2000 gt

[joker]

Picked up a 2000gt a month or so ago. It has 79k miles now. The only mods so far are a BBK cold air intake and 75mm throttle body that the guy included with the car.

[joker]

The car is parked for the time being due to crazy noises coming from the a/c clutch. It still drives fine, but I don't want to be out somewhere and have the pulley lock up resulting in a tow bill.

However, I now also have a Pypes offroad x-pipe and a Mac cat-back on the way from LMR. Hopefully I can get the a/c done Sunday and install the exhaust next Monday.

Other than possibly changing the gears to 3.55's and adding a set of sfc's I think I will be done with mechanical mods for the time being. I hope to do a few appearance mods and add a Kenne Bell this winter or next spring. My goal is to put down around 400 rwhp, as that is all the stock block will take from my understanding. If and when it goes, I can just replace with a forged assembly, do a few fuel upgrades, and pulley up the s/c for a good bit more hp if desired.

[QWKSNKE]

Sounds like a good plan. Do some small stuff for now and enjoy the car.
Helps make sure no other gremlins comes up

[joker]

Sounds like a good plan. Do some small stuff for now and enjoy the car.
Helps make sure no other gremlins comes up
Most definitely. I go back and forth on if I should really build this one, or just stick to light mods and find either an 03-04 cobra or look for an early coyote. Nice 03-04's seem to still be running 20k+ or so and 2011 gt's around 25k. A kb would put me around the same horsepower as either of those in stock form. However, the forged internals of the 03-04 cobras make them quite appealing. From what I have read coyote 5.0's are rather easy to get 500+ rwhp but the non forged internals make them seem a little less bullet proof. On the other hand, I could probably put a forged short block and kb yet still spend much less than buying one of the others. Then there is the other side of me that wonders how much hp I really need for my trips to Walmart and the Redbox kiosk.

[QWKSNKE]

If I was going to spend the $$ on a early coyote, I would buy a Boss and call it a day. Extremely fun and capable car in stock form. Don't know the prices in your region but I glanced at several here in the mid 20's

I considered one before buying my 911 last year

[SlowJoe]

A good tune I would skip the 3.55 and go 3.73 or even 4.10s. Cai and good exhaust. Car can run some 8.20s and drive it any where you want. Oh and go ahead and get moser axles.

[joker]

If I was going to spend the $$ on a early coyote, I would buy a Boss and call it a day. Extremely fun and capable car in stock form. Don't know the prices in your region but I glanced at several here in the mid 20's

I considered one before buying my 911 last year
Interesting. I honestly haven't looked too much at the 2011+ stangs I will check those out. If I go that route then region doesn't matter too much to me. I don't mind hopping a flight and driving back for the right car. Used values when I was looking for this one were similar in most regions. If I am spending that much I would almost rather have one from a state where there is little snow and salted roads.

[joker]

A good tune I would skip the 3.55 and go 3.73 or even 4.10s. Cai and good exhaust. Car can run some 8.20s and drive it any where you want. Oh and go ahead and get moser axles. I've had 4.10's and would rather have something a little less agressive. Anywhere outside of town here is like an hour drive on all highways so I think the slightly higher gears would suit my needs better. There are no dragstrips like in Alabama that I know of where you can do open racing so no real need for axles at the moment. The Ford stock solid rear setups can take some decent street abuse. I live in what is pretty much a rural retirement town, so the chances of needing to really launch a car is minimal. You know unless granny gives you the stink eye in her Subaru Outback, cause then you just gotta let her know what's up. Most of the car culture here seems to be kids in diesel trucks and old guys with garage queens.

[joker]

Got all the parts in for the a/c fix as well as my mid pipe and cat back. I started removal of the factory exhaust pieces yesterday afternoon. Got most of the bolts broken loose or removed except for the inside bolt that goes to the passenger header. My 1/2" deep well impact socket just will not seat correctly on the bolt, even with nothing else connected to it. I think I am either going to try a 3/8" deep well socket, hoping the slightly more narrow socket will seat or try and find some medium depth sockets. As soon as I can get that bolt broken everything else should come off relatively easy.

[SlowJoe]

Hated fooling with that side!

[joker]

I ended up using a 3/8 standard socket, a couple of extensions, and a 1/2" breaker bar with adapter and it broke loose quickly. Going back on was so much easier without cats in the way. I got the x-pipe portion finished earlier today.

Started installing the cat back. Pulling the old one off my blade broke in the sawzall so i had to stop and make a run for new blades. Got back and got the exhaust off and started installing the new setup. I couldn't use the bolts I had purchased because I replace the factory mid-pipe so I had to make a trip to home depot and pickup new bolts for the cat back to mid-pipe connection. Evidently Mac nor Pypes include those in the install hardware. got back and got everything lined up, now my mufflers are sagging and the factory exhaust hangers look way over stretched. Hopefully a run to Autozone for new exhaust hangers in the morning will be the last setback for this install. Man a lift would be a godsend.

[joker]

Finished the exhaust today. Now it sounds like a mustang should. :) I am pretty sure it picked up at least two thumbs up on the butt dyno.

It isn't as loud as I thought it would be and doesn't sound quite as raspy as some of the sound clips I listened to of similar combos. I will try and get a sound clip soon.

[joker]

The last three days, well on and off, have been used to repair my a/c system. There has definetly been a bit of a learning curve.

I stumbled across some bad info on a youtube video that said I could replace the orifice tube easily.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq3iwF6GFts

However, upon disconnecting the system I learned that it is crimped in to the liquid line and cannot be replaced separately. I am not sure if this guy staged the video just to be an ass, or maybe his car was not "repaired" correctly in the past, but it is not located where his was in the video. His engine is clearly a 4.6 2v but something is definitely different. I found a liquid line in stock but the store was closed on Sunday so that put off progress until Monday. After an hour drive Monday morning to an Advance that had the line in stock I got the system back together.

Attempted to pull a vacuum on the system and it would not hold. I put a light charge on the system and used soapy water to find my leak. Turns out it was at the connection for the discharge tube to the condenser. The replacement o-ring kit that I ordered from advance had smaller gauge o-rings so I just pulled the old one and reused it, the tightened it down until no more leak. To verify I pulled a vacuum and made sure it held for an hour.

I am vacuuming the system now and learned another interesting fact about vacuum pumps and altitude. At sea level you should be able to pull just over 29 HG, however max vacuum where I am located is between 24 and 24.9 HG due to elevation. Any of the a/c repair guides I have found use 29 HG for the reference of how much vacuum should be pulled.

Over all the job has been a pain but a good learning experience. I'm am going to pull a vacuum for a few hours rather than the one hour referenced by Ford just to make sure I boiled out any flushing solvent or moisture that may have made it in to the system.

I will also mention that I paid for online access to Haynes manual before beginning this work. Over all it has been disappointing and I would recommend to anyone to get a ford service manual and not waste money on the Haynes.

[QWKSNKE]

Awesome info. Thanks for sharing.

Interesting to note on the inches of mercury reading you discovered

[joker]

Awesome info. Thanks for sharing.

Interesting to note on the inches of mercury reading you discovered

No problem. I thought it was interesting as well. I was expecting 29 in HG but just thought the crappy Autozone rental pump wasn't working well, so I started searching to see if the lower vacuum level would still work. I found a chart that shows the difference in max in HG depending on altitude here:

http://www.asesystems.com/vacuum-lifters/the-effect-of-atmospheric-pressure-on-vacuum-level/

I also found this that provides the max oil and refrigerant levels for various Ford vehicles:

http://www.techchoiceparts.com/refrigerant-and-oil-capacities/ford

The max refrigerant is somewhat easy to find, and in newer models at least is on a sticker under the hood. However, all of the references I could find to the amount of compressor oil needed referenced draining the old parts.

[joker]

I finished pulling a vacuum early this evening and began charging. The good news is that it holds a charge great, however my a/c clutch would not engage. Static pressure on the low side went up to 100 PSI and held but without the clutch cycling I stopped charging in fear of overcharging and blowing something out. I checked the connections on the high pressure switch, low pressure switch, and compressor clutch and everything was good. So I just left the system sealed and stopped so I could cook dinner and so on.

At this point the problem is likely electrical and not mechanical. Luckily my first step in troubleshooting revealed at least one culprit. At some point the fuse to my cycle switch (low pressure switch) blew. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to check it until around midnight. I'm going to pick up some fuses in the morning and with any luck this will be the beginning of the end. At this point there aren't many more pieces in the a/c system that could cause a problem.