1970 Ford Country Squire Newbie

Discussion in 'The Welcome Wagon' started by Thirsty islander, Apr 23, 2012.

  1. fannie

    fannie Well-Known Member

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    Nice read again. I believe I read about your tires and yes I think you can post pics from an iPhone...is there a reason why you couldn't...I mean other then your butt holding you down...:D
    My lips are sealed as far as the other girl in your life goes, your wife will never here about it from me. However, being the smart cookie that I'm sure she is, she probably already has an idea.
    Thanks for the up date.
    :wave:
     
  2. MikeT1961

    MikeT1961 Well-Known Member

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    Sounds like you have a GREAT wagon now, and plan to use her. If you are going to use her for long drives, it may be worth thinking about replacing that 3 speed transmission. The mechanical AOD could be had behind the 460 in the E250 and F-250, and you may just find one of them. Otherwise, there is a kit available to allow the small block AOD from an F-150 to bolt up to your old engine. It makes a BIG difference in fuel economy, and is a direct bolt in, with no cutting needed.
     
  3. Thirsty islander

    Thirsty islander Well-Known Member

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    Well as for the fuel mileage it's not completely terrible, about the same as my '05 dodge ram when I'm pulling a camper. That said I'm making it my mission to get the mileage over 20 on the highway. I plan on doing a three year upgrade on it, this spring will see a new dual exhaust with high flow cats and h pipe to replace the original single exhaust. The following year will see a new timing chain and gear installed to improve the factory 6 degree retarded one, and recurve the distributor. Lastly a gear vendors over drive that should bolt right up to the c6 with a shortened shaft. Although the gear vendors overdrive is a bit pricey when I factor in the fact that the c6 has only 49000 miles on it and the trouble to find, rebuild, remove, replace, set up and shorten the shaft anyways on a aod transmission it will be a lot less of a PITA. I will also need to change the rear gear as it's only a 3.0 not quite tall enough for overdrive tranny, and while I'm at it I will add a posi also. I think that all the improvements should put me over 20 easy plus add about 100 hp to the 197 I have now. I think I should be able to shred the new tires at that point. All in I will have about 13 k into the wagon at that point (doing all work myself) and should be mostly recoverable in the event I need to sell it.
     
  4. Bigbarneycars

    Bigbarneycars Well-Known Member

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    Shread the tirez?

    Thirsty, I've got ah couple thoughts for you and I'm well aware that we all spend our $ the way we want to. The other thing is that I'm just responding to your last post. Your Ford AND your Merc. tip the scales at rite about 4700lbs. depending on the engine and I might have missed which one you have in one of your earlier posts, it could be a 351, 400, 429, 460 but it doesn't really matter. You can light 'um up with any of those engines if that's your pleasure. The car was built before the first oil embargo when gas was running 35 cents ah gallon on my side of the Ambassador Bridge and not sure what the imperial gallon was going for but we can assume nobody really cared in those days. Most of what your plans are I agree with but I'd think making both wheels drive would be a waste of time and money. Have you priced out ah set of any size tires lately? Some of every tire is made up of Petroleum and the increases in cost should indicate that. I'd also do a little calculating on what that overdrive will do for you before you lay your $ down. If you only gain 4-5 MPG it sounds like ah bunch but if the O.D. Trans. is running you ? $1500 to $2500 + ah couple hundred for a new custom drive shaft I'd ask myself how many liters will the cost of that transmission and drive shaft buy you for a summer time only Ride? I'm not sure when FOMOCO started building their engines with Hardened valve seats but I'd think that expendature would be $ well spent 'cuz I don't think they started with the hardened seats 'til '73 or so. And BTW, All lead additives are getting real hard to find anywhere on the planet. What ever your choices are, A belated :Welcome: to the party and Happy Trails. FYI, I do Chryslers at Carlisle every year and that 1000 mile round trip costs me rite at $500 in fuel alone and I get 8 MPG with 276 open rearend the Batwagon 'course I spend all winter walking the freeway and dodgin' the crazyz for the deposit on the empty beer canz I find too,:dance: Jer
     
  5. Thirsty islander

    Thirsty islander Well-Known Member

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    Hey Barney thanks for the response. The '70 wagon is gone but it did have a rebuilt lead free engine in it (429).

    The '77 cony park that I have now is a 460 that is for unleaded fuel. The HP is rated at 197 for '77, with the cam retarded by 6 degrees from the factory to improve emissions. If you replace that cam sprocket with an adjustable one or one from a '70 429 engine it can or will set the cam straight up and drastically improve horsepower and fuel mileage. Go over to the ford 460 forum as there is quite a few posts there regarding this. Also getting rid of the grapefruit sized catalytic converters (2) along with the rest of the very restrictive exhaust system will again go a long way to improving the fuel mileage and HP on this engine. The gear vendors overdrive unit is a "tail stock swap" not a tranny swap and is a Saturday morning job, that I admit is more of an indulgence than requirement. But I guess you can say so is owning a mint 1977 merc colony park wagon. Lol. The overdrive will be the last thing I do to improve the fuel mileage but if I do I will be changing rear gears in-favour of a 3.50 to better utilize the overdrives capacities. While the rear end is open I will most likely throw in a posi because when ordered as a kit it's not that much more money.

    As for the burn outs---well I'm going to be fifty this year so most of my burn outs have been used up but it will be nice to know that no muscle car is going to walk away from me at a red light unless I let him. lmao

    Now for fuel mileage well my current yearly fuel bill is about $7000.00 for my truck and boats. Our current price per litre of fuel is about 1.30, converted to us gallon is 4.92. If I drive 2000 miles a year at 10 miles to the gal it will cost me about $1000.00 rounded up a bit to run the wagon for the season. If I can boost mileage to 20-22 mpg that will take me down to about 400 - 500 / year to fuel it. So at a cost of 5000.00 max for ALL improvements it should take about eight years to pay me back for that investment and shorter if I drive it more. Now say at four years out I decide to sell the wagon and I get 50 cents on the dollar for the improvements and I have saved the other half in fuel mileage then I have actually broke even on my investment and really enjoyed it at the same time.

    Now if you want to talk about wasting money I can start a new thread on the '65 impala convertible I'm doing a frame off resto mod on right now. Now that there will definitely will be a loss leader ouch!!!
     
  6. fannie

    fannie Well-Known Member

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  7. MikeT1961

    MikeT1961 Well-Known Member

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    Thirsty: The AOD is pretty much a bolt in, and it will not cost as much as the Gear Vendors overdrive. The other advantage to the AOD is that you get the torque converter by-pass, which lowers revs further. My brother had a 79 Thunderbird with an 86 351 in it. With overdrive, Edelbrock Performer intake and carb, good 2 1/4 inch dual exhaust, and GOOD tires, he was doing 7 litres per 100 km. Toronto to Windsor and back on under a single fill. It is possible with these old cars. He kept the stock 2.49 back end. My 89 Grand Marquis with the 351/tow package had a 2.73, and I ran Comp T/As on it, as nothing else would keep that back end under control there was so much torque.
     

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