Passed emissions with flying colors. Needs an upper left ball joint, which means control arm. Not bad considering I couldn't even pop the hood before purchase.
Passed emissions with flying colors. Needs an upper left ball joint, which means control arm. Not bad considering I couldn't even pop the hood before purchase.
Upper ball on a Panther is not as hard as the lower. You can remove it without the control arm. I did one on a 2000.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fqjq50FdzMc
In reply to Agent98:
Eh, $40 shipped from rock auto for the arm with balljoint, I'm not terribly concerned. The $200 the shop wanted to do it today I did have a problem with. Might not even put it on until after Saturdays autocross, finish breaking the one that's there.
I haven't noticed anything to suggest it was bad, it tracks straight, no excess noises or vibrations on bumps. But I do know the guy was looking for any excuse for me to not pass because it turns out he was at the auction too.
CURT MFG 13707 Class III 2 in. Receiver Info Rear; 4000lbs. Gross Trailer Weight; 400lbs. Tongue Weight; 6000lbs. Weight Distributing; 600lbs. Weight Distributing Tongue Weight; Drilling Required For Install; Main Body Concealed; (Only 3 Remaining)
So does that mean I could get an aluminum trailer, wire for brakes, and tow the miata?
Ross413 wrote: Hmmmm, what excess Miata wheels...? I have some 16's myslef that I am sitting on since I went to the 17's. The RSA's are not a terrible tire, but not great. They make the car fun to toss around. I have BFG Sport Comp 2s on it now and they are really amazing in every way, IMHO. Ill check on the tires this week. J-mod is simple if you can follow instructions you can do it. They are not slow, but feel slow for what you are doing... With the SCT tuner, for my manual trans, I dyno at 230WHP at the Sloppy Mechanics Dyno Days. So not too bad I think. It is a blast to auto-x, people always are stoked to see a land barge hustling around the cones. Rally-x sounds like fun too. I may pick up a beater next auction to check out some events, DC region and Susquahana region all have events within about 3 hours from me... I am not sure why but I have always wanted to see a stage rally Vic. It is just fun to drive on gravel. Pics for motivation...
Interested to hear more about the supercharger set up. I really like the CVPI for reliability and toughness plus some old school ergonomics,outward visibility and such. But after driving them for years the power is not great especially compared to Dodge Charger police package and new Chevy Caprice. Can the CVPI be reliably increased for similar power levels without a motor swap or breaking the bank?
I'm actually curious about the tuning aspects. Blueovalchips is long gone, and since I can't get approval to join crownvic.net so I can't ask anyone questions there.
I've also heard of transmission tuning for these? Not just Jmod, but manually setting the shift points and stuff like that?
From what I've seen in my limited reading, getting to just 300HP with this is almost as pricey as it would be with the Miata. I need to quit buying cars I can't get power out of cheaply.
Low Beams at 25 feet
So obviously there are some problems here. No matter how much I adjusted any of the screws, nothing changed. at all. The passenger headlight is kind of loose though, so I'm a little pushed towards that.
I'm going to completely pull the headlights and assembly, make sure everything is good and tight, and put them back in. If I can't make adjustments then, I'll try to stealership and see how much they'd charge to machine aim them.
the 4.6 pretty much only responds to boost. Nothing else really does anything to them.
RevRico wrote: I'm actually curious about the tuning aspects. Blueovalchips is long gone, and since I can't get approval to join crownvic.net so I can't ask anyone questions there. I've also heard of transmission tuning for these? Not just Jmod, but manually setting the shift points and stuff like that? From what I've seen in my limited reading, getting to just 300HP with this is almost as pricey as it would be with the Miata. I need to quit buying cars I can't get power out of cheaply.
Blue Oval Chips apparently sucks anyway according to the internet...? CrownVic.net is hard to get approval on, if you need a hand let me know, I had to email a guy who knows a guy, who knows a guy, crappy settup. Dont worry though as 2/3 of the site is utter crap. There is good info but hard to sift through the bad... I can pull hard on our stock cars from work. I attribute all of it to the SCT tuner that I had to get for the manual swap. I would absolutely say that would be the best money spent on the car first. Allow some tune tweaks on the engine and trans side. Matt, at Performance Evolution In Middletown DE is great to work with. He only does Ford stuff and does it well.
These cars suck to get power in. Way Way too expensive for what it is. And the tune is all proprietary through SCT... Sucks. On CV.net there are a bunch of guys who argue over different NA or boost. They are all slow(for the most part...). Boost is the way to go if you want real results. I dyno 230 whp now. I could spend 3-5000 and build an NA motor that would do 330-350 or, spend 2-5000 and add air until about 400 whp, the (reliable, DD) limit of the stock innards...
Real world, SCT tuner, mufflers changed out, improved air in, and you will have a blast. The car is surprisingly fun to drive for what it is.
PS: if I was doing it again, I would SCT tune stock car, do above mods, then manual swap it after you collect the parts. Could all be done for under a grand with shopping...
TLDR: Make louder, tune, add third pedal, enjoy.
Thanks Ross
RevRico wrote: So obviously there are some problems here. No matter how much I adjusted any of the screws, nothing changed. at all. The passenger headlight is kind of loose though, so I'm a little pushed towards that. I'm going to completely pull the headlights and assembly, make sure everything is good and tight, and put them back in. If I can't make adjustments then, I'll try to stealership and see how much they'd charge to machine aim them.
Fun solution: Hella 500's cheap and easy.
RevRico wrote: I'm actually curious about the tuning aspects. Blueovalchips is long gone, and since I can't get approval to join crownvic.net so I can't ask anyone questions there. I've also heard of transmission tuning for these? Not just Jmod, but manually setting the shift points and stuff like that? From what I've seen in my limited reading, getting to just 300HP with this is almost as pricey as it would be with the Miata. I need to quit buying cars I can't get power out of cheaply.
SCT has a handheld (the X4) that can change shift firmness, WOT shift points, spark control, idle speed, run a hi-test remap, and more for $400, so that will provide what you're looking for. As for if/when you want to go forced induction, that's another $350 for a software suite, which is still heaps cheaper than HPTuners if you want to go gradual on the upgrades.
Also, there are still fairly inexpensive swap options within the mod motor family that don't suck. Mark 8 4v and Navigator 5.4 4v come to mind.
I'm trying to keep this under challenge budget, so while I may look at a junkyard supercharger, I think most swaps are out. For now.
Today's 1.5 hour control arm and balljoint replacement is stretching into hour 3, and has added front pads and rotors, as I scratched the rotor up getting the caliper off. And the pads were down to about a 1/3 left, so they could stand to be replaced.
On the steering knuckle, where the sway bar end link attaches, that is supposed to have a 15mm nut and a 7mm stud so you hold the nut and turn the stud? Yea, mine doesn't have that; just the nut and thread coming out of it. Nothing to put a wrench on or in. So i'm pretty much on hold until my buddy gets off work and brings by his cordless impact.
I haven't pulled the strut because I didn't think I needed to, but sitting here thinking about it, IF I can get that out of the way, I should be able to get to the endlink from the other side, so that I can get it out of the way to put something in the threaded end of the ball joint to turn the nut off.
Haynes manual is USELESS in this regard, the pictures are junk. Youtube is worthless, and the nice write up i found refers to diagrams that are no longer available.
Why do simple things become huge problems for me? Every single car I've owned.
Strut comes out of the top mounts at least to do upper a arm, the bolts go in to where the spring is. It is easy as can be. Don't worry about end link, knuckle will fold out of the way.
No power adder will be challenge budget without serious shopping, and engine/wiring work. (Head swap to 4v+boost)
Manual+tuner could be easy under budget.
I went in from the middle and got it. Just came in to wash up before putting the new rotor on, greasing the new ball joint, and buttoning everything up. Honestly feel No difference at all between the new one and the old one. Maybe grease will help. I think it's the stabilizer end link or whatever it's called that's actually bad and that they just wanted to berkeley with me. Jokes on them, they wanted 200 to do the arm, 135 has the ball joint, control arm, pads, and rotors.
I had to put everything back together to move the car out of the rain. So I took a different route taking it all apart and managed to get it out. Thank berkeley for crescent wrenches and ratchet straps.
Once the hurricane passes and they get the new rule revisions up, I'm gonna be making a thread about some budget/safety/rule questions I've come up with. Don't think I'll do much to it for the challenge unless something really bizarre happens in the next year.
Finally. Only started at noon. But it's done. Haven't taken it out of the driveway yet, so I can't say there's a difference. Seriously felt NO difference when they were out of the car.
New brakes are better. Stops a lot better. Pedal still feels soft and crappy, but they grab and stop as my gravel driveway will attest to.
Well autocross was interesting. Slowest on the course, and off course most runs because I kept missing a gate. Forgot to take my camera, but it really wouldn't have done any good.
Surprisingly, to me, these half shot RSAs were really difficult to make the car spin out on, even in the rain. It took a lot of effort, but we managed to pull it off.
Kinda happy I berked up the brakes yesterday forcing me to put on new fronts though, I don't think the ones that were there would have survived.
Hey Rev
At 225,000 miles, maybe hop-ups aren't the hot idea. More stress on a tired engine.My vote is- enjoy it for what it is, and if you want to upgrade -either get a high miles Marauder for $4500 or start planning your (LS engine/Lincoln Aviator/Ford 460 swap). Even the headers from SS works are $1800 and you have to jack up the engine to install. all for 18 hp. Only other add on to the good commentary by Ross are :
-ebay had the early 2001 SLP pulleys for $105, yes the water pump pulley won't fit -who cares the crank pulley is the same. Better than $250 for 5-10 hp.
-wonder what a 75 hp dry shot would do for these cars.
RevRico wrote: These headlights SUCK. even with the high beams on they seem to be pointed 20 feet in front of the car right at the ground. Aiming or bulbs or both?
The headlights just suck AFAIK. I have 2 P71's; one has replacement headlights (stock look, just getting rid of the cloudy plastic) I got front headlights + corner lights (the existing corners had holes fromt eh strobe lights that were removed and bees were taking up residence) as a set for around $100. It's nice having a "fleet" car... cheap parts!
If you find a good lighting option, I'm curious to see what you do come up with.
Anyone from the DC region reading this thread?
What's the surface like at the Frostburg rally cross course? What kind of tires do you recommend?
I've done no real work while I recoup the cost of the car, also, it doesn't need it. Registration and insurance were bigger hits than I expected them to be. If I get around to it, I should be doing an oil change this week and sending a sample out to Blackstone Labs to see what kind of shape the motor is in. I don't really know how to read the results, but I know people here do.
I have been getting some absolutely awful(ly fun) ideas though. Like a hydraulic handbrake, and a recreation center build. If the concourse was first day of the Challenge, I could go full recreation center well within budget. I just don't think everything would stay happy and mounted after autox.
I have managed to find ...decent... autox tires for it though, if I can't get someones takeoffs between now and then. Still chasing drag tires, but I'll head up to test n tune in the spring and try to find someone. And looking at Frostburgs course, I need to find some good gravel tires too. Those aren't going to be cheap or easy. I was hoping the Firestone Winterforce I was planning on getting for winter would work, but I don't think they'd last a day on course.
If anyone here had a hand I'm getting me approved at crown Vic.net, thanks.
$20 added to budget for prop, bringing total budget spent to $653 not counting the headunit.
GSmith wrote:RevRico wrote: These headlights SUCK. even with the high beams on they seem to be pointed 20 feet in front of the car right at the ground. Aiming or bulbs or both?The headlights just suck AFAIK. I have 2 P71's; one has replacement headlights (stock look, just getting rid of the cloudy plastic) I got front headlights + corner lights (the existing corners had holes fromt eh strobe lights that were removed and bees were taking up residence) as a set for around $100. It's nice having a "fleet" car... cheap parts! If you find a good lighting option, I'm curious to see what you do come up with.
I've got a few friends who have placed Hella style lights in the grille or add LED strips. They tend to help when you can use them. My headlights are OK. I just want to raise them a bit. I would have tried more options if I weren't going for the stock P74 Sport look.
Here are two options. Very noticeable which is why I won't do them. I've also seen Hella style lights behind the honeycomb, but I've decided to roll withe the chrome.
einy wrote:mazdeuce wrote: You can use a scraper no problem. If that still worries you then use Barkeepers Friend with a wet cloth. All of my cars get a yearly super clean with it.What parts of your car do you use the BKF on, if you don't mind me asking?
Any chrome or unpainted metal surface really. Works great.
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