Welp.
We don't know what started the fire, but it was out before any serious damage was done and the car will live again. Bought as a daily driver while the Panda Express gets built. It has a slew of Chinese ebay turbo parts on it from 2006 which will be the first things that come off. T3/T4 .50 trim, chipped ECU, 14 psi, hard pipes, big brakes moved over from the Panda Express and a few other small bits.
You know what they say: there's nowhere to go from here but up. 
Those are Mazdas, aren't they? I actually like them.
Yup, this one has a Mazda F2 and not an F2T so it has a small compression bump for that turbo.
So is that you with the manly beard or with the WTF pose?
They were to be the new Ford Mustang at one time. I wouldn't mind rescuing one.
Neither, the WTF was the guy who sold it to me (and helped gratuitously with the Panda Express build) and the other guy was a passerby who helped put the fire out
Did the previous owner mention the tail light warranty to you? He made out if he did.
He did not, I was going to swap it to either Euro tails or 89 tails.
Best we can tell, the oil drain line for the turbo sprung a leak onto the exhaust manifold. It will live again we just have to buy parts.
I had no idea it was on fire until a minute after we stopped. The girlfriend helped put it out, she put water on it just enough to buy me some time to get the hood prop up and put the fire out with two huge water jugs we had riding in the back.
After it's all done it might see some track time, but for now it's a resurrection and wouldn't be my first one, the original Panda Express build got a whole new engine so this is going to be childs play.
That's broken my Triumph Spitfire's 2 day record between purchasing and needing a fire extinguisher.
Good luck with this one; I used to have a '89 GT myself and it was a fun car.
Update, parts have been acquired from another 90 GT donor car from the Probe community.
In a week we decide its fate.
We have the technology. We can rebuild him.
Old extra-crispy junk out
"
New stuff in
It ran momentarily before the timing belt snapped. It will drive soon.
This is a very unhappy car. But you will fix that.
It's looking very good right now, today I will sort the wiring harness and the previous owner will handle the timing belt in the name of time since he has done so many of them
That is 100% why every car I own has a fire extinguisher in them. I have had a uncomfortable number of car fires driving home from buying them.
jdogg said:He did not, I was going to swap it to either Euro tails or 89 tails.
This is either some of the driest humor I have ever experienced or you aren't familiar with the term "taillight warranty" yet.
Professor_Brap (Forum Supporter) said:That is 100% why every car I own has a fire extinguisher in them. I have had a uncomfortable number of car fires driving home from buying them.
Maybe you should question your choice in cars or your ability to inspect them before buying.
There is a guy that makes new taillight gaskets, I highly recommend. Hit me up on FB if you have any questions, as I've had 4 1st gens Probes.
In reply to GCrites80s :
apparently i dont
We have called in reinforcements.
Wait now I'm confused. I thought "taillight warranty" meant the seller warranties the car until they can't see your taillights anymore because you drove it away that far. Now all this taillight talk on here about gaskets and swaps and people with other taillights makes me think there was some sort of permanent standing taillight recall on these cars
I have no idea what's happening here, but thats ok! We have fire, beards, chinese turbos and euro taillights. So im ok!
GCrites80s said:Wait now I'm confused. I thought "taillight warranty" meant the seller warranties the car until they can't see your taillights anymore because you drove it away that far. Now all this taillight talk on here about gaskets and swaps and people with other taillights makes me think there was some sort of permanent standing taillight recall on these cars
IIRC, Probe taillights are something of a challenge to source; Ford discontinued them about the same time they discontinued the Probe itself.
Ebay has many taillights, but some have lines in the housings, others do not. Seems one side is available, the other nearly impossible to find.
The tail light debacle will rage another day, I have a set of NOS euro tails in storage waiting for this project to mature to the point I can make it look good.
Tonight we made progress. The temperature sending unit wires and fan switch wires were all installed, soldered and heatshrunk, my J-STD 001, IPC 610 and rework/repair certifications from my Rockwell-Collins days are finally starting to pay dividends. The O2 wire was also patched and a new one was installed. We installed a new timing belt, the old one had a hot spot on it from the fire we missed and it snapped during the initial test start yesterday.
Almost looks like nothing happened.
The next possible project will be the MAF connector I don't know how burnt it is but the wiring inside appears to be intact, I may hack it off anyway and replace it. There's more to come, but for now the worst of the damage has been repaired. Everything else is either cosmetic aside from the hacked ground wire.
Awesome work. I appreicate the under dogs. Are these engines interference? You should check out
Boosted Speed Demon F2T channel
Guy is great, love his channel. Hes built a ton of them. His red one is pretty unique.
You'll need to log in to post.
