Looking at buying, need advice

[Sean7]

I am looking at buying an 89 SHO. Car seems to be in decent shape, but it has been sitting for a about a year. The guy charged the battery, it started up almost instantly and the engine idles perfectly. However when you give the engine some throttle, it hesitates for about a half second then revs up. Also the engine has a noticable ticking sound, could these be a problem or could it just be old gas or something. I haven't taken the car for a test drive yet but I plan to in the next couple of days. Any pointers on what I should be looking for?

 

[edmontonsho]

Check your private messages in your profile

 

[JoeHoe_SHO]

Ticking could be waterpump...hesitation could be plugs/dirty injectors

Listen for noises when you turn/take a curve, get on it at least once to see how she shifts at WOT, look under the car and at the same time have someone else rev it up to about 3500 rmps and watch for exhaust leaks...check to see if mufflers shake...pop the hood, put the e-brake on, throw it in 1st rev it up to about 2 grand and slowly let off the clutch(checking motor mounts) in the engine "trys to hop out of the bay" that is bad, do the same thing in reverse. Check for funky exhaust fuems.

If it all checks out, buy that 89!!! They are the best/fastest (stock) to get. I have 1, about to have 2 and I love them. I had a GEN II ATX(RIP)Loved the look/luxury, hated the tranny...like the Gen I "old school" look.(besides basket weeves)

 

[Sean7]

Thanks for the reply, I just hope this thing doesnt turn out to be a lemon

Any more suggestions? Are the water pump and wires hard to replace on SHO's?

 

[Mark W]

Wires are dog easy, water pump is medium depending on how corroded the bolts under the hood are. My mechanic did the wires, because I had him do part of the 60K maintenance. He used the NAPA Belkamp (or whatever) wires, and they work quite well. Most of they guys recommend only Motorcraft wires, or an upgrade, but the NAPA ones worked for me (only $85 too - fairly cheap by comparison).

I have an '89, and a few cool things aren't available for it that are available for the '90 and up (white face gauges, for example), but overall it's still a cool car.

You should start thinking now about upgrades improvements, there are quite a few things that can be done to improve the car and make it even better. Wish I had the money to do some more.