Thinking about getting this 97

dDUBb said:
They also made this version. Its more better. Also made from alu-minium 😉.
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Too much plumbing.

dDUBb said:
As for CDs plastic .. I wouldnt replace it unless it started leaking; but thats just my dont fix it if it isn't broken mentality.
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Yes!
Not being a V8 owner, I didn't want to say it. But this sounds like the common sense thing to do (?).
 
dDUBb said:
As for CDs plastic .. I wouldnt replace it unless it started leaking; but thats just my dont fix it if it isn't broken mentality.
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1997ThunderbirdLXV6 said:
Yes!
Not being a V8 owner, I didn't want to say it. But this sounds like the common sense thing to do (?).
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While this mentality isn't wrong, neither is the preventative maintenance mentality. I'd rather avoid the leaking all together and just get it done now.
 
The problem with waiting on the manifold replacement is it is highly likely to fail, and unlike the aluminum crossover ones, which fail and develop a slow leak that you can nurse home, those ones fail and dump all the coolant out of the engine in about 30 seconds. If you are stuck in heavy traffic, or are somewhere that you can’t pull over right away, you could easily overheat the engine, not to mention the cost of a tow home. For $100 for a manifold and a few hours on a Saturday, replacing that old manifold is well worth the peace of mind.
 
MadMikeyL said:
The problem with waiting on the manifold replacement is it is highly likely to fail, and unlike the aluminum crossover ones, which fail and develop a slow leak that you can nurse home, those ones fail and dump all the coolant out of the engine in about 30 seconds. If you are stuck in heavy traffic, or are somewhere that you can’t pull over right away, you could easily overheat the engine, not to mention the cost of a tow home. For $100 for a manifold and a few hours on a Saturday, replacing that old manifold is well worth the peace of mind.
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Especially because this is his DD now.
-g
 
I'd go to a jy, and get a real pi intake. Get the valley tube and alternator bracket too. Way better manifold.
BTW,swapping in a crown vic alternator pulley, that has a clutch. will prevent breaking the all plastic ones.
 
Grog6 said:
Was the boat anchor recast from a 5.4? :rofl:
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Wasn’t it Leland who accomplished his 5.4 swap using this manifold with one side of the runners widened? 😆
 
That was j.miller. freddy welded the intake. Leland used propane heads, and needed a blower to run; it had the 'wart' in the hood to clear.
 
So this morning, I was told by my lead that I was going to have OT. Not expecting this, I had to get "The Mexican" on auto insurance, pronto as it ruined my evening plans immediately following work and my wife needed to handle business in my place. I called up my insurance company as I was planning on taking care of that on Friday. I got the car added to my policy, easy peasy. My wife was able to handle business without worry.

After I got home from work, we went out for our first official family drive in "The Mexican". We went out for dinner to a taco place 15-ish minutes away from home. She drove beautifully though, the tires' "tu tu tu tu tu" sound was still softly persistent on the city streets. It's serves as a reminder that I still can't drive the car to work as my daily driver until I get those new tires.

On this drive, I had my OBD-II scanner plugged in feeding me live data where I was most concerned about engine temps. Knowing that the temp gauge on these cars isn't "accurate" I wanted to see what the range actually told me what temps were. The hottest the car got was 230F and this was in the 5-ish miles uphill climb where these temps were seen. At 230F, the temp needle got to 3/4 of the way up the gauge and so this tells me what I needed to know about this gauge temperature zone vs actual engine temp. While 230F isn't necessarily concerning, 230F when it is 85F makes me wonder what it would be like at higher ambient temperature, especially now that days are hovering right around 100F here in SoCal. Makes me glad I got the closed vane water pump and new FoMoCo thermostat to pair with the replacement intake manifold.

Now, as I write this sitting on the driver seat waiting for my wife and daughter to finish their shopping run, I plugged in my old 12v BT adapter into the cigarette lighter to broadcast via antenna to my speakers. It's archaic compared to today's technology of touchscreens and whatnot, but it's the only way to get any sort of "tech" into this car short of finding a single din solution with touchscreen at a reasonable price.

Writing this as I sit with my boy - him riding shotgun - and admire the view and admire the car as we wait for my wife and daughter to finish their shopping run.

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Sounds like a great evening, good to hear it still took the first real drive in stride, considering you haven't touched anything yet, it can really only improve from here.
 
So does this mean the gold one will be your street car,and the white one your go-fast project?
 
CDsDontBurn said:
And it also means I will now have a baseline for how the white one will feel in comparison to the gold one.
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Omg, that makes so much sense.

All these times when I had to ask you guys, "Is this normal?", "Does this sound right?", etc.; all I had to do was buy  two Thunderbirds, and check them against each other!
 
1997ThunderbirdLXV6 said:
Omg, that makes so much sense.

All these times when I had to ask you guys, "Is this normal?", "Does this sound right?", etc.; all I had to do was buy  two Thunderbirds, and check them against each other!
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Would be better with three or more, that way you have a larger dataset.
 
Zep5.0 said:
Oh and Cougar and Tbird could feel different due to the aerodynamic differences, so everyone should have one of each, V6,V8, Supercharged V6, and Dohc.

Any volunteers?
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I would but if I bring another car home I'll become a missing person
 
Zep5.0 said:
Oh and Cougar and Tbird could feel different due to the aerodynamic differences, so everyone should have one of each, V6,V8, Supercharged V6, and Dohc.

Any volunteers?
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Not all at the same time, but over the years I have had every possible combination of MN12/FN10 powertrain, including both automatic and manual transmissions behind all the engines.
 
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