If you are leak hunting, check this out
http://cgi.ebay.com/9-LED-390-400-nM...3A1%7C294%3A50

I bought one of these a few years ago to use with the yellow UV leak dye.. 10 times easier to spot a leak with that little bugger.. I chased a very slow leak in my 96 mgm for several years.. Got the light and the UV dye, went out at dusk and shined it around under the hood and BOOM the bottom corner of my condensor glowed bright yellow..

There are also dyes available for Power Steering, Transmission, Engine Oil, and Coolant that work with this...


The oil in your valve sounds like you may have foudn the culprit though..

I was thinking about using that huge main fain from a later 4.6 car on my 91.. Don;t have the A/C working yet but the temp gauge does tend to creep in traffic without it.. I amagine with a/c running it woudl go higher.. I wonder if the aux fan and shroud from the Aero bodies could be adapted to fit the Box bodies...

 

I doubt it. the center support between the upper and lower tie bars would probably get in the way, but then I've not seen the aux fan you're talking about. my 93 doesn't have one.

 

Hmm maybe they started using the aux fan in later years... My '96 has an aux electric fan mounted in the fan shroud..

I have a '96 MGM part car (cheaper than full coverage insurance) I'll have to rob the fans and shourd and see how they fit, but I too think it won;t quite fit so well...

 

easiest to do a 3G alternator swap and use an electric fan from a Taurus. with a few mods to have a temp switch instead of manual switch the fan can kick on when needed as opposed to a manual switch to power the fan.

i mention the 3G alternator swap since the fan will draw lotsa power and the alternator would be able to handle the extra pull in electrical.

 

Oooh yeah, didn;t think about the alternator upgrade.. The woudl be a must with an electric fan..

Taurus fans might just be a better option.. One could probably eliminate the mechanical fan alltogether... Flex-a-lite makes a pretty reasonably priced universal adjustable fan controller..
I think it was the mid 80's Tempos and/or Escorts that had a regular temp switch that screwed into the thermostat housing to run the fan.. Not sure at what temp they kicked on though..

 

oh yeah... I would definitely upgrade the alternator. they also have inline main hose adapters for temp switches (though I would prefer one in the block/heads if that were possible).

 

Hey guys, sorry about the long time no reply. I've been busy working 2 jobs and scheduling my full time college classes. The man I met at auto zone is being a big help, next week he's receiving an engine cherry picker so I was going to end up replacing the oil pan gasket along with the manifold cover gaskets. Anything special I should know? I know that the engine must be raised in order to remove the oil pan.

I was also tossing around the idea about taking out the engine and working on it/rebuilding it... I'm guessing 80% of the parts on it are more then a decade and a half old. I was thinking about going through and replacing all the gaskets and broken parts which I'm sure are in there. It would also be nice to figure out why the engine skips sometimes when speeding up. Is this just a stupid idea that would consume to much time? The guy who is helping me out knows a lot about cars.

In other news, after the engine maintenance I'm going to replace that air conditioning system which he also has said he'd help me with. My car has started to do something a little weird to, but its leaking out power steering fluid or cruise control fluid out of the left side where you turn the cruise control on or off. The cruise control also doesn't work, and I'm wondering if there's some correlation.. getting the cruise control to work would be a big plus but I've heard bad stories about it, and am not counting on it.


Thanks for the help

~Stealthlead

 

not sure about the cruise, but leaking power steering fluid is usually from the pump on these cars. you can either just keep filling the reservoir up or replace the pump. if you get the pulley puller for that pump, it's not that hard to change out, just time consuming. now if it's leaking fluid from the rear of the engine compartment, that'll be brake fluid. you may need a new master cylinder or just need to tighten some lines up. Now if you mean there's fluid leaking from the steering wheel, I got no clue what the deal is for that. there shouldn't be anything but electrical stuff in there.

as for the rebuild, if it's not smoking out the tailpipe or making obnoxious noises (clattering or knocking all the time) then I wouldn't worry about it and just replace the gaskets. Just be sure to put the sealant on the pan and covers (the covers may not need sealer - I haven't checked the design on those) and you may need to pound the pan out flat at the bolt holes as well. try not to get any sealer on the engine or heads or future work will require machining since scraping the sealer off creates scratches that can cause leaks. you definitely want to make sure the surfaces are clean before putting them back together. a good solvent (like acetone) will work great for that. If you do decide to do the rebuild, replace the timing chain and tensioner as well as the seals and gaskets. you may also want to replace any valve guides and the rods (check them out to see if they need replacing - things like scoring, rounding, pitting, etc).

If I ever get the funds to throw at my 88, I might buy some airflow research 165cc 302 heads and really tool that car up with a more aggressive cam, intake, and exhaust. Those heads can lead to a naturally aspirated 400HP out of that old 302. That would be fun.

 

i would rather get a 97 explorer engine, lincoln mark 7 brainbox and call it a day...

the explrer engine has better internal parts, and is an HO... the mark 7 brain is to reconfigure for the different firing order to control injectors and a few other things. the difference in firing order of an HO setup is easier on main bearings compared to the stock firing oreder in our cars.

 

I'm really sorry, I meant it's leaking power steering fluid or cruise control fluid out of the steering wheel and its starting to become a nuisance. I would enjoy giving my car more power.. oh I would but I mean its an automatic, isn't there only so much you can do? I really would enjoy doing the rebuild... I'd need a lot of help though. I'll talk with my friend about it. And A crazy question but would it at all be possible to turn it into a stick shift?