lots of questions about my Crown Marquis

[2kool]

hey all, this site was recommended to me from "southern_pride" at anti-rice.com so i thought id ask you guys what i should do to get more power from my car. i have well... i kinda have 2 cars in one... my car is both a 1991 Crown Vic AND a 1989 Grand Marquis. yes... the front half of my car is a crown vic and the rest is a grand marquis. i even have 2 different vin numbers for my car. but anyway my Crown Marquis as i like to call it has got the 5.0 grand marquis engine in it and i was gonna put some mustang shorty headers and an H pipe on it. but im checkin out some stuff on the car tonight and i look down and see that its already got headers! o_O do these cars come with stock headers or did a previous owner put them things on? so i get down and look under the car and see that its got dual exhaust coming down and out and about half way down its got a Y pipe on it... taking my dual exhaust to a single :cuss: thats where its broken off about mid way down the car. if this stuff aint stock then i should be able to just take off the Y pipe and run my own pipes all the way out to the back of the car and have true dual exhaust, right? and if i do that should i put some mufflers on it? and should i change my stock intake? ive heard some say it would give me some more HP and others say it wouldnt. also im going to be changing my spark plugs. any recommendations or are they all gonna give the same performance? these are the main things im doing right now to increase power, but im also going to get new tires and deal with other engine things later (throttle body, MAF sensor, fuel system, etc). sorry about all the questions, but thanks alot for the help in advance!

[Southern_Pride]

Sounds like stock to me. The stock manifolds do resemble headers so give us a pic if you can. Technically you could just Unbolts the y pipe and put duals on it but the mustang stuff is bigger and will flow better. Im the one who recommended you here.

[Paul_]

just let me say welcome to GMN, kinda of a cool combo you got,lol.

unless you're car came equipped with cali emissions, it won't have a MAF. and even then thats a stretch as most cali-equipped cars i've seen on teh net don't have a MAF anyway,lol.

your exhaust-the previous owner might have put on mustang headers, but doubtful as the stang shorties won't bolt up to the vic downpipe without a little tinkering. i'd pm Jon (Grandpaslincoln) as he did this to his car. hes running the mustang shorties hooked to the stock downpipes. that y-pipe is oem as well. if you go to any good auto shop, they normailly stock the vic h-pipe and the appropiate tails. and you then select the muffler you want. alot of us on here run glasspacks, and flowmaster delta 40's are a popular choice as well.

what does your door sticker say under the axle code? the ideal response would be k. that designates a 3.55 with trac-loc. its fords version of a posi. if running anything between 2.73-3.08, an upgrade to 3.55's or even 3.73's would really awaken the car.

motor wise, us box owners got the shaft from ford the stang motors had freer flowing heads, a better cam, a better intake, and forged pistons and a forged crank as well iirc. the only thing identical between a stock stangf motor and a stock vic motor is the block you could do the popular HO upgrade which usually consists of changing the whole top end of the motor. cam, heads, everything. if you can find though a low-mileage, running mustang motor that would be easier than converting your motor. the hard part really with the ho conversion is not fucking up the tv linkage. you screw that up and its new tranny time. which brings me to another point. the stock tranny in these cars are set up so that the old geezers that ford assumes are the only ones buying em will have a smooth comfortable ride.well to make the shifts inperceptible or almost, the tranny has to slip into the next gear. slipping causes friction, friction causes heat, heat causes dead tranny at some point. if you never beat on the car then you'll prob be fine assuming the car has been maintained well for its life, but if you're like us you will romp on it and that will kill the stock tranny at some point. you can get a shift kit that changes how the vehicle shifts and what not or you can go all out and get a beefed up, souped up tranny. Scott(Lincolnmania) knows a guy that builds up trannies and Stu knows the ins and outs of an aod like the back of his hand lol.


hope this helps and from the rest of us welcome

[TommyN]

The crown vic and mustang have the same connecting rods and cast iron crankshaft. The heads, camshaft, upper intake, throttle body, and injectors are different.

Tom

[2kool]

hey thanks for all the information. the first thing im going to do out of all that is the exhaust. and yes it was just the stock manifolds that i was mistaking for headers so lets say i get something like this http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=7987483921 and then something like this http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=7987734280 will they work? do these things require any welding? i want dual exhaust dammit :cuss: :cuss: :cuss: !!!

[gadget73]

That stuff will bolt up, but you'll need midpipes back to the mufflers and tailpipes. Usually no welding required, just a gasket at the back end of the H pipe. The rest clamps together.