My 1987 Mercury Colony Park

[DerekTheGreat]

Ya know, if someone offered an off the shelf performance kit which included cam, heads, intake & related bits, and a computer/tune, I'd buy it. Would be fun to wake the Town Car up.

[knucklehead0202]

if you swap in an HO motor with everything including a MAF computer, shit would get much easier. I want to get another fox mustang just because of how easy it is to bolt crap on them and go. That said, with some patience and creativity, you can build your own "package" and have decent results. Short of the cam, don't reckon anybody makes a cam for our turds. I'll bet Ed Curtis at FTI could make something up though. The right cam, mild heads, HO or better intake, TB, etc would probably make a good little runner of the LoPo. Really wish i could've driven my setup longer to see how it did. Trans and TV pressure were limiting factors as much as anything. Because the stupid AOD wouldn't hold a gear without being floored the car wasn't happy because it bogged under WOT. Manually shifting produced decent results but i bought an automatic for a reason. I do miss the 4r70w sometimes but reckon the built AOD should perform fine.

Just never understood why Ford had to ass-backwards everything and dumb down the power on a larger, heavier car. Wouldn't it be cheaper to produce one engine, cam, intake, computer, etc? Hell, have the intakes point the same way and use the same airbox even. Probably would've saved enough money they never would have had to make the shitty taurus, lol. I dunno, just things that bother me about the panthers. When i had my p71 people always asked me "Oh does it have the big motor in it?" No, just a shitty detuned version of the mustang motor, hooray....

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Just never understood why Ford had to ass-backwards everything and dumb down the power on a larger, heavier car. Wouldn't it be cheaper to produce one engine, cam, intake, computer, etc? Hell, have the intakes point the same way and use the same airbox even. Probably would've saved enough money they never would have had to make the shitty taurus, lol. I dunno, just things that bother me about the panthers. When i had my p71 people always asked me "Oh does it have the big motor in it?" No, just a shitty detuned version of the mustang motor, hooray....

Gotta keep your muscle cars muscle-y I guess, lol. No idea why they needed to de-tune our cars outside of the demographic they marketed towards probably wasn't concerned about their 0-60 times. On the flip side of the coin, if you consider the 4.6, it did start in our cars (1991 Town Car), but didn't get the PI stuff until after the Mustang. Maybe they wanted to keep reliability up on the platform where they could and tested new stuff on the 'Stang group instead. FWIW, I like the Gen I/II Taurus and Sables.

Of course I've been getting lists of things I'll need setup, mostly basic stuff. Won't be pulling the trigger on the stuff soon, since I don't have anything yet. I went to Summit's site and I plan to get the alignment dowels and ARP head bolts. I can get the rest of my gaskets and such through work, along with the sealants and stuff. That'll make this a bit cheaper. I'll probably grab an extra EGR spacer and send it off to JeffBoudah for milling. Need to source up a reasonable set of 1.7 rockers. I'll poke around and see what I can find.

For the time being, I've just got to deal with some minor things in the interim. The lower intake seems to be seeping coolant out of the front to the passenger side of the distributor and it pooled up on top of the water pump area. Nick recommended I try and ensure the intake is nice and tight up front. I'll give that a shot next time I'm messing with it. I swapped on a NIB spare cap and rotor I had laying about and swapped out the plug wires. Idle is better, but I think I may have found an area of interest that may be affecting it. I think the brake booster may have a small vacuum leak. I can manipulate the idle based on how hard I press on the brake pedal. At about 50%, there's hissing audible inside. The pedal is firm, however, so I may hold off on that unless it become an issue. It stops fine, so I'll keep an eye on everything.

[87gtVIC]

Here are two videos (one rather long) that show my car when LOPO's HO upper power and then now full on HO+

From 2011:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXwy...ature=youtu.be

and from more recently:

Watching these videos again makes me appreciate all the work to make her go a bit faster.

[DerekTheGreat]

Why did they not give these things power? Answer is simple, just look at the sales figures. And also, if you look at the full size cars that were still around at the time most of the competition came from GM. Those were powered mostly by carbureted 307 turd engines with a whopping 240ish lbft of torque and maybe 140HP, so Fords with their SEFI felt much better off the line and were better by comparison. I whole heartedly agree though that at least for the Lincoln buyers a hotter engine should have been offered/standard, like the truck 302, the extra 20-30 ponies would have made a difference.

I'm at a war with my car and what to do with it. Since it's now essentially a flower pot, it doesn't need to go fast. It does the job of cruising just peachy, especially below 60mph. More oomph would be nice, especially if it enabled it to roast the tires from the line, would just be cool to see. Yet, the only way I'd realistically do it is if the current engine threw a rod. (..Is that bad?)

[BigMerc96]

Why did they not give these things power? Answer is simple, just look at the sales figures. And also, if you look at the full size cars that were still around at the time most of the competition came from GM. Those were powered mostly by carbureted 307 turd engines with a whopping 240ish lbft of torque and maybe 140HP, so Fords with their SEFI felt much better off the line and were better by comparison. I whole heartedly agree though that at least for the Lincoln buyers a hotter engine should have been offered/standard, like the truck 302, the extra 20-30 ponies would have made a difference.

I'm at a war with my car and what to do with it. Since it's now essentially a flower pot, it doesn't need to go fast. It does the job of cruising just peachy, especially below 60mph. More oomph would be nice, especially if it enabled it to roast the tires from the line, would just be cool to see. Yet, the only way I'd realistically do it is if the current engine threw a rod. (..Is that bad?)

Very true. If you think a Box is slow, drive a '80s Caprice or better yet, a Fleetwood. My co-worker recently bought and sold a '87 Fleetwood Brougham powered by the mighty carburetted 307 Olds.. That makes a sefi lopo feel like a rocketship. Granted, in the Caddy that engine was damn near silent and you really could not tell it was running, and the car was at least capable of keeping up with traffic. I still want one tho. Was tempted to buy it from him. Total cream-puff, triple blue, 68k original miles, only issue was the typical paint issues on the hood/trunk and he had those painted. He sold it for $2500..Should have bought it.

[DerekTheGreat]

No, no you shouldn't have, especially for $2,500 and if it wasn't a d'Elegance
If you really want one of those, get a 90-92 model year car with the LO5. That's the 350 TBI motor which was good for something like 210 HP & 300lbft of torque, not to mention you got the wonders of a serpentine belt set-up and a cleaner engine bay plus digi dash. By '91 those were standard with the LO3 (305) but I think in '90 the turd 307 was still standard. I almost test drove one years ago, was a 1990 that the guy told me was a 350. But, I get there, pop the hood and see 4 or 6 accessory belts and that crappy Olds oil filler neck sticking out at me & said "Nope!" and promptly fucked off.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Drove it the other day, put gas in it, and washed it down. Magic coolant leak was absent and I couldn't find any signs of seepage. The area where it pooled was dry for the most part.

MPG on this tank were abysmal at 11.7 MPG. I've not had mileage that low in this car, ever. Now admittedly, it has been parked a lot more since June. The last time I put gas in it was Oct. 11. I don't know if evaporation was at play over this period, but it's a bit unusual to me. I'd only been taking it around the block every week or so, which is mostly in slow traffic, but even before, the average was usually in the 14-16 range.

I'm also about half tempted to yank the upper intake off again just to make sure I put everything back on correctly and have it seated well. Obviously I'm a broken record over the idle issue, because every time I think it's right, it's not.

Me repeating my dumb self warning:
It's not bad the way it was back in June when the pickup went, however it's not quite back to the way it was before then. I don't remember it having so much "shake/vibration" in the interior at idle. So far it's gotten plugs, wires, coil (replaced when TFI went bad a few months prior), injectors, and distributor (TFI is Motorcraft). I've replaced questionable or cracking vacuum lines. I haven't pulled the SPOUT lately to see if any differences exist in how it runs. I'd almost be tempted to grab a distributor from the junkyard and install it just to see if anything changes. My luck wasn't good with the first new distributor. Maybe the pickup in these new ones just aren't up to snuff. Timing is correct assuming the balancer hasn't slipped, but Nick installed a new one not long before I got it, so I'd hope that's not the case.

The way I describe this issue feels dumb, because the car goes down the road fine for the most part. Accelerating from a stop, fine. Cruising at 55 MPH in OD? Fine. Idling in drive, you can tell it's not smooth. You can feel a vibration. Slowed down to 30 MPH and it's still in 3rd? Chug, chug, chug, whole car shudders with each chug until about 35-37 MPH and RPMs increase. Deceleration gets weird below 30 MPH sometimes, and it'll hitch a bit slowing down, like a skip. Maybe the decel issue is TV pressure related. The other stuff? I'm not sure. I'd almost think that might be a timing issue, either not advancing or retarding properly.

The only component I don't have a baseline for idle/driveability is the injectors. Those were replaced while it was running poorly, however it seemed to behave the same while it was out of whack. They're 4 hole type ones that claimed to be 14 lbs injectors. I hope those aren't faulty since I did not hold onto the originals.

I've used a lot of the suggestions posted here to try and troubleshoot. I need to have some extra spares laying around so I can swap things around. Sorry to keep going in circles on this subject, I just had to vent.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

Poked around with it again today.

Checked timing with SPOUT out. Still at 10* BTDC according to the balancer. SPOUT in, computer is adjusting timing.

Adjusted the TV pressure. I set it back towards "normal" shift pressure, if only a touch higher. OD engagement at about 46 MPH under light throttle. Deceleration hitching seems to have been eliminated with that adjustment, so I likely set it too high on a previous adjustment.

During driving, I started off with the SPOUT out and a cold engine. Idle was actually smooth like I remember. Once it gets up to operating temperature, idle gets rougher, and runs like it normally does with the SPOUT in. Still does the chugging at low RPM while under load. 3rd gear at around 25 MPH symptoms were the same, but not nearly as bad as normal. With SPOUT in, idle seemed about the same, however the chugging under load was more noticeable in 3rd at 25 MPH.

I'm going to go through some old threads and see if I can find anything on those similar symptoms. I'm thinking there's a heat related component in this issue.

FWIW, I'm not sure if the cooling fan clutch is holding well. It seemed like it kept spinning for a good few seconds after I shut the engine off. According to my temperature gauge temperature usually stays around 210 in traffic and 200 while cruising. If I mat the accelerator when it's at 200, it'll come up to 210. Never gets higher than that. I don't know if the reading is a bit high given I'm using the port where the dummy switch usually is installed.

[jaywish]

If it is spinning for a few true seconds after shutoff I would replace it when convenient.

[Tiggie]

I run about 10 degrees colder than you with a 192 thermostat, but that could easily be attributed to my sensor or gauge calibration being a bit low and yours a bit high. I use the same location.

My 88 has similar symptoms, although possibly not quite as pronounced. Following your progress closely. I am wondering if the ~E10 fuel is messing with oxygen sensor readings.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

I run about 10 degrees colder than you with a 192 thermostat, but that could easily be attributed to my sensor or gauge calibration being a bit low and yours a bit high. I use the same location.

My 88 has similar symptoms, although possibly not quite as pronounced. Following your progress closely. I am wondering if the ~E10 fuel is messing with oxygen sensor readings.

I figure my gauge may be affected by ground. Before I put the ground strap from the battery to the chassis on, turning on the headlights caused a 10* swing higher than normal.

One thing I have considered is the eBay injectors I have on it right now. It doesn't smell rich (hard to tell without cats, and my sense of smell is terrible), but I haven't ruled out cheapie Chinese injectors being just that, cheap and "kuality". One could be sticking or leaking, or maybe just being dead, which may explain why a higher idle feels okay when it's cold, but when it drops when warm it feels weird, or chugs under load since one isn't doing it's job. I'll try swapping in the original single pintle injectors when I have some time to do so and see if there's any change.

[gadget73]

really badly mismatched injectors can cause strange running habits. The ECM can't monitor individual cylinders, just banks. Its possible to have one running rich, the ECM leans it out, and you end up with one rich and 3 lean that average out to be "OK" according to the O2 sensor but that will not run well.

[Kodachrome Wolf]

So I ordered a set of OE injectors from a seller on eBay that does injector refurbishing. They're the beige topped, single pintle type ones, and these were supposedly refurbished and flow matched, and they certainly looked the part. I had the replacements swapped in within an hour and a half. I figured the ones I had in there before may have been leaking because I could smell gas really well after taking off the air cleaner tube to the TB, despite having not driven it in almost a week. That was a condition that was not present the first time I had the intake off.

Moving on to testing, whatever protective oil that was on the outside and the fluid they ran through them sure makes a whole of of smoke. It didn't help that on the initial start I had hooked up all of the vacuum lines except the one to the MAP , because it ran stupid for a few moments before I heard a distinctive hissing noise and saw the line wasn't connected. After hooking that up, everything steadied out and the smoke started clearing and (that smoke show did show me where the exhaust manifold may be leaking around cylinder 4). Anyway, it idled down smooth. Not 4.6 smooth, but back to the way it was many months ago; it was just happily ticking over without issue. Took it out on the road, and it maintained that smoothness and the chugging issue was gone until it got fully warmed up and stayed warm for a while, then the idle got that roughness back to it.

Definitely thinking heat related issue now more than ever for the "rough when warm". Obviously the bleh injectors were half of the issue. Figuring now I should have never touched the originals, but that's been corrected. I have a spare distributor on hand now, and I may try swapping it around and seeing if anything changes. Despite the new distributor currently in it being a fresh, non-rebuilt one, the TFI module on it seems to be at a slight angle instead of fully flush with the side where it mounts. Since the rough idling didn't set in until the vehicle was fully warm for a few miles, it's happening once something gets truly warm. I'm wondering if that TFI module not being flush up on the mount is making it get weird once it gets hot, because that would imply that adequate heat transfer isn't happening.

I'll try playing with it some more tomorrow. Might also try yanking the old down pipes off and getting the new stuff put up.

[gadget73]

how hot does the engine get? Id its borderline overheating it may be part of the issue here. If no gauge, a laser thing aimed at the thermostat neck will at least give an idea. Better would be voltage output from the coolant temperature sensor. Best would be both to see if the ECT is full of it.