'Sherrie' my 86 Oxford White CV Coupe

[87GrandMarq]

I might just switch to ball bearings then. This is getting annoying. Oh and I used the supplied grease too, I think it was graphite or something.

[87GrandMarq]

Really? They usually last a lot longer than that. Was there anything that interfered with the travel of the window or just some really cheap ass plugs?

I haven’t opened up the door yet so I’m just assuming that’s what happened. It still goes up and down but when it’s all the way up or down the motor still runs so something is slipping. The last time, the failure point wasn’t even the plugs. Yeah they were long gone but what had failed was the plastic gear, the triangular part that the smaller metal gear slips over broke so the motor would run but the window wouldn’t move. I used the dorman kit to fix it and all was well for a few months and a handful of window ups and downs. I’ll pull it apart when I have time and take some pictures.

[friskyfrankie]

I haven’t opened up the door yet so I’m just assuming that’s what happened. It still goes up and down but when it’s all the way up or down the motor still runs so something is slipping. The last time, the failure point wasn’t even the plugs. Yeah they were long gone but what had failed was the plastic gear, the triangular part that the smaller metal gear slips over broke so the motor would run but the window wouldn’t move. I used the dorman kit to fix it and all was well for a few months and a handful of window ups and downs. I’ll pull it apart when I have time and take some pictures.

VERY interested in the failure point(s). Those plastic gears are pretty solid and I have never seen one fail - it is almost always the plastic plugs which are made to fail first.

[87GrandMarq]

VERY interested in the failure point(s). Those plastic gears are pretty solid and I have never seen one fail - it is almost always the plastic plugs which are made to fail first.

Me too, hopefully it is the plugs this time. I don’t want to have to install a whole new gear kit again.

[sly]

VERY interested in the failure point(s). Those plastic gears are pretty solid and I have never seen one fail - it is almost always the plastic plugs which are made to fail first.

Yeah... I've only had one gear fail. Split from excess pressure using nuts that were a little (barely) too big to fit in place of the plugs. Swapped in the ball bearings with the replacement gear and no issues until I sold the car which was a good 5+ years later.

[clutch47]

A little story for ya'll.

Sherrie went on the chassis dyno last week. We tuned the Megasquirt PNP and worked on the closed loop idle settings. It really is working very well.
We twisted it up until it wasn't making power a few times and it really sounded and made good power at 32 degrees of timing. It ran well at 34 but showed no gain. 93 octane pump fuel at 9.88:1 compression, and a total stock airbox and filter. Never went over 205 degrees.

As a refresher, this is a 347 inch with forged pistons, AFR 165 heads and a seriously ported explorer intake with a BBK 75mm TB and spacer with BBK unequal shorties and a 2-1/2" exhaust into new cats and Magnaflows.
Remember... my goal was not Mustang 6Krpm max power, but was torque for moving this car and making it fun to drive. That should explain my use of 'smaller' heads and massaged stock FoMoCo parts for the intake.

It was great to be able to lock out the OD with the Silverfox valve body and really reef on it.
So... On the 6th pull... our last pull of the morning....
at about 5200rpms...
The brand new Gates P/N 43050 water pump popped.
BOOM
I've never seen one go like this one went. It was a spectacular event, resembling the fountain in the middle of your town.. only green and steaming.
Off the gas, shift to neutral, engine idled perfectly and we shut it off. Leak stopped.
We thought the lower hose pushed off or the radiator tank popped but if that had happened it would have kept leaking.
So as we cleaned up the green slick steaming goo....
We saw it.



The belt tensioner wasn't even maxed out. The belt was no tighter than a stock tensioner could make it. So as it looks, I think it was a flawed casting.
I'll know when I get it off. Of course I'll show pix. I'm putting the same P/N pump right back on. Hopefully I can find all the impeller parts and nothing got into the cooling system. I think it's good.. no noise or grinding or anything. Just a green fountain.

So now the graph and numbers. the tuner said this car type, tires and AOD combo typically show a 22% loss at the tire where these numbers are generated.
Red is HP
Blue is Torque.
Bottom scale is MPH.
Solid lines are 34 degrees. Dashed lines are 32 degrees.
We didn't bother calculating RPMs at MPH because Jimmy Crack corn.
Looks like 385 'ish' torque and just under 300hp. The torque line is flat. I like that.


Now for the obvious.
It is choking. The stock airbox and inlet snorkel are not sufficient. Our plan was to pull on it with a straight tube into the TB, but we didn't get there.
If/When it gets more mods... we'll do that.
I wanted torque and reliable and chose pistons accordingly.
The old stories of 347s having oil consumption and rings through the pin boss days are over. Piston technology has come a long LONG way.

The headers are out of the box BBK unequal length shorties that I got on a swap and had a friend ceramic coat. Not ported or optimized at all.

I think there's 40hp in the air intake before the TB and a header change. I'm just gonna run it for a while....

The cam card is on this thread somewhere but it has .561/.556 lift. Old but NOS FMS 1.6 roller rockers.

Next week, the rear comes out. Total gut and rebuild. I've been sitting on the parts for a long time.
Driving to the dyno..made me laugh.
Giving it the beans through the 1-2 shift and it kinda went off the straight track but not because of wheelspin.
The 36 year old control arms and bushings were WAY overtaxed.
It's getting ADTR arms and bushings while the rear is out.

When I get it done, I'll get some pix on here.

[Tiggie]

The impeller blew? Wow. That's wild.

[87gtVIC]

Nice carnage. Id take that over engine failure on the dyno.

Id be inclined to put a cast iron one on after that. Hope the new one doesn't follow the leader.

I am surprised that didn't hurt the rad. The fan could have destroyed it.

[sly]

+1 never seen THAT failure mode.

[packman]

As far as the air tube goes; Home Depot plumbing section. 3” PVC, couplers, and hose clamps. Get the K&N cone filter of your choice. As far as the 45* elbow goes at the throttle body; see if the stock elbow can be used with the pvc. I got a rubber elbow from a plumbing supply and I’m wondering if it holds its shape while under load? I’m currently looking for my stock elbow to test that out.

[packman]

Headers: I got a set of pre-owned Doug's Tri-Ys that needed the foremost primaries (both cylinders toward front of engine) massaged a bit to clear the X-member. If I were to do it all over again, I would contact RCI headers and see which mid-lengths for AOD Fox bodies would work for the Crown Vic.

[clutch47]

The impeller blew? Wow. That's wild.

I don't think the impeller blew. When I get it off, I'll post pix for sure.

Nice carnage. Id take that over engine failure on the dyno.

Id be inclined to put a cast iron one on after that. Hope the new one doesn't follow the leader.

I am surprised that didn't hurt the rad. The fan could have destroyed it.

It is (was LOL) a Gates cast iron pump from my local NAPA. According to the NAPA book and computer it is a standard replacement for police and taxi service.
It cooled the engine very well, and during these pulls the temp never went up. I think the casting was flawed from the factory, or damaged somehow.
We will see.

[clutch47]

Headers: I got a set of pre-owned Doug's Tri-Ys that needed the foremost primaries (both cylinders toward front of engine) massaged a bit to clear the X-member. If I were to do it all over again, I would contact RCI headers and see which mid-lengths for AOD Fox bodies would work for the Crown Vic.

In time, I may look into other headers. This is no race car and wasn't built for that, so replacing the BBKs are lower on my priority list than the sound system update. I'm pretty AMPED about that. (see what I did there?)..LOL
As far as PVC and drain pipes under the hood goes...nah. I'm going to search for a larger diameter rubber tube from another car or truck to go from the airbox to the TB, and run cold air in from the fenderwell or under the bumper out of immediate eye sight. I'm trying to keep it as FoMoCo looking as possible while upping the performance.

[clutch47]

Getting there. I finally got a chance to step back from everything and get some vacation time at the Outer Banks. Not necessarily a beach guy, but I am a big fan of alone time with a book and some waves.
Anyway..

Got back and got some work done. Here's one shot of the water pump. I'll post more next week.



As it looks to me, my original theory of a casting issue is reinforced by this. The belt wasn't too tight as the tensioner still had range to move.
All other parts intact thankfully.

My cupholder/gauge mount is coming together too. Pix coming.

After a very long internal debate about the location for mounting my tach, I picked up a small Autometer tach and I'm going to try to adapt an F-150 column gauge pod to my column. We shall see how this goes. If I don't like it, I'm starting to lean towards mounting this small tach inside the speedo.
We'll see...

[friskyfrankie]

Looks like metal fatigue on that pump!