[silver 4.6]

so my mustang is about to hit 159k.

ive been seeing all these crap cars lately, they come up the road squeaking and whining and crackling and i just dont want to see my stang end up that way.

she was owned previously by a NON HOT ROD TYPE GUY... thank god.

interior is almost perfect, engine runs smooth, almost no rust underneath the body except for around the exhaust, but thats normal.

car wasnt abused at all, wasnt floored or had its clutch popped all day long (lol).

so my question is, how do i keep it nice?

its getting a professional paint job soon, as well as new suspension parts and a 3" cowl hood, but the engine will need work sometime in the future.

how do i make the engine last until i have enough money to freshen it up?

also, i have spent most of the 735 invested on belts, pulleys, new lights all around the car, and new exhaust.

ANY

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WELCOME!

[00StangGuy]

Keep up on the maintenance. When you see those cars, that tells me right away they arent well taken care of. Belts probably cracking, brakes shot. To keep your mustang in good shape. Keep up on oil changes, every 3000 miles. I would recommend a High Mileage type of oil. Its better formulated for your engine than a standard type of oil. Make sure belts are good, fluilds under the head and under the car are clean and being changed when needed. A little goes a long ways. As long as you take care of the car when it needs it. You will be fine.

[silver 4.6]

yeah, i try to keep up on the maintinence, maybe next are some coil packs and some new plugs, heard thats a pretty good tune up for cars.

[green1992fiveoh]

a tune up is good to do every year or so, oil change every 3k miles, radiator coolant every (i forget how often, i just got my stang and have completely flushed the radiator and put new coolant in), keep brakes clean, etc. just basic maintenance and your stang will have a nice long life!

[silver 4.6]

not only do i want a nice long life for it, i want it to outlive me!

[00StangGuy]

yep, that will help it. I would also recomend having a shop using a fuel system cleaner(Motor Vac). What it does, is is a maching that hooks up to your fuel line. It coats the interior of the motor and breaks down all the carbon build up in the engine, it is than ran on a cleaner that blows it out the exhaust. Good service to have done. Some may say seafoam is fine, but this is much more thorough. Like you said, plugs wires, inspect the coil pack.

[green1992fiveoh]

Originally Posted by 00StangGuy

yep, that will help it. I would also recomend having a shop using a fuel system cleaner(Motor Vac). What it does, is is a maching that hooks up to your fuel line. It coats the interior of the motor and breaks down all the carbon build up in the engine, it is than ran on a cleaner that blows it out the exhaust. Good service to have done. Some may say seafoam is fine, but this is much more thorough. Like you said, plugs wires, inspect the coil pack.

thats also a good idea. but if you wanna diy you can just run fuel system cleaner through your fuel system by yourself im sure its not as thorough by a long shot, but its probably easier and cheeper and still helps

[silver 4.6]

i did a fuel system cleaner the day i bought it.

i hear if you clean your engine as thoughroly as a shop would, you get knocks and pings you didnt have before.

[green1992fiveoh]

really? thats interesting...ive never heard that before

[silver 4.6]

yeah man, ive heard cleaning out things can open up holes and things that were previously filled by gunk :O

but ive got a nice stang, as ya'll can tell and i wanna keep it nice.

lol im a granny shifter. been over 3k probably 3 times since i owned the car? and im done going over that for a long time

ive peeled out, ONCE. and i thouroghly regret it.

floored it twice, once learning how to downshift and pull power, once from a 10 mph roll to feel the power.

[green1992fiveoh]

well if thats just your driving style thats cool, but your stang already has a lot of miles on it so it probably wont be worth very much so i say have fun with it man. cars were meant to be drivin, and mustangs were meant to be fun.

unless it just has a lot of sentimental value to you..or something like that

[silver 4.6]

not much worried about the resale value.

when i do sell it, it'll be almost new with all new parts anyways, so its like the miles never happened

[08GTCA]

One thing you probably want to do is to flush out the brake fluid with new fluid. Brake fluid will absorb moisture with time and can cause spongy brakes and corrode internal parts. Find a reputable brake shop and have this service done. If you have a hydraulic clutch, have it flushed also.

[silver 4.6]

yeh. i need new brakes anyways so ill have um do that.

[badsparky]

MAINTENANCE is the key. I got an old one too - 97 GT with 113k and drive it almost everyday to work when its nice. Keep up with maintenance as much as I can. I park mine in the winter so it doesn't get rusty and seldom drive it in the rain. I run the heck out of my engine and its fine. My plan is when it dies - I will find a wrecked 03-04 Cobra and do a transplant into my near perfect Autumn Orange 97. My car is a rare 248a (aka GTS) but its not worth much so keeping it 100% original isn't a concern.