Stocker's 1985 LTD Crown Victoria

[gadget73]

yeah the intake end seals are a regular issue on these. The cork ones are trash, get the rubber/silicone ones. The distributor O ring should come in the intake gasket set. Valve cover leaks are also extremely common.


with that much cylinder leakage, the only reason for it is excessively rich fuel mix that washes down the cylinder walls. I'd expect to smell gas in the oil if that were the situation.

or their leakdown tester is full of it. Not impossible. A compression test would back that up, 40% leakage should show up as low compression that comes up significantly with oil in the cylinder and probably low manifold vacuum when running as well.

[Stocker]

with that much cylinder leakage, the only reason for it is excessively rich fuel mix that washes down the cylinder walls. I'd expect to smell gas in the oil if that were the situation.

The shop indicated gas in the oil, I've long smelled gas in the oil at each change, and the fact that it's run pig rich for the past few years makes that unsurprising. In fact, I wouldn't doubt that fuel washing oil off the cylinder walls is what destroyed them.

140 psi compression is within what Ford appears to consider "normal", but it's on the very low end of normal.

[DerekTheGreat]

Get it to stop running rich and then throw a can of Restore in it. Short of mechanical failure, that chit will increase compression.

[Giraffe]

It doesn't really sound like it's all that bad off based on what I'm reading here. Figure out how gas is getting into the oil and fix that, replace top end and oil pan gaskets, throw a can of restore in it as mentioned above. As long as it isn't burning oil, experiencing a lot of blow by, has good oil pressure, and has no knocks, it sounds like daily driver material to me.

[Stocker]

Get it to stop running rich and then throw a can of Restore in it. Short of mechanical failure, that chit will increase compression.

I wondered if Restore was still a thing - I haven't heard about it in a long time. But... I've been trying to get it to stop running rich for years. I can't figure it out and no shop can figure it out. My last option would be to re-cap the computer just in case. I assume there's at least a couple electrolytic caps in there.

It doesn't really sound like it's all that bad off based on what I'm reading here. Figure out how gas is getting into the oil and fix that, replace top end and oil pan gaskets, throw a can of restore in it as mentioned above. As long as it isn't burning oil, experiencing a lot of blow by, has good oil pressure, and has no knocks, it sounds like daily driver material to me.

It isn't burning oil, but it does have a lot of blowby. It used to take about a week to saturate the breather filter (now that it's blown the intake seal out it doesn't get much oil up there). Oil pressure... seems okay, never had the light on. Valvetrain noise on startup, but no bottom end noise. UOAs have all come back mediocre at best, worse the past couple years.

[Stocker]

Brief update - one of the rear wheel cylinders seems to have crapped out over the winter (not that it matters that much). I've done nothing to it in the past 10-11 months besides start it once. It's clear the car needs both an engine rebuild and a carb swap, but I know if I try to pull that off on my own I'll run out of talent before I'd get even close to finished, to say nothing of the fact that I don't have the space to do it. Been too exhausted and demoralized this year to even think about it, and I don't even want to imagine what else on the car is going to end up destroyed from a year-plus of disuse.

[Stocker]

I have an update and some crow to dine upon.

Closer inspection found that the bulk of the oil leak was from the timing cover, where a section of gasket was blown out of position. So, this past winter, I enlisted a friend to drag it to a friend's shop on a dolly. I gave it the dignity of being towed by a fellow Ford instead of my Dodge, but it still looked a bit pissed.




I said early in this thread that a nearby shop had to chisel the timing cover off a decade or so ago as part of a water pump replacement, and that I assumed that if the original timing gear was still in place, they'd've said something.

Now, it's possible that they did say something, and since I would've been at work I would've been either too busy or too hung over to remember. Irrespective of that...



Original plastic gear at just under 185K. If that weren't enough...



It had jumped a tooth. Not only had it jumped a tooth, someone, at some point (not me) had re-timed the distributor to compensate.

But yes, with a new timing set, the car finally ran properly again. Doesn't smell rich, doesn't blow soot out the tailpipe when revved.

I'd been blaming the CFI for the drivability issues for years, when in reality it was something far simpler.

Got a whole two days out of it, before...

[Stocker]

The fuel hose connecting the fuel pump to the flange sprung a leak. Not terribly surprising, but pretty annoying being that I just got the car back.

More annoying was what we found after dropping the tank straps:


Both straps had worn through the tank (which had, for whatever reason, already been replaced once) leaving the straps as the only things keeping fuel from leaking out.

But, a new tank and a new pump assembly, and it's back on the road again.

Still has a few issues to work out - the fast idle doesn't disengage (maybe the wire not making a good connection with the new alternator), the clock stops working for a couple hours during the day, and there's still more cleaning to do after the mice had their way with the trunk while it was parked. Nonetheless, it's drivable - just in time for it being hot enough to need A/C, and this is the only vehicle I own in which the A/C works.

[kishy]

So happy that you're finally getting somewhere with this. The timing being as off as it was definitely explains the bulk of your historical problems with the car.

CFI, in EEC-IV (84-85) form, is capable of being a decent runner but many aspects of it are absolutely archaic, like the mechanical idle speed stuff. No question that if you know your way around a carb or if you know your way around SEFI, swapping in either direction offers benefits, but another success story getting CFI to work tolerably is a good thing.

If you feel like you've got a pretty good handle on how the fast idle stuff operates, I expect you'll get that sorted out quickly enough.

[DerekTheGreat]

Props to you for not putting a "For Sale" sign on it and returning it to the road. Looks like a mean cruiser and makes me miss my '85. That rear end is nice & clean. Hopefully it's an accurate indicator as to the condition of the rest of the underside.

[Stocker]

So happy that you're finally getting somewhere with this. The timing being as off as it was definitely explains the bulk of your historical problems with the car.

CFI, in EEC-IV (84-85) form, is capable of being a decent runner but many aspects of it are absolutely archaic, like the mechanical idle speed stuff. No question that if you know your way around a carb or if you know your way around SEFI, swapping in either direction offers benefits, but another success story getting CFI to work tolerably is a good thing.

If you feel like you've got a pretty good handle on how the fast idle stuff operates, I expect you'll get that sorted out quickly enough.

Thanks. The factory diagnostic is a bit weird, but if I did it close enough to correctly, there's no current getting to the thermostatic coil, so either the wire isn't supplying it or the coil isn't drawing it. Since this started just after an alternator replacement, I'm guessing the former - maybe the stator terminal is just slightly smaller than on the old one. I'm not sure if I can close the terminals on the connector down without destroying the boot though.

[Stocker]

Props to you for not putting a "For Sale" sign on it and returning it to the road. Looks like a mean cruiser and makes me miss my '85. That rear end is nice & clean. Hopefully it's an accurate indicator as to the condition of the rest of the underside.

Thanks. The frame is clean except for one small spot up front, and the floorpans are mostly good, but I found a couple sketchy spots in the trunk when I pulled the carpet out. The bottoms of the rocker panels have opened up though and they got noticeably bad while it was sitting.