:: Car Adventures ::

:: 12.11.02 ::

Things I did this week:
1) Put on a Maximum Mustang pinion snubber. What is a pinion snubber? It's basically a rubber bump-stop that prevents the differential from hitting the floor pan. Differential hitting floor pan not good. Anyway, the MM snubber is a lot shorter than stock, so it'll let my progressive rate springs do their job. Anyway, now I can drive without hearing and feeling that annoying THUNK whenever I hit a big bump.
2) Put in a 110lph fuel pump. Stock is something like 80lph, so I wanted something more. One day, oh yes, one day I will add larger fuel injectors. Not too much larger, probably just one step higher. Anyway, with a little over 125,000 miles on the dial, it's probably more for preventative maintenance than anything else.
3) Cleaned out Mass Air Flow sensor. Thanks to a link over at v6power.net, I was able to find a Technical Service Bulletin about contaminated sensors. Basically the MAF sensor gets too dirty to register a correct reading. I hooked up my OBD2 diagnostic equipment and checked ambient barometric pressure, and it was at 19inches of mercury! That’s as if my car was at an altitude of over 11,000 feet! No wonder I was getting codes P0171 and P0174 (lean in banks one and two). So basically I just popped open the big black MAF case and took apart the little sensor from the metering tube. It uses T-20 torx bolts, but I used pliers and muscled them out. When I saw the sensors I was shocked .They were both covered in a thick layer of grime. I used contact cleaner and large chunks of the sludge flew off, but there was still more crap. I then resorted to drastic measures and used a Kleenex brand tissue and gently rubbed the remaining deposits away. One more dousing in contact cleaner and then I blew on the sensor to let it dry. After I bolted everything back together, I reset the barometric number by disconnecting then reconnecting the MAF as the engine was idling. Almost immediately the barometric number rose from 19 to 27. Basically I dropped from over 11,000 feet to 3,000. Not quite at 200 which is what it should be at, but close enough. I’m sure with a few more drive cycles, it’ll settle down. Regardless, before I drove home I reset the computer. No CE light yet but then again, I’ve only completed one drive cycle.

Conclusion?
After all the modifications and general maintenance, I must say the car responds a lot more to throttle. In fact the motor has a lot of pep. I’m seriously starting to think about doing the 4.2L cam swap. However, I still need to do the clutch swap.

:: dck47 01:53 [+] ::
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