My 1987 Two Door Crown Victoria AKA THE BROWN BLOB

[gadget73]

depends on the adjustment setup whether it sucks or not. If its pedestals and the shims and pushrods are already established and kept in proper order, its cake. Otherwise it sucks ass. Stud rockers always have some level of suck to them, but at least if you've got the right parts its just a matter of doing the process in the correct order.

[87gtVIC]

I have stud mounted rockers. All was well with it all last time. Just reinstalling.

Exhaust valve starts to open...adjust the intake valve....get zero lash with pushrod and give the nut 3/4 of a turn more of preload. Back off the nut a smidge and then cinch down the polylock and give the nut a little extra turn.

Intake valve fully open and just starts to close adjust the exhaust valve....get zero lash with pushrod and give the nut 3/4 of a turn more of preload. Back off the nut a smidge and then cinch down the polylock and give the nut a little extra turn.

All was well with it all last time. Just reinstalling.

[gadget73]

Chevys aren't quite as bad, at least with the stock cam. Its something like TDC on #1, do some set of valves at zero lash plus 1/2-3/4 turn, rotate the engine some number of degrees, repeat until you run out of valves. Most of them are a single full rotation, some are some other combinations of partial turns, which can be a pain in the ass if you don't have a degree wheel or a balancer marked all the way round. The VW was easy, TDC got you 3 valves on one side and 1 on the other, a full turn got the rest of them.

[His Royal Ghostliness]

I always do them one cylinder per rotation. Yeah it takes a while, but I feel better knowing for a fact every cylinder is where it needs to be. I shoot for slightly after compression stroke TDC so I can do both valves at once. Then move onto the next cylinder. Stud mounts are a breeze in that regard. Ford's pedestal setup rocks for factory cam/lifters/rockers, but is less than ideal when aftermarket parts are involved - the whole measuring stuff and then calculating shims and such is entirely too annoying and takes entirely too long.

[gadget73]

thats the way to do it if there isn't a factory procedure spelled out that lets you cheat at it. I always did them by the book, and if the book let me cheat I definitely did so.

[His Royal Ghostliness]

True! But by the time I find said procedure from a reliable source (so much misinformation on the nets), I might as well do it the grunt's way.

[87gtVIC]

I do one at a time and take my time as it does take quite a bit of time...that was a doozy!


Anyways she is back up and running. Sounds identical to before which is nice. Never know when digging in this deep.


Also swapped in some Police spec gas adjusts up front...part number KG5458.




Here are the two old ones. Gotta be less than 4k on them. Free to anyone who want to pick them up. Some internal frame coating sprayed on'em. They will come with all new hardware and rubbers. I reused my old hardware and poly bushings.

[His Royal Ghostliness]

I'm thinking Scott's wagon could use those in the front, IIRC it's got GR2s now and he ain't liking them, too harsh/stiff for his preferences. If you have a way his way, feel free to drop 'em off. BTW that car cover of yours has been protecting Heretic's cop car quite successfully.

And so it's likely we'll never know what cause yours head bolt failure. Just like Don's crank wipe-out disaster. Damn I hate when bad stuff happens and there's no reasonable explanation as to what went wrong...

[VicCrownVic]

I really like my GR2s, I'll definitely get them again when needed.

Glad to hear The Brown Blob is back up and running.

[nfldfordltd]

I just got done creeping the life out of this thread.
Simply put, you do amazing work. Your attention to detail is second to none, and your determination to fix stubborn problems is admirable.
Makes me jealous that my Lincoln would look like a proper heap parked next to your car.
Steam?

[DerekTheGreat]

Glad to year you box is well again! Looks like a lot of work there sir, nice job.

[Bobcat]

Is this thing fast yet??

[87gtVIC]

I'm thinking Scott's wagon could use those in the front, IIRC it's got GR2s now and he ain't liking them, too harsh/stiff for his preferences. If you have a way his way, feel free to drop 'em off. BTW that car cover of yours has been protecting Heretic's cop car quite successfully.

And so it's likely we'll never know what cause yours head bolt failure. Just like Don's crank wipe-out disaster. Damn I hate when bad stuff happens and there's no reasonable explanation as to what went wrong...

John jumped on the shocks before you Ivan. Good to hear the cover is working out well for you guys.

I really like my GR2s, I'll definitely get them again when needed.

Glad to hear The Brown Blob is back up and running.

Thanks. I am happy the car is back as well.

I just got done creeping the life out of this thread.
Simply put, you do amazing work. Your attention to detail is second to none, and your determination to fix stubborn problems is admirable.
Makes me jealous that my Lincoln would look like a proper heap parked next to your car.
Steam?

Thank you very much. I do appreciate it.

Glad to year you box is well again! Looks like a lot of work there sir, nice job.

Thanks.

Is this thing fast yet??

[87gtVIC]

Was a decent day, weather wise, so I uncovered the ol’gal and wrenched on her some.

When I was reassembling the engine after the head bolt fiasco I managed to lose one of the silly metric thread allen headed cap screws for the fancy pants spark plug wire separators I am running.

This is what they look like:



They are small and super fiddly to install considering you have a couple inch long Allen key and an ac compressor smack dab in the way.

To combat this is tapped out the holes to something more common: 6x32 threads.

I also purchased a bunch of ½ long 6x32 phillips cap head screws to install in place of the stockers.

End result is the same but the install and removal will be much easier considering I can simply hold a bit between my fingers and remove it. Made me much happy.







After this I tidied up the spark plug wires and installed some more wire separators around some of them and then capped everything off literally with a dizzy boot/cap. This was something I just didn’t get around once the engine was fully assembled after the head bolt replacement. Just returning back to stock as I say.

Next up on the list was removing the nuts and bolts holding on my air box and replacing them with good used stock panther air box bolts and nuts. You know the ones that separate /break whenever you try to loosen the 11mm nuts. Those. I had managed to find a handful of good ones between many junkyard runs and cleaned up their threads really well and applied anti-sieze to hopefully allow me to remove them should I ever need to. This also made me happy. Previsouly removing the air box from the inner fender was a two man job because my condor arms just couldn’t get a hold of the forward most nut and bolt at the same time to remove/install the damned thing. Now I can do it alone.

I like cleaning things up in the engine compartment and one thing I was unhappy with is the idle air control valve connector. It comes straight out while mustang pieces come out at an angle. The right angle is more aesthetically pleasing to me so I had painted one all up with contrasting screws to boot. Welp, that wasn’t happening. The right angle, while pleasing to the eyes, places the electrical connector smack dab into the throttle cable. Opps. So much for that. I did however install the black screws in place of the aluminum ones that were originally there. I like me some contrasting colors.

I then checked the coolant level, needed a bit. After last run it sucked the reservoir dry. Filled it up some more and all should be well. I then douched down the entire engine compartment with a sacrificial microfiber and some detail spray. With everything looking decent I moved onto some more small details.

My subwoofer (Infinity basslink) came with a bass knob that could be installed allowing one further adjustability/tune-ability to the sound system. It’s a little box that has an rj 11 connected to it and then ultimately the subwoofer. I ran the wire from the subwoofer in the trunk through the rear deck area and behind the rear seats (bolh upper and lower rear seats were removed) and then ultimately up under the drivers side seat where I intended for it to land.

I like things kept fairly clean looking so I decided mounting the knob under the drivers seat would work out as it will never be seen yet will be easily accessible for when I want a little more bump in the car.

Here is the drivers side front seat removed from the car:



I plan to use the corner seat track bolt as the primary mounting point for a bracket holding the bass knob:



I then whipped up quick template out of printer paper and transferred it to some metal I had lying around:



Cut it out, test fit a couple of times, modified it with a slip in fit as well as a single self tapper locating the piece/preventing it from accidentally spinning/loosening up and finally painted it:



That’s where it sits right now, drying. More to come.

[gadget73]

hm, I don't recall having problems with the IAC plug hitting the throttle cable when I ran one of those. Maybe something different about the intake you are using vs whatever I had at the time. Either that or I just shoved it together and called it good enough. It was many moons ago, and I put a stock one back on long ago because I found it annoying to have to unbolt it whenever I wanted to unplug it.