lean and hot need magic

[slickjm]

I recently added another mustang to my collection this one to be daily driven unlike the others. I may have bought the wrong car to drive daily.I now know the kid I bought the car from was so clueless it has caused me to become doubtful of my knowledge.93 gt with to many stupid upgrades in all the wrong places.trick flow intake,E303 cam,timing advanced to mars a radiator the size of pizza hut box one little elec. fan and 3.73 gears.I took the big aluminum radiator out of my 93 cobra race car replaced the tiny one put a 160 therm. put a clutch fan back on car,and flushed everything out. took the poor plugs out that had probably been glowing most of there life,replaced them and reduced the gap down to 38 in hopes to take care of some of the lean issue????. Not dealing with factory specs before I am uncertain of a starting point. So i'll throw a few questions out hope ya'll can help. What rpm is optimal with this E303 at idle?? Where is a safe place to be with the timing?? Are there any magic tricks that can take care of the car running hot?? What is normal temp. for this car on the highway at 70 mph?? It runs at about 215 degrees and don't even think about turning on the AC it will jump to 240 bam! If you can't help solve any of it, maybe you can tell me the best way make it explode. thanks

[Jim Adams]

wow it sure is running hot at 215 even with a monster Rad. in her and a clutching fan with a 160 stat seems you should be cool as a cucumber. Is she sucking air anyplace ? also see if at night your headers are glowing a little ,,this would indicate that cam is still advanced and it even sounds as though it may be,,,check out your o2 sensors it might be dumping fuel as well,,but I would be inclined to think that the cam is still advanced ALOT lol,,when you get it running cool again remember to put at least a 185 stat back in here because the sensors wont even function correctly unless she gets to 185,,not that this is an issue now but it might be later,,,Go To AutoZone and get them to run codes check,,if all is ok then that would reinforce the cam timming,,if it says o2 sensors open loop or fault then change them out and if still same problem then Cam again,,,but cam being advanced will either screw up O2 sensors or give them screwed up readings cause so lean. Good luck!

[slickjm]

thank you for your input. I want make sure your talking about the advancement of the cam,not the timing. Last night after my post I went out and cleaned my timing marks and made new clean marks. The car runs like hammered s*** with the timing advance less then 20 and would probably run even better if I could get it to 28-32 but the plug won't let it turn any further,which would back up your theory of who installed that cam probably advanced it 4 to 6 degrees which would cause alot of this crap due to the computer being bumfuzzled with all these things its not supposed to know. Is this what you are saying. my main goal is to get it cool and richened up I Don't care how I do it.

thanks

[351wStang]

Pull your accessories, water pump, and timing cover. Retard your cam to the straight up 0* position. Then try about 12* advanced timing at about 800rpms.

[SkylineUSA]

Originally Posted by Jim Adams

check out your o2 sensors it might be dumping fuel as well,,

If it was dumping fuel, it would be cooling the intake charge, but I do agree the cam might be advanced.

[SkylineUSA]

Originally Posted by slickjm

thank you for your input. I want make sure your talking about the advancement of the cam,not the timing. Last night after my post I went out and cleaned my timing marks and made new clean marks. The car runs like hammered s*** with the timing advance less then 20 and would probably run even better if I could get it to 28-32 but the plug won't let it turn any further,which would back up your theory of who installed that cam probably advanced it 4 to 6 degrees which would cause alot of this crap due to the computer being bumfuzzled with all these things its not supposed to know. Is this what you are saying. my main goal is to get it cool and richened up I Don't care how I do it.

thanks

When you pull your spout, what is your timing at? If you cannot retard it any more, move your plugs around to reduce your timing.

[Jim Adams]

Yes your cam timming is advanced ,,that would clean up all issues,,set it dot to dot then run distributor timming at 12* at curb idle then it should run at 28* at about 3000 rpms,,chances are if this guy screwed things up this bad you probably wont be able to get distributor timming right either ,,,it probably isnt clocked right,,,but once you are at 0 on the cam ,piston should be at top dead center with exhaust valve getting ready to open,,at this point pull distributor and get the wires all clocked properly so you know for sure where you are at and how far you can advance. Good luck!