shays88tc
CEG'er
Hello all!
I found CEG a while before i bought my silver 98 csvt and i have to say this place is great! Lots of good info! hope you guys can help me out, i did search first but i have some questions that need clarifying so please bare with the long thread. Thanks!
I bought a 98 CSVT the other day and i absolutely love the car. BUT, after reading a lot of posts it seems these cars have some bad problems. Oil starvation, weak rod bearings, weak water pumps, weak tranny's etc
So now im wondering if i just slit my own wrists buying this car. I am/was planning on turning it in to my daily driver, and i have a kid on the way so the 4dr's are a plus. I still have back up vehicles too, just in case!
Anyways, the car has 118,000 miles on it and runs great. I do have a receipt saying the water pump was changed at 60,000 miles..i'm assuming/hoping it was the metal impeller one. The car had a bit of a crappy idle, but i pulled the IAC and cleaned it and it seemed to help. Ill put my questions in number to make it easier to read.
1. Oil starvation, after some reading, it seems the heads on the 2.5 duratec (or just CSVT's?) don't drain oil back down to the pan very well and wide/sweeping right turns can starve it of oil - I don't drive hard corners every really, will this still be a problem for me? Plus, i change and check my oil religiously. When i first change the oil i am going to put in a straight 6 qts of mobil 1 full syn. How many people are running the ACCUSUMP? I was thinking of using it but im wondering how effective it really is, can you install it with the engine still in the car? I don't want to do the baffled oil pan swap, are the accusump and baffled pan supposed to be done together? I was also thinking of doing a triple pillar pod with oil pressure, water temp, and volt meter gauges. Will the oil pressure gauge show when/if the engine is being starved of oil?
2. I plan on getting the car up on jacks and draining/refilling the tranny, it sounds great right now without any grinding..very quiet. What exactly kills these trannies so fast? Heat, abuse? I don't abuse my cars, i like to go fast and take off quick but i rarely dump the clutch and even more rarely burn the tires.
3. I also plan on doing a through replacement of parts/mantinance. I plan on 9mm ford plug wires, ford/autolite double platinum plugs, ford fuel filter, K&N air filter or some sort of CAI, ford pcv valve, flush/refill coolant, new stock temp thermostat. Any other thing i am forgetting or that i should check/replace while i am at it? I also plan on optimizing the throttle body and fixing the throttle hang. I have read that the auto-lite 764 double platinum spark plugs are the best plug to use, is this correct? Can i get them at a wal-mart..i looked but only remember seeing single platinum and copper core? What is the part # on the shelf for them? Also, with the aluminum heads, i should only change the plugs with a cold engine, thoroughly clean the holes before removing plugs, use anti-seize on the plugs and make sure i don't over-tighten/cross thread them. Correct? Last thing i need are plugs shooting out.
4. Last but not least, how many mile can i expect to actually get out of this car. I do routine maintence on my vehicles all the time and i don't have a problem buying/replacing most parts. But i don't have the time/space/money to be doing head gaskets and swapping motors/trannies all the time, serious stuff like that. Is this car actually going to be reliable for me or not? I know that no one can tell the future and tell me for sure, but if these cars all seem to die at a certain mileage or from a certain problem and that death is early and inevitable, i am just gonna get rid of it cause i can't have that.
I know i have tons more questions but this is all i can think of right now. Thanks in advance for the help. Ill try to get some pics of the car up asap.
I found CEG a while before i bought my silver 98 csvt and i have to say this place is great! Lots of good info! hope you guys can help me out, i did search first but i have some questions that need clarifying so please bare with the long thread. Thanks!
I bought a 98 CSVT the other day and i absolutely love the car. BUT, after reading a lot of posts it seems these cars have some bad problems. Oil starvation, weak rod bearings, weak water pumps, weak tranny's etc
So now im wondering if i just slit my own wrists buying this car. I am/was planning on turning it in to my daily driver, and i have a kid on the way so the 4dr's are a plus. I still have back up vehicles too, just in case!
Anyways, the car has 118,000 miles on it and runs great. I do have a receipt saying the water pump was changed at 60,000 miles..i'm assuming/hoping it was the metal impeller one. The car had a bit of a crappy idle, but i pulled the IAC and cleaned it and it seemed to help. Ill put my questions in number to make it easier to read.
1. Oil starvation, after some reading, it seems the heads on the 2.5 duratec (or just CSVT's?) don't drain oil back down to the pan very well and wide/sweeping right turns can starve it of oil - I don't drive hard corners every really, will this still be a problem for me? Plus, i change and check my oil religiously. When i first change the oil i am going to put in a straight 6 qts of mobil 1 full syn. How many people are running the ACCUSUMP? I was thinking of using it but im wondering how effective it really is, can you install it with the engine still in the car? I don't want to do the baffled oil pan swap, are the accusump and baffled pan supposed to be done together? I was also thinking of doing a triple pillar pod with oil pressure, water temp, and volt meter gauges. Will the oil pressure gauge show when/if the engine is being starved of oil?
2. I plan on getting the car up on jacks and draining/refilling the tranny, it sounds great right now without any grinding..very quiet. What exactly kills these trannies so fast? Heat, abuse? I don't abuse my cars, i like to go fast and take off quick but i rarely dump the clutch and even more rarely burn the tires.
3. I also plan on doing a through replacement of parts/mantinance. I plan on 9mm ford plug wires, ford/autolite double platinum plugs, ford fuel filter, K&N air filter or some sort of CAI, ford pcv valve, flush/refill coolant, new stock temp thermostat. Any other thing i am forgetting or that i should check/replace while i am at it? I also plan on optimizing the throttle body and fixing the throttle hang. I have read that the auto-lite 764 double platinum spark plugs are the best plug to use, is this correct? Can i get them at a wal-mart..i looked but only remember seeing single platinum and copper core? What is the part # on the shelf for them? Also, with the aluminum heads, i should only change the plugs with a cold engine, thoroughly clean the holes before removing plugs, use anti-seize on the plugs and make sure i don't over-tighten/cross thread them. Correct? Last thing i need are plugs shooting out.
4. Last but not least, how many mile can i expect to actually get out of this car. I do routine maintence on my vehicles all the time and i don't have a problem buying/replacing most parts. But i don't have the time/space/money to be doing head gaskets and swapping motors/trannies all the time, serious stuff like that. Is this car actually going to be reliable for me or not? I know that no one can tell the future and tell me for sure, but if these cars all seem to die at a certain mileage or from a certain problem and that death is early and inevitable, i am just gonna get rid of it cause i can't have that.
I know i have tons more questions but this is all i can think of right now. Thanks in advance for the help. Ill try to get some pics of the car up asap.