VicCrownVic's 1991 Mercury Grand Marquis GS

[TecNickal]

Looks good under the hood.

That remote mount TFI - how much has that helped you out - did it solve the random dying the car has in warmer weather?

Whenever I visited Michigan in years past, I have scored awesome parts off of cars up there for the interior of the panther stuff or for the Tauruses I used to own (a 97 V8 SHO and a 00 SEL DOHC).

When I go this year, hope to visit in my 90 TC

[VicCrownVic]

Thanks.

The dying when hot was solved when I put another stock JY dizzy in before I did the remote mount TFI conversion. The remote mount setup works great though. When the stock setup was having problems I think the actual problem was the PIP rather than the TFI module since multiple TFI modules didn't actually help.

That's the great part of living in MI, especially near Detroit. People buy domestic more around here since most people (myself included) either work for one of the big three or work for a company that is a supplier/vendor to one of the big three. That's why I think it's not so uncommon to find boxes in the JYs here. I think every other car in the Ford section at most yards around here is a Taurus. Also being so far north I think helps the interior stuff hold up better since it is subjected to less UV and heat damage.

Hopefully things workout and we can meet up. Brent was talking about setting something up in Detroit next year, he should post a thread if he's still interested. Maybe the timing of that would work for you, but I'm not sure what exact time frame he was thinking other than spring/summer.


Update on this car:
Change the oil yesterday and spend a good amount of time fixing my headlight relay harness. Some of the wires corroded inside and caused the high beams to stop working altogether and driver side low beam was quite dim. This all happened before I stopped driving the car, before swapping the engine, but I didn't get around to fixing it until yesterday. The lights are nice a bright now.

The headlight relay harness I made from 12 gauge wires and have been installed for just over 3 years. Anyone have a good source for wires? I'm not so sure about the quality of the ones that were used when I made that harness.

[DerekTheGreat]

Oops, I meant '91 not '01.

What!? You have a car for sale?

I started in Flat Rock and hit all 3 PG locations working my way north last weekend. I went to FR for the 2 '90 TCs. Lincoln logs are still there.

Oh, and 8 Mile has a CV wagon. Front sway bar was still there. The Mercury wagon in FR I think already had the front sway bar missing. If you're interested in that kind of thing. Both had the passenger side fender brace missing, but driver side was there on both but a bit rusty. Didn't think to check for a rear sway bar.

I'll be way again this weekend, so probably no JY for me this week.

FR??

I was about to say, didn't think fenderwells for an '01 would work haha.

No cars actively for sale but I suppose if someone made me an offer it would go. If I had more space I'd probably never sell anything but the itch to get behind the wheel of something different is there. That is until I get behind the wheel, the only thing I'd ask for is a digital dash and more power.

Thanks.

The dying when hot was solved when I put another stock JY dizzy in before I did the remote mount TFI conversion. The remote mount setup works great though. When the stock setup was having problems I think the actual problem was the PIP rather than the TFI module since multiple TFI modules didn't actually help.

That's the great part of living in MI, especially near Detroit. People buy domestic more around here since most people (myself included) either work for one of the big three or work for a company that is a supplier/vendor to one of the big three. That's why I think it's not so uncommon to find boxes in the JYs here. I think every other car in the Ford section at most yards around here is a Taurus. Also being so far north I think helps the interior stuff hold up better since it is subjected to less UV and heat damage.

Because of your findings that is now why I will look to the PIP sensor instead of the TFI module should I ever have that problem. Funny though, because on later Ford stuff (like our new to us 1992 F250, it's TFI is located on the driver's side fender near the master cylinder, mounted to a huge heat sink. Still must have been some sort of problem, that or Ford knew there was an issue but thought it was the TFI like most of us do..

I think the big three and buy domestic influence around here is dying off. I do agree that there's at least that advantage to northern cars, good interior stuff provided people didn't vomit all over the bits you need.

[VicCrownVic]

Flat Rock.

My dad said he was interested, but we all know that's not happening considering hasn't paid more than $1k purchase price for a vehicle since 1989. Now a 4 wheel drive F-series pickup in nice shape he is willing to pay for, but he kind of needs it during the winter up in the Thumb where they are. Mom's getting tired of him always needing to take the Explorer during the winter leaving her with nothing capable of passing the poorly (at best) plowed roads in their area.

It may have something to do with air flow in the area of the dizzy. The Panthers never got the remote mount TFI, but then again F-series trucks didn't get it until '92; at that point the TFI was ancient history on the Panthers. I'm pretty sure the Cougar/T-bird had remote mount earlier and my guess would be higher failure rate on those cars was the reason. I would guess that there is less air flow over the dizzy on those cars. If the dizzy is mounted off to the side (I'm not at all familiar with those cars, but seem to remember some setup with the dizzy off to the side, maybe front wheel drive? were those front wheel drive?) that would put it at a disadvantage compared to a Panther with the dizzy right behind the cooling fan.


No real data to back it up, although i'm sure there is data out there to support that claim, but it looks to me like you are right about the domestic influence here in Metro Detroit not being what it used to be.

[Giraffe]

Ford put the remote mount TFI on the passenger-side fender apron just behind the air box on '94-'95 5.0 Mustangs. Not sure if there was any rhyme or reason to its placement on any vehicles other than getting it off of the engine.

[VicCrownVic]

The location they used for the remote mount stuff is a bit strange for some of them. Like Derek said, the '92+ F-Series trucks had it on the driver side fender way back toward the firewall. I think you're right that they were just trying to get it away from all the heat of being right at the engine, but it seems like finding a location with more airflow would have been a better idea.

[DerekTheGreat]

Flat Rock.

My dad said he was interested, but we all know that's not happening considering hasn't paid more than $1k purchase price for a vehicle since 1989. Now a 4 wheel drive F-series pickup in nice shape he is willing to pay for, but he kind of needs it during the winter up in the Thumb where they are. Mom's getting tired of him always needing to take the Explorer during the winter leaving her with nothing capable of passing the poorly (at best) plowed roads in their area.

It may have something to do with air flow in the area of the dizzy. The Panthers never got the remote mount TFI, but then again F-series trucks didn't get it until '92; at that point the TFI was ancient history on the Panthers. I'm pretty sure the Cougar/T-bird had remote mount earlier and my guess would be higher failure rate on those cars was the reason. I would guess that there is less air flow over the dizzy on those cars. If the dizzy is mounted off to the side (I'm not at all familiar with those cars, but seem to remember some setup with the dizzy off to the side, maybe front wheel drive? were those front wheel drive?) that would put it at a disadvantage compared to a Panther with the dizzy right behind the cooling fan.


No real data to back it up, although i'm sure there is data out there to support that claim, but it looks to me like you are right about the domestic influence here in Metro Detroit not being what it used to be.

Oh, lol. Haven't been there all year, or maybe we went once. Now that we have something with OD again we might be inclined to journey out there.

LoL yeah, I'd be losing my you know what if I let it go for $1,000. Not to mention Ashley would kill me for not giving it to her for the same price or trading her cars.

It's a mystery. Cougars were RWD, but the Conti's and such were not. Never looked at an older one to see what was going on there but perhaps the airflow would be why they did it early on some cars.

Yeah, seen anything concrete to support my claims either but when I'm flying down the freeway I don't see very many domestics. Plus now the image of Detroit is hipstery. It's cool to have a Detroit "Shift" sticker on your automatic Honda because you love the night life down there or go to Wayne State.

[VicCrownVic]

...
Yeah, seen anything concrete to support my claims either but when I'm flying down the freeway I don't see very many domestics. Plus now the image of Detroit is hipstery. It's cool to have a Detroit "Shift" sticker on your automatic Honda because you love the night life down there or go to Wayne State.

LOL, can't disagree with that, it fits what I've observed.

[DerekTheGreat]

LOL, can't disagree with that, it fits what I've observed.

"Detroit hustles harder."

[VicCrownVic]

Parked The Ice Car over the weekend while The Scab takes on DD duties.
I also installed new shocks in the front (a couple weeks ago) and new Gabriel Hijaker air shocks in the rear. New wagon cargo coil springs are on order for the rear and will likely be going on this weekend if they show up before then. Getting this car good to go as the summer backup DD and winter primary DD is the goal for this summer. Front end needs all kinds of new parts which I have been sitting on for a while, but after driving The Scab again I've realized just how bad things need to be replaced on this car.
The Ice Car might be a rotting pile, but going A to B no matter the distance in between is all I need it to do.

[79lincolnlover]

How are the rocker panels?

[VicCrownVic]

Despite the bad rot on the driver side fender and quarter panel and trunk lid, the rocker panels are oddly still in good shape. The Scab, which isn't nearly as rotted as this car, pretty much has no rocker panel left on the passenger side. The underside and frame of both cars are also in pretty good shape. On this one it really makes me scratch my head because of how bad the trunk, fender and quarter panel are.

[VicCrownVic]

I don't have any recent rocker panel pictures, but here's a picture of the passenger side rocker panel on 8-1-2015:


I was under this car the past couple of weekends and the rocker panels still look pretty good. I can't say the same for the rest of the body though.
Looking back through this thread I can see that I have never posted a driver side picture of this car in this thread. That's because the driver side has always been the bad side of this car.
Here is a picture, from 8-1-2015, of the driver side:


Fast forward to 4-22-2017 and the rot has really taken off over the last 2 winters:


The inside of the fender and quarter panel must have been further gone than it looked on the outside for it to explode with rot like that. I need to get into those areas on The Scab and make sure they aren't full of dirt/leaves and that they drain properly to try to keep that car from looking like this one. Although The Scab has the advantage of not being driven in the winter.

Also, the rear is sitting on MOOG CC819 coil springs and Gabriel HiJacker air shocks (at 150psi) and most of the weight is out of the trunk. It should settle down once I put all the weight of tools and stuff back in there, and I can lower the pressure in the air shocks as well.

[Tiggie]

Rust never sleeps. But certainly serves the purpose of the winter transporter.

[Giraffe]

All that rust makes me sad.