85 351 4door Vic **DUW**

[marquisman]

love the exhaust rumble. your running the thrush welded muffs right? iv been thinking about the cherrybomb extreem single chamber, for my lincoln. that way, i can get rid of that loud crackle.

[johnunit]

yeah thrush weldeds, just dumped without even turndowns. They drone, a lot. but sound god-tier given throttle, niggling leaks and taps elsewhere aside.

[Brown_Muscle]

Hey mang! How did moving and all go? Any updates on the vic?

[johnunit]

Sadly, no.

Some weird family stuff has led to me not even being able to look for a job and barely doing anything to the vic. It's been off the road since december.

The prius has some weirdass fault that no one can diagnose so I've put it up for sale (got 50+mpg when it was running, really sad to give up on it) and my family opted to buy me the mazda in my sig instead of financing the repair to the crown vic to get me back on wheels. Stuff is finally clearing up and I hope to get a job and maybe make some progress on the vic over the winter. Can't complain really when you're basically living for free and having a frigging car given to you, but not the greatest stretch for the crown vic or getting a career.

The move went well. Great place. The first few times parking the vic there will be...interesting, it's pretty tight. I thought I'd have the oldest car in the garage but there's a gorgeous 56 chevy convertible across from me.

[johnunit]

It's been a while...

I've been doing some more parts collecting and a little work on it.

Installed an optima redtop battery (drops at least 15 pounds from the very front corner, and the old one was dead). Got it for 265 with tax at Karbelt with a 5 year warranty. Pretty sweet.

Should finish up the re-do of the exhaust today. For now I am running offset/offset 14 inch case Magnaflow mufflers. Straight through stainless. Should be quiet enough that backseat passengers can have a conversation. Depending on what I think of the sound I'll either pick up some Spintech mufflers or put tailpipes on it. Either way it'll wait until the car is on the road.

At this point it's been sitting for a year and a half. I've moved it every few months but it still has a severe gas tank leak that prevents putting more than about a large jerry can in it. That'll be the last thing changed before I put it on the road.


I've also picked up 3.27 gears which will go in this summer, and am searching high and low for a 2000-3000rpm stall lockup converter. These two alone should make it a whole new car.

I've got a few rust bubbles on the driver's fender now. I'll likely patch them but it won't be perfect so a full repaint is now the big item I'm saving for. Ideally that'll involve replacement of the two left doors and the aformentioned fender.

Picked up a pair of LTD Crown Victoria NOS badges. Whether I use one to replace the trunk badge or just use them both when I replace the vinyl top (requiring removal of the badges there) remains to be seen.

The carb rebuild has been slowed down by some damaged linkages and such, but hopefully it'll still go on the road with a 4-barrel and Mustang air cleaner. I've yet to find anything I'm happy with for an air cleaner hose that'll connect to the Mustang snorkels but reach to the Crown Vic's wider fenders.

I've been tossing around the idea of finding some aesthetically ruined but still true alloy/aluminum wheels between 15X8 and 15X10, and throwing them along with Diamondback whitewalls. What I may do is put 15X8s and something like 255/60/15s on the rear for now, and move them to the front when big power (heads, cam, etc) comes. At that point something like 275 or 295 meat would go on the rear. Weight is a concern, hence the aluminum wheel idea. I THINK with some minor modification I can get the wheel covers to go on some alloy wheels, hence appearance not mattering. Save the weight, save the cost, keep it stock looking.

I was working ~56 hour weeks (which here means 10+ of it is time and a half pay) but that's slowed down to 30-40 so how much money I'll have to work with is sort of up in the air at this point.

So the "realistically done before fall" changes will be:
600cfm holley + 4 barrel intake (may use the truck intake or buy an Edelbrock 3783)
2500ish stall lockup converter
3.27 gears
new bumpers
lightweight battery
steering box replacement/rebuild
at least quell the exhaust leaks and get it reasonably quiet (replaced u-clamps with band clamps)
maybe wider rear tires.

[oldschool84]

nice put some daytons on it too

[johnunit]

Well, life got in the way and more delays. But I'm back picking up more parts.

Here's what I've got rounded up for the next time it's on the road:

still putting the 4160 600CFM holley on it, with 85 mustang fuel bowls so stock evap stuff is maintained. This will still go under the 85 mustang air cleaner mentioned previously in the thread
New addition:

Edelbrock Performer intake. Very mild dual plane, but good for at least as much RPM as my cam and heads. And literally 50 pounds (or more) lighter than the iron truck intake I was prepping


No pics, but I also gave in and bought a Lokar AOD cable kit. Quality is decent and it's black, but I'll still see about getting the original rod setup to work if I can.

This will all sit on a mild ported pair of E7 heads. Should bump compression to 9.3:1 or so. They were pulled off a mustang running 10's with a turbo on it. I haven't examined the ports too closely, but it's all been cleaned up and the air pump bumps are gone from the exhaust ports.

Assuming the ports aren't hogged out that much, it should still be good for a 10-15hp boost just because of the compression and exhaust flow improvements

They came with mystery valve springs which are definitely high-end, but I may end up replacing if they're too stiff for the stock flat tappet cam


Lots of work done, supposedly raced and lightly street driven for a couple seasons since



Best part? They came with Ford Racing 1.72 roller rocks. Pedestal mount.
Oh and ARP head studs, bolts, and pushrods if anyone wants that. They're for a 302 block. Just pay shipping for GMN members


So I need some random tubing type stuff, figuring out how to activate the smog pump (may just default it to going to the heads instead of cats all the time for now), checking pushrod length, probably new springs, and then I'll have this for an engine:

stock 351W shortblock
E7 mild ported heads
600CFM 4160 holley fed by a dual-snorkel setup drawing from the fenderwells
Edelbrock Performer dual plane intake
Probably stock cam
1.72 roller rockers
Underdrive pulleys
1 5/8 Mustang 351w shorty headers
2.5" catted H with magnaflows.

Still not 100% sure what I'll do with the tails. I have Marquisman's old setup that goes over the axle and comes out in chrome tips behind the wheels, but I also have the Impala tails that people often use, AND I have Toronto's best exhaust shop a 5 minute drive from work. Who knows.



I also need to get my gas tank resealed, that'll be done right before it's put back on the road



The tires are ancient at this point, so I needed new tires. I ended up with this:



test fit on a random Mazda6 at work


I still need to buy the front tires, but eventually it'll be:
15X8.5" Weld Draglites with 255 or 275 width Mickey Thompson Sportsman S/Ts up front
15X10" Draglites with 295/50/15's on the back
The M/T's are a more modern answer to the classic BF Goodrich Radial T/A. The Draglites are basically the lightest 15 inch wheels without going $500+ per wheel race-only stuff
It'll all be covered by the stock wheel covers, and I'll drill holes in the centre caps so even the locking function will be retained, by running a bolt through the center hole in the wheel covers and securing said bolt in the Weld centrecaps. Then I either grind down the white lettering to expose the whitewall beneath (think when someone rubs through by hitting the curb, but controlled) or flip it around to the blackwall, and I have a 100% stock look until you get behind the car and notice the steamroller width.

These things are SO light that I'll actually be dropping overall weight, tires included, by going from 215's to 275s and 295s.

Still need to get the special nuts for the wheels, figure out what spacers I need, and probably do extended wheel studs.

So when it's on the road next, it'll have the upgraded wheels and tires, the top end swap, hopefully at least a new front bumper, and the rear police swaybar. Oh and the frame repaired in the classic rot hole...

Once I drive it with that combo, I'll triage which of the following happen first:
3.27 gears (already bought the gears, but not the stuff to install it)
front control arm poly bushings
box rear control arms (bought already) and poly bushings
2500ish stall converter
custom roller cam
window and lock motors

The body has gone downhill a bit, but beyond quick touchups I'm going to wait. I'll buy new front fenders and driver's side doors if I find a decent deal, but I've decided to get the mechanicals sorted before worrying about prettiness.

[johnunit]

Oh and as for the progress with the actual car, well, winter in canada and no garage mean it's got literally 2 feet of snow on it.

[marquisman]

Depending on your set up, I don't think 275s on the front will work. And I know what you mean about having multiple feet of snow, taking cars hostage lol.

[johnunit]

Depending on your set up, I don't think 275s on the front will work. And I know what you mean about having multiple feet of snow, taking cars hostage lol.

I just looked, and they've discontinued 275's unless I want them an inch too tall, so 255's it is.

[marquisman]

I think 255 will look good. That is a 60 series tire on a 15'' rim, correct?

[johnunit]

yeah the front would be a 60.

[marquisman]

Nice. All wheels should look consistent in height, when looking at the side of the car. Wire hub caps will look interesting though.

[pantera77]

255's work good up front on an all around car.

[johnunit]

I sure hope so. it'll be like 450-500 just for the fronts by the time they're at my door. Supposedly these things are a lot better than the BF Goodrich's, but 10% of me is saying I should have just gone with 16" turbines and a modern performance tire.