I blame you Swank Force One

Vigo wrote: Those are the numbers i found that i am 99% sure are wrong. Those are worse than the Turbo Dodge headflow numbers (with twice the intake valves!) and the F2T seems to perform better at higher boost levels with stock heads. I was guessing it was closer to 160-180 on the intake side.

Well... there's also this:

http://www.performanceprobe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=43211&highlight=flowbench

But i find that to be pretty much entirely bullE36 M3 as well, since having seen an F2T head or 8, as well as a couple FE3 heads, there's no way in hell this is anywhere close to accurate. The F2 might have two intake valves, but the castings are pretty brutally bad.

Thanks for the info. Im tempted to think the truth lies somewhere in the middle. 220cfm on the stock intake is almost as hard to believe as 120.

Vigo wrote: Thanks for the info. Im tempted to think the truth lies somewhere in the middle. 220cfm on the stock intake is almost as hard to believe as 120.

I'm probably bringing a spare head to the challenge in the event that i manage to lift mine off my block under high boost. I'll let you take a look at it and see what you think. I'd personally believe the 120-ish number.

Excellent! Maybe i'll pack in a turbo dodge head and we can laugh at that too.

Oh, and just as it needs to be said-

ONE OF US. ONE OF US. ONE OF US.

I had started looking for an F2T car until I saw the OP's post. I'm not man enough to undo the hack-job-hurtin that's been placed on most of these cars

You could put a new engine harness on that car in about 2 hours.

calteg wrote: I had started looking for an F2T car until I saw the OP's post. I'm not man enough to undo the hack-job-hurtin that's been placed on most of these cars

Actually, MOST of them aren't all that hacked. This one is the exception, not the rule.

The key is to avoid forum cars if the member's join date was post 2008.

What happened in 2008?

DrBoost wrote: Be careful, boost is addictive. but fun

The "vroooompshhhhh" sold me. Enough to make me forget (temporarily) how beat it is.

JamesMcD wrote: There are complete control arms and individual control arm bushings on RockAuto.

I was looking at that, I might get some MOOG ones from Amazon, they are about $10 less each there.

Swank Force One wrote: That, my friend, is a rough one. Body itself looks really solid, though! And your front bumper isn't even sagging! Any idea what the upgraded turbo is? Maybe just a t-bird hybrid? Any idea what cam? Looks like it has a 626 grill, looks pretty decent.

It does look pretty solid aside from the hit on the driver front corner, the inner fender looks damaged and straightened out, whoever did the engine swap/rebuilt/whatever did not tighten all bolts. Not sure if it was laziness/incompetence or due to misaligned crash parts. Looks like a later bumper? Front lip seems molded on. Panel gaps aren't terrible. It is an old car, after all.

As for the water temp gauge not working, from my personal experiences, the 88-89 water temp and fuel level gauges seem to not hold up real well. I've had two 88s now, and both those guages were non-functional on both cars. I'd personally just not worry about it since you have an aftermarket gauge that will be more useful anyways, BUT, the sensor that feeds that gauge is the one wire bullet-connector looking thing on the water neck. The wire ALWAYS gets corroded and/or breaks. ALWAYS. The idle issues point to a few possible things. First thing to always check on these is vacuum/boost leaks. Then clean your IAC. The cam probably isn't helping things either. (Boost leak: That BOV is suspect)

Temp gauge was functional during test drive, seller said it doesn't always work. Looks like the harness was patched with lamp cord. Gas gauge seems to work, I filled the tank before driving it home. Won't the computer act wonky without a functioning ECTS? One vacuum line goes to the screw that tightens the clamp for the intake tube. Yep. I'll be busy this weekend.

Loaded front lower control arms are cheap on Rockauto, something like $45/side, they come loaded with bushings and ball joints. That's what i'd do. While you've got the passenger side arm out, re-seal the oil pan, because it's probably leaking.

Thinking MOOG for the control arms with new ball joints included. I see you suggested Whiteline bushings further down, was that meant for me?

Will reseal the oil pan, didn't look too bad but might as well. Looks like there's oil coming out of the distributor as well.

As for battery/fuse box: Relocate battery to trunk, mount the fuse box to the side of the body there where the battery was. The seat: 626 seats will fit, but don't use them. They're too tall. Hold out for an MX6 seat. Just looking at this thing... you could really use a whole new wiring harness. The actual damage looks fairly minimal, just really dirty, but i hate hate hate tracking down bullE36 M3 that the PO did. I should have a spare by the end of the year.

Ok will do with regards to the battery and fusebox. Seats will keep an eye out for, any MX6? Or are GTs different? Sewing the ripped seam or re-covering them may be an option. Going to the junkyard this weekend maybe I'll get lucky with a wiring harness. Though the worst of it seems to be a few harness clips.

What's your goal with this car? I can dump some part numbers in a bit for you.

Streetable daily driver. Something fun and not terrible on gas. My automatic Saturn wasn't terrible on gas but it isn't fun. Go faster mods, as long as I can revert to smogable condition within a reasonable amount of time and effort. The boost experience with the sound, thrust and the torque of this car, even in it's current state are addicting and I'm sure it won't be long before I want more.

What exactly are you looking for in terms of pictures around the throttle body? That stuff is still easily accessible on mndsm's car right now, i can snap a picture tomorrow or wednesday. I won't be much help for vacuum lines, though. I removed most of that.

The connector for the TPS has a black, white and red wire, what are the corresponding colors of the wires on the other side of the plug? The only one attached is the red wire = light green wire with red stripe. There's also a bullet shaped plug that has a black wire coming out of it, currently spliced to a brown wire (iirc) and another 2 wire plug. Please and thank you. See below for pics of what I'm facing.

JamesMcD wrote: Does it not have a sunroof? Kinda looks like it doesn't but I can't tell for sure. The turbo MX6es without a sunroof are very rare. I've never seen one in real life.

No sunroof. Will be taking the headliner down to recover with fabric if I keep it, will see if it was deleted or if it came like that.

mndsm wrote:

calteg wrote: I had started looking for an F2T car until I saw the OP's post. I'm not man enough to undo the hack-job-hurtin that's been placed on most of these cars

Actually, MOST of them aren't all that hacked. This one is the exception, not the rule.

This car is the embodiment of the phrase "She's a 10 at 2 and a 2 at 10"

I must be desperate, we'll see what can be done. After rehabbing the Saturn and then buying this, I think I'm a glutton for punishment with a weak spot for the abused and neglected.

In reply to sethmeister4:

That just seems to be the cutoff date for useful posts as a rule of thumb.

In reply to DuctTape&Bondo:

The Whitelines were just part of a basic part number dump that i've put together that i find myself referencing constantly.

I don't run them on my own car, never really felt the need to. The Moog replacements will be fine.

Sorry it's been awhile, have done a little here and there but the last couple months got hectic in a hurry. Not much to share, found another one in the JY, got some odds and ends; a bunch of door handles, new front seats, trunk torsion springs, bunch of connectors that were hacked or borked on mine, set of the adjusting shocks/springs, etc

whilst cleaning and shampooing the interior as well as the old and new seats, I learned the PO must have been an avid chef, I mean what dedication to carry around herb and spice packets in case an impromptu cooking session should present itself

changed the oil, filter, spark plugs and wires, swapped in the stock rear shocks/springs I got and now the car doesn't sound like its about to fall apart when driving it.

Also managed to disconnect (probably break) the speedo cable trying to put the dash back together. How do I access/check it?

took off the bumper because my intercooler was held in place only by the hoses

and found this

and this

hmm that could explain some of the issues, had some exhaust sealer goop and fiberglass tape laying around so I filled it in

not the best solution but along with the wiring repair I did it runs a lot better now and I can't even hear the BOV anymore. Should have picked up the intercooler from the one I found in the JY.

Speaking of BOV I believe I need a stock one to pass Ca smog, is this a reasonable price and does it have all everything I need? ebay stock bypass valve

That price isnt bad, but if you need a stock intercooler as well, I bet I can do a bit better than that. Shoot me an email and I promise i'll respond faster this time, life has slowed a little momentarily.

I have a good intercooler and at least one bypass valve. Wont have the hoses though, if that's a concern.

Thanks for the offer Sir Swank. I ended up picking up the eBay bypass valve for the hoses and think I'll run my patched intercooler until I research if a FMIC is worthwhile.

I'll start my progress with a "stupid thing I am guilty of" and admit that I hooked up a battery backwards to this car. It sparked. I continued the stupidity and touched the terminal again, a little longer. It sparked again. Then I realized what I did. Now my blinkers don't work. I hope that's all I fried.

I've been plugging away; installed stock bypass valve, figured out how to get to the speedo cable, changed the valve cover gasket, removed the passenger control arm and let me say, someone on here warned us never to buy a desert car, this thing has dust and dirt everywhere. I felt like an archeologist scraping and brushing the dirt off, must have been a pound of dirt just on the control arm mounting points*. That's just the stuff I was able to get to. Washing might or might not be a good idea, I'm afraid of creating mud if I'm not careful.

Per Swank's suggestion I dropped the oil pan while I had the control arm off. Two little pieces of metal shaving stuck in the oil pickup mesh, nothing in the pan. Some sort of gasket with orange gasket maker on both sides, came off in brittle chunks. Wire brush got the rest of the orange stuff off. Two reasons I stopped there, one, I have two sizable dents in my oil pan, perhaps I should search for a good pan before proceeding. The second reason follows below.

I just realized the Felpro oil pan gasket I bought is entirely cork. Google says for the most part, they are garbage. Some say to apply gasket sealant or the like on the pan side. MX6 forums say no gasket at all just run the sealant/gasket maker. I ran some The Right Stuff stuff gasket maker on my IS300's tranny pan and holy hell was that stuff awful to take off, but then again, I don't forsee any reason I need to pull the oil pan again... Suggestions? Opinions? Experiences?

*pics of the dirt/sand removed will be added later

Is that the stock intercooler pictured above?

bgkast wrote: Is that the stock intercooler pictured above?

Yes

Hmmm...do you know the inlet/outlet sizes of the top of your head? That looks like it might be just what I'm looking for to use on my project.

The cork gasket can be used if it's truly ALL cork. If there's too much rubber in it, it'll squish out the sides when you torque the bolts down.

What i'd do, if you're worried about the dents in the pan anyways, is just get a new pan, make sure it's flap and not warped, and just use sealant, ONLY.

Run a nice bead, let it tack up. Bolt pan to block, DO NOT torque now. Let it sit for awhile until it's just about all the way cured. THEN torque.

This car is the embodiment of the phrase "She's a 10 at 2 and a 2 at 10"

I must be desperate, we'll see what can be done. After rehabbing the Saturn and then buying this, I think I'm a glutton for punishment with a weak spot for the abused and neglected.

I'm a member of that club.

I soooo want the Ford version of this car. Now I just need to find one...

You want the heavier and uglier car with the cheaply made magical disintegrating interior?

I imagine the OEM support for the Probe is far worse than the MX/626's. It was that way in the 90's, I doubt it's gotten better.