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1986 Mustang 6cyl auto conv. 116,000 miles. Bought last year and brought back to Virginia. Love it. Half-hearted attempt to relive my previous love (1985 GT conv. 5.0 red/gray/white top) This car always had a loping idle at stop lights and barely passed emissions, but a great project otherwise.
At end of last summer season, low on auto trans fluid, added some, and began smoking from tailpipe (blue/white) at startup and after sitting at stoplights...great.
Pulled from storage this year, same smoke. Added cann of Engine Restore and smoke was less......
Drove about 10 miles at moderate speeds and all ok.
Put it onto the parkway, and pushed harder... The motor flat out stopped and I coasted to a stop.
Will not restart, but starter cranks.
Have I killed it?
I don't mind the 6cyl, am I better off just starting over with a new (rebuilt) engine?
I konw that's a wide range of options, but I would like to have at least some degree of reliability and assurance on Sunday drives.
for got to put this in the other post it also could be giving you problems cause your burning coolant or water whatever you put in it. that makes a engine lose power and run ruff and stalling out, i know cause my old car had the same problems
Agreed - could be something simple. If the motor turns over, I think all the pistons must still be there. 86's had EFI, right?
they had CFI, similar, but it has a throttlebody style injection instead of a carb...
my '86 t-top has that, but I basically blew the motor on her again, so she is being sold...
86tan fox... your best bet is finding a 97-98 3.8 engine and swap your CFI intake and etc onto the newer motor. I have been told that they are all the same until the split port engines...
those old 3.8s are dogs and I found out the hard way... mine had 223Kon herBTW...
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'91 Lx 5.0 vert
exhaust
Tri-ax
Spec Stg. 2(semi fried)
pullies
KB ram air
new top/uphoulstry
oh yeah, 86tanfox, make sure you take your heads and intake manifold into an engine/machine shop if you choose to rebuild the existing engine, those old foxes have aluminum heads and intake maifolds which have a tendency to warp... inferior metal work imo
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'91 Lx 5.0 vert
exhaust
Tri-ax
Spec Stg. 2(semi fried)
pullies
KB ram air
new top/uphoulstry
Okay, my face is as red as a 86 LX T-Top for not thinking of a head gasket, but I was looking at being able to turn it over and the fact that one second it was running and the next it wasn't. I was thinkingit had to besomething that, if it should fail, causes the engine to just stop (but not sieze). But, I've never blown a head gasket like that, either.
3.8 w/auto motor died - Options?
