This is the page that tells everything I have done and am currently doing to the car

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March 29, 2004: DELIVERY: The transport driver calls this morning and says he's about 1 1/2 hours out. I gave him directions to Lowe's. It's right off the expressway and has a huge parking lot. Well, he takes a wrong turn and goes through town. He winds up getting his rig stuck on a side road trying to turn into a parking lot with this big incline at the entrance. I know, we've all seen this a million times. That was one million and one for me and unfortunately it was MY car on the truck. This thing hauls eight cars at a time. So when I get there I call a wrecker service after he tries numerous ideas to free himself of which none worked. The wrecker finally shows up and bam!, unstuck in five minutes. We unload the GTC and off I go home with what seemed like a quarter of a million bugs covering the windshield and the entire front of the car.

The first thing I gotta due is start cleaning her. I'm a neat freak and also have a slight anti-germ thing going on. After giving her the once over the first thing I notice is it's rust free. It spent its entire life in southern California and Nevada. It's never been hit as far as I can tell. Original paint. The passenger side rear wheel molding is dented for about 4 inches where it brushed up against a garage one day in California. No biggie. Any Mark VII wheel molding will work (Junk yard & $5 no doubt). There are three places on the ground effects kit that need repairing. Only one actual "crack". It's on the front air dam. Any good body shop can patch the fiberglass easily.

My first project is done. The driver's side header (long tube) was hitting a bar that connects the two lower control arms. I went to Home depot and bought two longer bolts and shimmed each with 4 washers to move the bar down and away from the header. Fixed! Next will be to remove the three gauge pod that's glued to the steering column. The volts and temp gauge work but the oil pressure doesn't. While vacuuming the carpet I noticed a couple rags under the dash and an oily  stain on the floor. After speaking with Marty again, he said it's fluid from the clutch slave cylinder. I'll check it out. The passenger's window does not move but I can hear the motor and the door lock actuator doesn't work on that side. What's really interesting is the three gauges that were installed by Roush Performance. GTC6.jpg (109225 bytes) The tach is where one of the air vents was. The temp and oil pressure ones were mounted in the glove compartment. Another thing I like is on my 91 LSC when you take the car out of park and go past neutral, the parking brake disengages. The way the T5 tranny works is, when you depress the brake pedal it releases the parking brake. Neat! I haven't been able to test the handling yet because the left rear tire tread is actually separated from the sidewall. The threads are holding it together for now. The first big money item is gonna be four new 255/50R16s for the BBS wheels. The spare is also a BBS rim but I think he popped a curb with it cause she looks bent. It'll do for a spare though. I plan on doing a full tune up this weekend, then taking a couple days off next week to work on her some more.

March 31, 2004: Trying to figure out what tune up parts to purchase has been a little tough. The car is a 1984, the first engine swap was in 1985 by Roush then in 1987 the 347 was installed. After doing some web surfing and calling a few Ford dealerships I remembered about a place in Lumberton that had something to do with high performance Ford parts. Holcomb Motorsports http://www.holcombmotorsports.com/ is an SVO warehouse that supplies parts for more than 120 product lines. They're less than two hours from me. So I call them, speak to one of the reps and after determining what I had he picked out an SVO cap, rotor, wires and Motorcraft plugs. They should be here tomorrow. Yesterday I pulled two of the spark plugs out to get an idea of how this thing is burning. They both looked fantastic. Light gray burn, no gas or oily smell. Now I'm a little afraid of the aluminum heads and possibly cross threading one of these spark plugs but I'm told that with this caliber engine, metal sleeves were probably used. I still have yet to take her above 5,000 rpms (only did that once). This thing could probably do over 140mph. She's only doing 60mph at 2,000 rpm. I left J. Bittle of JBA an voice mail today. I'm hoping he remembers a little something about this car and the engine they built for it back in 87. I would think this car would be hard to forget. It's not like some cookie cutter built mustang or camaro. Who knows, I could be way off target because the fastest car I've owned was a 1969 Mach 1 with, again, a 351W (~300hp) 3:55 rear and 4 speed. That thing would hit 120 easily and the GTC certainly feels like it would dust that old Mustang of mine. The Holley looks absolutely brand spanking new on this thing. She'll get a full tune up, new fluids, and all new hoses under the hood this weekend.

April 3, 2004: TUNE UP: Ok, tune up time! I got my Ford Motorsports cap & rotor set (M12106A302), wires (M12259C301 9mm Blue). Motorcraft plugs  (AGSP32C gapped to .044) and fuel filter. The upper & lower radiator hoses along with the exhaust manifold and collector gasket will be in tomorrow. I pretty much spent the afternoon with the plugs. When I pulled off the plug wire to cylinder # 4, I noticed the plug wobbled. So I reached down and unscrewed the thing with my fingers! I'm hoping this was the source of what sounded like an exhaust leak (ticking). I had to loosen the right side header to remove the plug in cylinder #3. Had to break off the plug then use a regular socket to remove it. I had to completely disconnect the header and collector to replace the plug back in cylinder #3. My guess is the thing should be a lot quieter and run better when I'm through tomorrow.  I checked the leak under the dash more closely. It seems to be the piston in the clutch master cylinder. I'll take it out and replace it with a new one. Well, it's dark and I'm tired so I'll finish the tune up tomorrow.

GTC9.jpg (438801 bytes)April 4, 2004: HEADERS & Oil Change: Fun stuff discovered today! I decided to remove the driver's side header so I could replace the gaskets and discovered that 2 of the 4 header pipes going into the collector pipe were completely loose. Earlier I shimmed the bar that goes between the lower control arms down 1/2" so that header would not bang up against it all the time. Well, apparently it's been doing it for quite some time because it broke the welds for both pipes. A buddy will be re-welding it after the new exhaust gaskets get here from JBA in California. In order to remove the driver's header, the bar it was  banging against had to come off (4 bolts) and then the steering column shaft and knuckle assembly needed to come GTC14.jpg (343830 bytes) out. One bolt at the top and 4 bolts at the bottom. Oh yeah, don't forget to remove the oil dipstick, one 5/8" nut removed and MSD 001.jpg (70683 bytes) she lifts out. Trying to locate a set of exhaust manifold gasket has proved to be quite the chore. After speaking with numerous parts houses I actually got a hold of JBA Headers in San Diego (Alex). He knew exactly what I was talking about with regards to these things and hooked me up with 2 sets (minus the 1/4" of dust on them). These heads have a square port exhaust and offset mounting bolt pattern which seems to confuse everyone. Changed the oil and filter (Mobil 1).

GTC8.jpg (338603 bytes)GTC7.jpg (633611 bytes)Here's a couple of pictures of the pan hard bar in the rear. You can also get a glimpse of the Koni red adjustable shocks. SWEET! The PAN HARD BAR, for those of you who are wondering what it's for, firms up the "rear" location. During hard corning a car's rear moves side to side underneath the car. The pan hard bar limits this movement. Less movement means less chance of wandering of rear components during hard turning...better tire contact patch!!!

April 9,2004: FINISH TUNE UP: I took apart the dash today to try and fix my ODOMETER from reading "ERROR" all the time. As it turns out, I'm gonna need a new NVMM (non-volatile memory module) This is what stores the odometer reading. Basically what it does is keep track of the mileage in a digital dash display. For a few bucks I can purchase one to replace it and I've already removed and cleaned this one. It only took a couple of minute to remove but it definitely needs replacing. I need to locate one registering in the high  80,000 mile range to keep in sync with the actual miles that are on the car. Afterwards I put the new exhaust manifold and valve cover gaskets in, upper, lower radiator and bypass hoses on and plug wires in. I also removed the phone cradle and 3 gauge pod off the steering column.  I had a hell of a brain teaser today. The engine is a 351W so naturally I used the 351w firing order when installing the new spark plug wires. When I try to start it, it won't "catch". She's just bucking, puffing, and skipping like crazy. Well, after looking at the old cap and wires I compare it to what I have setup. As it turns out, the Crane Cam is for a '69 or '70 302 engine. So, this of course changes the firing order!!! After changing it to the correct order, she fires up and runs great. I let her warm up then take her out for a run. She definitely runs smoother and has more power now. SWEET! Now the header collector gaskets I got from JBA are wrong so tomorrow I'll need to find a set to quiet it down. It also sounds like I may need to adjust the valves on the driver's side. I can't tell if it's an exhaust leak or something else. I'll dig into it tomorrow.

April 10, 2004: VALVE ADJUSTMENT:  Today I put in the new header collector gaskets. But first I took a grinder to the driver's side mid pipe. TheGTC16.jpg (96940 bytes) pipe stuck out about 1/8" beyond the flange so I wanted to make it flush. Then I removed the valve covers and adjusted all the valves. The procedure is fairly simple, just time consuming. I got the procedure from the Kelly Hotrod website http://raceabilene.com/kelly/hotrod/

April 11, 2004: RED NECK PROTECTION: Today I did a little "Red-Neck" painting. That would be paintingGTC17.jpg (153871 bytes) done in your front yard. The top of the roof was really worn from the California sun so I compounded the entire car then sanded the roof. Then I taped her up along with some newspaper and sprayed a couple cans of gloss black on her because that's what was in my cabinet. Now it looks like she's got a vinyl top. HaHaHa! At least she's protected now until I get the full paintjob done. I also touched up a couple places that were chipped. 

GTC18.jpg (168368 bytes)April 15,2004: NEW TIRES: Today I purchased 4 new tires on ebay. Now, I'm not much of an ebay promoter but I gotta tellya, I've scored some pretty good deals. I have yet to sell anything but I have a feeling that's just a matter of time. 4 brand new General (Continental) P255/60VR16 tires. I paid $70 each plus shipping. The total was $324.00 for them. That's a GREAT deal! I'll feel a heck of a lot safer without the dry-rotted rubber that's on the car now. Plus, I really look forward to setting the Koni shocks at their stiffest and taking her through a few high speed corners.

April 17, 2004: HEADLINER FIX: Eventually I'll have the interior redone. New leather, headliner, carpet, etc. But for now the headliner needs something to keep it up. I'm tired of ducking down because it keeps rubbing my head. I found the perfect, temporary, cheap fix. I went and bought a pack of double point staples (9/16") at Home Depot. They look like tiny horse shoes with really sharp ends. all I did was remove the headliner, pull the cloth tight and push the staples through the cloth and foam. Then I took pliers and squeezed the ends of the staples together. 12 around the edges and 6 towards the center of the liner. It actually looks really good. The total time and money invested was 50 minutes and 97 cents plus tax!

April 18, 2004: WINDOW MOTOR: The passenger side window does not move at all. The motor runs but no up and down movement. I removed the motor and took it apart to find out the nylon gear inside had broke. DOOR LOCK ACTUATOR: While I have the door panel off I decided to figure out why the lock doesn't work. Again, I can hear the motor but no action. I found out that the plastic clip that secures the rod to the latch was broke so the motor was just spinning and never moving the latch.  

April 19, 2004: Off I go to the Ford dealership that's 5 minutes from my house. 1 window motor gear repair kit ($27.10), 1 plastic clip for the lock actuator ($1.00), 1 bag of plastic door panel pins ($5.90). After fixing them both the window and lock work great.

 GTC20.jpg (80028 bytes) GTC21.jpg (72322 bytes) These are two angle shots of the aluminum cones at the base of the front air springs. The shape of these is different then that of a stock LSC cone. It allows the front to handle twice the weight of the LSCs.

The FRONT SWAY BAR on this thing was custom bent for this car and has a diameter of 1.3"...It's FAT!!! Swaybar1.jpg (49225 bytes) The rear sway bar is 5/8" in diameter.

April 25, 2004: I replaced the inner and outer wheel bearings and seals on the front rotors today. While testing out the new tires I noticed a vibration during quick left hand turns. I figured it was the bearings. They did not look overheated but they were a little "sloppy". So now they are new. I wish I would have remembered the thing had rear discs too. I'll buy and replace them next week.

April 29, 2004: Fixed the exhaust leak this evening. I pulled the two header pipes out on the driver's side and loaded them up with exhaust silicone then re-installed them in the collector. I also put some between the header pipe and exhaust manifold gasket. My buddy Brian tach welded the pipes to the collector and now.....quiet! All you hear is exhaust out the rear baby! It sounds so smooth. Now I need to get a louder exhaust! Woohoo! Dynamx Super Turbos here I come.

May 17, 2004: BROKE SYNCRO IN TRANNY: One of the drawbacks of owning a "Hot Rod" is eventually your gonna break something. Yesterday I had one of those 320hp Ram Air Firebirds think he was going to dust me. He found out that wasn't going to happen. Problem is, when shifting to 5th gear, she wouldn't go. Just grind, grind, grind. My turn was coming up so I just held in the clutch and turned onto my street. It goes into all the gears fine but grinds before going into 5th. My tranny bud tells me it's not a big deal if I pull it now and he repairs it. So, I'll be dropping the T5 soon and having it fixed. I had planned on putting a new clutch setup in it anyway so no biggie. He warned me 5th was not a racing gear and I should not use it while attempting to prove a point (racing). I get it now.

May 29, 2004: We pulled the T5 out today. It's definitely a Hurst shifter but it does not have the stops on it. The problem was the plastic bushings on the fork that's for 5th gear. One was cracked in half. My guess is since the shifter doesn't have stops, it got slammed into 5th, busted the plastic then would not allow the syncro gear to slide all the way to engage 5th. All the gears looked great. We're going to replace 5th and it's syncro anyway because the edges of the teeth were slightly damaged. It looks like I'll be putting a new shifter in (one with stops). That way this doesn't happen again. 

Trans2.jpg (71408 bytes)June 2, 2004: I took the FLYWHEEL to "Clutch Connection" in Wilmington today. Jay, the owner, was quite impressed with it. He asked me what it was out of because you don't see too many of the "high-end" steel billet flywheels unless it's in something nice. I told him about the GTC. They have a diamond cutter there so I know I'm getting a perfect cut (.006").

June 3, 2004: I've spoken to quite a few "clutch experts" over the past two weeks and finally got to chat with a gentleman who really knows his shit when it comes Clutch1.jpg (68206 bytes) to clutches. Even though this guy sells LUK, Exedy Racing, OEM (Ford, GMC, International, Mitsubishi, Isuzu) sets among other brands, he told me the Valeo (Ford Motorsports) CLUTCH that was in it would absolutely be the best choice for my application. So I ordered the Valeo  High Performance Racing Set (07-042HPV) from Dial-A-Clutch in Florida. $229.10 plus shipping. http://dialaclutch.com/

I also located a company in California at http://www.stangsuspension.com that sells the STEEDA TRI-AX SHIFTER for the best price anywhere. Josh isGTC 001.jpg (55269 bytes) sending one 2nd day air for only $161.95 to my doorstep.

June 5, 2004: I custom bent and installed 14 1/2 feet of steel tubing in place of the rubber FUEL LINE that ran from the tank to the fuel pump. I must say it Fuelline1.jpg (102446 bytes) looks great and I feel much safer knowing all that dry-rotted rubber fuel line is gone. I just picked up three 60" pieces of 5/16" steel tubing and two unions from Advance Auto. I also replaced the fitting on the fuel pump. It leaked fuel bad so I just picked up a fitting from Lowe's. I do have a fuel filter between the fuel pump and steel tubing up front. 

 

June 8, 2004: The T5 World Class tranny is back in and the Valeo HP Clutch topped with the new Steeda Tri-Ax shifter are all in. I bought a black Trans1.jpg (64098 bytes) Hurst ball shifter knob (Holcomb Motorsports $29.90). This sucker is huge and feels great in my palm when shifting. It's got the shifting pattern imprinted on the top and it's real tight. It shifts great. Success! 

 

June 11, 2004: I had the A/C system tested and recharged today. I've got nice cold air but the compressor is going (noisy). I'll run it until she goes then I'll convert it over to R134a. I lost the pressure in the clutch today for some reason. The slave cylinder leaked when I got it but it seemed to stop and was fine after replacing the clutch. My guess is the slave couldn't handle the new pressure plate and finally went. A rebuild kit is available but hard to get locally. There is a place in Illinois called DRE/WREP that stocks it so I'll probably end up ordering it Monday. I don't feel like spending $100 on a new slave so I'll rebuild the Girling unit for about $20.

June 16, 2004: I purchased the rebuild kit for the clutch master cylinder and put it in. Bled the system. It worked for about 5 minute then went flat again. First chance I get I'm gonna bleed it from the bottom up to see if there's some air stuck down in the slave.

June 26, 2004: I finally fixed the F-in clutch today. After scratching my head for a few minutes I realized that if I've got 5" of play in the pedal and it's only "grabbing" 1" off the floor then there's got to be some air still in the clutch master cylinder. Now the thing is mounted at nearly a 45 degree angle with the front pointing downward. So I figured if there's air trapped it's towards the rear and that's where it's gonna stay. I decided to pull it out and simulate bench bleeding it while the lines are still attached. That way I can tilt it backwards so the air goes to the back where the line is that goes to the reservoir. Sure enough, it worked. I reinstalled it then bled it again and now I've only got a half inch or so then she disengages when the pedal is depressed. Yeah buddy!. So I take her out for a test drive and she's just lovely. The air conditioner blows nice cold air now that it's been recharged. It's a beautiful thing. As soon as the weather cools off again I'll be replacing the heater core. Shit. That's quite the job in these things. Wish me luck.

July 11, 2004: It's darn hot outside and the A/C isn't cold anymore. I was warned because of the noise the compressor was making.

July 27, 2004: I ordered a new Girling clutch master cylinder (3/4") from the same place I got the rebuild kit. I also spoke to a guy who had different instructions on how to bleed it. Leave the bleeder open at the tranny and fill the reservoir until it starts to come out the bleeder. Keep reservoir full then pump the clutch pedal slowly once and tighten bleeder screw. Verify reservoir is full again and your done. We'll see...

July 30, 2004: The Girling arrived today via UPS. It's shorter and made from aluminum so it's a lot lighter. I'll be installing it today.Girling.jpg (51679 bytes)OldCMCyllinder.jpg (33854 bytes) The old Girling is on the left. August 1, 2004: What a pain in the butt to install this thing. I have no idea what JRPE was thinking when they dreamed up this setup. It is so hard to access the cylinder then it's mounted at a 45 degree angle so you have to "bench bleed" it while the lines are hooked up but not installed. The top bolt was nearly impossible to get to with anything but a stubby 1/2" wrench. Even thought I was able to put it in, the previous "professional" who worked on it never even put it in. Anyway, she's in and the pedal is easier to depress. It catches at the same spot with the new cylinder. I hope this one lasts forever...

Here's a pic of it after the install. ClutchMasterCylinder 002.jpg (55011 bytes) The metal piece with the chipped blue paint on it is the clutch pedal forward stop. The braided line is ClutchMasterCylinder 001.jpg (54199 bytes) the one that goes to the slave cylinder in the tranny and the black rubber line with yellow connector goes to the reservoir in the engine compartment. To the right is a pic of the reservoir.

 

September 11, 2004: Changed oil and filter I really have not done anything with it since before we moved about a month ago. I took her out yesterday a couple times to the garage and back. I can't help but think what my 70 mustang would do with this engine in it. Next weekend is the All Fords Show in Wilmington. I'm bringing both the GTC and my stang. A few of us Mark VII owners are gonna meet and display our cars there. Changed the oil and filter again.

GTC.jpg (81999 bytes)Well, as it turned out I couldn't bring the GTC to the show so here's a pic of her dejected self in the drive way. She's got some rain drops on her...

 

April 3, 2005: Changed oil and filter I realize that there's hardly any miles that have been put on it since the last change but I just like changing the oil every six months or so anyway. I've put less than 750 miles on her since I purchased her in March of 2004.

January 2006: Nothing new with regard to the car. I've decided to build a garage to house the GTC. I'll be able to start working on it then.

March 2006: Flew my brother down from PA and we built my new garage. The GTC has a new, secure home. She's happy.

November 2007: Haven't done anything with the GTC in many many months due to working on my mustang. Thinking about putting together a plan to pull and rebuild the engine.

May 2009: FINALLY!!! I start tearing down the engine. I discovered 2 worn lifters and will order a replacement set plus cam. I plan on ordering the identical cam since it is still available from Crane under the same part number as it was ordered back in 1986 by JBA Racing when they rebuilt and installed the Roush 351.

June 25, 2009: Pulled the GTC out of the garage and hosed her down to get the dust off then rolled her back in. Here's a couple pics...

IMAGE_166.jpg (255832 bytes) IMAGE_170.jpg (361491 bytes) 

February 9, 2010: Just updating the website. Will be pulling the engine out soon to rebuild the top end.

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