Mikey's new four-door

[torquelover]

What good would a fancy torque converter do if I have too much torque to hook up?

Have no fear, the drag radial is here:

[1987cp]

Yeah, like I'm really gonna run Mickey Thompson drag radials on the street ...........

That said, that one dude did win Car Craft's Real Street Eliminator in his '81 Fleetwood with four 17" Nitto drag radials ........ somehow I don't think he drives in funky weather like that, though.

[Archangel]

The Super-Turbine is for after you figure out how to hook up, goof!

[torquelover]

Yeah, like I'm really gonna run Mickey Thompson drag radials on the street ...........

That said, that one dude did win Car Craft's Real Street Eliminator in his '81 Fleetwood with four 17" Nitto drag radials ........ somehow I don't think he drives in funky weather like that, though.

It's actually a really bad idea. Might want to get a rear end girdle while you're changing the gear. Torque+weight+traction=rear end bearing caps on the ground, behind the car.

[1987cp]

Starting with this diff cover kit, and continuing to triangulate the axle housing using threaded rod and Heim joints, correct?

[torquelover]

Now, that's what I'm talkin' about! Dunno about the heim joints and such, though. You going off-roading in it soon?

[1987cp]

:lol:

For now I'll settle for safe handling on-road! Might be adding a pair of air assist springs and more of those sand-in-a-tube doodads. Did you notice Ivan saying that he ran 240# of sand in the trunk of his Town Car, which is already at least 500# heavier stock?

[1987cp]

Exhaust updates

Most of you know that the car has been on jackstands in the garage since about Dec. 30th while I slowly and painfully remove the catalytic converters. I probably shouldn't have bothered with this stage of the project, but I've been worried about how the cats will hold up to the constant heat-cycling and probable passage of excessive unburned fuel through them, so I really wanted to get it over with.

One thing I wanted to do during this stage was to test-fit my Pacesetter offroad X pipe. As you can see, it fit - at least, as well as it did on a 302-equipped Panther - despite multiple reports of BBK H-pipes *NOT* fitting a 351-equipped Crown Vic, including this one. Very curious. A more ambitious investigation would of course involve a test-fit of my Summit H-pipe, but moving on ........

In the fourth pic you'll see what I found surprising; namely, that the heat from the exhaust header has melted a hole in the A/C evaporator enclosure. I'm thinking there was originally supposed to be a piece of heat shielding in this location.

Oddly, the "downpipe" I had to work with for the driver's side featured a complicated patch on the side and the flange being welded to the pipe. That's a new one for me.

And finally, a couple of shots of how I left things when I came inside tonight. The welds are crappy, and there are about six holes I need to fix, but considering that I was limiting myself to a hack-job with a flux-core welder and I was doing the welding, I think it's not too bad. I would invite viewers to note how tis custom-built system hugs the floorpan rather better than a system using an unmodified Mustang crossover pipe assembly, but my pics of the X-pipe aren't really good enough for a comparison.

By the way, the broken collector stud has for the time being been replaced by a stray bumper-shock bolt. Go figure.

So all in all, a somewhat successful project so far. I still need to fix those leaks, but at least I could drive the car like this if I needed to!

[P72Ford]

In the fourth pic you'll see what I found surprising; namely, that the heat from the exhaust header has melted a hole in the A/C evaporator enclosure. I'm thinking there was originally supposed to be a piece of heat shielding in this location.

You are correct. I am now starting to wonder how smart it was for me to tear that out of mine...


It was just a piece of insulation...

[torquelover]

The melted HVAC plenum is due to running the car with open headers. I started the car up to move it, and a bunch of older guys putting in my street came over to see what in God's name was idling in my garage. A bunch of revs, smiles, and laughs later produced a new aroma in the air: Melting Panther. Red Box Nathan, your ceramic coating will no doubt help in keeping you from melting anything.

Michael, it would have been sweet if you left the good-flowing x-pipe on and took it for a cruise. I am really wondering what difference in feel, or sound, it would have made. Do you have any pics of the inside of the cats?

[1987cp]

Funny!

I thought about taking it for a ride with the X-pipe, but 1) I couldn't find my other 2.5" Flowmaster, and 2) I *really* didn't want to cut off the tailpipes today. Considering that it does already seem a bit louder than it was with cats, I don't think I'm the least bit interested in driving it with no tailpipes.

[packman]

for ground clearance. Definitely one of the cons of an unmodified Mustang system. Though I wonder if you could have the X-pipe modded to match your existing set up?



Packman

[1987cp]

Change of plans. Ran out of welding wire, and I'm not allowed to buy more, so off comes the old system. I will for the time being be running the wagon's old 2.5" system in its entirety: X pipe, Mustang midpipes with crap extensions, Flowmaster Delta Flows, and Mustang tailpipes.

Ho, hum.

[torquelover]

What does the wagon get for exhaust?

[1987cp]

Change of plans: I went ahead and used the Super Turbo mufflers with my new Maremont midpipes; the 2.5" Flowmasters and midpipes may be considered up for sale for whoever likes lots of flow and dislikes their eardrums. The car is now tolerably quiet (I think), in addition to having a nice X-pipe; just have to get it dug out of the garage and drive around the block to see for sure.

The wagon still has the same exhaust I've been running on it for a while now: 2.5" H pipe, Walker 2.25" midpipes, Caprice mufflers, 2" wagon tailpipes. While I have the two-door slated as the next home for the Vic's old system, I've been wanting 2.25" tails for the wagon for some time now ....... I'm likely to be rather tempted to instead plop the Vic's old mufflers and tails on the wagon, and stick the Caprice mufflers and wagon tails on the two-door along with the nice 2.25" front sections fron the Vic. Complicated enough? That way, the two-door would be 2.25" to 2" for the low-rpm 302, the wagon 2.5" to 2.25" for its slightly hotter 302 (and hopefully the nice tailpipes will maintain a tolerable noise level!), and the Vic will most likely retain its current 2.5" all the way back.