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.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Little update:



An engine, from an Explorer. The keen eye will immediately notice there's a little snafu with this engine, because everything is right, except two pieces. If you're a good guesser, and didn't just read this line, you may have immediately noticed chopped smog tubes on the cylinder heads. Because those aren't GT40 heads, somehow that engine wound up with E6 heads on it.

Nick said he's gonna get in touch with the yard that pulled it since they supposedly have another. If they don't wanna play ball, so be it. It's still a roller engine and has a cam that seems work fine in these cars. It just means I'll wind up doing a little more work since I wasn't planning on popping the heads off originally, but I want to inspect these properly in case I need to do valve stem seals or anything else to them. I have to wonder under what circumstances would have led to this head swap having occurred at some point in that Explorer's life.

Now, considering this car will still be running with its 2BBL intake, these will likely work acceptably. I know their design is not conducive to high performance, and are poor performing past 4500 RPM, but in this case, that's essentially the operating range here anyway. Plus, from what I've seen online, they're not bad for lower end grunt and economy to a degree.

Anyway, we'll see how things play out later on.






Merry Christmas!

[gadget73]

Must be some bargain bin long block. The little button on the back of the head is a typical thing for reman engines. E6 heads tho? lol

every time I see those god awful exhaust manifolds I have to shake my head.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Must be some bargain bin long block. The little button on the back of the head is a typical thing for reman engines. E6 heads tho? lol

every time I see those god awful exhaust manifolds I have to shake my head.

Nick said the junkyard slapped that button on the cylinder head. I don't think it's a totally remanned long block, as the cylinder heads are blue, and the paint is worn. AFAIK, Ford wasn't painting anything blue in 1986.

Everything else is the typical gray/black, or at least what's left of it. Dunno who thought E6 heads were the way to go, unless they were just free and that engine needed cylinder heads for some reason (or someone got the short end of the stick years ago). I legitimately gave away the E6 heads that came off the wagon years back because some guy was gonna fix the failed valve seat and use them on a truck. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


Regarding the manifolds, them are some ugly sumbitches. I'll feel a lot better just popping all the Explorer stuff off the block anyway, since the majority of it will go into a scrap pile. I do know someone who'd like the upper/lower intake, so that'll stick around. I'll probably save the oil pan and toss it on the 302 coming out of the LTD just for storage purposes. Gonna list that engine for cheap so someone will come and take that anchor elsewhere. If the new owner wants to make it something special, that's their prerogative.

[gadget73]

The accessories and other bits might be of some use to someone doing a 5.0 Ranger swap. If I ever find a suitable Ranger that might be me, but at the same time I dont actually want to sit on such parts forever until I do it or abandon the idea.