More questions...

For some reason my Mustang ain't starting up very well. It takes about 5 times tryin' and when it starts running it runs rough. As the engine warms up it gets better. I keep smelling fuel in the exhaust though, too rich I think. But what do I know? I might get new plug cables and maybe even upgrade to electronic ignition...

Anyway, I also noticed something else today that has me a little worried.

The bit in the red circle is shaking a bit and I'm wondering if this is normal.

Here is a short movie that makes it a little clearer:

Installing the new waterneck

Today I cleaned everything, removing all the old stuck gasket and oily bits. Pictured is the old thermostat.

I put in the new thermostat and then installed a new gasket and housing. I used gasket sealant on both sides of the gasket and anti seize on the bolts.

I have no leaks after attaching the hose and re-filling the coolant. The engine ran fine after this, gotta take it for a test drive soon!

Removing the thermostat housing bolts

Soooo, the bolts. The stuck, bolts.

There they are. I had already started drilling but I centered the left one off-centre :-/

I was scared the holes wouldn't be blind, leaving metal in the water after drilling. It seemed they were blind holes thankfully.

When trying to re-centre the off-centre hole the bolt unexpectedly came out. Lucky me! Unfortunately the other one was the opposite and it was really stuck. Left turning drills didn't get it out. Vast amounts of penetrating oil didn't do a thing and I didn't even start welding a nut on being so close to the fuel line.

So the only option left (I'm not even taking easy outs into consideration) was to completely drill it out. Thankfully I centered this hole nicely. Being a 5/16 bolt I ended up using a 6.4 mm drill which separated all the threads and made the bolt come apart after which I only needed to pick up the pieces and clean the thread a bit.

I was very pleased when I got this bolt out and it's made me more confident for when it happens next coz I'm sure it will some day!

I did notice one sensor that is not connected to anything. It's not the temperature sensor because that's actually behind the hose (connected to the black wire)...

Removing the thermostat housing

Right. So after my last ride I noticed coolant leaking in 2 places. One was on the radiator where the overflow hose is and the other one is the top hose going to the heater, where it connects to the waterpump. I'm not sure what's causing this but I figure it wouldn't hurt if I replaced the thermostat before I investigate further. I wasn't aware of the little drama that was going to unfold ;-)

Hello engine.

The thermostat sits underneath the thermostat-housing on which also the rop radiator hose connects.
I took off the hose and discovered a great mess underneath.

Cleaned. Ready to be removed!

I managed to get it off. My new one is a lot shinier!

And there is the old thermostat!

Unfortunately both bolts snapped off and are stuck in the block. So there awaits my next challenge...
In order not to get any crap into the cooling system I left the old thermostat in for now.

Putting in a carb spacer

Finally it was time to put the new carb spacer in. I'd never removed a carburetor myself so that was pretty exciting for me. Removing a carb allows you to look into the intake manifold and I had no idea what to expect. I thought it would be very dirty inside because my old carb looked real dirty inside as well...

So I got started.

Removed the air filter.

And removed the carb. Easy job really. There's not too much to detach before you can remove this type of carburetor.

So there was my first ever look inside any intake :-) It probably sounds like nothing to many of you but if you have never done any engine work this feels like you're taking the engine apart!

The inside of the manifold is remarkably clean!

I was going to add this carb spacer from Edelbrock. Hopefully this is going to keep my carb cooler and therefore give me less issues with vaporizing fuel during and after a drive.

The bolts came with the spacer. I seperately ordered the gaskets. I like them blue ;-)

When you're working with an open manifold, I think it's wise to put a cloth in so that nothing falls in to it. I can't imagine the shit you get into if for example, a nut drops in or something smaller and it falls into an open cylinder chamber. I think I'd get a panic attack...

I cut one of the gaskets to fit the dual plane (2 hole) manifold. You don't want to have any unused gasket dangling which eventually can get sucked in to your engine.

Adding the spacer itself.

And a 4 hole spacer on top.

Nice.

Then it was time to put the carb back. Also pretty easy.

And finally the air filter.

After checking if everything was in the right place I cranked for just over 10 seconds. After a small pause I cranked again and the engine fired almost immediately. I was SO surprised with all the starting issues I had over the years.

I also took the car for its first spin this year. It's been hibernating during the winter here in the Netherlands. It was a really nice day and everything went great :-)

Finishing my trunk

This is what my trunk looked like before. It started rusting after some tosser left it outside in the rain overnight with the cover on and put it in the trunk before I came to pick it up. I was not impressed...

And before the rest of the story, this is the finished result. I am quite pleased with the improvement but I'm still gonna put one more layer of clear coat on it. I'll explain why.

I bought a can of Eastwood Rust Encapsulator and a can of Trunk Paint. I thought the trunk paint would be black/grey with white splatters but it apparently is ONLY black and white splatters...

So this is what it looks like up close.

This is from a bit further away.

I had a few spots with the old black paint on it which now is visible. It's not too bad though. So just a clear coat and it will be finished.

More sanding / the wires

Today was a good day to spend some more time on the Mustang. Two good things happened!

I am so glad I bought that little sander. I got most of the rust and bad paint off. However, the last spots are probably going to be the shittest of them all ;-)

I found these loose wires under the passenger seat and I'm thinking they'll make the "Fasten seatbelt" sign work once connected! I really want that to work so I better find a way to connect these wires...