Shane Brown:
Well, I guess reading the operations manual would have helped! Thanks a lot for letting me know about this, it works great and bring about some nice power that I did not know existed, hah. Thanks again Shane.



Ran Sea Foam through the brake booster vacume. Had a lot of smoke, but I am not seeing anything that is really worthy of mention. When I started the engine back up after about 20 minutes of soak time, I ran the engine around 2 grand, bringing it back down to idle, and reved it to around 4-5 a few times. I hope that was alllright, I wasn't sure if I was suppose to let it just idle and let it blow smoke, or what. Can I do this again and finish up the can!

Well the noise is back in that front right section. Had rain and mud puddles, hoping that didn't dry it up, I'll try to put pack more grease with the gun again, I was wishing it would have went away.

As I mentioned before, I wanted to replace my muffler. Has anyone advice or recommendation? I'd like to go with a flowmaster, something with some grumble sound but no obnoxious BRAP BRAP sound, 40 series allright? If anyone has any detialed suggestions and instructions, I'd appreciate it. Many thanks!

 

Just so you know, I had to replace the ball joints in my front end at around 85K miles. I don't remember if it was uppers or lowers, or both. Sounds like you may have the same problem. Seems like it wasn't that expensive to have done either.

 

kbldawg:
Thanks for the information. Which one did you replace and how much did it cost? I have a buddy with a lift and was wondering if you think it'd be hard to replace those myself. Thanks a lot.


Otherwise the metallic grunk sound is getting worse, I need to pack them with more grease.

 

Does anyone have any reply for any of the situations?

 

I had mine replaced at the local mechanic shop, seems like it was the upper ball joints on both sides. $80

I wasn't planning on having them replaced at all. I went in for a front end alignment, and was told they were bad.

I've never replaced ball joints, so I have no idea how hard it would be. I've read a few people's comments on here about them not being that hard to do.

Maybe someone else will speak up with a little better info.

Good Luck

 

Okay, I'll stick my neck out. Use this information at your own risk...

Your gas mileage seems kinda low to me. I have a 95 lightning, get about 14 combined, 13 on a heavy footed tank. It's probably 800 pounds lighter, but it's got 4.10's in the rear, and that's with a 351 and "spirited" driving. You know, the kind that makes rear tires last 20k instead of 40k.

I've also re-acquired a 1988 F150 SC, 13 in town, 15 highway with 3.55's, I've seen 16-17 but not with me driving. Grin. Again, not apples to apples because it's 2wd, but still... 8-10? Ouch. This truck drives like you describe - lethargic at best.

I think you said MAF in one of your posts - seriously? An MAF? Like between the filter and the throttle body? I had heard they did this on California 95's, but have yet to actually see one. If that's the case, you can go pretty nuts with modifications and see some meaningful if not expensive power increases. It's the infamous "speed costs, how fast can you afford to go" scenario.

I wouldn't underestimate the value of a professional tuners time. I had a 90 mustang 5.0 and it *really* responded to plugs, more timing, reusable air filter, and pulling the air silencer thingy out of the air box. If it really is MAF, heck, even if it's SD, you might think about making a bump in the timing to 12+ degrees as Ford was notorious for setting it below 10 degrees. You'll want to run premium fuel if you do that though. If you have a dyno tuner in your neighborhood, call them up and see what they get for a "dyno tune". Ford leaves a lot on the table... a good air filter is worthwhile, I've found that the "million mile warranty" brand was a noticeable improvement.

Exhaust - if it's stock, I can pretty much tell you I hate it. The cat isn't usually as big a problem as a lot of people say they are, it's the manifolds I hate with a passion. Ever try to breathe through a straw? There are a number of vendors of short tube headers which are a nightmare to install, and most of the big header companies sell long tubes, which I'm all about. There are catbacks, and lengthy arguments about chambered mufflers costing horsepower, but a set of long tubes, and 2 1/4 pipes with dual cats some straight through turbo mufflers is worth some power. Use good gaskets and some of the "locking" header bolts available these days and you shouldn't have too much problems with leaks. I'll tolerate having to change gaskets if the power is there, and it's enough for me to cope with leaks every now and then. Cheap headers usually means more frequent leak chasing, something to keep in mind if you go that route.

Somebody posted that Gears are worth considering and I couldn't agree more. If the tuneup doesn't wake your dog up, and you don't want to dork with engine mods, gears are seriously worth considering. I can't see your mileage going down much, in fact, it should probably improve in town. Do you have a tach? If so, what kind of rpm is it turning at 60? My 95 with 4.10's turns like 2000 at 60, and gets a little buzzy at 85 with 275 60 17's. I'm considering putting 4.10's in my 88 because it's such a pig in town. I've got room for additional tire, so if it's too buzzy, I'll put a bigger tire on it to bring the RPM back down.

Everyone has their own opinion, mine is pretty much all about torque. I'm not promoting anybodies parts here, this is just the stuff I have. I'm in kind of the same boat with the 88, and here's the approach I'm taking:

Rebuilt 5.0 w/ roller cam from 5.0 mustang, e7te heads from same. Distributor gear changed to match the steel roller cam.
Timing to 12 or whatever the dyno shows as best
K&N air filter
Hooker competition long tube headers
Hooker header back 2 1/4 pipes
Hooker Maximum Flow 2 1/4 mufflers - pretty quiet at idle and 2000, pretty loud at WOT.
2 hi flow cats - walker I think - 2 1/4 inch
I'll put an MAF kit on it if the computer argues. If I get the MAF, I'm thinking about a 347 using an Explorer / GT40 manifold since I have both laying around and it was cheap. 350-500 is typical for the whole Explorer engine with GT40P heads, intake, roller block, 347 kits are about 800 now days. There's no replacement for displacement, and these pull 350+ ft lbs of torque at reasonably low rpm with explorer heads (GT40's).

I'm doing all the labor, so big savings, about 1000-1200 in parts so far, another 600 for the MAF if I have to. Of course, that also means I can use the gt40p heads which are worth a few pounds of torque and about 30 horsepower... I am also an idiot when it comes to using common sense with projects, and they are rarely worth the time and money I drop on them, but I like showing tail lights to Tundra's.

Or - you could always bolt on a roots style or twin screw blower and have all the torque your transmission will stand.

Best of luck!

 

Well, took it to my mechanic, looks like we need to replace the following..

An upper and lower ball joint...
2 Axle U-Joints...
And a set of Front Springs....

Not too happy but could be worse, bout $450 for parts and labor.

Thank you very much to the last post, I'll take it in for a thorugh tune-up. I go around 2500 rpm @60 and 4000 at 85.

Could someone possibly explain how to change gear ratios?