1979 Ford LTD, barn find FTW

[1990LTD]

How many valve cover bolts does that have? Should post up some more pics!

[Brown_Muscle]

oOo it even has the original old school awesome air cleaner! What modifications have to be made to fit that in the LTD? What transmission is that?? This could be very interesting! should make some power too, especially if you went 4BBL! Even the 2bbl made awesome power

[Mercracer]

How many valve cover bolts does that have?

8 bolts for Cleveland vs 6 bolts for Windsor

[Mercracer]

On an unrelated note, can anyone explain why my Grand Marquis is misfiring/bucking at speed? Literally everything on the motor has been replaced once (or twice) recently, and yet nothing is resolving this misfire/bucking idle/bucking-jerking while driving. Only things that haven't been replaced are the timing chain (which we checked and think it's still okay) and the TFI module, which we tested and verified working.

Vacuum leak is #1 thing to check...

[flyb0t]

oOo it even has the original old school awesome air cleaner! What modifications have to be made to fit that in the LTD? What transmission is that?? This could be very interesting! should make some power too, especially if you went 4BBL! Even the 2bbl made awesome power

The tranny bolted to it is a C4, which since there is already one in the car doesn't make a ton of difference. The modifications that I can tell so far is that we would have to swap the oil pan and & pump (rear sump vs. front sump), delete a bunch of the emissions stuff, and figure some fancy way of making or modifying a set of headers to sneak back through to the rest of the exhaust. Early estimates from web results place that motor at making around 250HP as it sits, and with only a handful of modifications (intake, etc), making gobs of power. Finding a set of 4bbl heads would be good as well, but for now, that's plenty of power, as long as it's in the car.


As for the Mercury, Mercracer, I'll have to check for vacuum leaks. Weird thing is, it will will start okay, and idle okay, but then as soon as it starts to get moving, it starts to bork up. Is this symptomatic of a vac leak? Or is it something wiring related?

[1990LTD]

8 bolts for Cleveland vs 6 bolts for Windsor

...which is why I was asking. I can see 6 but I think snow is covering up the other two. If there are no other two, it's a Windsor.


They don't look like they're in the same arrangement as a Windsor, though (3 along the bottom.)

[sly]

As for the Mercury, Mercracer, I'll have to check for vacuum leaks. Weird thing is, it will will start okay, and idle okay, but then as soon as it starts to get moving, it starts to bork up. Is this symptomatic of a vac leak? Or is it something wiring related?

it could also be the PIP in the distributor going out. It could also be the noise suppressor capacitor on the coil going out. if enough noise gets into the EFI's thought process, all manner of crap will happen.

[Mercracer]

...which is why I was asking. I can see 6 but I think snow is covering up the other two. If there are no other two, it's a Windsor.


They don't look like they're in the same arrangement as a Windsor, though (3 along the bottom.)

I will bet you paychecks that it is a 335 series motor....


If you look close you will see that there are 4 along the bottom and 4 along the top..... I have been working on these things for over 25 years...

[marquisman]

it could also be the PIP in the distributor going out. It could also be the noise suppressor capacitor on the coil going out. if enough noise gets into the EFI's thought process, all manner of crap will happen.

will the suppressor dieing out really fuck with the EEC? iv never heard this before, very interesting though. wonder what would happen if you unplugged it, just to verify lol

[flyb0t]

it could also be the PIP in the distributor going out. It could also be the noise suppressor capacitor on the coil going out. if enough noise gets into the EFI's thought process, all manner of crap will happen.

Already replaced the entire dizzy. Replaced the cap and rotor (twice). Ignition coil, TFI module, Thermostat, Timing Chain are about the only things that haven't been changed.

As for all the debate on whether or not it's a cleveland, sorry I didn't get the best picture, but I did count as soon as I saw it and there were 8 bolts on the cover. I will take more pictures as soon as I can.

[1990LTD]

I will bet you paychecks that it is a 335 series motor....


If you look close you will see that there are 4 along the bottom and 4 along the top..... I have been working on these things for over 25 years...

I wouldn't take that bet since I looked closer at the arrangement of the bolts.

[zoomie]

Hey if you want I coud come down and help ya out if you wish

[sly]

will the suppressor dieing out really fuck with the EEC? iv never heard this before, very interesting though. wonder what would happen if you unplugged it, just to verify lol

yes, it can if it goes out completely. You would however probably notice this on a stock radio because you would have the RPM based humming. Some newer aftermarket radios have filters for that noise. Older EEC is more susceptible to it than some of the newer stuff, but if the noise is larger than the hysteresis of the signals (the difference between on and off in a digital signal) it will create all manner of f'd up signals for the EEC to try to contend with.

Has the TPS been checked? Maybe it's turned digital instead of analog.

[ford man]

That motor is obviously a cleveland since the valve cover is a perfect rectangle. On a windsor the ends of the valve covers are diagonal and they're longer on the bottom and shorter on the top.

[flyb0t]

yes, it can if it goes out completely. You would however probably notice this on a stock radio because you would have the RPM based humming. Some newer aftermarket radios have filters for that noise. Older EEC is more susceptible to it than some of the newer stuff, but if the noise is larger than the hysteresis of the signals (the difference between on and off in a digital signal) it will create all manner of f'd up signals for the EEC to try to contend with.

Has the TPS been checked? Maybe it's turned digital instead of analog.

TPS has been checked, verified bad, and replaced. Still no resolution. There's no vacuum problem, we checked for that today. Found it runs better with the SPOUT connector disconnected, though it still has a hitch and a roughish idle, but nowhere near as bad as when the computer is enabled. I'm plum out of ideas, short of maybe checking back into the EGR, though we cleaned out and replaced all those components some months ago.

As for the motor, I have a few more pictures I can put up directly. We found it doesn't roll over completely, however it does move. Thanks to the good fortune of all the snow (!) melting off up here, we may be able to put some progress forward.

And some progress on the LTD itself, with what some body work still needing done.