KW's 1979 Ford LTD Landau

[Tiggie]

Sounds like you did plenty of work. Knowing when to call it a day/night is a skill and sounds to me like you hit it just right.
Much like for those seafoam green valve covers!

[sly]

Yeah... that's definitely a "come back with a fresh head and hands" event there. Though I would probably pull the oil pump shaft and restab that first to make sure it's in position and doesn't fall out in the attempt. That would be my luck with it if I tried it as is. I do have some magnetic hex drivers I could use to land it and then tilt to release, so there's that.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Sounds like you did plenty of work. Knowing when to call it a day/night is a skill and sounds to me like you hit it just right.
Much like for those seafoam green valve covers!

I've learned over the years I can do only so much at one time before saying it's worth stopping, or I'll wind up doing something dumb, even with a helping hand. Nick was so kind to offer the working space, hoist and stand, along with a place to crash over the several days of dealing with this project. Hell, he was even kind enough to lend the 5-Series wagon to make a return drive back home, a real departure to what I'm used to driving!

Regarding the color, folks may not agree, but that's Alpine Green on everything but the intake and timing cover bits. It's supposed to be similar to Detroit Diesel color, but I think the shade is a touch off. Regardless, it was something worth trying.



I did go back over the exhaust ports and cleaned up the sealing surfaces and the spark plugs were changed. The outer bits of the exhaust ports got dusted, but the actual valve area was left untouched. At least the color will make it easy to see when it leaks oil.

FWIW, the prior owner of the engine obviously did some lower work as it was taken apart. The timing cover area had been resealed, it had a newer oil pan gasket, and the rear main had been replaced at some point. This was a 191K mile engine, but looked great on virtually every area as pieces were stripped away. The fellow who sold it had owned the Explorer for about 8 years before it was wrecked, then removed the engine and entire wiring harness/ECU for the future plans of transplanting it all into a Ranger, but lost his storage space. There was definitely a level of care present with this engine and it was not dirty/sludgy under anything.

Yeah... that's definitely a "come back with a fresh head and hands" event there. Though I would probably pull the oil pump shaft and restab that first to make sure it's in position and doesn't fall out in the attempt. That would be my luck with it if I tried it as is. I do have some magnetic hex drivers I could use to land it and then tilt to release, so there's that.

The shaft seems to be well fitted into the distributor. It is not loose presently. I realized something was up when I was using more pressure than usual to get the distributor out of the engine and that came along with it. I've seen a worse setup in a F-150 where the shaft was loose, and stuffed into the distributor end with some electrical tape to somewhat hold it. I was not comfortable handling that setup since the owner was curious about ignition timing, but I was not keen on dropping something into the oil pan.

[87gtVIC]

It will all be worth it in the end.

the few explorer lower intakes I pulled from yards had bolts snap off on me as well. Lots of corrosion.

good luck!

[Arquemann]

Don't know many that have colourmatched their engine and interior

Either way that's quite a nice colour, bit of a shame you didn't paint the intake manifold, that would really make the engine pop.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Don't know many that have colourmatched their engine and interior

Either way that's quite a nice colour, bit of a shame you didn't paint the intake manifold, that would really make the engine pop.

Maybe I should have gone with a blue engine and white valve covers to match the car’s color combo.

I may spray the intake once the car is running since I can clean it and mask stuff off under hood. Only reason I didn’t paint it off the car was mostly time and trying to get the car up and going, so it got installed as-is.

[Arquemann]

Maybe I should have gone with a blue engine and white valve covers to match the car’s color combo.

I may spray the intake once the car is running since I can clean it and mask stuff off under hood. Only reason I didn’t paint it off the car was mostly time and trying to get the car up and going, so it got installed as-is.

Hah, painting an engine white would be a bold move. But you'd be able to spot leaks the instant you open the hood
Your intake does look quite filthy so just cleaning it for paint would've definitely taken some time. I really understood why people tell to clearcoat bare aluminium intakes after I scrubbed it for an hour to prep for paint...

[gadget73]

Be glad the water pump fit the brackets. The one I bought needed some massage work with the die grinder to get the brackets on and actually fit up to the engine block. The casting is "fat" in a few spots and things hit.. Of course I found this after painting it, so its got most of a real nice paint job with some spots of bare iron where I ground it off and couldn't be bothered to mess with it further. It got to the "this m-f is going on here NOW" point.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Be glad the water pump fit the brackets. The one I bought needed some massage work with the die grinder to get the brackets on and actually fit up to the engine block. The casting is "fat" in a few spots and things hit.. Of course I found this after painting it, so its got most of a real nice paint job with some spots of bare iron where I ground it off and couldn't be bothered to mess with it further. It got to the "this m-f is going on here NOW" point.

Ah, I did run into an issue the first time we went to get the pump replaced. So there was a warranty on the aluminum pump, so I was just going to swap it out. Get there, that pump is "in stock," but they couldn't find it so they swapped it for the cast iron one shown for a '79 car. Had a bunch of extra mounting bosses, so I was already pretty skeptical, but tried it anyway. It would bolt onto the block, but absolutely jack else would bolt up to it.

The second trip was going to another store that had the aluminum pump but the wrong one had been boxed up. It was last ditch effort using a later model for the lookup since I know my '87 has a cast iron pump and the bracketry looked similar enough to the '79.

[gadget73]

I actually spent some time looking for rebuild parts for the water pump that came off, but nothing seems to exist. Not a OE pump anyway, so fair guess even if I could find the parts they wouldn't have fit. So tired of parts that don't work, don't fit, don't last, or simply don't exist.

[sly]

So tired of parts that don't work, don't fit, don't last, or simply don't exist.

QFT! re: my 2003 Ford Expedition fuel tank... any interior part (trim, seats, panels) don't exist... blend door motors always break... plastic actuator arms on the blend doors aren't reliable.

At least the water pump on the mod motors is stupid easy to replace.

Bah.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

We have success! Restabbed the distributor with the oil pump driveshaft as it was and managed to get everything aligned properly to also allow for proper ignition timing adjustment.

The Explorer 302 runs wonderfully. However, the 2150 clone had to come off and get swapped for the VV2700 with the cold enrichment valve disconnected (it was flooding with the solenoid connected). The clone was not operating appropriately at light throttle cruise or tip-in, and delivered surging conditions and occasional popping/dead spot. At idle and modest throttle, it responded normally. Guess I may be ponying up for a suitable 4BBL intake or a decent 2BBL carburetor.



Anyway, glad to have this car actually be on its way to being a reliable and fun cruiser as originally envisioned.

[87gtVIC]

Nice job. Looks good in there.

[Tiggie]

Good news. Glad it's running well.

You may be able to find an unmolested 2150 from a 302 to rebuild. I look for the original tag, which usually means they haven't been molested and mismatched by a mass rebuilder. This one seems reasonable, and from what Google is telling me, is from a 302 truck.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/165954709439?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=N7-B3tW1SAO&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=soV3li9vT6C&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

[Tynnerstroem]

Love to see it, nice job!