Mach 1 Club

Full Version: In need of your vote
You're currently viewing a stripped down version of our content. View the full version with proper formatting.
Alright so as many of you know my mach 1 has sat for 26 years. As soon as i fix one thing another goes. Now my from main seal is leaking, which has led me to this debate. Should I just tear out the whole engine and replace all seals and rebuild it or just keep fixing as things go wrong. Thanks for your input
Well ...

A couple of years ago I bought my daughter a 1988 Ranger to take to college. Great running little truck but I have never seen a more grease soaked vehicle.

To help my daughter learn and to give her a dependable vehicle we pulled the motor and drivetrain to clean and reseal the whole. All new seals and gaskets, new timing chain, new water pump, new alternator, etc. The motor ran great and did not burn any oil so we left it alone. We then went through the brakes and I ended up straightening up some wiring and put a new heater core and radiator in with all new hoses.

Would I go to that extreme for something like your Mach 1, I guess I would because that is exactly what I am doing with mine and I only plan to drive it occasionaly. The cost is minimal IF you can do all the work yourself.

Clean the engine bay up while your there and touch up any area that needs attention - without getting into a restoration.

Give it a go. Biggrin
I second Steve's "give it a go". If you do it all at once there will less frustration with repairs in the long run.
I'm with Steve too. My engine ran good and didn't use oil when I quit driving it but it had about 125,000 miles on it. Pulled the engine before sending it to the body shop and had the engine completly gone through. Figured if doing that much work on the body I wanted the engine in good condition. They found a small hole in one cylinder wall so good choice. No fluid leaks now.
I agree with the other guys. You're better off in the long run as you have to realize all the parts/gaskets are the same age and if one thing goes, it's a pretty good bet the rest will follow suit shortly. If it wasn't using oil I probably wouldn't mess with that, but it sure can't hurt to stop the bleeding. JTS 71 Mach1
Yes! Definitely do it all at once. You'll save lots of work that way, since at times things will go bad that would have been much easier to fix while the engine was out - such as upper control arm bushings and ball joints.

I learned my lesson after renovating my 120 year old house. Instead of doing all the gutting at once, I did it piecemeal and it was a LOT more work. Same applies to cars when they reach that point where everything is going bad.

Good luck!
Hutch