Accesory Brackets

4rdwhln

Registered User
Hey there all,
I have an 89 cougar XR7, I have a miss that's been the Bain of the car for as long as I can remember. I do not drive it much, Maybe a couple of Hundred miles a year. I spend a portion of my free time working on it each summer. I have had the car since 02-03. I have rebuilt the entire brake system and front end except the struts. My firm ride works. I have replaced the heater core and evaporator. I have replaced the cam sensor,crank sensor,Ignition module Wires, plugs several times. It has headers and Magnaflow resonator and flow master exhaust. I have a very low mileage 95 Blower that has been ported as well as both the inlet and outlet. A 10% pulley. 3 1/2 inch cold air with 75 tb and maf. I have the 255 lph fuel pump and 36 lb injectors, as well as a ton of things like track electrical shorts under the carpet and paint most of the car. I grew up in a shop and have collected tools and knowledge for 40+ years. I do all of my own mechanical work and bleed FORD blue. Its all we own.
So back to the miss. Under boost 1/2 throttle or more i Had a miss. the car has pretty much always ran decent if you ease into the throttle. A hard rap and the miss was there. I chased all the wires involved from the computer to the coil and igy and sensors Always finding all was well. I tried the wiggle test from about every angle possible. And I kept searching posts that were in any way related. till a few days ago and I was reading a post from 02 or there about. In it they discussed the folks that painted there accessory brackets and had Ignition problems afterwards. I ran a jumper to the coil from the ground post and vola The miss was almost gone. So I think I am on to something. The Million dollar question is What is the best way to install the brackets. I taped off the mounting points before paint. I also cleaned up the bolts with a wire wheel. This was back in 06.
 
another big issue with painting the accessory brackets is where the DIS mounts. If you paint over where it mounts, it supposedly insulates the DIS, slowing heat transfer. if you painted under there, you can sand that paint off and then make sure you have a good thermal compound between the dis and the acc bracket. it could also be a tuning issue. Are you using anything to compensate for the changes that you made?
 
The surfaces where the coil and Ignition module are mounted to were taped off. the module was installed with the correct heat sink compound. and all mounting points on both sides of the brackets were bare aluminum. The reason the grounds are under suspicion is the fact that when the vehicle is running I put my volt meter between the battery ground and the coil and module mounting bolts. The reading was not constant it varied from second to second. So I pulled the mounting bolts and cleaned them up and put anti seize on them and installed them. For a day this helped and there was no miss Cold engine or hot engine. A day later it was back. So I ran a 8 gauge ground from the battery to the coil. Miss was gone again for a day. Now its back but not as bad. I figure the module must be hunting for ground as well. My question was What is the proper way to install these brackets. since installing them clean didn't seem to work. Should there be something on the exposed aluminum ends to keep corrosion at bay?
As to the second part of the question as to my tuning for the mods I made.. No I have not purchased the tuner stuff yet. I have however read about countless other folks with the same or heavier mods doing well. I have the 36 lb sample tube in my MAF.for the injectors and the rest of the mods didn't affect the miss in one way or another. I plan on buying a quarter horse and tuning as I can afford it as well as a double Intercooler. And at that point installing 42 lb injectors and the sample tube for them.
 
Thanks

Thanks for the complete test procedure. I have had part of it for years.. Now its whole.. I will start over again. Gonna win someday...Soon.
 
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