What did you do with your Thunderbird Today?

Came up today in this C&L plenum and 75mm bbl throttle body for $100 today sweeeeet. Was measuring the dimensions of the underside where it meets the manifold and it’s a tad bigger. Pretty much doesn’t make sense to make it this big if the manifold is gonna be the restriction.




IMG_6820.jpegIMG_6821.jpeg
 
Chingon1 said:
Came up today in this C&L plenum and 75mm bbl throttle body for $100 today sweeeeet. Was measuring the dimensions of the underside where it meets the manifold and it’s a tad bigger. Pretty much doesn’t make sense to make it this big if the manifold is gonna be the restriction.




View attachment 10433View attachment 10434
Click to expand...

Yep, they don’t do anything for performance, but for $100 I’d buy that in a heartbeat if I still had a SOHC. C&L was the only aftermarket “plenum” that looked cool to me, the rest were either way too gaudy (accufab) or cheesy(BBK)
 
@XR7-4.6 i kinda feel like opening up the whole in the manifold side a bit to maybe match it a bit better but don’t wanna ruin a brand new intake in doing so, what do yo think?? It’s maybe 1/8 smaller all around. I like how it has a much smoother entrance into the manifold instead of the rediculous 90 degree angle the stock one has so it might be a BIT better in that regard.

@KevinVarnes definitely gonna run it soon on my bird, just piecing together parts for the vortech install soon.



Still waiting on the heads to come back from the machine shop and I ordered a maurader torque converter and flex plate also.
 
Chingon1 said:
@XR7-4.6 i kinda feel like opening up the whole in the manifold side a bit to maybe match it a bit better but don’t wanna ruin a brand new intake in doing so, what do yo think?? It’s maybe 1/8 smaller all around. I like how it has a much smoother entrance into the manifold instead of the rediculous 90 degree angle the stock one has so it might be a BIT better in that regard.
Click to expand...

Do not do that! The intake manifold is not the restriction you’re looking for, the 4.6s airflow limitations largely boil down to the heads(doesn’t even matter PI or npi) and cams, any limitation the manifold presents is going to be runner length, NOT plenum volume or the smoothness of the elbow(which is all the marketed “plenum” really is), and those long runners are key to the 4.6 feeling even slightly spunky on the street.

It’s much the reason why something like a Bullitt intake doesn’t actually make much more if any real world power than a PI intake manifold setup on a mild to moderate 2V in spite of having a larger throttle body.
 
@XR7-4.6 I figured as much, Richard holdner on YouTube did a test with the various PI intakes and it seems like the stock PI is great for a daily driver and even to moderate builds. Unless you’re running a crazy cam and good heads.

That’s the main reason for porting those PI heads I have, according to that article stock heads flow around 160cfm and they get to about 200-220cfm with a 3 angle valve job. Which I’d say would be the best thing that could happen to the engine, besides the bump in compression from the NPI short block and PI heads. Plus I got those heads for $100 also haha.

If everything works in my favor I’m gonna be pulling the engine in a few weeks and installing the heads and vortech in that time. I’d say 1 week is more than enough time to do all that. Gonna move the radiator also and install a boost, oil pressure, water temp and AFR gauge aswell. I’ll definitely keep yall posted.
 
For an npi, best cheap mod is pi cams,a pi intake and a 2.5" mandrel bent true duel exhaust.
Needs no tune, and it's jy parts
 
Well, actually it was over the weekend, I pulled my head unit from the dash, verified my speakers where correctly labled and wired, added an amp to the subs box, rewired the back seat side speakers and back window speakers so the side's were powered by the head unit, the back window speakers were powered by the main amp and the subs were powered with thier own amp. Shew....

And it still sounds like crap.

Then I started messing around with the settings on head unit and got the sound to be acceptable. Of course, radio music sucks anyway. I used my cell phone music and a CD to compare sound quatlity and was able to get the sound to be acceptable. Of course, with the tenitus in my ears and my hearing going to crap, "good sound" is no longer an option. I think one of the best sounding cars I ever had was my 88 Mark VII. The Town Car has a really nice sound system, but like I said... good sound is an illussion now.
 
Washed and cleaned her thoroughly. She's prepped to move into the garage!

1739858171088.png
 
Last edited:
I typically upload to YouTube and copy the link to the post. The forum will automatically embed the video.

On an unrelated note, mind if I move all the posts related to your build to a dedicated thread in the builds section? :)
 
I put an excellent sounding stereo in the red cougar in '05; It's 4 6x8 jbl coaxial speakers, a 12" sub in the trunk, and a 2500W Pyle618 amp in the trunk.
Running 56A off the battery, it runs 120dB in the front seats. 45rms on the front and rear speakers, and 500 rms to the sub, measured with a clamp-on ammeter, and the safety guy's spl meter.
All those parts are still around, in newer versions.
 
theterminator93 said:
I typically upload to YouTube and copy the link to the post. The forum will automatically embed the video.

On an unrelated note, mind if I move all the posts related to your build to a dedicated thread in the builds section? :)
Click to expand...
Sounds good to me. I created a thread. Thank you
 
Last edited:
Last night I read an article that mentioned if your car goes into high idle with a cold start (2100 rpm) it could be your throttle body gasket. I had new ones I never put in so I figured, what the heck. Put the new thoatle body gasket and IAC gaskets in (left the TPS alone as it has no air gap, per say). Torqued the bolts per spec and went to bed.

Today I started it dead cold and a slight change in idle, but the same thing, goes to high idle for 15 seconds (something like that) and then drops down to 1200 for a few seconds, then to 750 idle. I did have the throatle body off a while back and thought that maybe, just maybe the OEM gasket was due.
 
As long as it comes back down to normal within a minute or so, and it isn’t throwing any codes, it’s fine and nothing to worry about. When the engine is cold, a higher idle helps it run smoother and cleaner, and also helps get it up to temperature quicker.
 
Lights off the cats faster too, it’s all in the programming and it is deliberate. Hell earlier this week with temps being single digits my Focus idles at like 1500rpm from a cold start for several minutes until it’s up to temp.

If you had any gasket issues it wouldn’t idle well at 750rpm
 
Just curious: what ambient temperature are we talking about?

Temperatures here were in the mid-teens last week. Starting after two days of no driving, it was probably my car's coldest start since I purchased it. Even so, RPMs don't exceed 1,400, and even that just for a few seconds before dropping to around 1,000, and after another few seconds to normal idle.
 
Starting yesterday, I raised up the car and added a graphit "dounut" flange gasket convertor, whatever its called at the exhaust junction. I could hear air leaking and I knew I did not have a good fit, but was hoping it would be okay.

Then today I welded my exhaust mounting bars that mount to the transmission and sealed a few seep holes I had in my exhaust welds.
 

Attachments

  • 20250223_152932.jpg
    20250223_152932.jpg
    440.2 KB · Views: 7
  • 20250223_152844.jpg
    20250223_152844.jpg
    323.3 KB · Views: 7
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Back
Top