My Mom's 1986 Ford Crown Victoria
- Thread starter XLTbeater
- Start date
Now it's just a waiting game for the weather to kind of break; or at least be consistently above the freezing mark so I can do basic things like pull the plugs and spray the cylinders down with WD-40. Yeah, I'm contaminating the oil and I will have to change it out again before the 1st fire; but it's cheap insurance.
mojo racing
Active member
Are you spraying the cylinders with WD-40 because it's sitting? If so I wouldn't use WD-40, a light oil would be better, transmission fluid or marvel mystery oil to lubricate the top of the bore.
mojo racing
Active member
WD-40 washes all the lubricant off the cylinder. In my opinion just one good time pretty liberal and rotate the engine once. When you're ready if you feel the need just pull the plugs crank it to blow it out and you'll be fine. When I used to winterize my boats I would spray the trans fluid into the carb until the engine shut off, never had any issues.
^^^^^^^okay. I will do that^^^^^^^
Of the many, many small problems I had after installing the 351W; my ECM ground disintegrated over the years. And pulling the original 5.0 didn't help matters. My 2nd start attempt was a failure because of this. I got power to the interior; but nothing else (fuel pump, no momentary CEL, OBD ports not working either) had power. I discovered that the ecm ground is a connector that has a ring terminal at the negative battery post. When I tried to solder on a new 8AWG cable and ring terminal, the connector fell apart. Fortunately, I just learned how to assemble Duetsch connectors; so I took a 2-terminal Duetsch connector and replaced the 35 year old OEM connector. The 3rd start attempt was met with the beautiful and momentary sound of the fuel pump buzzing. Unfortunately that 3rd attempt failed because I think I have other grounds that I need to check. I can't engage the starter with the key; so I will start with that circuit when the weather breaks.
Of the many, many small problems I had after installing the 351W; my ECM ground disintegrated over the years. And pulling the original 5.0 didn't help matters. My 2nd start attempt was a failure because of this. I got power to the interior; but nothing else (fuel pump, no momentary CEL, OBD ports not working either) had power. I discovered that the ecm ground is a connector that has a ring terminal at the negative battery post. When I tried to solder on a new 8AWG cable and ring terminal, the connector fell apart. Fortunately, I just learned how to assemble Duetsch connectors; so I took a 2-terminal Duetsch connector and replaced the 35 year old OEM connector. The 3rd start attempt was met with the beautiful and momentary sound of the fuel pump buzzing. Unfortunately that 3rd attempt failed because I think I have other grounds that I need to check. I can't engage the starter with the key; so I will start with that circuit when the weather breaks.
Just a heads up, that rubber plumbing elbow at the throttle body will suck flat when you get on it.
Ask me how I know!
Ask me how I know!
Yah, I had that happen with the radiator hose on my '82 C20 with the 292 I6. Had no clue why it was overheating until I popped the hood one day after running to and from the conservation center a few times. The heat and I guess whatever pressure there is in the cooling system collapsed that hose. I wonder if a coil spring inserted inside of the hose would have fixed that problem?
In this case; that elbow is fairly rigid for rubber; but I will get a 45* plastic elbow and some couplings in the event it collapses. Funny thing was my original homemade CAI on the 5.0 whistled like a s/c when I first installed it. The K&N kit I got for my grand Marquis doesn't make any noise. I'm guessing the pvc pipe has sharp edges that cause the whistling? I'm hoping it's not like that with this setup.
In this case; that elbow is fairly rigid for rubber; but I will get a 45* plastic elbow and some couplings in the event it collapses. Funny thing was my original homemade CAI on the 5.0 whistled like a s/c when I first installed it. The K&N kit I got for my grand Marquis doesn't make any noise. I'm guessing the pvc pipe has sharp edges that cause the whistling? I'm hoping it's not like that with this setup.
Should be able to find a good, rigid silicon elbow on Amazon.
I attempted to solder on the Deutsch connector earlier. I couldn't find my old spool of silver solder that my Dad gave me; so I used the RadioShack solder I got a 3 decades ago. Truly I tell you, please get decent solder for anything electrical! This RadioShack stuff must be some high-temp solder. Had to heat the crap out of the wire and put the solder next to the heating element in order to get it to melt. IT sort of laid on top of the wire and failed to soak in. I soldered all around the joint to get it solid; but I fear that it's at best, a cold solder joint. I will see how it works when I power the system up. So when I went into the Crown Vic to get the heat gun that I left inside (with my poor GoPro), I found the old silver solder in the box with the heat gun. In the long run; I will get a single-terminal Deutsch connector, splice some 10AWG wire in place of the 14AWG wire that Ford used, and replace that connector. For now, I hope the 2-pin connector works better than the original Ford connector.
Speaking of which; I brought the Ford connector inside to mess with it on my favorite work bench (kitchen table). The pictures below illustrate the inspection process; which wasn't very long as the connector fell apart as I tried separating the ends. My Dad tested it and said that while it still kind of worked; it was borderline sketch. And I think the blue dielectric grease that Ford used on the terminal was acting like glue. Very hard to pull that connector apart; even after the plastic casing fell off.
Speaking of which; I brought the Ford connector inside to mess with it on my favorite work bench (kitchen table). The pictures below illustrate the inspection process; which wasn't very long as the connector fell apart as I tried separating the ends. My Dad tested it and said that while it still kind of worked; it was borderline sketch. And I think the blue dielectric grease that Ford used on the terminal was acting like glue. Very hard to pull that connector apart; even after the plastic casing fell off.
Flux and heating the wires with the solder will pull it right in.
Good, weather-tight crimps are better.
Good, weather-tight crimps are better.
I could not leave well enough alone. I got my single terminal Deutsch connector this morning. So after my meeting this afternoon; I got a window of opportunity after the snow squall to measure out the new cable I would need to make that connection; and assemble the connector. After doing that; I was going to cut off the other Deutsch connector and splice this one in; but the wind really kicked up something fierce; and I had to call it off. I will wait until next weekend or whenever to splice the single terminal connector in its place.
At my job, there is a group of people at my job who're not required to be at work 5-days/week. And coincidentally, they are usually not there on the nice days; or really bad days either. Lately, my new crew (high turn-over due to Director with crappy attitude-long story) has been voicing their concerns with having to go to work and stretch themselves thin as others work from home. So my crew abandoned me after 3PM today. My Director had his office door closed all day; so at 4:30PM, I cut out and boogied home. Had 20 minutes of sunlight to get some work done on the Crown Vic. I managed to cut off the 2-pin Deutsch connector that I cold soldered; and replaced it with the single-pin Deutsch connector with the silver flux core solder that I should have used in the first place. Aside from the connector; the whole run is 8AWG cable; which replaced the OE 14AWG wire. I added some extra length to run down the fender and around the front of the battery to the negative post. I'm trying to keep wires and such from floating in the air like Ford originally had it.
When I was done with that, I took my upper control arms down from the garage frame; where they had been hanging to dry from last night's painting session. I'm stuck on deciding whether to clean and strip the spindles down and paint them; or just get another pair from the junkyard and start from scratch. I'm also leaning on getting new lower control arms with brand new ball joints already mounted. I could probably get away with what I got because they are relatively low-mileage; but I kinda like the idea of starting fresh. I gotta think about this.
When I was done with that, I took my upper control arms down from the garage frame; where they had been hanging to dry from last night's painting session. I'm stuck on deciding whether to clean and strip the spindles down and paint them; or just get another pair from the junkyard and start from scratch. I'm also leaning on getting new lower control arms with brand new ball joints already mounted. I could probably get away with what I got because they are relatively low-mileage; but I kinda like the idea of starting fresh. I gotta think about this.
Last edited: