I bought a box!

[sly]

yeah... keeping boxes below 60 helps loads. Aeros give zero cares up to 70-75. Whales prefer 60-65.

[killgore]

Well I was able to beg the ole square dial. She seems to do better up there. Not for fuel economy but acceleration wise.

It wasn't an intentional keep it around that area, that is just the speed limit. Figure I'd do it so I don't lose the box.

[killgore]

Alright. So because of the computer dying I have a pretty small budget on the car this time around.

I'm thinking HO upper, terrible "CAI" (for the soundz, I'll put a shield on it), mustang shorties, maybe an x pipe or just true duals, electric fan (that one is a maybe as well), Gas-A-Justs the whole way around and rubber parts in the front suspension. If I can convince my Dad (or find a shop) I'm thinking 3.27s or 3.55s. Also thinking about the 6 liter tune up. Any ideaz if this is good, bad, indifferent, waste of money, etc.

I've got a can of plastidip and a roll of masking tape and I'm really debating whether or not to put gran sport stripes on it to see if I like them. I'd probably do it in the same color red as my pinstripes (when I redo those too).

A piece of shizzzzz purple caprice keeps parking next to my bute. Who do they think they are? HEHE


So the cops around here are not enthused with my Italian driving, so I am going to need to glue that on.

How do I get the black parts of the trim black again. The bottom granny trim is chipped and I'd like to fix it.

[pantera77]

HO upper is only useful with a HO TB and bored out EGR spacer.

No need for a "CAI" unless you want it to look ricey under the hood.

Exhaust is your call. Either or is fine on a mostly stock lopo.

I've had two cars with electric fans, both got put back to stock mechanical. I just don't like them.

Gas-a-Just are good, don't get the GR2's they suck.

If you planning on doing suspension bushings, it certainly wouldn't hurt to do poly's instead. Or gather parts to do the big brake swap instead.

Skip the 3.27's, 3.55's are the perfect blend for highway and city.

A quality cap and rotor, good plug wires, copper motorcraft plugs gaped properly, PVC trio (valve/screen/grommet) and replacing the vacuum lines is all these cars really need for a tune up. You can bump the timing up a few degrees if you really want.

For the sake of the box gods please don't even think about putting plasti dipped stripes on that car. It's a Grand Marquis, not a Corvette.

[killgore]

I didn't specify but I was going to do the EGR spacer and tb as well.

I know the CAI isn't for power. On the fence on that one if we are honest. But my intake tube's underside is shot. I'm thinking about doing an H3 conversion to the outside lights, so if I could find a place to plumb it, i'd make little boxes where the high beams sit and mate that up to the TB. More work than it is worth i'm sure, but I have more time on my hands at the moment than I like.

The six liter tune up is a thing on the truck forums for their 302's, didn't know if it would transfer over to ours as well. They put a hotter coil in, 9mm Ford wires and Motorcraft copper plugs. Bump the timing two degrees. Already have the motorcraft plugs.

What do you mean these aren't corvettes??? I'm at least 76% sure I can beat any C3 with a 305 and poorly tuned carb LOL. Worst case scenario, they peel.

I didn't know poly would be available for our cars, I guess I will have to go a-searching.

Finally, I was leaning towards 3.55's. I'll be moving around the flint hills region and not downshifting every hill would be nice.

[DerekTheGreat]

Car looks good killgore! I dig those black steelies and the grey ghost look it's got going on. Caprice guy is trying to be friendly. If he always parks next to you I'd say he recognizes a fellow box person.

What Pantera said about the stripes, car looks cool as it is. Stripes on a box to me say "punk kid" or "redneck". Although it is your car. So many people, myself included here, like to suggest what YOU should do with YOUR car...

I went from 2.73's to 3.23's on my 305 powered Fireturd. What a difference that made. MPG in the city shot up by at least 1.5 and it had a much easier time hitting 45, seems all I have to do is rest my foot on the gas and it beats most every car to that point- I call that getting on plane lol. I imagine 3.55's would be even better but my freeway econ went down by about 1mpg, I expect it would be slightly worse with a 3.55 but with what you're doing and where you're at I think I'd go with the 3.55's. Also, with that Fireturd I noticed on the freeway it accelerates really effin' good, most times it wont even unlock the torque convertor trying to go 70-85ish. Just a lil extra stab and I'm there, same scenario with the Town Car and I've gotta stab the pedal to nearly 3/4 the way down or more and even then, unless it down shifts I'm not at the same rate of acceleration. Bird gets about 23mpg on the freeway at 80.

Edit: Timing..

VcV came and helped me bump the timing to 14? degrees I think. Following morning I floored it from a stop and the thing roasted both tires through first gear. I think the roads had to be slick but they didn't appear to be. Car never did that before. If anything it's not much more powerful, just more responsive. I don't think it's getting on plane any better than it did before but our upcoming road trip will determine if that has a good impact on MPG.

[killgore]

Oh yes the Caprice just probably wants to make a friend. This was just the first time I've been able to take a picture of it (i wasn't wet, tired, and it wasnt dark). And if my car fits in there they probably assume their car fits as well. That is how me and a guy with an Imp SS met last semester when I had my Lincoln.

Yeah I don't enjoy how much throttle it can take to get them to move on the highway. I also really don't need the transmission grabbing second every time it wants to pull itself up a hill. I've heard the timing makes a load of difference as well.

I'm going to tape out the stripes, see if I like them. Ill photoshop the cars together and just kind of look at it for a day or two before I make my decision.

[VicCrownVic]

13°, Derek, that's what I've always run mine at. I know some guys say they wouldn't run anything above 12° but I've never noticed any issues (doesn't mean there aren't any, lol).

Killgore, your car do what you want. I wouldn't like the stripes but then again I didn't think I would like switching all my interior lights to blue LEDs. What started off as a joke I ended up liking.

[killgore]

Being lazy, I didnt upload this to photobucket. But here is the imgur link if anyone wants to call me a ricer. Very very bad photoshop.

http://i.imgur.com/fhMc6Sg.jpg

(just to see if this works)

[killgore]

I changed my mind, they are going to be more forwards. Actually this wasnt as much of a mind change as a "I decided to render it properly"

[sly]

then 2 stripes (maybe 2 inches wide with 1 inch between) between the wheel wells and to the rear bumper about 2-4 inches below the skinny side molding there in the middle.

[sxcpotatoes]

Looks like those dodge stripes

[killgore]

Many of you will be excited to know the stripes didnt work. After three attempts I could not get a hard enough edge from the dip so it looked trashier than I was willing to accept.

Anyways, so my cruise isnt wanting to stay on, any ideas?

[knucklehead0202]

Stripes were kinda gay anyhow. Can't offer any insight on cruise control but have you done anything to the exhaust yet? While it provides almost ZERO performance improvement, it does provide 120% more enjoyment, at least for me. I had a factory single that'd been chopped off just over the axle and pointed right at my pass. side wheel. Sounded shitty and smelled terrible with the original cats on their way out. At the very least, go duals with some good mufflers and tailpipes(impala are best). I went full-retard and did mustang headers, a modded mustang off-road h-pipe(added 2 cats later) and 2.5" all the way back with moroso spiral flow mufflers. Kinda sounds like an old truck but infinitely better than stock. With HO firing order it'll sound much better.

[killgore]

Have not done anything to the exhaust. Have to go home to do that and with two small children there it does not make it enjoyable. And have to get money for something other than just the X-pipe LOL.