FrankinMerc Lives!

[BigT]

Finished the major part of a HO upgrade on my 86 Grand Marquis. Heads, cam, and computer are from an 87 Mustang GT.

[DerekTheGreat]

I'll watch the video later but sweet dude! Headers look great and so too does that alternator, what's it from? Why not a computer from a Mark VII?

[BigT]

The alternator is 3G for 89 Mustang. I got the HO parts off the resale section of a Mustang forum site.

[DerekTheGreat]

3G from an 89 Rustang? That idle hunt on start up reminded me of my dad's old '90 Mark VII when he'd start it for the first time every year after storage. His would do that for five minutes or so though and then never again after that until the battery was disconnected. Nice job though, one day my car will have HO goodies in it.

[87gtVIC]

People sell kits for the Mustangs with 3g alts.


Nice work. You get to drive her yet? Happy?

[gadget73]

Hmph, fuel pump eccentric and a single row timing chain. That bullshit was supposed to have gone away. Must have been a Monday car or something. Wish there wsa some way to tell which ones had that stupid crap. It shows up randomly even after they mostly went away from that POS design.

Only concern I might raise is to ask what you are using for the cam dowel retainer? There needs to be something in there to lock that dowel pin in place otherwise it can walk out. The fuel pump eccentric will take care of that, or the goofy slinger thing that the dual row chains typically came with.

[BigT]

People sell kits for the Mustangs with 3g alts.


Nice work. You get to drive her yet? Happy?

I did drive it a little bit...but not too far. It’s soooo loud! I had to use ear plugs. I have an appointment with the muffler shop this Friday. I’m having dual exhaust with an H pipe and Walker SS Quiet Flow mufflers installed.

Hmph, fuel pump eccentric and a single row timing chain. That bullshit was supposed to have gone away. Must have been a Monday car or something. Wish there wsa some way to tell which ones had that stupid crap. It shows up randomly even after they mostly went away from that POS design.

Only concern I might raise is to ask what you are using for the cam dowel retainer? There needs to be something in there to lock that dowel pin in place otherwise it can walk out. The fuel pump eccentric will take care of that, or the goofy slinger thing that the dual row chains typically came with.

I put in a mustang fuel pump in the tank about two years ago. I had to pretty much press in the dowel pin into the GT cam. I also used lock tight on the timing bolt.

[BigT]

I’ve been working out some small bugs after the HO upgrade, but so far I'm pleased with the results. I definitely feel it pulling better at higher RPMs. The new exhaust is music to my ears.

I’ve bumped up the timing higher and higher. I was going to back off the timing once I heard pinging on my partial, ¾, to full throttle runs, but never did. I went as high as 20 degrees. At 20 degrees, the engine started to a little stumble at idle, but put it in gear and on the drive, it still ran fine without pinging.

The last I remember I put in 87 octane. After it sat for a while, I did put some fuel stabilizer in the tank, but that’s it. I put the timing back down to 14 degrees for now.

Those of you running the HO upgrade, what do you set your timing?

[87gtVIC]

Not HO here but run the lopo at 14.

What little bugs are your working out?

[BigT]

Little bugs are water leak, electric fan switch stopped working, head lights acting weird, and vacuum leak.

I was getting a water leak between the large nut and water heater pipe in the front of the intake manifold. Had to retighten it down to the point I was afraid I would crack the intake manifold. It still leaked a little, so I put in some stop leak glass stuff (brass or copper in it). That stop the last bit of leakage. Reflushed the system today and still no leaks. Guess I cleaned the gap in the pipe/nut area too good and caused it to leak.

Tapping on the electric fan switch seems to get it to work, but I may have to replace it or take it apart to see what's causing the stickiness.

The head lights came on OK, but the passenger low was very dim. Tapping on the relays (upgraded from factory light switch) all the lights came on even in low beam mode. After shutting them off and on a few times, they seem to be working. May need to check my ground wires.

The vacuum leak was caused by the oil can I put in the PVC system. I took it out and ran the hose straight to the PCV valve and the car ran great. That's when I started messing with the timing.

Everything was going so well the last two day, then I tried the oil can again after RTV sealing all connections parts of the can...well crap! The idle surging came back. Worst than before. At the low end of the surge, it will actually die. I took off the can and reconnected like before, but still not much better. After awhile the idle will smooth out. But restart the car and it's back. The hose just slides on and off to the vacuum port with no effort now. So I'm going to try to put a clamp on it and the PCV valve end too. I just came back from a Wal-Mart trip and I've lost my confidence in the car. So I won't be driving it to work tomorrow.

I think most of the problems are from the car sitting for so long and not being used. I just hope I can get this idle surging fixed...again!

[Grand Marquis GT]

How'd the slicktop conversion go?

[BigT]

The slicktop conversion has been on hold since I started the HO conversion. Once I feel that the engine won't die on me, I'll start back on it. Well also after I do the brakes, they are a bit thin on the front.

[BigT]

Just came back from messing with the timing and it might be the coil not a vacuum leak. I started another thread for discussion:

http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthre...53219-Bad-Coil

[Bobcat]

dude.. Why didn't you put good heads on it? Not E7 junk

[BigT]

This is my 1st HO upgrade. Before I spend some serious money on engine parts, I wanted to make sure this worked. Plans for the future is to go to mass air and make sure that works too. After that, I see a crate motor or total rebuild with a stroker and high flow heads in the future. But for now, one step at a time. That is why I didn't really do much to the bottom end of the motor.