Finally got around to cruise control. Found a steering wheel in the junk yard for $20 bucks. I knew a guy(customer) who works at Ford, programmed the PCM for $20 bucks. I’m pretty happy.

Nicely done!

Also cleaned the throttle body since the battery was disconnected. I haven’t cleaned the TB since I have had the car and there is zero record of it in its history. I noticed my rpms fluctuated a bit more than they should when the engine load changed.

This was the TB before


After.


I tried my hardest to clean it but I was running out of time. I managed to get allot of the gunk out. Didn’t get a chance to remove and clean the entire plenum, but I did manage to rub a fiber cloth towel on the inside of it as far as I could get. Lot of buildup for sure.

I also cut the vanes on the TB gasket just to see if there is anything to mention.

Considering all of the work today, drives like a new beast, more responsive to the gas pedal, seems like it’s just overall more smoother. This is probably because the fact my TB was dirty as heck.

Couldn’t clean the MAF because I lost the size of the Allen key, haven’t cleaned it for a long time. We will see eventually if gas mileage changes.

I'm always extra careful when cleaning DBW throttle bodies. I'd say you got that plenty clean. The DBW TBs don't like being opened manually, like I prefer to do when I clean em, so there's only so much you can get at. The few I've had that were extra dirty, I'll take the TPS/actuator assembly off, then you can manually open/close them as much as you want. It shouldn't be an issue, but the actuators and TPSs sometimes just don't like being manually moved on a high mileage DBW throttle assembly. The little bit of extra time to remove and reinstall the TPS assembly is cheap insurance compared to the $200+ a new TB costs.

I did not know that. Oops.... yeah I manually opened it.. haven’t noticed anything bad just yet. I did the same for my 2011 Sierra and never had a problem until the day I wrecked it lol.

As I mentioned before, I decided to trim the bottom ‘fins’ or ‘vanes’ on the TB gasket


I can’t really tell if there is any noticeable gains. The car runs smoother, more responsive than it’s ever been since I have had it, but I could chalk that up to the dirty TB itself.

I’m debating on porting my plenum, or at least attempting it. All I have is a Dremel tool, but we’ll see.

Here's the way I look at porting and polishing the plenum: It costs nothing aside from expendable dremel attachments (although I've had the same set of metal grinding burrs for years), and a bit of time. You can't really mess it up unless you punch a hole thru it, and even that can be fixed with some JB Weld if it happens. This is also a great "learning experience" project. Its not going to make a huge difference, but its noticeable and given the low cost and experience you gain from it, its definitely worth it.

Thanks for the advice. Really helps me. I think the next time I go to Las Vegas, I’ll go to the pic a part (junk yard) there and try to snag a handful of plenums. Maybe work and experiment with one of those for me or something. At least with an extra one handy, I have all the time in the world to mess with it.

Old news but I’ll post it for the heck of it since I have some time to kill. I had a pulsing light issue since the day I brought home this car. Every light would pulse, however, no matter the rpms, the pulsing would stay the same rate. Had the battery and alternator tested at autozone and they said it passed and it’s fine. I leaned toward the LCM, checked all groundings also. I never got around to the LCM and just dealt with the issue. Went to the junkyard 2 weeks ago in hopes of trying a different alternator and maybe a cruise control steering wheel.

I spent 30 minutes looking at all of the cars and every alternator was caked in oil. No thanks. Couldn’t find one even with a steering wheel with cruise. Arg! I almost gave up on my trip and started to pack up until.. I see a blue car, drivers side damage, hood down. Went to try to get the hood up and nope. Couldn’t budge it. I use a crow bar for a minute and got the hood up and grabbed a tire on the ground to suspend it.



Would you look at that! Not covered in oil?

Took out the Alternator, it’s 150 amp.


In the same vehicle, a steering wheel with cruise. I managed to get it out, with a fight but I got it. I paid 35 for the alt and 20 for the steering wheel.

Replaced the alternator at a later time and wouldn’t ya know, no more pulsing lights! Headlights seem a little brighter as well.

Looking back now, dang I wish I would of grabbed that plenum, hopefully in a few weeks I’ll be able to snag a couple of those!

Just thought I’d like to share lol.

When you have allot of time on your hands you just start getting into stuff, some you should, and some you shouldn’t. So I’ve been tinkering around with a junkyard plenum.

Took a wack at porting it myself and I decided to at least paint the damn thing for the giggles. First time trying VHT paint on anything so here we are.

That's a nice shade of traffic light yellow you got going on there

I know, kinda reminds me of a fire hydrant. The wife tho, wanted a say on this so she choose the color.

Installed the plenum today. Wasn’t too shabby. Also cleaned the MAF Since I forgot to do that the last time I was in here. Even tho it’s a ported stock plenum, I notice a bit of a difference in the mid-high range. Low end, not so much, I don’t see much change.

Pretty much like I said. Its not a huge difference, but there IS a difference, and given the learning experience of doing it along with the low cost, its worth it IMO.

Totally. I’m pretty happy with the results. I really wasn’t expecting much differences to begin with. Still shopping around for mods to do but not too sure where the begin. J-Mod is on the list for sure as the next mod but it might be a minute until I get to that.. that’s about the cheapest one I can go.

Underdrive pulleys are a hit and miss so I’m looking for opinions on them if it’s really worth $200+.

A tune seems out of my budget, as those are roughly near $400 buck range(thoughts?).

Trying to keep each mod under $300..