85 351 4door Vic **DUW**

[johnunit]

Allright. I was only trying to remove it to repaint the bracket, so I won't bother for now, messing with the pulley isn't worth it.

[1987cp]

Oh, okay. Being only four bolts, the pulley itself isn't a huge deal, though I'll be the first to admit that bending over the header panel and reaching around the fan clutch to get them out is a bit painful.

[marquisman]

noice, you got the same sorta EEC thing as my 85 wagon

[Nathan in MI]

...they may also be scouts for an alien race that is studying my car and I from afar for the purposes of casting a reality TV show in which a young Earthling and his car (newly equipped with rockets) travels throughout the universe sampling the best food various galaxies have to offer.

That's what I'm thinking, too.

[insomniac391]

i think you need a higher resolution camera

[1987cp]

noice, you got the same sorta EEC thing as my 85 wagon

But is that a good thing?

[johnunit]

The radiator has had a slow leak (1 inch of coolant loss in the rad for a half hour driving) for a couple weeks now. My ghetto exhaust-system-sealer repair job only half worked, but did allow me to limp around while I dug up the money.

185 bucks for a Spectra Premium radiator. A 2-core radiator that turned out to be different from the police 351 rad, and both 302 models. Another 40ish for goodyear rad hoses. I almost left without these, but checked the rad at the last minute and found that the outlets were a good 3rd larger than the ones on the stock rad. I don't know why the aftermarket guys changed that, but I'll find out friday whether it all fits.


Is a rad flush bottle from an auto parts store worth my while for cleaning out the coolant passages and heater core? Am I better off just running it with water for a while or something? I'm kind of a cooling system n00b.

[pantera77]

Is a rad flush bottle from an auto parts store worth my while for cleaning out the coolant passages and heater core? Am I better off just running it with water for a while or something? I'm kind of a cooling system n00b.

If your coolant system looks anything like mine, then yes. I always unhook my heater core when I flush everything. One of those "do not disturb" things.

[johnunit]

My heater core is clogged. I don't wanna blow it, obviously, but I also want to flush it so that I get some heat.

Maybe I should just run some water/flush mix through there at no pressure (just holding one hose up high and filling it)?

[1987cp]

My heater core is clogged. I don't wanna blow it, obviously, but I also want to flush it so that I get some heat.

Maybe I should just run some water/flush mix through there at no pressure (just holding one hose up high and filling it)?

That's sort of what I thought when I read the above. Maybe disconnect both heater hoses so you're squirting water though only the heater?

Trying to decide whether running something like CLR though it would be at all advisable .... I'm thinking maybe not.

[johnunit]

I'll probably start by running low-pressure water through backwards with both heater hoses disconnected, and go from there based on how much crap comes out. Next step would be a weak concentration of radiator flush being left to sit a while in the heater core.

Would CLR be that different in strength or makeup from rad flush?

[johnunit]

Radiator was wrong size, despite the brackets being the same oddball size, the tranny lines being at the right height, the rad hoses being the right diameter, and the thickness and height being dead on. It's about 6 inchest too thin (as in widthwise along the car) and couldn't really fit ANY crown vics with similar core supports.

I only found this out when I actually put the radiator in.

Needless to say, I'm pissed, and glad I kept the receipt.

Unfortunately:
1. I'm pretty sure the old radiator is 100% useless as anything other than a siv now, since my redneck repair was jarred loose on removal.
2. Every other price I got was both more expensive and not in stock
3. If it turns out that it was the radiator I ordered, and not just a clerical error, I'll be back to square one on finding the right radiator, and have to wait for any rad I order to come in before measuring it to HOPE that one is right.

FUCCCKKK


Will probably post pics tomorrow of the pretty little radiator and the haggered monstrosity (that at least fit) beside it.

[johnunit]

Oh dear. It appears the last post promised pics 2 weeks ago...

Well, better late than never:



Old nasty radiator. I mean, REALLY old and REALLY nasty.




Brand new one, really pretty, all racing-looking...but it needed to be 6 inches bigger.


Unfortunately, I only found that out after doing this:



Yeah, that won't do at all:


Let's pull it out and compare:


oooooo crap.


Well, if the car is going to be radiator-less for the next week anyway I might as well paint the nasty battery bracketry:



Fortunately, the parts goons at Hotspot Autoparts had the RIGHT radiator waiting for me. It looks purrtttyyy





I've got a few appearance things to do as the nicer weather comes in:





I'm gonna pull off the silver accent strip, sand down and re-paint the rust popping up behind it. The back side is worse, but some finishing putty and seam sealer should leave it looking factoryish.

Any advice for refurbishing the strip itself? I was thinking of sanding it lengthwise with a 320grit or so sandpaper, then hitting it with the same plastic paint I used on the radiator drain plug. Has anyone tried any different techniques?

This is an older repair, and from what I can tell it's all bodyfiller. No fiberglass or even primer, let alone real metal. I'll strip it all down and see what I have sometime this spring:


Now for general/beauty shots aplenty. First coat of wax it's had in far too long.




















Uhh.. yeah, a mod might wanna put a DUW tag on this.

now for something a little sentimental:

This is a Ford oval that my dad bought for me when I was about 10. I wanted it to put on my first car (and first ford), because I knew that I'd have one someday. It's about an inch too big for the front emblem, but I'm gonna stick it on there anyway, since the old emblem is cracked:

[87gtVIC]

Still shines up damn well. And as far as refurbishing the trim on the trunk...no idea? I just threw it out.

[marquisman]

nice car man...where do you live bro?