kishy's 1985 Country Squire

[DerekTheGreat]

I dig the interior improvements, 300% better back there and the mat is a nice touch. Kind of like the ant-eater thing, I'd probably keep that too, although maybe in the glovebox. Nice work on all that exhaust stuff, look nice. Have you noticed with any of the cars you've put replacement cats on that the lifespan is shorter than expected? I put a Walker cat on my truck about two years ago. Now it seems like even when fully warmed up & after a nice freeway stint I'm getting a noticeable stink at the tailpipe. Not the typical no cat stink, but something sweeter. Seems unusual to me, so I'm wondering if the thing is dying. Nobody complains that the thing stinks while driving and MPG is still 15 or better. Now that the weather is turning, it's back up to around 16 and some change.

[GM_Guy]

Handy when you have a stash of parts. Tint price is in the ballpark for a reputable shop around here with a brand name tint.

[DerekTheGreat]

Right. Spring for the ceramic stuff if possible. $550 CAD for the whole thing sounds like a deal if it's the ceramic stuff. Very happy with what was put on my Townie. If the sun isn't shining through the windshield, it makes a huge difference with the temperature inside the car.

[gadget73]

Valves are easy to change in the pump. Remove the pressure line, unscrew the thing the pressure line screws in to. Thats the valve assembly. Should be a spring and a piston in there that may stay in the pump. Spring sets the pressure, and I think the part that actually screws in to the body has a hole in it that sets the flow, but the hole may be in the piston. I don't remember without looking at it. Just swap the whole set of works from a known correct donor pump and it should be happy. Replace the O rings on it too.


the big trick with messing with the meshload adjust on the box is you can get it tight in the middle, but it will bind at the ends where the parts aren't worn. If it doesn't want to return to center without help, its too tight.

[kishy]

I dig the interior improvements, 300% better back there and the mat is a nice touch. Kind of like the ant-eater thing, I'd probably keep that too, although maybe in the glovebox. Nice work on all that exhaust stuff, look nice. Have you noticed with any of the cars you've put replacement cats on that the lifespan is shorter than expected? I put a Walker cat on my truck about two years ago. Now it seems like even when fully warmed up & after a nice freeway stint I'm getting a noticeable stink at the tailpipe. Not the typical no cat stink, but something sweeter. Seems unusual to me, so I'm wondering if the thing is dying. Nobody complains that the thing stinks while driving and MPG is still 15 or better. Now that the weather is turning, it's back up to around 16 and some change.

It honestly looks like a totally different car with the mat. Makes it feel a bit less totally ruined lol.

The only car I've put cats on so far has been the 84, in I believe 2016. It smells the same as it did after the cats stopped smelling like new cats. These ones that I've put on this car are different both in part number and that they are described as OBD II compliant. This was not intentional when buying them, just an effect of SEFI vs CFI part number compatibility.

The wagon currently smelly pretty rotten eggy after a good WOT pull. I believe that's expected when you have a high hydrocarbon count in the exhaust, and while my car doesn't miss, all the ignition stuff is suspect (it's as it was when I got the car) and is being replaced very soon. I'm hoping that tackles the fuel economy issue.

Handy when you have a stash of parts. Tint price is in the ballpark for a reputable shop around here with a brand name tint.

Honestly, I'd say I have a parts hoarding problem if it weren't for how often I prove that I actually do use the stash and that it actually has saved me money in the long run.

Right. Spring for the ceramic stuff if possible. $550 CAD for the whole thing sounds like a deal if it's the ceramic stuff. Very happy with what was put on my Townie. If the sun isn't shining through the windshield, it makes a huge difference with the temperature inside the car.

Interesting. Maybe we were in a bit of a bubble for pricing in Windsor. A quality UV-reducing tint job a few years ago was mid-200s CAD here, but the caveat was it had to be a car that they could get the template pre-cut film for. Hand-cut jobs are always a bit more due to labour time and effort. Boxes aren't in whatever system they use to look up and cut the film.

Valves are easy to change in the pump. Remove the pressure line, unscrew the thing the pressure line screws in to. Thats the valve assembly. Should be a spring and a piston in there that may stay in the pump. Spring sets the pressure, and I think the part that actually screws in to the body has a hole in it that sets the flow, but the hole may be in the piston. I don't remember without looking at it. Just swap the whole set of works from a known correct donor pump and it should be happy. Replace the O rings on it too.


the big trick with messing with the meshload adjust on the box is you can get it tight in the middle, but it will bind at the ends where the parts aren't worn. If it doesn't want to return to center without help, its too tight.

Thank you, I did know (somewhere back in my distant memory) that the pumps could be re-valved externally. I'll have to take a look at that. I believe this car has a pump I bought NOS (maybe NOS reman) on eBay supposedly for a 90 Panther, but the steering feel has always been heavy with it.

I adjusted the box until it felt meaningfully improved but did not lose any return-to-centre from lock in either direction. It feels pretty tight but not like it's binding in any way. I probably could have gone a bit further but I decided I was happy with what I got out of it. Steering is honestly so much more accurate now, in terms of tracking straight through curves, which was a mild handful before.

The 84 alignment is set up to very gently go to one side, so you're always leaning on the wheel just a tiny bit in whichever direction, and it's really manageable as a result. The wagon, however, is aligned dead on centre and so when there's play in the centre, changing road conditions send you for a ride until you correct. That's all cleaned up now with this adjustment.

[DerekTheGreat]

It honestly looks like a totally different car with the mat. Makes it feel a bit less totally ruined lol.

The only car I've put cats on so far has been the 84, in I believe 2016. It smells the same as it did after the cats stopped smelling like new cats. These ones that I've put on this car are different both in part number and that they are described as OBD II compliant. This was not intentional when buying them, just an effect of SEFI vs CFI part number compatibility.

The wagon currently smelly pretty rotten eggy after a good WOT pull. I believe that's expected when you have a high hydrocarbon count in the exhaust, and while my car doesn't miss, all the ignition stuff is suspect (it's as it was when I got the car) and is being replaced very soon. I'm hoping that tackles the fuel economy issue....

Hah, that's a nice car you've got there though, "ruined" isn't a word I'd consider using to describe it. I dig seeing all the CFI goodness, makes me miss my '85.

Hmm, I guess that's what it is then, the cats aren't new anymore. I just don't recall ever smelling anything inside the cab, even with the old, plugged cat. Now, if there's a breeze and the HVAC pulls in the exhaust or if the windows are down and it floats in, it's very noticeable. Could just be at idle, I am not sure.

Interesting. Maybe we were in a bit of a bubble for pricing in Windsor. A quality UV-reducing tint job a few years ago was mid-200s CAD here, but the caveat was it had to be a car that they could get the template pre-cut film for. Hand-cut jobs are always a bit more due to labour time and effort. Boxes aren't in whatever system they use to look up and cut the film.

Oh wow, ~$200 CAD for the ceramic stuff? I am pretty sure I paid ~$500 USD for ceramic tint some six(?) years ago for the Lincoln at Car Tunes. They did it by hand, no peeling or bubbling yet. I imagine it would cost me at least 1.5x that now, everything has skyrocketed.

[sly]

The tint I had put on my 93 (rip off the old stuff first) cost me I think it was $260 or $280 and I got the premium IR blocking stuff. Last summer was nice. I could be cool by the time I got home in the middle of August 100+ degree heat. My drive home is typically about 10-12 minutes. You can start hanging meat in that car after about 20-30 minutes now. I need to add tint to the front door windows on the Expedition (rear has the stock "privacy" tinted glass and that actually works well for IR blocking) so I stop sweating and getting sun toasted on vacations.

[kishy]

I'll note that 280 USD is 381 CAD today. The 550 CAD number would become 404 USD. I strongly suspect the quote factors in a "we don't want to do this job" surcharge, and that's fine, except the other two places haven't called me back about availability to come by and get it quoted. I will nonetheless keep trying. Tint would be a "nice to have" for the NC trip but is not a dealbreaker.

I started digging into some ignition stuff today. Swapped the spark plugs for NGK V-power copper. The ones that came out are Motorcraft and look healthy. I couldn't find a note anywhere about if I'd already changed the plugs in this...I kind of feel like it might have received hand-me-down plugs out of the Town Car, but I honestly don't recall and this thread is a bear to browse through. I then changed the plug wires with whatever I had hanging around (parts store specials, nothing fancy). Verified engine idle and running quality under load felt the same.

Moved on to the ignition coil. The wire in its pigtail with the inline resistor was severely degraded and falling apart, and the wires were pulling out of the terminal. I soldered in a clean section of pigtail I had hanging around and a resistor out of another harness that had insulation remaining on its wires. I installed a new ignition coil. Verified engine idle and running quality under load felt the same - maybe a little better actually.

I then popped the distributor cap and found what is almost certainly my fuel economy killer. The terminals are pretty bad on both the rotor and cap. I somehow don't have any caps or rotors in my stash of parts (I do have rotors for Duraspark and for early TFI, but not common TFI like this uses). This will be addressed tomorrow.

[gadget73]

is the O2 sensor known good? last time I fooled with a CFI car that had bad fuel econ it was a dud O2.

[Arquemann]

is the O2 sensor known good? last time I fooled with a CFI car that had bad fuel econ it was a dud O2.

My MPG went up when I unplugged the O2 sensor, and subsequently went back down with a new sensor

[DerekTheGreat]

My MPG went up when I unplugged the O2 sensor, and subsequently went back down with a new sensor

Carb swapping it also didn't solve the main issue you were having with it or improve MPG, if I remember right.

If there are bigger issues that aren't resolved, parts swapping won't cure the ill.

[Arquemann]

Carb swapping it also didn't solve the main issue you were having with it or improve MPG, if I remember right.

If there are bigger issues that aren't resolved, parts swapping won't cure the ill.

It didn't solve the main issue, correct. But it did improve MPG noticeably, even though the cruise tune isn't quite perfect.

[kishy]

O2 is suspect. Honestly, I kinda breezed through this car back when I started working on it, and while I am certain that I removed the O2 and anti-seized it to save future me some suffering (thank you, past me), I am not certain I replaced it. And if I did, it may have been replaced with a sensor removed from the Town Car. The answer is buried in this thread and I can't summon the willpower to figure it out. Regardless, a new Delphi sensor is now in-hand. My preferred brand would normally be NTK, second choice Bosch, with Delphi being somewhere in contention for third. The Delphi is what was available at the right price for the right turnaround time.

Progress of the last day or two:

• Replaced distributor cap and rotor with a Duralast Gold kit purchased in-store at AutoZone.
• Replaced the E3 part number TFI module with an E6 part number example from my stash of working spares. The E3 part was the spare I carried in the car, and the one on the distributor failed causing a roadside module change. The E3 module was working, but in pursuit of fuel economy and overall optimization, it seemed like the later part number version might be better in some way. The E3 part is going back in the car's toolbox as a good spare.
• Identified one coolant leak between the thermostat housing and the intake manifold. Drained most of coolant, removed the housing, failure seemed to be the gasket. This is an item I've touched before. I most likely didn't let the RTV cure long enough. I replaced the thermostat housing with a Duralast (Dorman in an AutoZone box) part since mine was looking a little corroded, and reused the existing trustworthy thermostat. Coated fiber gasket in glycol-resistant RTV and allowed to cure overnight before final torque and fill.
• Greased the ball joints, tie rod ends, pitman arm, and U-joints
• Replaced the driver wiper arm with a Ford NOS example purchased on eBay. Old was having spring tension issues and also the plastic isolator that keeps the two parts of the arm from grinding on each other was totally obliterated.
• Swapped the 28mm solid front sway bar for a 30mm hollow one with new bushings and end links. Between the fat bar, the rear bar being present, and the Gas-A-Justs, this thing stays pretty flat now.

Test driving since plugs/coil/wires/cap/rotor shows an apparent improvement in power particularly at low rpm/high load type scenarios but zero impact on fuel economy. O2's up next.

[gadget73]

i was going to suggest making sure the housing and the face of the intake were actually flat but its already together. Usually when there are sealing problems, something is not how it ought to be and sometimes the aftermarket housings aren't anywhere close to flat. Usually easy enough to tell with a file, a couple strokes across the thing will show high spots. If you want better contrast, color the whole gasket surface with a Sharpie and do a couple passes with the file across the whole thing. Anywhere that goes shiny is high.

I usually don't do sealant on the thermostat, but the last time I had mine apart I spent a good while making both the intake and the thermostat housing as flat as I possibly could.

[kishy]

i was going to suggest making sure the housing and the face of the intake were actually flat but its already together. Usually when there are sealing problems, something is not how it ought to be and sometimes the aftermarket housings aren't anywhere close to flat. Usually easy enough to tell with a file, a couple strokes across the thing will show high spots. If you want better contrast, color the whole gasket surface with a Sharpie and do a couple passes with the file across the whole thing. Anywhere that goes shiny is high.

I usually don't do sealant on the thermostat, but the last time I had mine apart I spent a good while making both the intake and the thermostat housing as flat as I possibly could.

Yeah, I checked both for flatness and they seemed to be about right. The Dorman part in the Duralast box is a nice machined piece and was very flat, but some reviews say they aren't always, so perhaps there are multiple suppliers.

I've tried to use the fiber gaskets without any sort of sealant but they always seep through for me. Ultra Copper gasket sealant spray didn't work very well for me as I recall either. At some point in my misadventures with trying to seal timing covers and water pumps, I found the Permatex RTV specifically described as being for thermostats and water pumps. Pricey but it seems to work. And in this case, it looks like it worked.


Today, I started the day with a few goals, but some issues came up and I didn't get them all done.

First, I started replacing the quick-disconnects for the transmission cooler lines. All 4 (2 at rad, 2 at trans) were leaking quite badly. The two at the rad had been rebuild previously with new O-rings but either the material or size or both that I used didn't last long. I found a handful of the Ford parts NOS on eBay and decided to go that route.

Results: the ones at the rad, done without issue. One at the trans, done without issue. But the other one at the trans was oddly collapsed/mangled so I couldn't disconnect it, and when I used a cutoff tool to try to chop it up, I nicked the line in a way that would prevent it sealing properly. I used a hose barb fitting and short length of trans cooler rubber hose to attach it. This became quite the ordeal and I had to remove the cat on that side to get proper access. Fortunately, that was very easy with everything being brand new. All 4 points are sealed with no leaks, so despite the headache along the way, the result is alright.





I replaced the oxygen sensor with the new Delphi part. I ran the engine up to temp and ran KOEO and KOER tests with acceptable results, so at the very least the computer is happy. No road time yet to check on fuel economy.











I went around the trans and engine oil pans tightening bolts. Everything is very wet and no one specific source of leakage seems to be at fault. I did put some cardboard under it while I was working today and the only remaining leak seems to be engine oil. The drip points are from the front drain plug (but I think it's running down from above), and the bottom of the bellhousing. I haven't investigated the rear drips as much as I'd like yet. This does have PermaDryPlus valve cover gaskets but they look a little leaky, probably loose bolts. I am fairly sure when I did the intake gaskets I used a cheaper set with the cork front and rear pieces, so it could be an intake leak as well.

In preparation for the upcoming road trip, the car is also getting brake work done. For the front (95-97) it's getting slotted and drilled rotors with anti-corrosion coating and PowerStop performance brake pads. For the rear (stock 11" drum) it's getting freshly machined OEM drums (vs the oddly "balanced" recent aftermarket ones that were on it) with Motorcraft semimetallic shoes (vs the whatever brand, probably organic shoes that were on it). For fluid, it will be getting ATE Typ 200 racing DOT4. My goal is to get rid of any detectable brake fade on this, within the limits of what drums will allow at least.

I swapped the rotors and pads, and lubricated the slides. The boots were destroyed so I sourced newer-but-also-old ones from the caliper sets still on my parts shelf. The new pads included new boots but I'm of the position I'd rather use up the older bits first.









I rebuilt the passenger side drum brake with new hardware and shoes. While I was there I checked the axle shaft for wiggle and found none. In 2019, I put repair bearings on both sides of this. The passenger side required it, the driver side did not, but the part was cheap and available so I did it anyway.



Moving on to the driver side, I pulled the drum off and found oil. The axle shaft seal has been lubricating the brake pretty effectively for a little while, it seems. Remembering that I had put a repair bearing on this side but not actually needed to, I considered that I could easily swap back to the original design bearing and seal. Digging through my parts pile, I found multiple seals but no bearings. Hopped in the Ranger and drove to an AutoZone in Detroit, picked up a National bearing, headed home. Drained the diff, yanked the axle out, yanked the repair bearing out, knocked the new bearing and seal in, and put the axle back in. The car is mostly but not completely under my carport, and on axle stands on all 4 corners, and it started raining while doing this. I cleaned up the diff cover mating surface, found a gasket in my stash, RTV'd it lightly, then put it on with the bolts just tight enough to gently squeeze the RTV. I'll tighten it fully tomorrow and then fill it and continue with the brake project.





I'm glad I thought to dig into the drum brakes because I wouldn't have found the axle oil leak for quite some time otherwise.

In 2019 when I put the repair bearings in, I noted that the two I bought were not the same design of bearing. The one used on the passenger side had two seals, an inner and outer, with the bearing depending on grease. The one used on the driver side only had an outer seal. The passenger one is a little gummy looking, but not wet, so I feel like it will leak eventually, but it isn't yet so I'm leaving it alone. Still kicking myself about not grabbing that replacement axle shaft I saw in a junkyard however many months ago.