'Sherrie' my 86 Oxford White CV Coupe

[clutch47]

A little story for ya'll.

Sherrie went on the chassis dyno last week. We tuned the Megasquirt PNP and worked on the closed loop idle settings. It really is working very well.
We twisted it up until it wasn't making power a few times and it really sounded and made good power at 32 degrees of timing. It ran well at 34 but showed no gain. 93 octane pump fuel at 9.88:1 compression, and a total stock airbox and filter. Never went over 205 degrees.

As a refresher, this is a 347 inch with forged pistons, AFR 165 heads and a seriously ported explorer intake with a BBK 75mm TB and spacer with BBK unequal shorties and a 2-1/2" exhaust into new cats and Magnaflows.
Remember... my goal was not Mustang 6Krpm max power, but was torque for moving this car and making it fun to drive. That should explain my use of 'smaller' heads and massaged stock FoMoCo parts for the intake.

It was great to be able to lock out the OD with the Silverfox valve body and really reef on it.
So... On the 6th pull... our last pull of the morning....
at about 5200rpms...
The brand new Gates P/N 43050 water pump popped.
BOOM
I've never seen one go like this one went. It was a spectacular event, resembling the fountain in the middle of your town.. only green and steaming.
Off the gas, shift to neutral, engine idled perfectly and we shut it off. Leak stopped.
We thought the lower hose pushed off or the radiator tank popped but if that had happened it would have kept leaking.
So as we cleaned up the green slick steaming goo....
We saw it.



The belt tensioner wasn't even maxed out. The belt was no tighter than a stock tensioner could make it. So as it looks, I think it was a flawed casting.
I'll know when I get it off. Of course I'll show pix. I'm putting the same P/N pump right back on. Hopefully I can find all the impeller parts and nothing got into the cooling system. I think it's good.. no noise or grinding or anything. Just a green fountain.

So now the graph and numbers. the tuner said this car type, tires and AOD combo typically show a 22% loss at the tire where these numbers are generated.
Red is HP
Blue is Torque.
Bottom scale is MPH.
Solid lines are 34 degrees. Dashed lines are 32 degrees.
We didn't bother calculating RPMs at MPH because Jimmy Crack corn.
Looks like 385 'ish' torque and just under 300hp. The torque line is flat. I like that.


Now for the obvious.
It is choking. The stock airbox and inlet snorkel are not sufficient. Our plan was to pull on it with a straight tube into the TB, but we didn't get there.
If/When it gets more mods... we'll do that.
I wanted torque and reliable and chose pistons accordingly.
The old stories of 347s having oil consumption and rings through the pin boss days are over. Piston technology has come a long LONG way.

The headers are out of the box BBK unequal length shorties that I got on a swap and had a friend ceramic coat. Not ported or optimized at all.

I think there's 40hp in the air intake before the TB and a header change. I'm just gonna run it for a while....

The cam card is on this thread somewhere but it has .561/.556 lift. Old but NOS FMS 1.6 roller rockers.

Next week, the rear comes out. Total gut and rebuild. I've been sitting on the parts for a long time.
Driving to the dyno..made me laugh.
Giving it the beans through the 1-2 shift and it kinda went off the straight track but not because of wheelspin.
The 36 year old control arms and bushings were WAY overtaxed.
It's getting ADTR arms and bushings while the rear is out.

When I get it done, I'll get some pix on here.

[Tiggie]

The impeller blew? Wow. That's wild.

[87gtVIC]

Nice carnage. Id take that over engine failure on the dyno.

Id be inclined to put a cast iron one on after that. Hope the new one doesn't follow the leader.

I am surprised that didn't hurt the rad. The fan could have destroyed it.

[sly]

+1 never seen THAT failure mode.

[packman]

As far as the air tube goes; Home Depot plumbing section. 3” PVC, couplers, and hose clamps. Get the K&N cone filter of your choice. As far as the 45* elbow goes at the throttle body; see if the stock elbow can be used with the pvc. I got a rubber elbow from a plumbing supply and I’m wondering if it holds its shape while under load? I’m currently looking for my stock elbow to test that out.

[packman]

Headers: I got a set of pre-owned Doug's Tri-Ys that needed the foremost primaries (both cylinders toward front of engine) massaged a bit to clear the X-member. If I were to do it all over again, I would contact RCI headers and see which mid-lengths for AOD Fox bodies would work for the Crown Vic.

[clutch47]

The impeller blew? Wow. That's wild.

I don't think the impeller blew. When I get it off, I'll post pix for sure.

Nice carnage. Id take that over engine failure on the dyno.

Id be inclined to put a cast iron one on after that. Hope the new one doesn't follow the leader.

I am surprised that didn't hurt the rad. The fan could have destroyed it.

It is (was LOL) a Gates cast iron pump from my local NAPA. According to the NAPA book and computer it is a standard replacement for police and taxi service.
It cooled the engine very well, and during these pulls the temp never went up. I think the casting was flawed from the factory, or damaged somehow.
We will see.

[clutch47]

Headers: I got a set of pre-owned Doug's Tri-Ys that needed the foremost primaries (both cylinders toward front of engine) massaged a bit to clear the X-member. If I were to do it all over again, I would contact RCI headers and see which mid-lengths for AOD Fox bodies would work for the Crown Vic.

In time, I may look into other headers. This is no race car and wasn't built for that, so replacing the BBKs are lower on my priority list than the sound system update. I'm pretty AMPED about that. (see what I did there?)..LOL
As far as PVC and drain pipes under the hood goes...nah. I'm going to search for a larger diameter rubber tube from another car or truck to go from the airbox to the TB, and run cold air in from the fenderwell or under the bumper out of immediate eye sight. I'm trying to keep it as FoMoCo looking as possible while upping the performance.

[clutch47]

Getting there. I finally got a chance to step back from everything and get some vacation time at the Outer Banks. Not necessarily a beach guy, but I am a big fan of alone time with a book and some waves.
Anyway..

Got back and got some work done. Here's one shot of the water pump. I'll post more next week.



As it looks to me, my original theory of a casting issue is reinforced by this. The belt wasn't too tight as the tensioner still had range to move.
All other parts intact thankfully.

My cupholder/gauge mount is coming together too. Pix coming.

After a very long internal debate about the location for mounting my tach, I picked up a small Autometer tach and I'm going to try to adapt an F-150 column gauge pod to my column. We shall see how this goes. If I don't like it, I'm starting to lean towards mounting this small tach inside the speedo.
We'll see...

[friskyfrankie]

Looks like metal fatigue on that pump!

[DerekTheGreat]

Holy hell, what a failure. Might as well fail spectacularly if it's gonna, right? Does indeed seem like a casting defect. I'd run the stock air box stuff for a while too, it's probably fine below 70% throttle anyway.

[clutch47]

Holy hell, what a failure. Might as well fail spectacularly if it's gonna, right? Does indeed seem like a casting defect. THIS is how my luck goes.. I'd run the stock air box stuff for a while too, it's probably fine below 70% throttle anyway.

I like the design and location of the stock airbox. I call it the treasure chest because ya just never know what's under that filter. I'll find a better flowing tube from the box to the TB somewhere in my travels but I agree. Under 70% boogie, it probably doesn't matter.

[87gtVIC]

My cupholder/gauge mount is coming together too. Pix coming.

After a very long internal debate about the location for mounting my tach, I picked up a small Autometer tach and I'm going to try to adapt an F-150 column gauge pod to my column. We shall see how this goes. If I don't like it, I'm starting to lean towards mounting this small tach inside the speedo.
We'll see...

Looking forward to this stuff.

[DerekTheGreat]

I like the design and location of the stock airbox. I call it the treasure chest because ya just never know what's under that filter. I'll find a better flowing tube from the box to the TB somewhere in my travels but I agree. Under 70% boogie, it probably doesn't matter.

Treasure chest.

Right, just how much time do you plan on spending over 70%? For me, it's not very often.

[packman]

I like the design and location of the stock airbox. I call it the treasure chest because ya just never know what's under that filter. I'll find a better flowing tube from the box to the TB somewhere in my travels but I agree. Under 70% boogie, it probably doesn't matter.

If you're cheeky; you can go with the pvc and wrap it in black duct tape; and pass it off as a carbon fiber CAI?

[Arquemann]

If you're cheeky; you can go with the pvc and wrap it in black duct tape; and pass it off as a carbon fiber CAI?

Or better yet: carbon fiber tape. Or gold tape for totally honest +5 horsepower. Because racecar!

[packman]

I like it a lot! More of a silver guy myself though. I would spend a couple extra dollars and get that aluminum tape and wrap my pvc with that. Ugha!!! I hope we're not giving clutch47 bad ideas

[clutch47]

I'm VERY fond of bad ideas.
Many terrible ideas have led to the best memories of my life, so the carbon fiber tape might be a grand idea..
I once saw a small hit and miss powered motorcycle. Hhhhmm....

[clutch47]

Rear out. Rebuilt and cleaned, Trac-loc refreshed, painted and the brakes rebuilt completely. Decided to stay with the drums for now just because.

There has been some discussion regarding the bushings on the rear diff..
Here's a few pix.



The mustang bushing size is obviously smaller and here's the example.

Proper bushing size is: ID: .56" OD: 2.05" Length: 2.38" according to Energy Suspension.
Funny thing is, they don't offer a bushing in their kit, yet they offer a universal bushing separately.



Stock box bushing vs Mustang poly bushing. I've got something different in the works, and when I get it right, I'll share here.
ADTR trailing arms done too. More pix of that later. Still no sway bar.

[clutch47]

A few more pix from the latest and the details of the water pump carnage.

Not a bad job on the rear. Scrubbed and sprayed. Residual brake fluid from the bleed is still on it here.
The cover was a last minute addition, and not a bad piece. The Bearing cap supports had no seal. Instructions said to put a squirt of silicone in there.
I used O-rings. No leaks yet. The trac-loc was not a bad job but was a joy to get the spring in. But it is done.


The Trailing arms were an easy install. So far I can tell you the car rides great. I was concerned that these would make my girl ride harsh and Fox/Mustang like after they get the same treatment. It doesn't. I stayed with rubber bushings on the top ears in lieu of the poly, and that was a decent compromise. These trailing arms are VERY well made and nice pieces.


Hard to get a great picture of the whole upper arms in place. Pinion set to 2.5 degrees easily. These parts are nice.


Now on to the water pump that exploded on the dyno. The tensioner slot on the alternator mount had lots of room. The belt was tightened by hand... so I can't think of any reason this pump could have done this other than being related to the casting being defective. (??)
When you put the parts all in line, the bearing spins beautifully.... You can see the backing plate was galled from the impeller for a few seconds. Thankfully we got the engine shut down quickly... so nothing got into the cooling system.

Enjoy the pix.