Bison (1990 Grand Marquis)

[79lincolnlover]

No ones gonna read this... it's WAY too long LOL!

I read it...

[BuffaloRider]

88vic, I strongly prefer to have catalytic converters on any daily driver. Maybe in the future I'll have some hotrod project car without them, but only then.

Vic, That is one of the reasons I felt so confident doing it, because of those little divets. I've seen others explain how they drill out the rivets that hold up the entire assembly but once I got the panel off and saw exactly what they meant I was like "hell no".

79lincolnlover, thanks lol

Just for amusement check out the inside of the power window motors when I got them out.

[sly]

yup. that's what happens. replace with metal and toss a little axle grease in there for the metal parts and then put em back in. have a nice life.

[VicCrownVic]

...
Vic, That is one of the reasons I felt so confident doing it, because of those little divets. I've seen others explain how they drill out the rivets that hold up the entire assembly but once I got the panel off and saw exactly what they meant I was like "hell no".
...

I was going to say that I thought I had read somewhere that drilling the holes was Ford's actual service procedure, but I'm not sure if that is a fact so I didn't mention it before.

[miamibob]

I was going to say that I thought I had read somewhere that drilling the holes was Ford's actual service procedure, but I'm not sure if that is a fact so I didn't mention it before.

It is (or at least was in my '87 manuals). Don't think any better ideas have come up.

[VicCrownVic]

It is (or at least was in my '87 manuals). Don't think any better ideas have come up.

It might be possible with an open end wrench, if you loosen all three bolts, pull the motor back a little since there is not enough room for the bolts, then loosen the bolts more and repeat until all three come out.
I cant remember if I was successful with this method or not this was like 10 years ago. I want to say that I was successful but putting the bolts back in was way too much of a pain. After my dad or whoever it was pointed out that I could drill it that's what I have done every time since then.

Of course for those on flat rate, drill it and move on.

[BuffaloRider]

My moms car broke down while she was giving two people a ride and I had to pick them up as well as my brothers nurse along the way. So I guess driving around on a hot summer day with five people in my car was a little too much to handle and one of my old ass coolant hoses and/or radiator sprung a leak draining out all of my coolant.

I spent most of the day at my brother in laws highschool graduation (I'm so proud lol) and only got a few hours to work on it yesterday but I drained the radiator, pulled off the the radiator hoses, took out the coolant overflow and wash fluid reservoir thing (to clean), took off the easy to reach heater hose and the two hoses attached to the water pump. I've got a new radiator I bought from Advanced Auto Parts for about a hundred bucks that I'll be putting in today. Unfortunately I can't find my damn haynes manual so I'm kind of wingin it until I get stumped and absolutely have to find it.

I was planning on replacing the heater core, the radiator, and all of the hoses at the same time, but here's the problem. As long as my car is out of commission I have to rely on my wife and coworkers for rides to and from work (and of course my own two feet, it's about an hour walk if you jog a little). So if I tackle the heater core then I most likely won't get it done by tomorrow, and if I also replace the other heater hose that goes to the back of the engine then I'll DEFINITELY not get it done by tomorrow because I'll have to take off the upper intake manifold and there are many many things I want to do when I take that off (pcv trio, vacuum lines, throttle body cleaner, new gaskets for throttle body, egr, upper intake, and valve covers, yada yada)

So I've got to decide if I should tackle these problems now and commit to not having a car for most of next week or if I should just replace the radiator and the hoses in order to get her up and running until I can get back at it next weekend.

QUESTION: When the engine is on and at normal running temperatures with the heat OFF does coolant still flow through the heater core? I would think not, but if it does then I definitely don't want to wait until next weekend to replace it.

And if anyone has any advice or suggestions on the work I'm doing please speak up because I'll be honest... I'm smarter than the average but when it comes to cars I really don't know what the hell I'm doing lol! But I'm gettin there.

Thanks.

[nfldfordltd]

Coolant still flows through everything as long as the thermostat is open (normal operating temperature) while the engine is running, regardless if HVAC is on or off.
It would be a good idea to tackle it all the one time so you only have to refill the coolant once rather than multiple times. That would happen if you do the radiator in one event then the heater core at a later time. After all the trouble I had with my cooling system, you can't go wrong with replacing everything at once. I suggest replacing the water pump and thermostat the same time you have everything else cooling-related apart. Hell, even a new rad cap for good measure wouldn't hurt for what it costs.
Not meaning to be telling you what to do, it is your car and your money, but I went through hell with mine for a couple years until everything, and I mean everything in mine was all new. Just sharing from my personal experience

[BuffaloRider]

I wouldn't call it "telling me what to do" you're just giving your suggestions which is exactly what I asked for and I agree. I've already got a new radiator cap and I would be replacing the thermostat and water pump but I just had those replaced about a thousand miles ago, I've just got to hope that they didn't take too much damage and aren't holding on to too much sediment. Either way there's still going to be a shit ton of crud in the bottom of the engine block. If only I had a garden hose I would flush the engine out directly with all of the hoses detached but I don't so I'm just going to have to accept the fact that more crud is going to eventually get stirred up.

[BuffaloRider]

Well, I got the radiator out, all of the coolant hoses (minus the heater hose in the back) the air filter box and shit. I finally found my haynes manual, for all it's worth, but I've got a ford mechanics manual in the mail so that should help when it gets here.

I think I'll start taking apart my dash today after work to get at the heater core. I'll save the upper intake manifold for last because I want to wait until the parts I ordered get here so I have all of the gaskets and the pcv trio. I'm reeeaaaaly nervous about taking off the upper, I did it on a junkyard car once and MAN was it a pain in the ass to get the throttle body and egr spacer seperated, not to mention I'm worried as hell about getting everything hooked back up properly. If anyone can direct me to a thread that might help me with this task, PLEASE DO! Thanks.

While everything is apart I'm also trying to pretty things up under the hood, I painted the radiator mounts beige to match the rest of the car, and beige enameled the thermostat housing lol. I'd like to paint the upper and valve covers but I just don't think that's gonna happen this time around.

I'm getting dirty, learning a LOT, and having fun taking shit apart! I just wish this wasn't my daily driver then I wouldn't feel so much pressure.

Oh and I've also got two catalytic converters and my "new" rims on the way so when I'm done with all this cooling system crap I'll finally be getting my dual exhaust setup installed, hopefully be getting some new tires and then I'll be smiley wilin!

I love this damn car.

[Mr.Blue]

Mmmnnn duals, tasty! Headers also?

[87gtVIC]

Dont bother separating the egr to throttle body surface. Most of teh time you can pull the two off as a unit away from the upper plenum.

[BuffaloRider]

Mmmnnn duals, tasty! Headers also?

No, not yet, I'm just running a stock setup so until I find some 90 lincoln headers I'm staying with the rusty old stock ones.

Dont bother separating the egr to throttle body surface. Most of teh time you can pull the two off as a unit away from the upper plenum.

Really? When I did it at the junkyard it was easier to get the throttle body off the EGR spacer than it was to get the EGR spacer off the upper, and i imagine it would have been even harder if I hadn't pulled the throttle body first. I guess I'll just have to see when I get out there. I know I came across a thread not too long ago where someone was having trouble with this and others were giving suggestions, I need to look that up.

Knowing my stupid ass I took my manual to work to read up on it during my break then I forgot to bring it home. Damn me. Work was tough today and I'd really rather put this stuff off until tomorrow but... I'll do a little bit... I guess.

I'll be taking reference from this thread http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthre...-Core-Write-Up (thanks 86vickylx and slymer!) hopefully it won't be too painful.

[87gtVIC]

You can always take a vice grip with you and unthread the studs from the upper intake then put pressure on the spacer. It will come off.

[BuffaloRider]

OOOOHHHH! Well hot damn, I thought those threaded studs were part of the upper and until just now I didn't realize that they could just be unscrewed. You sir are a great help, and I... well... I need to pay closer attention and use my brain more lol.