GearHead needs help getting her Fox Body Mustang to pass...

[Glenn_03Cobra]

A friend needs some advice re: smogging her Fox 5.0 body Mustang. She is a GearHead member so your replies she will be able to read your replies or questions... Jump in here guys!

Here's what she needs:

I need help getting my Fox body Mustang to pass smog.

I know that the cats are gone and that is the reason it won't pass this year, two years ago RK Smog said he barely got it to pass and he said it will need new cats for next time.

I was just thinking of buying catted H pipes and try to get it to pass, that is if the smog guys don't know that the foxbody is suppose to have 4 cats instead of 2. Would you recommend doing this or going to a smog place first to have them tell me exactly what I need to do.

On another note, if you know of anyone that is trust worthy, I need a good mechanic to switch over to mass air and dial this thing in. I really needs someone who knows the foxbody.

So to answer your question, I need both a good smog place and a good mechanic.

[SVTRonDogg]

Where is she located?

[blind]

sounds local to me as RK smog is right up the street.

wish I had more time to offer to help, but I have a known good stock 4 cat H pipe that I'm willing to loan out to get the car through smog.


the 2 cat pipes are pretty hard to pass with unless they have magnaflo cats, magnaflo makes 50 state CARB legal cats for the mustang now, they also sell a 4 cat OE style replacement h-pipe it's just really expensive.

I bet if she had a shop replace the rear 2 cats with new magnaflo cats, it would pass fine.



also re: MAF conversion, unless the car has a cam swap that has a large reduction in vacuum, the speed density setup makes more power, usually 10hp, than a MAF setup stock vs stock. There's absolutely no reason to convert unless the car is heavily modded, you can run superchargers, aluminum heads, etc with the stock speed density setup.

[sh8kn bk]

thanks for your help and offer, I think I will see if it passes first by some miracle, then if it doesn't I will have to replace maybe just two and hope that works. I am in camarillo, so if you or anyone else knows of a trust worthy mechanic let me know, I just need a plan for this thing to make it a great street driver not necessarily a race car. It is a sentimental car so I need it running for a long time.

[blind]

I don't use any mechanics personally as I do all work on my cars myself, but I've heard that Steve's Garage on Dawson drive is very honest, and Kenny at Back Alley Rod and Custom on Dawson ct (the annex that connects dawson to lewis rd) knows 5.0's pretty well as he used to own one, I trust Steve more as his is more of an official shop, though would probably charge more...but I really don't know. As an aside, RK Smog should treat you right also, one of the smog tech's is the original owner of his `91 mustang GT and he loves it whenever I bring my coupe in for the bi-annual smog, haha.

depending on your time frame I'm willing to help, I can easily swap my good spare H pipe or any other H pipe you buy onto the car to get it through smog, I can also very easily run the KOER diagnostic to determine if any sensors are failing on the car. These will almost never trigger the check engine light, and if the car is an `86 and older than it wouldn't even have a functional check engine light anyways, but with the KOER test you can still get diagnostic codes out of the computer with the real time manual test.

Other than that, if it fails, If you can post the complete smog #'s I can help, I have a lot of experience diagnosing 5.0's through smog.

[sh8kn bk]

I really appreciate all your help. I did purchase a bbk h pipe two cat and two new sensors and the little guy passed smog, thanks to RK, that guy is a genius. Thanks for the tips on the mechanics. I am going to contact back alley and see if they will dial this thing in.
driving back from RK I was in my 05 GT and my hubby was in the 5.0, we were at the stop light on Flynn at the same time, well you know you have to juice it a little but the 5.0 i think is actually faster than my 05. He rattles and shakes a little but he can still scratch. Thanks guys for all your help.

[blind]

happy to hear it made it through smog