Engine Pictures
or "I can't see the engine with all the emissions junk!"


 

Nothing much new here either. If you want, you can skip to the old damage pics.


V6stang's V6stang: Engine
The obligatory engine picture. Three things to notice, besides the fact that the entire engine compartment is filthy.

  1. The driver's high beam lamp. Two holes and some mildew, but it's all good. I've been waiting for that to burn out since I got the car in '96. I'm curious to see how long it will last. 10.08.02 Update: Still going strong. I wonder if this lamp was made by Energizer... It keeps going, and going, and going...
  2. Orange wire running around the perimeter or the engine bay.  10.08.02 Update: The orange wire is now black, and a heavier gauge. See below for details.
  3. Surface rust stripe behind battery. See below for details on this also.
 

Before: That orange wire? My fan bypass switch. Works fairly well, if I do say so myself. It may not be pretty, but it has worked for over 5 years now.

After: Well, it stopped working after 6 years. :) I actually managed to melt the switch because I was running the entire load through the switch with NO RELAY. A big "d'oh!" for me, please.

Someone once said that electronics have this magical smoke that make them work, and if you should accidentally let the smoke out, the electronics will no longer work. They were right. :) Go to turn the switch off, something inside the warm plastic switch cracks, suddenly there's a puff of smoke, and the warm switch gets REALLY warm and starts to melt. Not fun. Long story short, I went out, got a new switch, a relay, some heavier gauge wire, an inline fuse for the relay supply, and wired it properly. It should last at least another 5 years. :)
V6stang's V6stang: Juryrigging the Fan

Here's the rust I pointed out, and here's the deal. When I got the car, it didn't have the right size battery. Very bad idea, as I was soon to discover.

Battery slid around in the tray, slowly working it's way backward unbeknownst to me. One day I go to start the engine and I get very little juice, barely enough to crank the starter for a couple seconds, and not nearly enough to start it. I pull out my jumper cables and pop the hood, expecting to simply jumpstart. Lo and behold, the battery had slid back into the alternator fan which had chewed through the battery casing and sprayed battery acid all over the engine. That first cell was dry as a bone. I hosed down the compartment as soon as I could, but the damage had been done before I even popped the hood. What you see here on the inner fender and the very top of the alternator bracket seems to be the extent of the damage. Luckily.

Needless to say, I replaced the chewed battery with a properly fitting one. All is well except for where the paint was stripped, and even that is being protected by surface rust right now. :0)
V6stang's V6stang: Battery Acid
 

Did I mention that the engine leaks a little oil? Seems to be coming from both the valve cover seals and the main seals to the tune of a quart every 1000 miles. You should see the bottom of the oil pan and transmission...

Gotta love those stock V6 cast iron manifolds!
V6stang's V6stang: Leaking Oil


Ok, that's enough about the engine. On to the damage pics. Yes, I'm a glutton for punishment.