H.O. Upper stuff swap on LoPo - Does this produce noticable gains?

[DerekTheGreat]

Pantera! Did you have to seal up your TB's air bleed hole to fix a high idle?

[BuffaloRider]

Hmmm... reading this thread has got me realizing that this HO intake swap isn't as hard as I thought. I've been planning to remove the upper intake manifold on my 90 Grand Marquis to replace the valve cover gaskets and other shtuff... From the sounds of it, if I can gather up the the parts and bore out an EGR spacer, I'd only be a few more bolts away from an HO swap. Would this be accurate to say?

[pantera77]

Pantera! Did you have to seal up your TB's air bleed hole to fix a high idle?

Nope, and I've done this on multiple cars.

[gadget73]

Hmmm... reading this thread has got me realizing that this HO intake swap isn't as hard as I thought. I've been planning to remove the upper intake manifold on my 90 Grand Marquis to replace the valve cover gaskets and other shtuff... From the sounds of it, if I can gather up the the parts and bore out an EGR spacer, I'd only be a few more bolts away from an HO swap. Would this be accurate to say?

you are correct sir.

Pantera! Did you have to seal up your TB's air bleed hole to fix a high idle?

I had to do this once. It was a throttle body that had an oddly large air bleed hole though. I believe the fix was a pop rivet to plug the hole. I think it was actually an Exploder throttle body come to think of it.

[88Vic]

What about an EGR spacer off something else, like a 351 E-Series or F-Series, or is it the same as the HO spacer?

[DerekTheGreat]

Nope, and I've done this on multiple cars.

Sweet. This will get done. I saw Thain's intake set-up from a whale of some sort, relocated the washer & coolant overflow bottle and it looks like it grew there, only I've got an air compressor in the way. I will most likely keep that stock but in will go the TB, spacer & HO upper and then I'll put trac loc out back. Need details on the 11" drummies, someone said it's a direct bolt on upgrade...

I had to do this once. It was a throttle body that had an oddly large air bleed hole though. I believe the fix was a pop rivet to plug the hole. I think it was actually an Exploder throttle body come to think of it.

Easy enough! I'll soon be done fiddling with this thing, wow.

[gadget73]

What about an EGR spacer off something else, like a 351 E-Series or F-Series, or is it the same as the HO spacer?

I think those are a twin bore throttle body.

[88Vic]

The 351 is too? I knew the 302 is, don't know about the 351 though.

[knucklehead0202]

Yes the truck/vans of that era were all twin-bore throttle bodies, making the lightning an anomaly for the time. Anyhow, Derek, I'd just do the whole exhaust with the headers and 2.5" so as to not do it twice. I honestly have noticed no difference in low-end torque and negligible in the mid-upper due to the bone-stock turd lopo, but once I get some other stuff done I'm sure it'll pay off. Definitely do cats and air tubes because these suckers are super-stinky without them. As it turns out Ford actually seemed to know what they were doing with emissions controls and they run much cleaner with everything hooked up. My car seems to be stinkier than old cars that were never designed for emissions controls. Bear in mind it has brand new 02 sensors on it, a fresh tune-up, and doesn't seem to burn any oil. As it turns out my idle issues were due to a vacuum leak at the tree and I had a high idle from the shitty non-motorcraft iac I put in. After capping the vacuum leak(parking brake release) and putting the original iac back on, she idles fine.

My list of "things to do to car" includes a couple dozen things but I've started marking them with priority numbers. Just sold the '98 over the weekend, to a buddy, so that put a little cash in the coffers. Going to pay some bills but priority 1 is getting the cats on it and re-connecting the air tubes to the exhaust to un-stinky this bastard. It may run better with a bit more back-pressure too but the difference will likely be negligible. After that I need to put a fucking STEREO in it! Having nothing but am/fm is extremely depressing. It's got cassette but it's broken, which is a bummer, so I've gotta do something. I have a good intake manifold and once I get the rest of the intake tract worked out, i'll probably stick that on, as well as some 1.7 rockers. That aside, I'm going to be likely piecing together stuff for a motor and trans swap, rather than trying to dick with what's in there. Ultimately I plan to do a stock-block 347, semi-built AOD, 3.55 or 3.73 with trac-loc or a good diff, and perhaps some forced induction at some point. Lots of little crap of course will go along with this of course but I don't feel it's worthy of mention in the meantime.

Suffice to say though, if you're doing exhaust, just do it once, and definitely put flanges on stuff wherever you can. I took my stuff into the exhaust shop and they pretty much chopped my mustang h-pipe into pieces and eliminated all the flanges, which kinda pisses me off. Will be taking the car to my "other" shop for the follow up cat work and have them put in flanges between the h and tailpipes.

Question for everyone; does anybody make better motor or trans mounts for these cars? The mustang ones look to be much different but it may just be the pictures. Any advice? Also, will the later MMX/aluminum P71 driveshafts fit these cars or is there a length disparity?

[DerekTheGreat]

I stalled on the exhaust for awhile and really wanted to do 2.5" stainless from the manifolds back but research said that would've been a custom job to the tune of $900+. The exhaust shop I take my stuff to doesn't do stainless although there is one place near Port Huron that does I think. So rather than sit on the fence I just called that exhaust shop, took the car down there and they popped on the duals with turbo mufflers from the cats back. Check out my car's page for pics of before and after. They put 2.5" tips on it. When it rots off I'll redo it again but with all the money going into the GMC, Townie and house savings saving 400 or more on that helps the budget a bit. Then I find out the air ride isn't working, haven't dug into it yet but thanks to the fine folks at GMN I've got some leads!

I've got tons of Ford radios, amps & speakers I could send you if you want them, premium cassette, std cassette, premium amp blah blah...

[packman]

^^^^^^^That is a good price for stainless and having somebody do that for you. My exhaust components from headers to tailpipes was $900+^^^^^^^

As for the truck intake TBs; they all seem to be twin throttle. The 96 351W I have had the same TB.

Packman

[DerekTheGreat]

That was ball park for just having the pipes bent, not including cats or tip customization and really, that was just the number I cobbled together from everything I looked at. Not ready to throw down a G when I've got so many other fires to put out.

[87gtVIC]

Question for everyone; does anybody make better motor or trans mounts for these cars? The mustang ones look to be much different but it may just be the pictures. Any advice? Also, will the later MMX/aluminum P71 driveshafts fit these cars or is there a length disparity?

I have a mustang transmission mount in my car. close fit. I believe some things needed to be widened for the bolt holes to line up.

[knucklehead0202]

Thanks 87, i'll look into grabbing one. Motor mounts look way different though, should I just get stock replacments? Thanks for the offer Derek, i'll probably just pop by my favorite stereo shop and have them whack a decent head unit in there so I can at least play CD's, then later do some better speakers and such. Still have a pair of 10" kickers in the garage that have been waiting to go in something. Just don't want to lose much trunk space ya know, it being at such a premium in these cars and all...

[DerekTheGreat]

No problemo Mr. KHead. If anyone else wants OEM radio stuff let me know. Trunk space... If only Ford would've given up a bit to fit a larger gas tank, Casmolacks had 25 gallon tanks IIRC and best I've ever gotten out of my tank is about 230 miles... I'm used to things that do 350 or better, even with poor mileage. Gas tank on that big ole GMC we've got is 36 gallons, 454 is thirsty but at least you're not stopping all the time...