Beater advice

1,983 Views | 13 Replies | Last: 7 yr ago by Tim Weaver
Tim Weaver
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Ok. We sold our 06 TDi Golf which was my go to work beater.

I now have a conundrum. I have a 91 Explorer 4x4 which is in surprisingly good shape, but the trans leaks pretty badly. I could spend a day to remove it, send it to a shop for the repair then spend a day reinstalling it. Not hard, but time consuming.

Or I have a 96 Volvo 960 with a blown HG. I have another parts car with a good motor. I have the bad motor pulled, but life (Christmas) got in the way and the project stalled. Not hard to finish, but time consuming.


Eventually the Exploder will get sold. And the Volvo is supposed to go to my 16YO daughter if she ever finishes getting her license. But before any of that happens these cars will be my 90 mile a day work beater.

Which one do I fix first!
AgResearch
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AG
Explorer
The Fife
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Explorer since it's closer to being done. The Volvo is also a good choice, just remember to do the timing belt and water pump while you're in there (easy, 1 hour job). It's a Motronic car, so reliable and easy to troubleshoot.
1agswitchin4lanes
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AG
Wheres the leak from the trans?

The A4LD isnt known to be really great in its original form. Most rebuilds add many updates to help it work better.

The 960 will work really well with a LS swap.
BigRobSA
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Volvo +LS + turbo = pwn3d noobs...all day, e'ry day.
Tim Weaver
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1agswitchin4lanes said:

Wheres the leak from the trans?

The A4LD isnt known to be really great in its original form. Most rebuilds add many updates to help it work better.

The 960 will work really well with a LS swap.

It's a 91 so has the first round of updates. The trans shifts great and has no slippage. The leak is the front pump seal, sooooo.


Basically the front bushing wears and causes the converter/input shaft to wobble bit and wears the seal. Right now it only really leaks when it gets warm. Steady driving down the highway is ok. Stop and go causes it to leak.

I need to pull the trans and take it to a shop where they put in a new bushing and remachine it to be concentric. I'll probably also put a shift kit in it at the same time to keep the temps down.

Tim Weaver
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The Fife said:

Explorer since it's closer to being done. The Volvo is also a good choice, just remember to do the timing belt and water pump while you're in there (easy, 1 hour job). It's a Motronic car, so reliable and easy to troubleshoot.
I'm pulling a 250k mile motor to put in a 150k mile motor. I'll definitely be doing the Tbelt and water pump. I'm deleting the secondary air pump and cleaning the PCV, replacing the oil trap. I'm pretty familiar with the Volvo Whiteblock. Motronic 4.4 ftw.
The Fife
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When did they start putting in a secondary air pump? It sounds like something the newer ones have - our 1992 960 doesn't have this.

They're great cars. We're just under 200K on transmission #2 but I think the problems were solenoid related. It cost less to get another transmission than to buy new components. The only thing I haven't figured out yet is where the vacuum leak is that causes the air to drop to the floor vents when you jump on the gas. It's under the dash... somewhere. All rubber under the hood was replaced last year.
hatchback
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AG
BigRobSA said:

Volvo +LS + turbo = pwn3d noobs...all day, e'ry day.


I'd love to get a 740 "brick" wagon and swap an LS and a 6 speed manual gearbox as an ultimate sleeper project. Surely that can't be too expensive...
BigRobSA
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hatchback said:

BigRobSA said:

Volvo +LS + turbo = pwn3d noobs...all day, e'ry day.


I'd love to get a 740 "brick" wagon and swap an LS and a 6 speed manual gearbox as an ultimate sleeper project. Surely that can't be too expensive...


If/when I get the shop going down home, we'll have to price it out. Of course, with a "Monica!" discount for a good Ag and friend.
Tim Weaver
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The Fife said:

When did they start putting in a secondary air pump? It sounds like something the newer ones have - our 1992 960 doesn't have this.

They're great cars. We're just under 200K on transmission #2 but I think the problems were solenoid related. It cost less to get another transmission than to buy new components. The only thing I haven't figured out yet is where the vacuum leak is that causes the air to drop to the floor vents when you jump on the gas. It's under the dash... somewhere. All rubber under the hood was replaced last year.
94 I think. Mine's a 96. The motors are the same, but the cams are a little different. makes just shy of 200 HP, but has more torque. It was luxury car tuning. The early cams are a popular mod to drop into a later motor. You have to spin it up a little more, but they make more power up top.

The secondary air pumps always break and they are like 400 bucks to replace. I'll take 30 seconds of dirty exhaust over having all that extra plumbing and expense.

I did the same thing with the 250k mile transmission. I changed it last year when it started leaking real bad. I'll have a spare trans after the motor swap. If you need another! lol. They are pretty solid. Same trans the turbo supra used and they have been built to handle 1000 HP drag cars.
1agswitchin4lanes
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AG
Quote:

It's a 91 so has the first round of updates. The trans shifts great and has no slippage. The leak is the front pump seal, sooooo.


Basically the front bushing wears and causes the converter/input shaft to wobble bit and wears the seal. Right now it only really leaks when it gets warm. Steady driving down the highway is ok. Stop and go causes it to leak.

I need to pull the trans and take it to a shop where they put in a new bushing and remachine it to be concentric. I'll probably also put a shift kit in it at the same time to keep the temps down.


Actually I mean as time went on, Ford put out updates to the trans and many rebuilders in the industry incorporated the upgrades into the rebuilds.

A few suggestions:

Sonnax Valve Body Upgrade with the big pressure regulator and boost kit.
Deeper Pan
Largest cooler you can fit in behind the grille.
Tim Weaver
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1agswitchin4lanes said:

Quote:

It's a 91 so has the first round of updates. The trans shifts great and has no slippage. The leak is the front pump seal, sooooo.


Basically the front bushing wears and causes the converter/input shaft to wobble bit and wears the seal. Right now it only really leaks when it gets warm. Steady driving down the highway is ok. Stop and go causes it to leak.

I need to pull the trans and take it to a shop where they put in a new bushing and remachine it to be concentric. I'll probably also put a shift kit in it at the same time to keep the temps down.


Actually I mean as time went on, Ford put out updates to the trans and many rebuilders in the industry incorporated the upgrades into the rebuilds.

A few suggestions:

Sonnax Valve Body Upgrade with the big pressure regulator and boost kit.
Deeper Pan
Largest cooler you can fit in behind the grille.

Yeah, for sure I will get the valve body done. Probably will do a cooler as well, but since this is a flipper I want to spend as little as possible on it!

I'm actually driving it to work and back right now. Highway driving keeps the temps down pretty well and it doesn't puke ATF....
The Fife
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Tim Weaver said:

The Fife said:

When did they start putting in a secondary air pump? It sounds like something the newer ones have - our 1992 960 doesn't have this.

They're great cars. We're just under 200K on transmission #2 but I think the problems were solenoid related. It cost less to get another transmission than to buy new components. The only thing I haven't figured out yet is where the vacuum leak is that causes the air to drop to the floor vents when you jump on the gas. It's under the dash... somewhere. All rubber under the hood was replaced last year.
94 I think. Mine's a 96. The motors are the same, but the cams are a little different. makes just shy of 200 HP, but has more torque. It was luxury car tuning. The early cams are a popular mod to drop into a later motor. You have to spin it up a little more, but they make more power up top.

The secondary air pumps always break and they are like 400 bucks to replace. I'll take 30 seconds of dirty exhaust over having all that extra plumbing and expense.

I did the same thing with the 250k mile transmission. I changed it last year when it started leaking real bad. I'll have a spare trans after the motor swap. If you need another! lol. They are pretty solid. Same trans the turbo supra used and they have been built to handle 1000 HP drag cars.
The transmission itself seems pretty good but its wiring harness has given me fits. Whatever Aamco did to it in 2008 didn't help either. Overdrive works... sometimes. Could be the connector at the transmission, could be the solenoid. Haven't had time to troubleshoot it. I keep saying it's one big unsolvable transmission issue away from an M90 (manual) swap.
Tim Weaver
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The Fife said:

Tim Weaver said:

The Fife said:

When did they start putting in a secondary air pump? It sounds like something the newer ones have - our 1992 960 doesn't have this.

They're great cars. We're just under 200K on transmission #2 but I think the problems were solenoid related. It cost less to get another transmission than to buy new components. The only thing I haven't figured out yet is where the vacuum leak is that causes the air to drop to the floor vents when you jump on the gas. It's under the dash... somewhere. All rubber under the hood was replaced last year.
94 I think. Mine's a 96. The motors are the same, but the cams are a little different. makes just shy of 200 HP, but has more torque. It was luxury car tuning. The early cams are a popular mod to drop into a later motor. You have to spin it up a little more, but they make more power up top.

The secondary air pumps always break and they are like 400 bucks to replace. I'll take 30 seconds of dirty exhaust over having all that extra plumbing and expense.

I did the same thing with the 250k mile transmission. I changed it last year when it started leaking real bad. I'll have a spare trans after the motor swap. If you need another! lol. They are pretty solid. Same trans the turbo supra used and they have been built to handle 1000 HP drag cars.
The transmission itself seems pretty good but its wiring harness has given me fits. Whatever Aamco did to it in 2008 didn't help either. Overdrive works... sometimes. Could be the connector at the transmission, could be the solenoid. Haven't had time to troubleshoot it. I keep saying it's one big unsolvable transmission issue away from an M90 (manual) swap.
I have a (Mueller) adaptor plate to put a Ford T5 onto the AW30-40 Bellhousing. It looks like I won't be using it now. If you want to do a swap this is a little bit cheaper than importing an M90. It does take some mixing and matching of parts to get the shifter to line up, but it's doable. Plus you can rebuild a T5 anywhere. Getting an M90 built is kind of difficult here in the states.
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