Buyer's Remorse (AKA "Hideous") - Giraffe's 1990 Grand Marquis LS

[Giraffe]

Started tearing it down to replace the valve cover and intake gaskets. Got as far as having the upper off before I ran out of daylight. Should have taken a picture. So many vacuum lines. Speaking of vacuum, there was a ton of crap underneath the upper plenum. Plan is to replace gaskets and clean up to eventually be followed by a pressure wash.

I have a few days off between tomorrow and new years and plan to flush the coolant as well.

Also, a bit of good news! Got the car back from the transmission shop. There was no bobber in the pan. The transmission appears to be in fine shape and shifts great. The new u-joints and balanced drive shaft are nice and smooth; no more vibration on the highway. I can finally drive faster than 55 mph! She'll be taking up daily driver duties once the new gaskets are in and the coolant is flushed. I have to admit that I disconnected the heater hose that goes over the passenger valve cover in order to get at the valve cover bolts; the fluid that came out was very, very brown. I'm worried about pulling the covers off to find sludge city. Hopefully not. In any case, glad to finally be getting some work done on this.

[jaywish]

Sometimes brown means there is Barrs stop leak in the system. It has fooled me more then once.

You know, flush it out so it looks beautiful (happy happy joy joy), then find it has a slow leak, then dump new brown stuff back in.

[DerekTheGreat]

Flush flush flush!

[Giraffe]

So dirty.



I'm a little bit nervous. This is the farthest I've ever torn down an engine that I intend to eventually put back together.



Is there a good way to clean around the engine without getting anything into the cylinders? The old gaskets were in dire need of replacement. The PCV screen and grommet were both very much clogged.

I'm just ordering new heater and coolant hoses now. This thing needs a flush so bad. Definitely bars leak. Any bets on what will start leaking once all of it is flushed out?

Any tips on what to use to best clean the gasket surfaces?

[gadget73]

I use a razor and carefully get rid of any gasket residue.

A shop vac you don't like works good to clean crap up with. Makes the hose nasty though.

Make sure you change the oil before first startup.

[87gtVIC]

Four bolts threaded into the heads to allow the intake to drop perfectly onto your gaskets. May be hard considering you left the dizzy in place.

As far as gaskets goes some say ditch the china wall gaskets and go straight RTV.

I use the rubber china walls with some RTV at the corners. No cork for me please.

+1 for sharp razor blade for cleaning surfaces.

I would have cleaned up really really with a pressure washer before the tear down. Hard to clean everything now without chancing something falling where it shouldn't. Now you can just do it once everything is reinstalled.

[gadget73]

yeah pull the distributor and use the guide bolts. Its a lot less annoying. Mark the distributor and do not spin the engine until its back in.

[87gtVIC]

Example of the guide bolts ready for action on my car this past month:

[jaywish]

guide bolts AKA Studs.
Get studs or cut the heads off some cheap bolts.

[Giraffe]

I was planning on using some dabs of RTV to help hold the gaskets in the right spot. It might be a good idea to go ahead and pull the distributor as the gasket kit came with a new o-ring. I got everything cleaned up and ready today. Took forever to clean the valve covers. They look much better now.

Things will start going back together tomorrow. Planning a power wash afterward.

[gadget73]

dab in each corner is all you need.

change the thermostat while the lower intake is off. Takes like 2 minutes with it on the ground, or you'll cuss at it while its in because its cumbersome to do.

[Giraffe]

I'm leaving the thermostat out for the time being as I plan to flush the coolant as soon as it's back together and running. I can see how it would be cumbersome with the intake installed; that lower bolt is slightly behind the water pump which makes it super difficult to get a socket on it.

I started installing everything today. I have plenty of time, so I'm moving slowly.

Followed advice and pulled the distributor after taking some pictures of the base for reference.



Getting gaskets in place. I have perma dry with the rubber walls, so I decided to use them.



I let that sit for a while so the RTV could tack up and cleaned up the fuel rail and injectors. The injector ports on the intake as well as the injectors themselves were dirty as hell. This wasn't even the worst one. I also threw on a new Motorcraft FPR since this was the best/easiest time to replace it. The original was still installed. Also cleaned up the main injector harness before putting it back in place. I had only cleaned the passenger side of the harness when I snapped a photo. This is why I will never live on a dirt road if I can help it.



Found this when I removed the throttle body for cleaning. The EGR side was worse. Why would anyone put this crap in their car? Just fix the leak! My money is on the water pump springing a leak once I flush all this out.



What a difference.

[gadget73]

It may not be stop leak, it might just be "Change the coolant? Why? It came with coolant." It gets pretty disgusting.

Ratchet wrench is the trick for the thermostat bolts. the bigger trick is getting the thermostat to sit in there, though if you use the self-stick gaskets it works much better. Don't run without a thermostat long, the EFI and the engine in a general sense will not appreciate it one little bit.

Socket key cap screws and allen keys with ball ends make future thermostat access easier. I've been meaning to do that for like 10 years now, and despite having 2 cars that I've had things apart unknown numbers of times, both still rock original bolts.

[sly]

FYI: leaving the thermostat out can actually cause the car to overheat as the coolant doesn't have enough time to cool or pick up heat in the engine since it's moving much faster. It seems a little counter intuitive, but several have had that issue.

I've also never had issues with leaving the thermostat in when flushing the system. I've had the same thermostat in my beater since I installed it back in 2007. It's been through at least 2 flushes that I've done.

[Giraffe]

I'll go ahead and throw the new thermostat in, then. The new heater hoses I ordered should arrive Friday. All that will go on along with new spark plugs/cap/rotor. All kinds of corrosion on the spark plug wire terminals. After I get it running I want to remove the front accessories so I can clean it really good under there.