What have you done to your wagon lately? (Let's keep the thread going!)

Yes. And do any other items the engine might need in the process, like timing chain if it's high mileage.

 

They do make one piece pan gaskets for these now. I'd still consider pulling the engine. A lot depends on how miserable you want to be while laying under your car.

 

If you can only drop the pan a couple of inches, you'd still have to feed the gasket past the crank counterweights and around the oil pickup. The gasket will get all oily and you still have to put adhesive on the sides and silicone at points on the timing cover and rear main. It ain't worth trying because you'll probably still end up pulling the engine after having wasted a whole day or more dicking around with it.

 

Right, which is why I also said:

I'd still use the one piece gasket regardless of how you plan to do the job.

 

...

Well, it sounds like that's out the window until I decide to take the whole engine out and replace the oil pan at the same time along with the timing chain and every oil seal, except for valve cover gaskets which are easier to work with.

I hadn't even considered the oil pickup or the crank counterweight. The gasket I looked at, though, was a one piece silicone gasket that could be folded over in at least one direction. I asked to see it at NAPA.

That said, I finally got the car out of the garage a few days ago and I drove it around maybe 4 or 5 miles. No fuel leaks, but the temperature gauge was acting up for a bit until the car got hot enough. I might have to top off the antifreeze. Also, the driver side valve cover gasket seems to be slightly leaking, but that's not so much of a problem to fix from the top.

I still have to do an oil change on the car. The driver side window's also acting up, and the odometer's broken. I downloaded a "how to fix the odometer" guide some time ago, but knowing it's a 1990 Mercury Grand Marquis (and even though it was in the garage most of the time even with the previous owner,) I do expect the plastic to be brittle and it must be a slow and gentle job if I ever get to it.

Edit: Huh, so my reply here is Post #5555? Amusing.

 

That's fun.

 

Hello,
I thought I would jump into this fun thread. On the 69, I added a Petronix electronic ignition, rebuilt the rear window motor and 'repaired' the tailgate door handle. It had worn down, so I drilled it and put a roll pin in it. almost looks factory.

Sitting patiently in boxes in the rear of the wagon are an Edlebrock dual plane aluminum 4BBL intake, a Holly 750 Dual Feed Vac Secondary with Electric Choke Crab, a replacement AC Compressor, new shocks and new front springs. Summit claims the rear springs will ship "for realzies" today! we will see! this is their third promise date

I finally finished the new engine install in the Solstice last weekend and will be ready to turn some attentions to the wagon.

My friend Jerry Nestlehut turns 84 on Nov 1 and his BD Party always turns into a private car show over in Douglasville (GA). The wife has agreed to drive the Country Squire, and I hope I have the interior in the Mustang in time to take both!!!

 

I realize that this is not specifically wagon related, but I did do a timelapse of what it takes to put a motor in a Pontiac solstice. 3 days work showing in 2 min and 51 seconds:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/aPSJAbErvYc27ENbA

Pretty sure I could -even at 59- still de-install and re-install the 429 in the wagon inside of 4 hours. SMH - modern cars are a PITA.

 

That was fun. What motor did you install?

 

Since the temperature gauge is acting up on my 1990 Grand Marquis (with the 302) again, how can you tell what broke? The gauge is reading Cold all the time, but I think the needle might be lower than it should be when it does work. If it's the temperature sending unit, then it's in a very convenient place to access if I need to replace it. The wiring, however, is not. I'm also not sure if it's the wiring on top of the engine or the connector.

I took my Volt-Ohm Meter and tested the Sending Unit for a conductivity reading when the engine was hot, and it gave me a reading back. I'm not sure if this is what I'm supposed to do for testing a temperature sending unit, though, or if it tells me that the unit's faulty. I'm hoping it's the sensor and not the wiring, but the connector (that attaches to the sending unit) doesn't seem to have a plastic clip to hold it on either. It stays snug, though. All that said, the temperature reading has been intermittent, going between working and not working.

I did try filing away at any possible corrosion on both the connector and the sending unit, then I sprayed electrical connector cleaner on both. No improvement was made. Am I not supposed to just bridge the gap in the connector to see if I get a reading that way? I tried that, and I also didn't see any difference with the key in Run but not on. ... Then again, I also didn't double check my alligator clip connector for conductivity to see if it was broken or not. Maybe this idea is bogus, though.

I did not try to attach anything to the negative terminal on the battery post. Am I supposed to take one of the leads from the wiring and connect it to negative, and check the gauge while the car's in Run but not On? That's what the manuals seem to be saying.

 

@OrthmannJ - I installed the ZZPerformance Gen3 GM Ecotec long block with forged internals. rated to 600HP. Currently tuned to to 300. That little thing will make a grown man giggle like a school girl.

 

disconnect the connector from the sender. you should see a small voltage on the connector when everything is powered up.

i would check the two endpoints first. have you been into the dash recently to disturb the cluster side of the connection? maybe try a new gauge? just thoughts...... hope they help.....

 

Nice. It was hard to tell what it was in the video. I know the V8 is something folks like to dream about installing, but it didn't look like that was what you were doing.

 

The Dash has never been apart as long as I've had the car since August 2014, though I do need to take the dash apart for another reason (the odometer, which is supposed to get fixed with a brass gear. But that's another issue.)

I took the connector off from the sender today and tried momentarily hooking the battery up to the two connector points, and I was told the needle didn't move. However, when I did this with the key in Run, this sent voltage to tell the car to prime the fuel injectors.

Maybe I should try again, though, and try with a 9V battery and far longer wires to do it by myself while sitting in the car.

I didn't install a new sending unit yet, I didn't have it yesterday, but I did just buy it today.

Maybe if I try attaching the new unit to the connector but instead I put it in hot water before even trying to install it, I can see some kind of reading.

Edit: I tried attaching the new sending unit to the connector (but not in the coolant system yet,) then I attached an alligator clip to the connector and to the Negative terminal of the battery. This is supposed to be one way to test the temperature reading unit, right? Nothing happened, so unless I missed something, I think the wiring in the engine bay is bad or maybe the gauge in the dash cluster is bad. If it's the gauge, I do have to take the cluster out anyhow, but I can't do that yet.

Or is there a fuse that might need replaced? It seems unlikely, but I wonder.

EDIT:

Well, damn, am I mad at myself. My 12v messing around put a CHECK ENGINE light on, and when I did that, it not only turned on the CHECK ENGINE light, but it also turned on the fuel injector priming system. Now the car runs rough like there's not enough air coming in the engine, it only stays on if you hold the gas pedal down a bit, and when I do that I'm getting too much smoke out the tailpipes. I might have obliterated at least one relay, and now I don't really care about fixing the temperature gauge problem - I feel bad, dumb, and stupid but I have to get the car to idle right at all.

And yes, I do have a Haynes manual and also a Shop manual, and I've gone through them for over half an hour now trying to locate anything showing a hint of what stupid thing I did. I bookmarked many pages, but so far, nothing's showing up. All I can figure is to get a Pre-OBD I Code Reader to use, and it looks like that's an EEC IV reader like this Innova 3145 which also is advertised to work on OBD I?

After all, I could use a VOM on the testing connector in the engine bay, but there are supposed to be other "Fast Codes" that the VOM can't catch which need to be read with "a Star Tester from Ford or an equivalent SCAN tool" according to the Haynes book.

Later edit: I bought this meter.