Project Blue Steel (My Car, 56K Beware)

[Toms-SC]

Although this is project is not complete this is the story of my car build up.

This car is a 1991 Thunderbird SC / 114,000 KM's

The Modifications:
75MM Pro-M MAF-S
3" SCP Chrome Inlet Kit
75MM BBK ThrottleBody
Magnum Power Inlet Plenum
MagnaPort III Supercharger
Raised Supercharger Top (Done by Tim)
Double Intercooler (Done by Steve)
MN12Performance Intercooler Fan
Walbro 255 LPH Fuelpump
#42 Ford Racing Injectors Injectors
SCI Aluminum 5% Overdrive Jackshaft Pulley
SCI Aluminum StockDrive Pulleys
SCI Aluminum 7% Overdrive Pulley
DynoMax CatBack Exhaust Kit
EEC Tuner
94 Gas Tank
Magnaflow 12288 Res
Custom 2 1/2" downtubes
94-95 Mustang Style Headers
Fel-Pro Headgaskets
ARP Headstuds
Supercoupe Performance Motormounts

*Note that the Pro-M 75 MM MAF-S is on the way out for a C&L 76 MM MAF-S

The Usuals Replacements (All new, no reman):
Gatorback Belts All Around
Goodyear Idler Pulleys
NGK Plugs
Motorcraft Wires
Cranksensor
Camsensor
PVC Vavle
Oil Pressure Sensor
Motorcraft Waterpump
Coilpack
DIS Module
Bosch O2 Sensors

The Story:

All of these parts have been collecting for about 3 years. The tear down took two weeks and the car is currently still down due to A) no exhaust B) tuning issues.

http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/OnRamps.JPG
Before starting a build make sure your car is on ramps so you have access underneath the car as you can't access everything from the top.

http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/Inlet%20Plenum.JPG
The MagnaPort III Inlet Plenum requires different supercharger bolts to fit the inlet plenum on because of the casting. For some reason my kit came two bolts short :( Before you even think of installing this unit make sure you have the bolts!

http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/In.JPG
The opening of the MagnaPort inlet plenum is 85MM. It's enough to swallow my BBK TB gasket that comes in at 75mm! I hope it stays place otherwise I'll be fishing a gasket out of the rotors.

http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/Rear.JPG
The rear of the inlet plenum. The kit comes with 5 fitting including 3 fitting for the rear. Notice that they are straight and not bent like the factory fittings. I HIGHLY suggest heading to Home Depot to grab better fittings. The problem with the straight fittings is that you will have to bend your vacuum lines causing kinks. I used two extensions and two 45 degree bends to take care of this problem. Scott (yyc_bird) will be doing a set of instructions.

http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/Inlet.JPG
Nothing to see here really. The sound ports are still open which is different from Jim Demmits & Coy Millers supercharger.

http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/Rotor.JPG
A machined air splitter added in by Charles.

http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/Throttlebody.jpg
All together now, looks pretty. I don't have an EGR.

http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/SCI.jpg
Full set of SCI Pulleys. Note I have sent my underdrive set back in exchange for a set of stock sized. I also brought in a 5% OD JS pulley bringing my OD to 13%. I returned the underdrive's because I still have a factory rad.

http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/Manifolds.JPG
Exhaust manifolds I took off of a 94-95 Mustang V6. The driver side requires an extension welded on or cut and rotated. Factory exhaust manifold gaskets for the Thunderbird SC will work. DO NOT REUSE YOUR STOCK EXHAUST MANIFOLD BOLTS! The FLANGES of the manifolds are different and you will bottom your bolts out! We snapped one of these bolts off in my head requiring us to take the car apart again! The head had to go to a machine shop to get drilled out! In total I had 3 different bolts snap off in the heads requiring maching out (more to come). I had to buy TWO Fel-Pro upper engine gasket kits to fit this problem. We went to a bolt store and grabbed some bolts that have a hex head so we were able to bolt them in at different angles. Very cool and well worth the $10 for new bolts.

http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/Collectors.JPG
The collectors. This set cost me $30 and $30 to modify. My set had an EGR fitting that needed to be welded shut. A big thank you to Steve (Turbo 2.3) for doing the house call! I would suggest anybody to him. THANK YOU STEVE!

http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/DBLIC.JPG
Car cooling by Steve out in Ontario. Thanks for the intercooler. Best design I've seen. Steve welds in a divider to split the air charge into both cores.

http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/Motor%20Mounts.jpg
SCP Mounts > MN12P Mounts

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[Toms-SC]

http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/Fuel.JPG
New style fuel tank I got off of a 96 Cougar. $70 and very worth while if you want to be nice to the guy doing your exhaust tank.

http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/New.JPG
DynoMax Cat Back system I bought on impulse. This kit wont be on my car long as its now a choke point. When I first got the car I never figured I'd be going balls out so I bought it. It's too bad the center pipe is .5" to small, the kit fits like a glove.

http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/Old.JPG
Old exhaust systems

http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/WrapAround.JPG
Nice wrap around, I guess? New gas tank allows the system to go down the middle. You will reuse 1 old gas tank strap and the tank will come built in with the other.

http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/Skirt.JPG
Old Ikea tablesheet I split in two and bolted down onto the car to protect the paint. Worked great!

http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/Bob.JPG
Bob my best friend wanted to get in there. Bob currently owns a 91 Thunderbird SC 5-speed red loaded with options. He will be doing a full resto job on it. We used to park side by side in high school :) This was Bob and I's first time working on a SC, whata bitch of a learning curve.

http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/ToolChest.jpg
Once Bob and I got un-confortable I called in a pro. Scott (yyc_bird) made this project possible. He knows where every bolt goes by heart and we made good progress when he was around.

http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/Intake%20Manifold.JPG
Choke point. Now let me tell you a thing or two about broken bolts in the heads. When taking the car apart two bolts (one on each side) snapped flush with the head surface from the intake manifold. We attempted to drill a small hole down the center of the bolts and the drill bit snapped! No problem because we still had the hole, WRONG! We tried to get an e-z out in there and IT BROKE FLUSH WITH THE HEAD! Off to Trevor's CNC machine shop. THANK YOU SO MUCH TREVOR! Without him my head repairs would have costed me an arm and a leg. He dropped everything to help out! THANK YOU AGAIN TREVOR (racin_ranger).

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[Jake]

Are you using stock heads and cam? I don't see the point of going down that far without atleast porting the heads :confused: .

[Toms-SC]

http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/HeadGasket.JPG
New Fel-Pro upper engine kit. We surfaced the heads cleans, same with the block. The ARP headstuds are crap and I would only wish them apon my worst of enemys. Almost all of them required trimming to clear the OLD STYLE EXHAUST MANIFOLD BOLTS. The new exhaust manifold bolts cleared them without problem.

http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/Head.JPG
The heads were disassebled and cleaned with new bushings included in the Fel-Pro kit. The valve seats were hand grinded for proper fitment.

http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/Mallet.jpg
I love that orange mallet. Notice the lunch bags? All bags were labeled according to the bolts in them. Made reassembly easy.

http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/HeadAssem.JPG
This is how my car sat for a week when I had no time. This is after the second disassebly when the exhaust manifold bolt snapped off in the head requiring me to order a new Fel-Pro kit. We had the heads seated, intake manifold and exhaust manifolds on before the snap. It could be argued that the headgasket could have been reused but I did not want to risk it. The bolt did not snap flush so we tried different devices but ended up heading back to Trevor's shop for a second time. Once again thank you Trevor.

http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/FuelRail.jpg
Fast forwad a little bit and we had the car's long block assembled. WD-40 works wonders on restoring old plastic such as the fuel rail. 6 #42 Green Top Injectors sit in the fuel rail. www.buyfordmotorsport.com $230 new :) They also offer a Lightning mass air meter for $90.

http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/ManifoldBolt.JPG
New manifold bolts. Thanks for grabbing them Scott.

http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/Bracket.JPG
Starting to get the crap back in the engine bay. While the car was apart I did a lot of painting, it payed off. The engine bay looks good again.

http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/Close2.JPG
Fills up quick.

http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/Close.JPG
The bolts holding the lower IC suck to remove. We did not put them back in. Nor did we put the bolt on the rear of the fuel rail, or that other PS pump bracket that does nothing. Power to weight, right?

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[Toms-SC]

http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/DCP_1311.jpg
Remember the firing order Scott! The only reason the car did not start on the first turn was because of a wrong firing order. Quick thinking saved us from killing each other. After the fix the car started.

http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/Shiney.JPG
Magic! At the time of this photo the SCI pulleys were not installed. Im reusing the stock airbox as it is a good design to keep under engine bay temperatures away. :) Sometimes Ford gets it right.

http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/OpenHood.JPG
Open hood
Open headers
Open season on people who piss me off
The car smoked for awhile as the paint burned off the exhaust manifolds. The driver side exhaust manifold required us to build an extension for the O2 sensor. Bob's support Cavvy in the background.

On a side note let me tell you about EEC Tuners.
1) To make work right sand EEC computer terminal down with 180 grit sand paper. The silver coating will come off exposing a copper terminal. I've got an excellent connection now. Clean with terminal cleaner and rag. I have run into a another weeks delay because of a ~~~~~~ connection and bad instructions.
2) Do not try to retro fit the cable and software to a newer laptop. It wont work, TRUST ME! I got a parallel to USB cable converter, it worked. The software did not work even when running in 95 Mode from Windows XP. I've now got my old computer out side for EEC playing around.

I'm waiting on a C&L meter from Dave. Once that arrives I'm off to Steve's exhaust shop to complete resenator forward. I will be getting the car towed there because open headers stink, really. After that dyno tune. Over the winter I plan to do a 85 MM TB and thats about it. Oh wait;

http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/DCP_1161.jpg

Now thats it :)

I will be racing this car in memory of my father. SuperCoupes have been in the Siry blood line for a long time and I am no different. My father had one, my uncle has one, my grandfather had one and now I've got one.

Special thanks to:
Scott for the wrenching
Bob for the wrenching & bitching :)
Trevor for helping with my head problems
Steve for the house call and general interest in my project
Steve from Ontario for the I/C
Dave D/David N/Fast Ed for anwsering all my questions in a timely fasion
Ryan Harris for the pulleys and great customer service
My uncle Ken for quick thinking and a level head


Thanks for reading.

[Jason Wild]

why do you need to cover or blank out the top of the blower it's not that big of a deal it was posted befor.
1) To make work right sand EEC computer terminal down with 180 grit sand paper. The silver coating will come off exposing a copper terminal. Bad Idea your going to be pissed later when it stops working because the copper corode since you removed the silver thats why it's on there. :rolleyes:

[Toms-SC]

why do you need to cover or blank out the top of the blower it's not that big of a deal it was posted befor.
1) To make work right sand EEC computer terminal down with 180 grit sand paper. The silver coating will come off exposing a copper terminal. Bad Idea your going to be pissed later when it stops working because the copper corode since you removed the silver thats why it's on there. :rolleyes:

Email charles_warner@mindspring.com for the reply to your question :rolleyes:

Show me a SINGLE, a SINGLE case of where the connectors have fowled up on ANY EEC driven car.

[Toms-SC]

Are you using stock heads and cam? I don't see the point of going down that far without atleast porting the heads :confused: .

20, full time student in Network Engineering :) If I had lots of money Coy Miller heads/cam & AR.

[Jeremy_K]

Next time try the Chevy V-6 ARP studs. They work perfect on our SCs. I know that work was gratifying for me when I did my head gaskets. Enjoy :)

[quick35th]

Nice work Tom. I am interested in seeing how your car performs after its all sorted out.

Shane

[Grims95SC]

Holy crap! You've been really busy! I wish I had the knowledge and balls to do that much work to mine.

[David Neibert]

Tom,

Nice work. As big of a pain as it might be, you will need to get at least one of those lower IC tube bolts installed. They pretty much support the weight of both tubes and the IC. Without the lower IC tube bolted, your IC connections will have to hold the weight and will quickly loosen up and leak.

David

[ss_scuba]

Tom, it's good to see pics up. Fingers must be sore after all that typing. I'll have that write up done here soon for ya.

Dave N, in regards to the I/C tubes....I left the lower bracket (the one that's bolted to the block) in place and the tube is sitting directly on the bracket. That's how I've been running mine for almost a year now, and with no bad effects.

[seawalkersee]

You gonna make it to the states anytime soon with that bad boy? Looks REALLY good so far.

Chris

[Jason Wild]

Email charles_warner@mindspring.com for the reply to your question :rolleyes:

Show me a SINGLE, a SINGLE case of where the connectors have fowled up on ANY EEC driven car.
my EEC did because I did not know thats why I had to find a new eec.

[S_Mazza]

The car kicks tail - very nice!

But ... Blue Steel? As in Derek Zoolander? ;)

[Micahdogg]

Nice job on the sneaky pete. Just don't let track tech see that!

Micah

[Toms-SC]

But ... Blue Steel? As in Derek Zoolander? ;)


Yup! Haha! I had a friend who as never been in a SC before. When he got in he commented that my car was very blue. He's right, all blue interior :)

[Toms-SC]

Nice job on the sneaky pete. Just don't let track tech see that!

Micah

He won't be able to see nothing. Located by the EEC Tuner is a ground where I will route 3 grounds to the chassis. The nitrous line will pass under the upper IC tube and Ill suspend it there. Totally stealth :) Jetted only for a 15 shot I am going to inject the nitrous before the IC to help cool it down. As you can see its only powered by two 9V batteries.

[Micahdogg]

How big of a jet can you use with that? I imagine something like a 90HP shot would only last for one pass maybe?

You could also run 4 sneaky petes together under your seat foam...Fast and the Furious style!

Micah

[Toms-SC]

Haha, no thanks Micah! The valve can support upto 30 HP. I'm not doing this for the power really, I'm doing this for a lower charge air temperature. If I could have gotten a 5 HP shot I would have. I suspect to be able to get two runs out of it for a 500 RPM window.

[Toms-SC]

bump for the people

[XR7 Dave]

Show me a SINGLE, a SINGLE case of where the connectors have fowled up on ANY EEC driven car.

You are joking, right? :eek:

[seawalkersee]

Will using some sort of dielectric compound help out there? Why are so many people going away from the tuners now? I have seen a few in the past month or so.

Chris

[91 XR7]

Will using some sort of dielectric compound help out there?

personally i would think that'll be like a no brainer myself.. :confused:

[Toms-SC]

Will using some sort of dielectric compound help out there?
Chris
Mustang guys are using this; Im tempted to try.

[Frank Bokodi]

Dave you would be the guy to know. Is it really a big deal to sand the pins all the way down to copper. Mine is like that because the pre-programmed chip I got was so fouled up I thought it was me who was getting a bad connection between the chip and EEC board. Then you tuned it. TADA! :)
Is there anything I can do to keep it from taking a crap. Or, should I just start looking for a new EEC now for when it does. Anyone out there have a 93 5sp. EEC for sale that has never had a chip in it? :o :o

[Toms-SC]

Well ~~~~. Going to the offical shiftmasters website helped cleared up some issues with me. They suggest applying that fancy greese to the terminals. These instructions are 10x better then the ones included with the package.

http://www.eec-tuner.com/biz_html/Guide.pdf

[seawalkersee]

personally i would think that'll be like a no brainer myself.. :confused:
As a good thing or no? I have ALWAYS used it on like plug wires and things of that nature. NEVER EVER had a problem. The stuff really works.

Chris

[91 XR7]

As a good thing or no? I have ALWAYS used it on like plug wires and things of that nature. NEVER EVER had a problem. The stuff really works.

As a good thing..

It does help keep moisture out off the connections
We at work use it for light bulbs, and a Few Electrical connections hat exposes to `heavy' moisture/water areas... Forget what Brand name we use.. but like you've said it works and we never had problems with shorts or corrision forming by using it

Also we use self sealing Electrical tape on the connector exposes to Full blasts of water (IE connectors in wheel wells) (IE apply some grease to contacts of the connectors, then wrap with that tape for added protetcion) but that kinda stuff would be kinds hard to apply to the connector on the EEC ;)


blah blah blah

[JOE91SC]

There are contact enchancers............

http://www.caig.com/

[Scott Long]

Hate to ruin your day, but you know you can get a single 3.8L SC head gasket from Auto Zone for $16.99 usd. I had to pull a head back off on mine and went and got just one blue stripe fel-pro gasket. You can buy the complete upper engine set, or get the head gaskets seperately. I was relieved I didn't have to spend another $114.95 usd. on another engine set when I needed a single gasket.

When you get your 85mm TB you want to sell me your 75mm?? I can make my own gasket for it.

[Toms-SC]

Its not a total waste, I've got a complete long block sitting in a different garage :) The 75 MM TB I have is on loan and has to be returned when I get my 85 MM TB. Sorry! :)

[Scott Long]

Oh well thought I'd ask.

[Toms-SC]

Just an update:
The car is at the exhaust shop. I've changed plans just to bide me over till spring. 2 1/2 / 3 / 2 1/4. Next spring it will be 2 1/2 / 3 / 2 1/2
:)
Will have G-Tec and ~~~-o-meter results for Saturday.

[Toms-SC]

Car is back from getting a WICKED exhaust system done. Pics up shortly. I've got a pinhole rad leak which I will repair. Im making 15 + pounds of boost in 3rd, not at WOT. Nearing WOT I started to ping so I let off. I can't tell exactly how much boost I'm making because the gage only goes to 15. Still waiting on my C&L unit.

[seawalkersee]

You running all stock stuff or do you have a pully to up the boost?

Chris

[ThunderCoupe]

he said earlier in the posts that he has a jackshaft pulley and an 8%? pulley totaling 13% overdriven...

[Toms-SC]

7% Sc Od + 5% Js Od = 13% Od :)

[Jake]

7% Sc Od + 5% Js Od = 13% Od :)
7+5= 13 :confused: :confused: .

[Phillio99]

Remember thats canadian math so that seems about right.
Phil

[Toms-SC]

Shud up, eh? :p

[XR7 Dave]

Still waiting on my C&L unit. Geez Tom, sorry about that. We sent it USPS Global Priority which is the fastest they would send it. Unfortunately we can't track things cross border. I suppose maybe one of the customs officials found it interesting?

Anyway, it should have been there Monday-Tuesday. :mad:

[XR7 Dave]

Shud up, eh? :pHey, how do you get 7% on the blower anyhow? Is that because you have coated rotors in it?

[victor malvar]

Hi Thomas,
I just finshed reading everything! Great job! I wish you the best of luck. I will be sending you a few small toys to play with very soon. I'm sure you will put them to good use. That was well done!
We enjoyed the shot by shot explanation pictures, downloads, good advice. etc.
I also learned a couple of things. You can stil teach an old dog new tricks ;) :) Thanks for sharing all of this hard work with us all.....

Congratulations, Cheers. to you and your friends. Job well done!.

Victor and Diane

PS I'm emailing you.

[Toms-SC]

Hey, how do you get 7% on the blower anyhow? Is that because you have coated rotors in it?

Ryan Harris rocks, thats how :) He did a one off for me. I figured it would be a nice balance to prevent any possible slippage, plus its a lucky number! Haha. I'm starting to get worried about that C&L, its Friday morning and still nothing. :(

[Toms-SC]

http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/exhaust/bung.jpg
Extra bung on got put on for tuning
http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/exhaust/centre.jpg
Sorry about the crappy pictures, I suck bad at camara settings. Magnaflow res.
http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/exhaust/centre1.jpg
Piping to avoid hitting the diff. Lots of work into that.
http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/exhaust/drivers%20side.jpg
Drivers side bank coming down from the Mustang header.
http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/exhaust/end.jpg
Where the 3" center pipe swallows the 2 1/4" dynomax system. :eek:
http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/exhaust/front.jpg
Very sexy
http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/exhaust/hangers.jpg
Reusing the hold hanger to provide some support. The res has been moved back from stock location. Flages are added so when my AOD goes poopy we dont have to wreak the exhaust system.
http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/exhaust/mating.jpg
Choke
http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/exhaust/muff.jpg
Steve did a lot of work to 'fine tune' the dyno max. A little trimming and swapping the muff's side gave the tips over hang.
http://www.meltedmonitor.net/cars/exhaust/pass.jpg
Passanger side

[CaifanSC]

Really good work my friend. Real clean and purty set up. ONe thing though that i would suggest, and this is simply for pure aesthetics and eye pleasure purposes. Try replacing that old yellow plastic round piece on top of the coolant purge valve/bolt thing (on the tstat housin). Im doing a rebuild, no where near done but i figured, since the engine bay SHOULD and WILL look cleaner when Im done, that thing being right there in your face will look nice if its new. Its only like 10 bux and should still be available from ford, altho last i checked there were but a few left. I got two when i bougth them. Its just a nice touch to match the rest of the clean and awesome work u did. Congrats!

[Grims95SC]

Must be nice to be in Alberta and not have to have cats. Damn AirCare!

[Cat Girl]

Ryan Harris rocks, thats how :) He did a one off for me. I figured it would be a nice balance to prevent any possible slippage, plus its a lucky number! Haha. I'm starting to get worried about that C&L, its Friday morning and still nothing. :(

Darn Pony Express. :mad:

[Micahdogg]

Hey, my instant email notification shows you saying something different :) he he he.

Micah

[Toms-SC]

Hey, my instant email notification shows you saying something different :) he he he.

Micah
:confused: :confused: :confused:

[Toms-SC]

Try replacing that old yellow plastic round piece on top of the coolant purge valve/bolt thing (on the tstat housin). Im doing a rebuild, no where near done but i figured, since the engine bay SHOULD and WILL look cleaner when Im done,Congrats!

That cap was later removed. I would suggest buying LOTS of paint (high temp) and a clear coat. I wish I coulda painted more but this was a time limited project. I have debadged the underhood area. I suggest using 3M rubbing compound safe for clear coat and using a orbitial high speed buffer. Looks good for a old car now.

[XR7 Dave]

How did it go? Enquiring minds want to know! :D

[Toms-SC]

Dave, check the TBU in 5 :)