Why does my heat/blower motor not blow hard sometimes?

[87stars_stripes]

Yeah, thanks Gadget. Hey, the check valve that you refer to, is it near the cruise control servo? I am familiar with what appears to be a "T" fitting over there. Is that it? I see no other check valves under my hood. The car is running good now, but it still hard started again today after a 10 minute drive. It always requires me to modulate the throttle to get it to start. I never had this problem until my GT40P/T5 swap. Been chasing it since. It's either IAC, which i've tried 5 different IAC, and hundreds of base idle/tps/ecu resets, or it's sucking in air after coolant expansion/contraction giving the ECT false readings. I'm leaning towards the ECT theory still. I will be adding a coolant flow bottle but it's gonna be tough to mount it higher than the filler neck of the radiator which literally touches the inside of the bottom of the hood. I had people telling me a while back that a coolant overflow tank wasn't necessary, but maybe this wasn't foreseen.

[gadget73]

no, its on the vacuum tree right behind the engine, just about dead center of the firewall, not far from the MAP sensor.

The tee fitting thing in the cruise servo line was for the vacuum assist from the smog pump. If you don't have the smog pump, that can go away and be replaced with a single in/single out type check valve. I believe there is one of those type check valves between the tee and the smog pump. I used that one to replace the tee.

[87stars_stripes]

Hey Gadget. Take a look at this cute little vacuum diagram that I just made up. This is how I have it ran. Take a look at the check valve that feeds my cruise control servo. I have a vacuum straight from the vacuum block pulling on the bottom of the "T" (one directional side), and I have a vacuum pulling on the top side of the T that free flows to the Cruise Servo. Is this creating an issue? I believe this is how it was routed from the factory. It's like I'm pulling vacuum against vacuum?

[87stars_stripes]

Another curiosity. Why does this diagram show the CHARCOAL CANISTER coming off of throttle body vacuum?My can-p vacuum went to the manifold from the not the throttle body. Wtf is throttle body vacuum? I know most throttle bodies have a inlet port for the valve covers to recirculate in, but never have I heard it called vacuum.

http://www.allfordmustangs.com/forums/attachments/5-0l-tech/98364d1273538066-need-vacuum-hose-routing-info-1987-5-0-engine-ford-mustang-foxbody-vacuum-diagram.jpg

[gadget73]

if I remember how it originally went, the bottom side of the tee went to the vac tree. One side of the top of the tee went to the cruise servo, the other side went down to the smog pump via a second check valve. If you do not have the smog pump, remove the tee and connect the line from the vacuum tree to the servo via a standard check valve. The line to the manifold is not necessary.

guess is that diagram was drawn more for CFI cars. It does say manifold vacuum, which is correct. The CFI cars had the canp going to a port at the base of the CFI unit.

[87stars_stripes]

Damn. That makes sense. I knew that second long hose came from somewhere in the vicinity, but I thought it was vacuum. EXCELLENT. Now I can remove that and plug it off. Maybe it's causing a vacuum issue when I'm pulling vacuum against vacuum. We'll find out tomorrow. Hey, another question. I am trying to sort out this potential issue that I have with my radiator being the cause of the air in the system and ect acting up. The big summit radiator has a filler neck with a bleed off valve that expels fluid if the 16 psi cap is exceeded. I have never seen it expel fluid, but I know everytime I fill the radiator it drops to a certain level and I am thinking that it may be losing it somewhere or it may be losing fluid and creating air space through expansion/contraction. Air space is being created in the top of the radiator and I think it's effecting my ect readings. I want to try adding a coolant expansion or overflow tank. Is this the right idea? I guess there is a certain type of cap that allows fluid to pass the filler neck out to the coolant expansion during normal operation? Suggestions?

[87stars_stripes]

I guess this is accurate, and if so it suggests that under pressure coolant is supposed to be released to the bottom of an expansion tank and sucked back up through the same valve after the radiator cools through way of the valving in the cap. If so, that means that my system is expelling water beyond 16PSI and sucking up as it cools down.

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/cooling-system7.htm

[87stars_stripes]

Apparently our regular style caps allow venting during expansion, and allow the vacuum during contraction. So I guess all I have to do is get an overflow bottle or expansion tank.

[sly]

you should already have one. It should be the other half of the washer tank.

[87stars_stripes]

Hey Sly. Yeah, I eliminated the original washer/coolant tank. I have a late model washer tank. This morning I parked it on a hill with the radiator filler neck at a high point, bled it for 40 minutes, added a hose down to a powerade bottle with a hole through the cap and a vent hole as well, so far it's restarted every time with no hard start. After it began to cool, it sucked up about 1.5 inches of the water that was in the powerade/overflow bottle. PROBLEM SOLVED. 7 MONTHS OF HEADACHE. I should have known this. I also eliminated the incorrect vacuum that I had running to the cruise servo check valve. It was pulling vacuum against vacuum. THE CAR HAS WAY MORE POWER NOW. NO JOKE. This is unbelievable. Cleaning my maf sensor and cleaning/oiling my K+N Filter and this car is gonna be ready to pull some wheelies.

[sly]

next item on your list... 1990 town car fan shroud and coolant tank or aftermarket coolant tank to make things look better... if you want.

[87stars_stripes]

next item on your list... 1990 town car fan shroud and coolant tank or aftermarket coolant tank to make things look better... if you want.

I thought about that, but I love my original fan shroud. It's nice, and it looks perfect. Those 1990 shrouds look a little different. This car is still pissing me off thought because everytime I bleed the bubbles out of the system and top the radiator it eliminates the hard start, but after a few cycles the level drops again and I have to re-bleed it. I don't know where the fluid could be going now because I have the system sealed. Only thing that could be leaking is the stupid expandable freeze plug that I installed in the drivers side head last year. Nothing else leaks. Either that or it naturally burns off small amounts of coolant, but I don't know how it would be getting air in the system. This car picked up ridiculous power from the MAF, and the vacuum correction. Atleast 35 RWHP. IT's like I'm driving my 04 Cobra again. This motor screams.

[sly]

try bypassing the egr spacer coolant lines. if that solves the small leak, it was leaking in the egr spacer and just getting flushed out the exhaust.

[miamibob]

try bypassing the egr spacer coolant lines. if that solves the small leak, it was leaking in the egr spacer and just getting flushed out the exhaust.

He may need to know how to do that.....

[sly]

He may need to know how to do that.....

engine off/cool.
remove the long hose from the EGR spacer (behind the throttle body) that goes over to the heater pipe on the passenger side.
remove the hose from the lower intake nipple that attaches to the other port on the EGR spacer.
Route the long hose down to that lower intake nipple.
loop the short hose back to the EGR spacer's now open port that the longer hose was connected to.

If there is a leak in the spacer, looping the short hose back will plug the leak. Routing the long hose over to the lower intake keeps those leaks from happening. These hoses may also just need to be replaced.