Better Beaters - Building Cars and Daily Drivers

 I did not want a cold air kit on my new Mustang.

My Wife bought me that plenum cover for Father's Day
 just after I bought the car. It looks Boss!

However, it came with a K&N unit.

According to the website, this open intake is worth 16 h.p. Maybe, but I think that most guys like the increased intake roar. The K&N filter is an oil treated element, it passes more air, but traces of the oil eventually contaminate the MAF sensor, tripping a trouble light. That's what happened to me, it tripped a "wrench" symbol. I stopped the motor and restarted it, the light went out. This weekend it happened again, but this time instead of going off on a restart, it also tripped the CEL. It was running a bit poor, reduced performance mode, I'd read about that. I pulled over when I got a chance and restarted it. The wrench disappeared, the CEL remained lit but it seemed to be running okay. I will clean the MAF sensor when I get it home. Hopefully that might be all that it takes.

For some reason I thought that I had to remove the throttle body to access the MAF. As I backed out the nuts that hold the plenum cover on, one nut didn't want to come off. Instead it backed out the stud holding the throttle body in. I guess that I had cross threaded it when I installed the cover. It took some filing and a repeated tightening and loosening and careful filing before I could remove the nut. Then I broke out my tap and die set and cleaned up the threads on the stud. 

All I actually had to remove was the plastic intake tube after I removed the air filter itself and disconnected it from the throttle body. 

There it is.

 

It's important to be careful with the intake, you should never touch the wire element itself. Most importantly, only use the proper spray cleaner, not WD40 or anything else. It's easy, just spray away, that cleaner is extremely volatile and drys in minutes. This may work for this problem, if not I'll have to replace the sensor. It's also a good idea to do this as periodic maintenance. This can also improve fuel economy in some cases.

I could have sworn that I had a half filled can of spray somewhere in the garage. After almost a half hour of looking, I was still unable to find it, so off to the parts store. 

That little can cost me 12.00 plus tax.

Since I already had the plenum cover and intake tube off, I decided to do something about the red positive battery cable that runs alongside the left side of the intake manifold. I think that it stands out too much. I had considered using a length of black fuel line, split and installed on the wire. I realized that it had been covered by a plastic split wrap that had been torn off. Luckily I still had some left after working on my "70 Mustang.

That red really stands out!

Some guys like brightly colored conduit or even that chrome 
spiral wrap.

I used a couple of sections, I think that it looks better by hiding the red cable.

A definite improvement. Ford built a great engine
but didn't do much with the presentation!

Hopefully this mark will remain visible.

Since I had access, I thought that I would use a paint marker to put a reference mark on the crank pulley. This way I might get a heads up if the crank pulley starts to shift position. Especially since the pulley on my Daughter's '07 Mustang disintegrated unexpectedly. Now that was  unusual. I will keep an eye on that mark as a precaution.

I buttoned everything back up. I hope that cleaning the MAS sensor will cure the problem. I'll probably have to use a code reader to erase the trouble code. I always hope for the best.

Looking Good!

It took a few days but I finally got some time to start the engine and check if the warning lights went out. I'm happy to report that the wrench is gone as well as the CEL. I can't believe that I've been so busy that I still haven't gotten a chance to take it out for a test drive. I'll provide an update in a future post.