85.03 Crown Vic Coupe "CVGT"

[Bobcat]

I noticed clutch pedal was not on the list of things to do. You warmed up to how the hydro setup works?

Yup, it's not that bad once I got used to it. I mean It's a big difference from the cable. But I don't mind it all too much. I'm still a little questionable about it, but I guess you can put the rod 3" up from the pedal and have it be fine.

[Brown_Muscle]

Yeah, there is like no travel room at all in the clutch pedal, it feels like an on/off switch lol. Sounds like you have a lot on your plate to do!

[gadget73]

THats why I really dislike juice clutches. They don't feel right.

[Grand Marquis GT]

I have the same juice clutch setup waiting to be installed. I am going to try an alternative method of mounting the master cylinder. We'll see.

[Bobcat]

I don't mind it. I wish the slave pushed farther, since I don't think that it's truly engaging and disengaging the clutch. I like the consistant and firm feel. I also don't mind the travel much and have gotten pretty good at driving with it. After a day, I didn't even notice it anymore.

[Bobcat]

Well I've now put 650 miles on the car since the frame swap. It's a little sketchy on the highway (Yesterday was the first highway trip.) since it needs an alignment and the front bumper. Feels like I'm pushing a wall at highway speed.

One of the front core support bushing bolts fell out. Double checked the other one and it was nice and tight. Hmm. Well now I need to order another set of bushings to replace one of them. The shims didn't fall out and the top of the bushing was still there. Blows, but whatever.

Rear is pretty toast, hooks posi around left hand corners and grinds when there's no load on it.



Well on the upside, the clutch is grabbing pretty good now. Need to get all four coils and shocks.

[Bobcat]

On about 1000 miles, maybe a little more now.

Right rear shock blew completely out, car rides like complete shit. Coils and shocks are shot. I may be replacing them in the coming week/weeks depending how my paychecks look. Luckily I'm on salary + hourly pay. I need to at least to the rears, I'd like to get some decent JY rear coils to hold me over until I get some custom lowering coils made. But I don't have time to travel far to find them.

Third now grinds as well when ice cold, usually the first shift to third of the day it'll do a little grind. Not nearly as bad as the fourth gear grind. Missing the reverse gear is starting to get old. Especially after coming back from a two day work trip and having to give my car a little push to get it out of the yard it was in.

Runs good, needs a posi. Not nearly fast enough. Maybe I'll toss my 3.73s in once I pickup a new axle

[sly]

I have the stock springs from my 88 still in the box that the cargo coils came in. If you want me to find out what shipping would be, I can get that info and have them headed your way by Monday (going outta town this weekend).

[packman]

Bobcat: I still have my old SPeedway rear coils (with the pigtails) laying in the basement. They're 175#. If they work on the rear of the '03 suspension, let me know and I'll look into shipping them out to you.


Packman

[sly]

oh right... he's got a whale under that now.

[Bobcat]

Bobcat: I still have my old SPeedway rear coils (with the pigtails) laying in the basement. They're 175#. If they work on the rear of the '03 suspension, let me know and I'll look into shipping them out to you.


Packman

Thanks Packman, I'll defiantly look to see if they'll fit. I was actually thinking of getting #200s from speedway, but I'm sure the 175s would do some good. I was up next to my 85 frame today, I'll eventually get to comparing the two.

oh right... he's got a whale under that now.

Yeah, I was thinking that while reading it.. Lol




Well today I learned that 03 cars are still setup to accept the 02 and down shock mounting style. I've got some pictures of it. Basically I just did this because I have brand new KYBs off of the 85 frame and that there's more after market support from Bilstein and others for the older style.

If you look at it, there's still a hole on each side from the older style shock mounting. All one needs to do is drill out that hole to 1/2" and it just bolts in. Basically if you don't want to use KYBs or OE Ford shocks, now you have an array of choices. Since for some reason, 03+ whales aren't supported nearly as well as boxes are.

Pictures.






For some reason, the left hand side shock decided to dump all of the fluid out and then internally come apart and no longer compress all the way. The right hand side was just dead all together.

[gadget73]

So basically the only real difference is the lower shock bolt is rotated 90 degrees from the 03+ now? Well thats easy enough. I do kind of like that newer mounting setup, if only because it doesn't involve bullshit hardware. The box ones need a stepped bolt through the hole, and half of the aftermarket mounting bolts don't seem to fit right. Honestly the only one I've had that fits exactly like you'd think it should are those NOS Ford shocks I put on the car recently. Unfortunately the hardware is designed such that you can't recycle it. I may chop the flanged head off when those shocks die so I can pattern my own hardware off the Ford piece. It'll probably just be a stepped bushing of the proper size with a common bolt run through the thing rather than a totally custom BS fastener arrangement though.

[Bobcat]

It's now got about 2000 miles on it. Runs good, boils em good. Clutch isn't the best and the rear is defiantly on it's last leg, aside from it moving 2" everytime you stomp on it.

Overall, it's been on the back burner and has just been being a daily driver. A shitty one at that. But it does it. Many things need to be finished and changed. We'll see if she'll be going to ScottFest.

[Bobcat]

So for the few of you that saw on facebook. I split my T5 case and broke the bearing retainer clean off, as well as cracking the front of the case too. (You can stick your fingers into the crack, it's that big) Also twisted my driveshaft yoke splines. So that's stuck in the tranny.

It's now time to build a new 351w with forged DSS pistons, 10.5:1 compression and my top end setup. It will be a single 68-70mm GT45 turbo, MegaSquirt ECU (Has autotune, launch control, two step and whatnot.), 42lb injectors (Low impedance), 3" exhaust down pipe that will lead back into a Y pipe for my dual tail pipes. Side exhaust would be sweet. But she's a respectful old lady that will be carefully driven, babied and not beat on.

I've already got the turbo header, just need to swap my front accessories to foxbody (I think they'll work..) and then build a cross over, since I'll use my 1 1/8 passenger side header on the driverside, flipped around; obviously.


I'm aiming for 550 RWHP, 650ish RWTQ. Yes I will likely use a stock T5 with a Spec stage 1 clutch. I mean, my T5 lasted me 12k miles. Obviously has proven it's worth.

MAYBE. Buy a used TKO or T56. Since the next engine setup is 5.0 Coyote-T56.

I'm doing this as my current life goals are being able to sidestep the clutch at 80MPH and put the car sideways. Likely putting it into the woods. But hey, that's part of the adventure.

[Tiggie]

Good to hear an update. I'm guessing it caught some traction. The rear axle still hanging in there?