KW's 1979 Ford LTD Landau

[Kodachrome Wolf]

ok so it didn't have a threaded-in thing. Probably has or had a retaining ring in there to hold it all together. Is that aluminum or steel? If it happens to be a mix of metals, then you get nasty corrosion problems.

There is some threaded plug on the front, but I haven't removed that at this particular moment since it was puking from the end photographed. The body appears to be aluminum.

Considering how awful the brake system was to start with, I wonder if once things started finally getting "worked" by a properly functioning system that it was only a matter of time before something let go. The leaking original master was just full of mud, the rear brakes were non-existent due to the blown rear cylinders, and the brake booster was bad.

[gadget73]

entirely possible. At some point things get so bad that everything ends up wasted and a full gut and re-do is the only solution.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Did a little chassis lube job and a engine flush with some BG EPR, then refilled with 15W-40 Valvoline All-Terrain oil (has ~1300 ppm zinc) and new oil filter. I know there's a non-zero chance to find glitter still since this is the second oil change since the camshaft went in, but I'm a little wary of the level of glitter, plus the sludge bits that seem to have been captured in the filter.



If the hard sludge deposits in the intake valley were any indicator when I had the intake off prior and what was cleaned out from the valve covers, I don't know how bad the rest of the insides truly are. I strongly think the lifter noise that comes in with the engine at operating temperature is from a plugged up oil galley. It did get a little better post treatment, but I wasn't expecting miracles from a can. However, after about 10 minutes of running with the EPR in the engine, the engine's idle smoothed out considerably. If it wasn't for the lifter noise, I'd argue it's about as sorted as it's going to get.


I think what's really going to happen is a little shopping for a roller 302. I personally don't feel like dropping more money into this particular engine and I think the time spent trying to rectify it would be better spent just putting something healthier/more capable there instead. I really like this car, I think it's worth fixing and improving, and I want to also enjoy driving it without questioning the engine.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Been talking to Nick, probably gonna head up yonder to Blythewood on the 31st, ring in the new year, and jam a new(er) engine into the car. Bottom line, it will be a roller engine, no more flat tappet.

Car runs decently as it can, but is smoking like hell. Nice and blue, tells me oil is being burned at a significant rate. I'll be straight and say that there's a non-zero chance the magic I poured in to "clean" the engine also removed some nasty stuff that was stopping that once it got warm, and now it doesn't. This car could embarrass an early 4.6 for oil burning.


Anyway, that's where things are for now. Here's to hoping for a more reliable LTD in 2025.

[Tiggie]

Sorry to hear you'll need an engine. It's not valve seals, is it?

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Sorry to hear you'll need an engine. It's not valve seals, is it?

Probably those, and a bit more. I have my concerns about oil passages being partially blocked in some spots, if the sludge found in the intake valley is any indicator. Might explain some of the lifter noise I had prior to the cam swap, and now more so after.

I'm kinda looking at this from a cost point if I'm going to go through an engine even more thoroughly, why not also just get the benefits of a roller engine and perhaps a reasonable bump in performance?

[gadget73]

I ate the valve seals on the Towncar when I swapped the cam. The extra travel destroyed all of them basically immediately. Possible to do with the engine assembled, but annoying and my back was screaming for days afterward. Whole job was done in an afternoon though.

when they were gone though it sucked down a quart of oil in about 500 miles and smoked at an impressive rate.

[DerekTheGreat]

That is impressive. Worse than the old engine in my K1500.

[gadget73]

When 14 of your valve seals are ripped to pieces the oil just runs down the guides. It stopped immediately when the new ones went on though. I knew it couldnt be a bottom end problem because that would have been there before the cam swap Pulled the cover and looked in the spring with a light and saw a piece of seal on the valve stem nowhere near the rest off the seal. Was not expecting almost all of them to be that way. Did the air in the cylinder trick, worked out just fine but its just a lot of time working in an uncomfortable position.