1990 Crown Victoria Station Wagon

[Freshmeat]

My dad told me I can have his old wagon, as he doesn't really plan to do anything with it... and I'm at the point that I can tinker with things again and I'm looking for a street toy, so I figure this could work out well... if I can get it running. It's 100% stock, mostly original. Unknown mileage, but it ran great until it died on me three years ago for no known reason. Had to push that big bitch a quarter mile back to my dad's house. Here is where we did the tests on it, after it was randomly relocated throughout the yard a few times for the past three years...





Tied it to my F150 and pulled it up to the concrete so I'll be able to get under it when I need to.



I haven't seen a Panther engine this original in YEARS...



The goal is to get it running on the 302SO, to make sure everything else is worth it enough to justify working on it. The body is surprisingly straight and there's almost zero rust (you northerners would hate me) so I think it'll be worth it, but I'm not going to spend a dime on anything but diagnostics until I know exactly what's wrong.

Once it's going it'll get the standard drop springs, a K-code rear axle with discs, better wheels/tires, and the newer brakes... then I'll buckle down and decide whether I actually want to go with a big block and a C6 or if I want to stick with the small block and toss in a T5.

I'll update if/when I resolve the no start issue and get this thing going again.

[87gtVIC]

Looks like a very solid wagon. Hopefully the issue that occurred three years ago is easy to find and resolve.

[Freshmeat]

Well, easy to find has already been thrown out the window. We did substantial testing on it back in the day and even more today. I think my next step is going to be to pull the timing cover to see if my timing jumped.

[RustyRodder]

Cool!

Id love if mine was a wagon...

[packman]

Nice. Big Block eh? Hopefully you will go through with it and we can see our first BBF Panther in here.



Packman

[Rodentkiller]

Check the TFI Module thay are famous for going south.

[91grandmarquis]

I wish my car came with zero rust, wish I had some pics of her before the body work.

[Brandon]

Not a bad looking Wagon. I hope you get it running.

[79lincolnlover]

Looks like a very solid car to work with.

[Freshmeat]

The whole bit about not spending money didn't last long. I was at the junk yard and grabbed GT40 intakes, 19# injectors, and 65mm throttle body. I'm going back tomorrow for the P heads and possibly a roller 351 short block. Scott has a distributor, Lightning EGR spacer, and Mark VII LSC ECM on their way to me.

I am also in negotiations for a complete 1986 Mustang GT with a World Class T5, equal length headers (that I'd sell) a spare T5, and tons of extra parts, including a fresh 306. He wants $400 for all of it, but I'm a cheap ass so I'm trying to get it for less.

[tamalpass]

Cool!

And it's one color, too!

[Freshmeat]

Well, the "fresh" 306 ended up being an old '86 F150 motor with flat tappet cam, E5 heads, and two cylinders coated with rust from not being properly maintained with Louisiana climates. I told him I'm not interested. He has someone else wanting to check things out, but if that guy bails I may still be able to sling him a few bucks for the T5 and pedals. We'll see. I went ahead and bought the 4-cyl T5- I figure if nothing else, I'll be able to get everything in and going with that until I can work a deal on something stronger. It has a significantly lower first gear anyway, so it'll help with the 3.08s currently in the car until I can score a good K-code axle.

Scott's parts came in today; I'll go swap out the distributor after dinner and see if that fixes the no start issue it's been rocking for almost four years, now. I'm very hopeful that'll get it going.

[Freshmeat]

Well, it's running again! Time to get started!

Right off, I have the parts to do:
Later model "cold air intake" to get the air box off the exhaust system...
Taurus fan install...
3G conversion...
Aluminum driveshaft swap...
Most of a dual 2.5" exhaust...

But before ANY of that happens, I'm going to flush/fill the cooling system, set the timing, and SCRUB THE FAWK OUT OF IT.

[87gtVIC]

Awesome. Looking forward to the fan install. I wanna see how that goes. Hell I wanna see how everything goes.

[murphmobile2]

Looks good, especially for free.

If it's got any mildew growing on it from sitting for so long, simple green degreaser does wonders, used that to get mildew off my Beretta when I first bough it. Around the trunk seals there was a bunch, just sprayed, let sit, and wiped clean.