VC gaskets and timing set R&R pics and info

[91LTDProject]

Took the H.O upper off the vic tonight and swapped it for a lopo I had laying around so that I could get the bored EGR spacer and H.O Throttle body ready to go to the powdercoaters. Gonna use my other H.O upper since I did a pretty good number on the other one trying to "polish" it, and this one should give a smoother finish. Heres some before pics, hope to get everything off to the powdercoaters within the next few weeks.

[91LTDProject]

Vics getting demo'd or scrapped, too rusty, too many problems, not worth saving.



Started changing the Intake manifold gaskets/timing cover gaskets today. Everything was going pretty good up to a point. Pulled off the lower intake to find some rather large deposits (circled in red). Blocked off all the oil drainback holes with pieces of dowel, and got the bulk of the deposits out (pictured in clear plastic container) then went nuts with a ton of rags, a can of brake clean and an air compressor to get the rest of the shit out of there. Need to go back to work to get some more cookies for my die grinder so I can clean the mating surfaces on the heads. Gasket remover in a can+scraper=dosent work worth a rats ass on 19 year old intake gaskets. All was well until I tried to pull the harmonic balancer off so i could get the timing cover off to do the timing set and gasket. The harmonic balancer is seized to the crank, and while trying to pull it off it actually ripped off a part of the balancer. Now I dunno what to do, and since it pissed me off pretty bad, I stopped for the day.

[91LTDProject]

Spent a couple hours yesterday cleaning up the stock valve covers and cleaning all the carbon out of the upper and lower intakes. Dont have any pics of the intakes yet, but the valve covers cleaned up pretty good. I've never seen a set of original stockers this clean before. Swapped the Fel-Pro Permadrys out of the Vic for a set of cork gaskets so i could use the Fel-Pros in the Lincoln, since I didnt feel like like spending $50+ for a new set. Anyone who drives one one of these cars (Linc, merc, Vic) I highly reccommend you buy a set of these valve cover gaskets. Almost a year on the vic with no leaks, and after I wiped the oil off they looke like new. Got the Harmonic balancer off tonight too, my stupidy got the better of me. Pictures....

[91LTDProject]

looks good man. how much carbon build up did you find?

Did a bit more today. My girlfriend wanted to do some work, so she took the timing cover off for me and the old timing set, I installed the new one and she torqued it up (posing for the pic, we had to lock the cam gear to actually torque it) Tons of slack in the old chain, you can see it sagging, and all the teeth on the gears were quite worn. Glad I changed it.





She snuck in for a picture with the new timing set.

[gadget73]

The slop doesn't look that bad honestly. Spec is 1/2" I believe, yours looked due but not really bad.


Do you have an HO camshaft laying around? Now would be the perfect time to stab that in.

[91LTDProject]

Cleaned and installed the timing cover tonight. Took a good hour of scrubbing in the parts washer to get all the crud off. Wanted to do the water pump tonight too, but it got too cold and started raining. Dont worry, the cork corner pieces wont be in there long, they ar temporary until i get to the shop to do the oil pan gasket. Scrubbed off all the crud on the front of the block too.

[91LTDProject]

Got alot done tonight considering the crappy weather. Installed a new oil pressure switch, new harmonic balancer (pain in the ass by the way, still dont know if its on far enough, but the belt and pulleys all seem to line up), crank pulley, new water pump, a bunch of accessories bracketry one new belt torquing it all to specs along the way. Had to call it an night due to being out in the fog/light drizzle for 2.5 hours. Hope to have her running tommorow, and I got the entire day to work on it. Tonight while I'm sitting in the house doing nothing I'm gonna put the new T-stat and gasket in the lower intake while its off the car, and tke out all the sensors/fittings/plugs, clean the threads and apply some thread sealant to them all.

[91LTDProject]

150 for pulley??? fudge that!!!

you do nice work.. so clean!!!
nice pics to... may I duplicate/archive your posts as a tech thread?

Sure. Do what you want with them. I dont know how they are going to add anything useful to the tech section though.

Todays accomplishments, took all the fittings out of the lower intake and re-sealed them, It was scrubbed clean earlier this week, Installed the new thermostat, new pcv valve, and cleaned all the crud off the the threads of the bolts with a bench wire wheel. Got all the acc brackets installed along with the other new belt today, and drained what used to be oil but was now a combination of carbon, brake clean, coolant and oil out of the oil pan and filled it up with fresh stuff that will be coming out again once its run. Had to stop due to the weather, you can see the storm comin in.

[91LTDProject]

Installed the new intake manifold gaskets, swapped all the new coolant hoses from the Vic, and got 90% of the wiring hooked back up and all the vacuum lines I could without the upper on. Could have had it running tonight, but I had to go out and run some errands and by the time I got back, I was almost out of light. Should find out if it runs or not tommorow. And Gabe, it does need new bodymounts. Either I'm going to attempt them if I can find parts, or I may get Scott to do them.

[91LTDProject]

Ya, this is the replacement for the Vic.

Re-installed the upper intake tonight with a new plenum gasket and new IAC valve gasket, along with new EGR spacer collant hoses. Put a new O-ring on the distributor and a new Accel cap and rotor. Put the old plug wires back on just for now to see if it would run. Started up, but wasnt running all that great. After finding the distributor was off a tooth and re-setting it, it ran much better, but still not great. I had added fresh oil before I started it, and after I had it running for a bit, I added a bottle of engine flush and let it idle for 15 minutes to flush out and of the leftover crud from all the cleaning I did. Changed the oil again, double checked that the cooling system was bled, checked for leaks, then took it out for a test drive. Perfectly smooth and silent except for the exhaust leak which is coming from one of the cat crossover pipes. The bugs it had at first seem to have worked themselves out. Still got some more work to do under the hood, but at least its running good.
















I was getting so used to that clean, un-cluttered engine bay. Now it looks like shit again, but at least its running again.

[91LTDProject]

Thought I'd add some torque specs for the above job

Camshaft gear bolt- 40-45ft/lbs
Harmonic balancer to crankshaft bolt-70-90ft/lbs
Timing cover bolts- 12-18ft/lbs
Lower intake manifold bolts- 1st step-15-20ft/lbs
2nd step- 23-25ft/lbs
crank pulley to harmonic balancer bolts- 35-50ft/lbs
upper intake to lower intake bolts- 12-18ft/lbs
water pump bolts- 12-18ft/lbs
valve cover bolts- 72-108 in/lbs