2002LSCLE

Glad to see that you are getting out in it, Jason. I'm enjoying mine in "as received" form for now. Wow, these cars are a blast!! Definitely needs more torque though. And the wonderful sounds your car now makes.

Bryan

2002LSCLE

Great collector plate BTW!!

jrmotorsports55

Thanks. Yeah, VERY fun car to drive around. Can't wait to get this A/C/cooling system stuff sorted out as right now it's up on stands. Also need this rain to go away!

jrmotorsports55

Been keeping busy, the fan shroud has been build. I had to leave the one fan in place as there was not enough clearance to the water pump to have it any further back (I have already trimmed that can and used button head bolts for the water pump to gain all the clearance that I could). Getting ready to head out of town for a week, so I don't think I'll be able to test with the A/C on for overheating before I go, but I'll try. Fingers crossed.

jrmotorsports55

Here are a few pics of the weatherstrip added to the condenser to seal it to the radiator.

jrmotorsports55

Quick update, I was able to get it together and ran it for roughly 20-25 mins to test everything. A/C was on the whole time, and was blowing ice cold. Fans/shroud are good and sealed, I could feel the suction in front of the condenser with my hand. Only issue is that it was starting to get pretty hot after sitting idling that long with the A/C engaged the whole time, as it is not cycling. Got to about 230-235 when I turned it off to cool it down. Was mid 70s that day, and A/C pressures at the highest I saw were about 30 cold side, 170 high side. I put a post in the Ford engine section regarding the A/C not cycling. When I get back in town, I want to top off the coolant as it may have been a little low from having the rad out for the shroud work, and run it for an extended period without the A/C on to see what happens. Always something.

jrmotorsports55

Update time. Messed around and noticed one fan was not kicking on, found out the relay was all corroded on the inside. Replaced the relay, and now both fans work. Highest temp I have seen is around 210, and that was after running for 25-30 minutes in my garage with me revving the car to get the compressor pressures up. Pretty good there. Founds a light leak on the schrader valve on the Ford compressor, and fixed that, then topped off refrigerant. Car blows ice cold, and the A/C seems to be fine. Still runs pretty much non stop, but I think it is just not getting the evap cold enough to trip the temp switch.

Took it for a 20 min drive today, 85 degrees out, and I'm happy with how the A/C is working. Kept the car nice and cold. On the bad side, the car is stalling when I push in the clutch after driving with the A/C on. Guessing I need to bump up the idle a bit. The speedo is still reading fast even though I swapped gears with the one that the calculator told me to use. It seems to be even faster than with the red gear, guessing I need to try a 23T gear.

One other thing, when I first started this project, I rebuilt a T5 tranny that I had laying around for the car. I used an Astro performance master kit, and ever since the car has been running, it has had a slight whine coming from the tranny (even does it at idle when parked, so I know it is the tranny). It sounds like the car has a supercharger, and I think it has gotten a little louder. I was figuring it was the gears having to wear back in together, as the tranny had probably 100,000 plus miles on it prior to rebuild, and likely had an established wear pattern. I have also noticed that when I go on/off throttle while in gear, it seems to have a lot of play in the tranny. I am now thinking that I did not shim it tight enough, and that is why it is loud/clunky. Thinking it needs to come back out and I need to check the play in the shafts. Sound about right?

Thanks.

jrmotorsports55

So, I figured out why I have been having issues with the speedo reading, I was thinking I had the yellow 7 tooth drive gear (My old fox had this in the T5Z that I rebuilt and installed in that). Went back and looked at photos from when I rebuilt this tranny, it has the 8 tooth "greenish" gear. Ran that through the calc, and the 23T white speedo gear is in fact what I need. Ordered it, and hopefully that will fix my speedo issue.

jrmotorsports55

Messed with the idle, bumped it up a bit, around 900 RPM when A/C is off, a little less when on. Ran it for around 15 mins, toggled A/C on and off, and simulated driving then stopping, no stalling. Also seemed to be running a little cooler, guessing the higher idle spinning the water pump a little faster is helping with that. Should get my new speedo gear tomorrow, and will try to get that in one night this week, as well as inspect the tranny while underneath.

jrmotorsports55

New 23t speedo gear in, inspected the tranny and drivetrain, everything felt tight. Took it out for a drive, ice cold A/C, speedo seems to be accurate now, and seems to be driving fine. I think I am at the point where I can trust this as my daily for a little while while I bring my Mini in for the big service/tune up, and ECU re-tune. Fingers crossed.

Looking over my "to-do" list related to the engine swap, all I really have to do is adjust the clutch once broken in, add my hood vents/re-align hood when done, see if I can get the cruise control to work, add an oil cooler, add some sort of safety bar to protect the low oil pan to be safe, then add the splash shield. Not too bad.

jrmotorsports55

So. changed the oil yesterday and noticed when I started it that the A/C fan did not come on when the button was pushed (clutch engaged though). Have to to figure out what is going on there. It did come on when the temp sensor turned on the other fan as I have modified the car to have both fans run when the sensor kicks on the cooling fan. Everything was fine last time I used it.

On the transmission noise, I took it out again yesterday, and the noise appears to be getting louder. It is in all gears, as well as when the car is idling in neutral, and goes up with revs. Push in the clutch to disengage the clutch, the noise goes away. I am thinking there is a bearing going bad in the tranny, and it appears my work on my daily is going to have to be put on hold while I sort this out. Not happy.

jrmotorsports55

Put the car in the air last night, noise is definitely coming from bellhousing area/front of tranny. Thinking it may be throwout bearing, as when I looked in the clutch fork window, it was still spinning against the pressure plate, not fully disengaged. Going to try to remove the slave cylinder tonight or tomorrow and run it again to see if the noise goes away or not. Fingers crossed. Either way, the tranny needs to come back out.

tbone heller

On a Ford with a T-5 transmission, the throwout bearing is supposed to stay in contact with the pressure plate.

jrmotorsports55

Yeah, I know there is supposed to be “light” contact with the pressure plate, this seems to be a little tight though. Going to pull the slave cylinder out and pull back the fork and see what happens when the bearing is no longer touching the pressure plate. That should tell me what I have ahead of me.

tbone heller

Remember that pushing in the clutch to start the car may result in a blown out slave cylinder if it is just hanging there.

jrmotorsports55

Yep, planned on just pushing in the switch by hand.

Thanks!

jrmotorsports55

Had a chance to remove the slave and run it, still whining. Looks like it’s one of the front bearings in the gearbox. Let the tear down begin.

jrmotorsports55

Checked the oil in the trans last night just to be sure, level was where it should be. Ran it again, and put it in second while up in the air, along with the groaning/whining noise coming from the front of the case, there was a lot of sporadic clunking/lugging. I think that noise is pretty common in T5s at low RPM, but it didn't inspire confidence. Thinking the bearing pre-load was not set right and is my issue. Thought about looking for a new/rebuilt tranny, but it appears the T5 market had significantly diminished from 5 years ago when I had my fox. Prices have gone way up for the T5Z trannys. Guess I'll pull it apart and see what I find.

jrmotorsports55

Pulling the tranny today. Did some searching and found this video and my car pretty much matches this sound.


Fingers crossed it just needs bearings and nothing else is messed up.

jrmotorsports55

Pulled the tranny and inspected everything after tearing it open, no damage seen to any components, but the input shaft was definitely loose. Posted a thread with pics in the drivetrain section. Thinking of re-shimming it to fix the preload, then put it back in the car.

jrmotorsports55

Re-set the tranny endplay at .000 (it needed a .020 shim, not sure how i screwed up that bad when building it a few years ago), and reinstalled it in the car (also changed the speedo drive gear to a 7T and went back to the proper black driven gear for my wheel/tire setup, as the white 23T driven gears are not known for holding up over time). Started it up while up in the air, no more noise, runs solid. Adjusted the clutch as well as I think it was a little on the tight side. I think I can check that problem off of my list. On to the next project.

jrmotorsports55

Been driving it as a daily, as my Mini is now in the garage for some maintenance work. The tranny still has a slight whine, no where near as bad as it was, and it feels much tighter, it was previously "loose" feeling at low RPMs. I'm not too worried, just going to keep driving it. Drove it yesterday when it was like 85 out, top and windows down, and temps were good, no running hot or anything. It does radiate a ton of heat from under the dash, I'm hoping the hood vents that I will be installing will help some with that, but I may need to insulate it better under the carpet. Took my wife with me and her only observation was that it is LOUD, which, it is. Only had two small cans on the back for a new GT500, and it drones really bad if in 4th at 40MPH. May live with it, May think about a better exhaust down the road. We'll see. Gonna be dailying this for a few weeks while the Mini is down, so we'll see how things go.

jrmotorsports55

Update time. Been driving the car, started noticing small spots in my driveway, appears the PS pump is leaking again, which I had re-sealed. It's the original to the car, roughly 155k miles on it. Looks like I will be sourcing a replacement. Drove it the other day when it was like 90 out, with the A/C on, and the water temp was creeping up on the 205 mark on the gauge, I was watching it like a hawk. Definitely need to get those hood vents installed. Black car with black top does not help with the heat issues either. I am also really leaning towards re-doing the exhaust. While it sounds good, it is really loud and drones bad at city driving speeds. Also thinking I need to get it tuned, it is very cold blooded, runs pretty choppy when cold (running rich). Still tempted to just yank the Ford EFI stuff, and go FiTech. May be more cost effective in long run based on what I can sell the Ford EFI parts for, and will probably run better/be easier to tune in the end. I also need to look in to the rear end backlash, no noise coming from the back, but it feels like it could be a little loose.

Anyone want to buy a 5.0 Miata? LOL, the fun never ends.

jrmotorsports55

Got the car up in the air yesterday. While the PS pump is wet, it appears the actual leak that was spotting my driveway is the speedo cable leaking where it goes in to the VSS, it's running down the cable, to the crossmember, then dripping off of that. At least that's a pretty easy fix, just an O ring. I'll probably still replace the PS pump since it is seeping and was wet along the bottom. We'll see.

jrmotorsports55

So, after further inspection, it appears the actual leak is the crimp on the speedo cable adapter that came with the kit. The oil is leaking from between the metal crimp and the speedo cable itself. Searching on-line, this is a common issue with A/M mustang speedo cables, and I have found some fixed that I will try. Fingers crossed.