My 1987 Mercury Colony Park

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Were you having issues with your ac? If so I am curious if it helps out.

A/C is typically nice and cold when moving at speed and the weather is decent. However, with most days being over 90+ and high ambient humidity (usually 40% or greater at any time) and being in slow moving traffic, it'll get cool but not cold, even with line pressures being within normal ranges for R134a systems. Couple that with trying to remove hot cabin air, it's just not a great mix when the system can't dissipate heat away from the condenser at low speed. This should help in that department to keep air moving across the condenser and towards the normal mechanical fan.

[gadget73]

Shoving more air across the condenser can't possibly hurt AC performance. You can't over-do it. Even if it doesn't drop outlet temps by a great amount it will drop high side pressure, which is good for the compressor.

[Tiggie]

Doesn’t help that you’re cooling the expansive guts of a wagon. I’ve always thought wagons should have gotten a higher output HVAC system. I’d imagine it’s quite toasty in the jump seats in the summer heat. They did it with dentside F-Series trucks (and Broncos), they could have done it on a Panther.

[gadget73]

or even just rear vents would have helped with the greenhouse effect back there.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Doesn’t help that you’re cooling the expansive guts of a wagon. I’ve always thought wagons should have gotten a higher output HVAC system. I’d imagine it’s quite toasty in the jump seats in the summer heat. They did it with dentside F-Series trucks (and Broncos), they could have done it on a Panther.

or even just rear vents would have helped with the greenhouse effect back there.

That's probably by far the worst issue going here. Days where it's nice (spring and late fall), I can easily go with flipping open the vent windows and rolling the tailgate window down and have a nice fresh breeze through the whole car. No stale air. Right now the air is stagnant, and all of that air just hangs in the interior. Driving with the windows down for a minute gets some of it out, but you're still introducing humid, hot air right back in after closing all the windows.

Getting a good tint job is on the list, since the car has some very old tint, but it's starting to bubble up and it's not very dark, so while it may do something, it's not a whole lot.

Unfortunately without re-engineering the car, poor rearward cabin ventilation will just be a thing, but it's been a thing since these were new, but I figure I can at least combat a little bit of a issue to at least improve forward comfort.

[DerekTheGreat]

Doesn’t help that you’re cooling the expansive guts of a wagon. I’ve always thought wagons should have gotten a higher output HVAC system. I’d imagine it’s quite toasty in the jump seats in the summer heat. They did it with dentside F-Series trucks (and Broncos), they could have done it on a Panther.

Did they really? I always thought the trucks got just one A/C setup. Seems to me the best way to do it; engineer and outfit according to the maximum demand whether or not the given vehicle is opted that way.

If you don't already have that special ceramic window tint in your car I highly recommend it, as it'll cut down on the greenhouse effect for sure.

[Tiggie]

Did they really? I always thought the trucks got just one A/C setup. Seems to me the best way to do it; engineer and outfit according to the maximum demand whether or not the given vehicle is opted that way.

The heater cores specifically came in two sizes: small and big. Small was standard on standard cab trucks. The big was for extended cab trucks and the 78-79 Broncos, but optional in standard cab. They all used basically the same heater box, but the heater core mounting was slightly different to allow the different sizes. The A/C I think was one size fits all though. Same principle could be applied though.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

So TecNickal came down in his '90 LTC today and we went out to the junkyard. Decided the wagon would be a smart choice if we needed room for large objects. Pilfered plenty of goodies for his car and mine.

Anyway, this let me see how the e-fan helped with the A/C. It certainly helped reduce the weird temperature shift you could get between sitting stopped at lights and moving. It also started getting cold faster, as before it would take a moment before it would adequately start cooling. Certainly not a arctic blast, but comfortable cool, so I'll say the fan setup is a winner here.


Now while we were at the yard, we stumbled across an '87 Mark VII LSC. That said, it featured the HO 302, so we snatched the PCM out of it. Now in the HO thread, I noticed '86-'88 Mustang are recommended for '86-'87 Boxes. Should I have any issues using that particular Mark VII PCM since it's the HO engine vs the LoPo configuration? If it's good, shenanigans might be planned going forwards since plenty of other supporting features are in place if you get my drift. Just need two components to have everything...

We also got plenty of '90 LTC stuff from a donor car for his. He got a bumper filler that wasn't dinged, the door guards, washer tank, a good steering shaft, and some other little odds and ends. Pretty good haul for everything today.

[gadget73]

Should be fine. Just mind that its the 200 hp HO, it uses E6 heads. Vaguely possible that with a hotter than stock HO it will run lean a little quicker than the 225 hp version would.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Should be fine. Just mind that its the 200 hp HO, it uses E6 heads. Vaguely possible that with a hotter than stock HO it will run lean a little quicker than the 225 hp version would.

Interesting to note. I guess in that case I'll eventually acquire injectors and a HO firing order camshaft, and then sometime later actually do something with them. I guess a AOD HO shift governor would also be smart so it's not shifting at 3800.

I'll probably open this computer up and inspect the internals. There's a little corrosion on the outer case (I suspect it's from the mounting location in the passenger footwell; Nick extracted it from that mess back there), but it looks fine otherwise. No signs of being a re-manned unit or anything.

Didn't really think about going HO, but I figure with slowly picking up the supporting modifications with time, why not eventually go whole hog? The real question will be what camshaft I want. I'll likely keeping stuff in the stock selection given I'm still with speed density and I don't want to super kill my fuel economy. I know the Explorer stick and regular HO stick are both reasonable options, just where they make all the power is the real difference, along with a little power difference. I'm somewhat looking at the regular HO one simply because I think 3.27s should be enough to mitigate the loss of some of the low end LoPo torque, but I'm sure smarter minds will answer that.

[87GrandMarq]

Ive been looking into doing an ho swap minus heads and one thing Ive been curious about is what cam I should run. Would a cam out of say an f150 give any increase in power in our cars? Or a 5.0 explorer cam since it was an ho cam and was geared more towards low end torque which would help with our heavy ass cars lol. I dont think e7s would do much seeing as the 86 and 87 mustang had a small difference in power with heads being one thing Ford changed.


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[Kodachrome Wolf]

Ive been looking into doing an ho swap minus heads and one thing Ive been curious about is what cam I should run. Would a cam out of say an f150 give any increase in power in our cars? Or a 5.0 explorer cam since it was an ho cam and was geared more towards low end torque which would help with our heavy ass cars lol. I dont think e7s would do much seeing as the 86 and 87 mustang had a small difference in power with heads being one thing Ford changed.


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The '86 and '87 Mustangs had a 25 HP difference. The '86s got the E6 heads like our cars got from '86 to '91. The E6s have a heart shaped combustion chamber, which was supposed to be high swirl deal for more efficient combustion. That said, they don't flow that great, not saying E7s stock are much hotter, but there's certainly a difference. The pickups didn't get HO firing order until 1994, they rode LoPo style until then, except sometime after '86 they also got E7 heads so I'm sure they're plenty grunty. Based on what I've seen online, those trucks prior to getting the HO firing order were rated at 185 HP.

Going based on what's available at https://www.automobile-catalog.com/, here's the 302 Explorer and Mustang HP/Torque ratings:

1989 Mustang: 225 HP @ 4200 RPM | 300 FT/LBS @ 3200 RPM

1996 Explorer: 210 HP @ 4500 RPM | 280 FT/LBS @ 3500 RPM

Now while the Explorer stuff on paper doesn't look as hot, reportedly it still does better in the midline punch area vs the HO stuff that seems to live more on the high end punch area.

It's up to you if the heads are worth it to you or not. I know a head job may not be the most exciting thing, but if you picked up a cheap/free set (I'm sure E7s certainly don't have much of a demand anymore, I got mine for free, just had to travel to get them) and maybe did some work to them like a gasket match port job, you'd have a little bit more go-go in the power department.

[gadget73]

Explorer cam if you're not changing the heads. They're done for over about 4500 rpm, which is close to where the stock cam is done at. I ran one for a while in my car. The E6 heads don't breathe at RPM so its pointless to have a cam thats good for lots of engine speed. The HO cam has crap for power under about 2500 rpm too. If you've ever driven a stock HO with an auto, you floor it and it sort of picks up speed until the engine gets there, then its like turning on a switch and it goes. Not good in a heavy car with tall gearing. Upgrading the intake helps somewhat with that but its still not amazing.

[87GrandMarq]

I know the e6’s are bad but Im still not convinced swapping to e7’s will result in a power increase thats worth the time spent on swapping them.


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[gadget73]

to stock E7, no. They suck too honestly. Slightly better at higher rpm, but only marginally so. You might get another 500 rpm of useful power with the HO cam but thats about it, and thats even questionable if you're using the stock intake. If you're going to the bother of changing heads, I wouldn't waste my time on anything less than a GT40 or GT40P and it needs a better intake too. Even a ported stock-type will be an improvement with stock heads if it evens out the airflow. The middle runners can move as much air as the heads can move, but the outer runners, especially #5, are a pretty big choke point. Getting them to flow basically equally helps.