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Certainly better. Where is the inlet air temperature sensor? It should be in the actual air stream and you can read it to compare to the ambient sensor in front of the radiator. Any sort of baffle or wall to minimize the heat from engine being drawn in will help too.

Alright the final form of the intake is installed with the maf sensor in place. Just gat a long bend pipe and cut off the excess and she fits great under that support bar!

Update on the brake fluid level and pressure test. At this point I do not see any leaks at the suggested areas so I am in monitor mode now. I did break out my test gauge and as near as I can tell, my Hydac accumulator is in the 750-800psi precharge range. Not perfect, but still pretty good. The gauge flashes to ~800psi when the circulating valve is closed on the way up and drops off completely at ~750psi on the way down. The operating pressures observed for pump on and off are in the correct range at ~2,650psi shut off and ~2000psi for pump on. All appears well at this time.

To the best of my knowledge, only the 90 and newer use the short harness. The touchscreen cars have a different wiring scheme.

Last week I had to remove the compressor because it was leaking, and decided to try removing it without removing the radiator this time. I was able to move it toward the battery, rotate it 90 degrees upward, and out.

Wow, I wish I'd known that. I spent $140 on just the ICM pigtail, and all the wires were white 🤦‍♂️

It really wasn't until I put my known good ignition module on that I thought it was something to do with the wiring. Before I was swapping first coils and then the ignition module and old coils and finally a known good module/coil set up that I knew something else was wrong. First test was just disconnect the harness and reattach it and it would fire. Next time wiggle the wires at the ignition module without removing the connector and it would fire. I then took a close look at the harness and saw it was only a 3' harness with 5 connectors. Went to the Buick dealer and one left in the country at $200.00. Went to Rock Auto and a Dorman was $85.00. Amazon was $110.00 for the same Dorman. The Dorman was a nice replacement, looked to be of good quality. Only connector that gave me trouble was the crank sensor. It started going on so hard that I had Kendall make the connection as I didn't want to damage the pins on the crank sensor causing more work. Only things I had to remove to get at everything was the engine shroud, serpentine belt, and water pump pully. Front to back time about 45 minutes. Gotta love the 3.8!

2Seater, I've been using a battery maintainer on each of my cars that get stored in the Winter for a number of years now. In my opinion it beats having to go through the "learning process" with each car every Spring. Also, I've never had any issue with "over/under charge" of each car's battery despite a few rumors that have crossed my way over the years.

Doing it on a Ranger makes no sense but doing it on a Mustang that is supposedly a "high performance car" is just plain crazy. It's got a fiberglass hood and trunk lid, aluminum overhead cam heads, limited slip differential, dual exhaust from front to back and huge roll bars for handling. Then they install a fake oil pressure gauge? Whoever came up with that idea should have been fired.

Yup, found the same thing about my 97 Ranger, and you can’t just replace the sender with a true variable one either. The system won’t allow for it. The only solution is a stand alone gauge😑

I'll bet that was it. I had a similar thing happen on a Chevy Cavalier. Wires going between the ECM and the ignition pickup inside the distributor (same purpose as crankshaft position sensor) ran under the battery tray. Battery acid had run down and got into the wiring harness underneath the battery where those wires were. The battery acid had soaked the wires and discolored them shorting them out even though the insulation was still intact. The voltage from the pickup in the distributor was so low (0.9 volts I believe) that almost anything will short it out and cause the engine to stop running. I worked on it every evening after work for a week before I figured out what was causing the engine to randomly quit running. I replaced those wires and the problem was fixed.

I'm no longer able to tell stories about troubleshooting my Reatta but I do have an interesting troubleshooting story about me wasting several hours of my time by making an assumption about how something works. Since I got my GT I always wondered why the oil pressure gauge went up half way to the "normal" position when I started the engine cold or hot and stayed there all the time no matter what the RPM. That seemed odd to me so I temporarily installed a mechanical oil pressure gauge on the engine to make sure I had good oil pressure. The mechanical gauge showed 75 psi at idle on a cold start and then it went down to 35 psi at idle when fully warmed up. Spec in the repair manual is 20-45 psi at 1500 RPM when hot. I had 49 psi at 1500 so oil pressure is great. So, in typical Reatta thinking, I assumed the oil pressure sending unit was bad and replaced it with a new one. Still the gauge in the instrument panel read "normal" all the time. Bad gauge? NO. After reading on the forums I discovered all GTs of similar model years as mine have the same "normal" reading without the needle ever moving just like mine. The gauge isn't a real oil pressure gauge at all. IT'S AN IDIOT LIGHT in the form of a needle on the instrument cluster gauge. The oil pressure sender I replaced is just a switch that closes above 6 psi and tells the needle in the gauge to move to the normal position. Either the gauge reads "0" as it does when the engine is off, or "normal" no matter what the real oil pressure is as long as it's over 6 psi. For me, the oil pressure gauge is the most important gauge on the dash of a car. You can't even make the gauge on my GT work as a normal oil pressure gauge that actually reads pressure by installing a real oil pressure sending unit. It wasn't designed to do that. What were the fools at Ford thinking when they put a oil pressure gauge like this in a Mustang? Even a real idiot light would be better than this stupid gauge design. Rant over 🙂

Yesterday the car threw codes again so over by Kendall to get it read and cleared. Fortunately my Dorman harness arrived and I replaced that as well. Cleared the codes and once again they are gone. Took a close look at the removed original harness and saw that where the harness goes to the crank and cam sensor it goes between the heater hose and engine block. The loom was melted away and the wires were very stiff and partially melted together. So I really think this is it and hopefully I am good from here on out. I did cut off the plugs making extra short pigtails because as Kendall said it never hurts to have extra pigtails laying around on a 25 [Regal] year old car and two 30 plus [Reatta] year old cars.

I ended up having the compressor, dryer and the little valve in the line replaced. As I was sitting on about 10 cans of R-12 I stayed with the r-12. Also had the antifreeze flushed and filled as the radiator is in the way of getting the compressor out. Ready for spring!

Mine was leaking at the two rubber seal that the reservoir mounts on. Most people think they are just insulators but there are holes at the end of the legs on the reservoir. If they are cracked one can lose brake fluid that way.

2seater, one place to check for a leak is inside your car, on the drivers side floorboard. My previous Reatta was leaking from where the rod from the brake pedal goes in the back of the Teves unit. Ended up swapping out the whole Teves unit. Never heard of any other members here having this problem, I'm just lucky I guess.

The usual springtime startup ritual, actually two days ago, but a May 1st target. This is the first time I left the battery in the car, in a history dating back more than three decades, and used a battery maintainer instead. The car is stored in an unheated garage/shed six feet in the air on a lift. I still found a couple acorns, chewed, on the vents at the base of the windshield. The varmints must be ninja's 😁 Started and ran perfectly as there was no learning to be done like after a battery disconnect. One item did appear that will bear watching and that is brake fluid level. I have the larger Hydac accumulator purchased from Spinning Wheels several years ago and it does drop the fluid level in the reservoir more than the standard amount. I noted the level was a little low at startup but everything was normal for the first mile or so, then the red brake light came on. Tried the parking brake, that's not it. Checked the brake feel and if the pump ran, all okay, but the level was much lower in the reservoir than I have seen before. I tried rapidly pumping the brakes to deplete the accumulator and the light went out, indicating to me that the low level warning light was the cause for the warning. This has not been a problem in the past but I suspect as the accumulator ages, and greater fluid is required to fill it, the actual fluid level will become more important. From a topped off level to fully pressurized, the fluid level will drop from the top of the level tag to just below it, so the capacity is substantial. I guess it is time to bring out the test rig and estimate the gas precharge and health of the accumulator. Oh joy👍

ICM (Ignition Control Module) Ignition coils ECM (Engine Control Module) MAF sensor (Mass Air Flow) CPS (Central Power Supply) Generator (alternator) Drive belt tensioner Fuel pump, strainer, & deflector Oil pressure sensor Rear struts (if you have $$$)

For a new owner, is there a list of recommended parts to get backups of?

Makes sense, appreciate the feedback. I figured since there's a lot of things that could be related together it would help to keep it together. I'll try to break it down into at least related pieces. Thanks Ronnie!

Welcome to the forum! You have packed a lot into one post. That is OK, but I would recommend you start a new topic for each problem, beginning with the one that is most important to you, and work your way through each one until you have resolved the problem. That will avoid a lot of confusion. With one large post that has multiple problems it is hard to follow what is being said about each of the problems you listed as people start offering suggestions.

Jim Finn has them as well.

It looks like this is becoming a common problem where older parts are no longer stocked, but Rock Auto shows several choices yet. The sender was only used up until 1990 on the Reatta as newer models with the 3800 have a different operating pressure (higher).

The deck lid is held up by a clip. Your repair of the clip evidently is not working. You can get a replacement from East Coast Reatta Parts. https://www.eastcoastreattaparts.com/collections/interior/products/convertible-tonneau-cover-hold-clip

Welcome. It looks like you have quite a job in front of you. Regarding photos; it sometimes helps to have a general overall photo with locations noted as well as the detail photos. I am just speaking for myself, but I do not have color codes and wiring configurations committed to memory🥴. That said, a couple of things are obvious and that is the area of the brake system in the engine bay has been converted to some sort of standard type brakes. The original anti-lock system is missing and the photo of the cluster of harness plugs is what used to plug into the motor and anti-lock module. You will probably have multiple warning lights related to brakes. I see the corner of what appears to be a cone type air inlet filter, and the sensor out in the open is probably the inlet air temperature, which is installed in the stock air filter housing. I do not know what is being referred to as an aftermarket MAF, but the photo appears to be the stock style setup with the protective loom covering missing from the last portion of the harness to the plug.