So a Mustang and a Volvo walk into a bar...

[fidel]

Originally Posted by demo8799

Found the source of the noise!


Because, racecar.

This thing is the source of the noise, which now that I've got that kick panel off, clearly raises and lowers in pitch with revs. Going to spend the afternoon / weekend getting acclimated to whether this is a "feature" of the ignition box or indicative of whoever installed it not separating the distributor wires from the rest of the batch - something else entirely.

Third option of course is just to replace this thing with an MSD product and be done with it.

all the cdi boxes will make noise just like you described, even the msd ones. i would just move it to under the hood.

[M.H. Yount]

Seems like, for many, many people in the 5.0L world MSD stands for "My Spark's Dead". The stock ignition system is quite capable of powering what you have in the car. Not sure why someone added that in the first place. I guess - 'because race car.'

[Redwood Chair]

Always becauseracecar.

[DNAsEqUeNcE]

Hahahaha.

[demo8799]

Originally Posted by fidel

all the cdi boxes will make noise just like you described, even the msd ones. i would just move it to under the hood.

And with this bit of salient advice, another project begins!

First, a quick group shot at my office. The other two wagons belong to my co-worker who turned me onto the wagon that I ended up buying:



Then a trip home, next to it's half-brother:



Saturday morning I went about pulling the Accel ignition module out, which left me with all this mess in the passenger side footwell:





Maybe mess is a bit harsh, but it's definitely something that I intend to address at a later point to basically clean up and organize better.

The hardest part of the whole operation was pulling the plastic harness connector ends off of the actual wires so those could be pulled back through the firewall. A little skin and a lot of cursing later though and it was done:



Final location ended up being on the forward side of the passenger shock tower. My buddy that was helping me had some plastic little mounting pieces that we used to run the wires around the shock tower and prevent them from getting closer than necessary to the intake and or heat coming from the headers:



Horray for semi organized wire routing! On the road the improvement was immediately noticeable and significant. Once I address whatever sound I've got coming from that front driver side wheel - that I still think is a bearing issue - I'll be pretty much satisfied with all of my little noise complaints.

Only other thing that I've done to the car so far has been cosmetic. After spending a couple minutes trying to diagnose my headlight issues, which are likely going to necessitate the usage of a multimeter to get to the bottom of, I broke out some paint. If my headlights aren't going to work, at least they'll be looking good while not working:





Flat blacking most of the grill and the faux crome bits on the headlight surrounds made sense to me as the majority of the rest of the brightwork on the car has already been blacked out. Last night I was having visions of doing the doorhandles and Volvo insignia's on the side of the car plated in black chrome. Crazy talk...right?

[245Mike]

[QUOTE=demo8799;4238724]

QUOTE]

This picture is SO full of WIN!!!

[Old Iron]

haha, "half brother" made me laugh. Car looks great, good luck with it and welcome to the 245 club!!

[badvlvo]

Nice wagon!
Love the quad round with a flat hood.
Stick with the stock EECIV engine management to keep it reliable, ditch that ignition box.
I miss my 83 760 5.0, but it had to go.

[demo8799]

Originally Posted by Old Iron

haha, "half brother" made me laugh. Car looks great, good luck with it and welcome to the 245 club!!

Thanks man! Seeing as how my Mustang is pretty much as done as it's going to get - until it transforms into a mostly autocross / track tool - it's been nice to have car projects again.

Hopefully I'll still feel that way when I'm trying to track down my headlight issues.

[demo8799]

Originally Posted by badvlvo

Nice wagon!
Love the quad round with a flat hood.
Stick with the stock EECIV engine management to keep it reliable, ditch that ignition box.
I miss my 83 760 5.0, but it had to go.

You know I considered dumping the whole thing, but since it's working in it's relocated position (for now) I'm going to keep rolling with it. That said, I'll also be looking to pickup the stock stuff on the cheap for when that thing inevitably fails.

[spourcyrous]

That thing is BAD ASS.
Go and scare your old fox bod friends for us, would you