Me and my bird

chainsaw

Registered User
Hey all,

Been lurking for a while and picking up a couple parts here and there. Thought I should throw a hello in here and gripe a bit about my luck.

Bought my 90 Bird back in July since I was looking for a cheap car that ran and drove. Ran into this for 500. Body looked OK needs a spot above one rear wheel fixed and a little rust starting in the door jambs under the hinges but I'll fix all that later.

So the dude tells me all he had or knew to have been done, what I saw was:

Dropped 2"
Smaller SC pulley
Bigger throttle body
Bigger injectors
cold air intake w/ K&N filter
ABS removed
Ride control removed
Double IC

He threw in an extra set of fresh heads, low mile SC and a set of three spoke 17" wheels.

Catch was it had "bad rings" and the second gear syros are shot. Tons of blowby! So a few quarts of oil later I limped my new car home. Hooked the SC back up and decided I wanted to run it to town. My soon to be ex wife jumped in with me and we roll out of the driveway sideways. Of course she wanted to drive it and see if it'd do that for her. She took off with a couple back fires and a few minutes later I look up the road and the car is sitting on the side. Throw a chain in the truck and run down to see what's up. "It made a big bang and I felt something hit the floor" she tells me. OK well it starts and I drive it back to the house. Start tearing into things and find that both valve covers are blown off the motor....:confused:

Turns out the bad rings was a missing chunk of one of the pistons. Motor had been rebuilt recently but... Well we all know what detonation does... So I yank the motor and find almost the entire piston skirt in the oil pan...:eek:

The search begins for a replacement. Found one with blown HG's in Illinois so I take a road trip and pick it up along with another pile of extras.

So last week my wife and I decided that it was time for us to call it quits and I move the bird and my Edsel to my new place. I found I couldn't get in the bird to hit the brake when we went to roll it off the trailer so we figure rather than take a few extra minutes to hook up a battery and roll the window down I'd just jump in as soon as we got it back a few inches. BIG mistake! Picture yourself hanging half out of the car as it hauls *** down the trailer ramps headed toward the front end of the Edsel... Well that was me...:D Finally got the ebrake pulled damn near broke my left thumb but I missed the Edsel by about 4"... But we managed to pull the bumper cover almost completely off the front and broke the cornering light.. Really it was quite comical considering we worked the night before and been going for 30 some hours...:rolleyes:

Well I finally got around to getting the parts together to rering this motor so I could get it on the road while I build the other and since I have it out and need gaskets anyway might as well put rings and bearings in too. I tore it down after work yesterday morning and now I found that cylinders 4,5, and 6 all have the ring lands broke between the top two rings....:mad: So much for having my motor together this weekend...

I found a set of pistons and rods already for both motors but now I have to wait again... Gotta get better sometime. I hope. As much as I don't want to drive the bird in Iowa winters I need to so I have to get it done. Can't much more go wrong I wouldn't think. Just hope I can remember where everything went...

So there's my worlds longest hello and my history so far of me and my bird.

BTW many of those extra parts will get listed for sale here once I figure out what I do and don't need to get me back on the road and to stay there..

Shane
 
Welcome to the forums!!! I'm guessing THIS is your car. I took the cobra R's off it tho :D.

Hawkeye IA huh? I grew up in Lawler. Go Trojans! :cool:

Kyle
 
Holy crap

Welcome to the forums!!! I'm guessing THIS is your car. I took the cobra R's off it tho :D.

Hawkeye IA huh? I grew up in Lawler. Go Trojans! :cool:

Kyle

That is my car!!! I bought it off a guy in Cedar Falls though... After he grabbed the shifter handle (left the ripper tho), the guages, the fog lights, speakers, radio, and hood struts... Looks like he swapped the headlights for the yellowed pair off the N/A bird he had in the drive too.

Looks like he lied to me too about the intercooler too. Said he had it done and it cost him 500 to get it done...


You know you could feel bad about buying my wheels before I got the car throw some fresh rubber on them and drop them off... I'll have a cold beer when ya get here with them. :p

I'm in Vinton now, ex is still in Hawkeye tho, she's originally from Elma...

Oh and thanks for fixing that window!!
 
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