Pulled the ECU today and found out it has an old DiabloSport chip installed. I emailed Diablo, have no idea if this is still supported. May have to yank it unless the car will still run with the stock intake, stock maf, installed cam, and 24lb injectors.

[DualQuadDave]

The GT ecu will only run the 19lbs inj correctly. I would swap the Cobra ecu and go that route, but the maf may give you some issues. Do you have an adjustable fuel pressure regulator? That would help the situation, for sure.

[jaybee]

The ECUs for these cars are getting so old now. Is there some reason aftermarket EFI units don't have OBDII ports?

[DCx]

I contacted Diablo via email and sadly they do not support the chip any longer, kinda figured that.

lets see if 4th time is the charm... called trickflow again today and they assured me a carb-eo sticker would be mailed out. Im not holding my breath. Guy had me on hold for a long time while he said he personally went to the "office" and retrieved a sticker. My neighbor suggested I check out a local shop up here in the mountains for my smog, his son has an old 80s nissan Z car and just got it passed there by leaving it over night, lol. im sure it was just passed without much hassle, lots of old rusted junk running around up here.

Doing endless SN95 cam and tuning searches makes my head hurt that ford would produce such a pile of crap and sensitive ecu in these cars. seems like the SN95 has endless issues with surging idle and stalling with the smallest modifications. In all honesty I will probably just yank out the cam in the car currently, buy a melling (SYB51) stock replacement and run the cobra eec with the stock maf, gt40x heads, 1.7 rockers, 24lb injectors and possibly stock intake unless trickflow can deliver on their promise. At this point I just want to drive this thing, enjoy it for what it is. I was just itching for another v8 manual trans car. I still wouldn't have passed this deal up but its looking like the old fox mustangs were just far far better candidates for upgrades. Thats a lot of struggle for 300hp when I am a die hard LS guy.

To answer your question DualQuadDave, the car currently has a crusty old paxton adjustable FPR installed, I have a new in box BBK unit as well as a new stock replacement unit. I was told an adjustable FPR would fail smog visual, additionally, I had to order it from summit and click the "off road use only box", none of the mustang parts houses will ship anything remotely necessary to upgrade this for this car to California, including intake spacers!! had to get those from summit too. in the event I run the stock intake i have a 1/2 ford racing spacer and a 3/8 trick flow spacer for my track heat. Need the valve cover clearance with my cast trickflow valve covers. Ebay wants a fortune for real SN cobra valve covers.

off topic but I was looking at cams, the steeda 19 was supposed to be made for the SN but I read all sorts of issues with it once its installed even with a 115LSA it still causes low speed and idle issues. I was looking at a comp XE258HR cam, super mild, .480 lift with 1.6 rockers and a 114LSA but I doubt that would idle nice. I can squeeze my with .4726 lift on the melling cam with my rockers and hope the heads and intake wake it up some.

Im off Friday and plan to get some work done to this thing. gathering parts is getting old.

[DCx]

Pulled the motor yesterday. was quite challenging with the MAC headers still attached. Glad in ditching the equal length style, the bolts were a nightmare to remove.







Going to open it up tomorrow afternoon and see what cam is in this thing. The sparkplugs were extremely fouled and black, Im sure it was running rich and terrible, probably why it was parked.

Found out the car has a fluidyne radiator and an SFI approved from balancer. I am debating pulling the heads to check the bore and see what kinda slugs were put into this thing. Might as well add a one piece oil pan gasket while im at it.