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Project Bo0sted

33K views 226 replies 24 participants last post by  greygoose 
#1 · (Edited)
Little back story to start..

I have always liked the ford panther platform cars. Well I always liked big 4 dr sedans. I've had a few gms and fords over the years. Grown to like the 03+ ford platforms. They have a lot of good things going for them.

Few yrs ago I had purchased a 05 p71 (crown vic police edition). I did a lot of work on it and it became a pretty fun car. I really enjoyed driving it, but I've always wanted a marauder. Not sure why I couldn't of been happy with the p71 as very little serperates the two cars from each other then mostly cost of purchase lol.

What I started with on the 05
FB_IMG_1526345592664 by Cheapthrillb2, on Flickr
This was the 05 before I sold it
Copcar by Cheapthrillb2, on Flickr

20180421_144644 by Cheapthrillb2, on Flickr

I ended up doing full obx header and xpipe and impala ss tailpipes.

Circle D torque converter and aggressive jmod with all the valve body upgrades I could find.

Had the 3.27s swapped out for 3.73 gears.

And a Tune from Marty at Mo's Speed Shop (kinda the go to for these cars and tunes).


Album on that
https://flic.kr/s/aHskYoV4eq

Enough on the p71.


So I decided earlier this year I wanted to get a Marauder. Those not familiar with them....03-04 specific
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_Marauder

One of the most obvious differences in the MM vs the other panther cars is that the MM was the only one to get the dohc 4.6L which gave a little more power over the 2v 4.6L
E707DB5A-97E7-4C8D-8F6A-EA4AFFA5840F_25 by Cheapthrillb2, on Flickr


So I found one that i felt was a decent buy online in a suburb of chicago. It was a high mileage car out of texas. I was sold on the texas idea as it was most likely rust free (and it pretty much was). I rented a car and me and a buddy drove down to get it. Bought it, turned the rental in and drove the MM back home. I believe I purchased it in april.

Of course it had 20's on it, bit neglected mechanically and had a few other issues. The wheels were bent pretty bad and had really loose ball joints, struts worn out. Dead battery. We ended up rotating the tires so the "best" wheels were on the frt. and avoided every pothole we could on the drive home. Praying for no flats (no spare) or broken bj's lol.

E707DB5A-97E7-4C8D-8F6A-EA4AFFA5840F_5 by Cheapthrillb2, on Flickr

E707DB5A-97E7-4C8D-8F6A-EA4AFFA5840F_3 by Cheapthrillb2, on Flickr

20180420_152039 by Cheapthrillb2, on Flickr
 
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#164 ·
Been a slow few weeks. Got hurt at work and I've been off since the 14th with a back injury. Could hardly walk, couldn't stand etc. Finally feeling a little better, but far from right.



So I hooked a switch to engage a second rev limiter and timing retard. Still struggling with pushing through the brakes to launch. I had the switch on the shifter handle. So I had to release the switch and the brake pedal at the same time. That was alot harder then it seemed lol. I struggled through a few launches not timing the release the same.

The ecm needs to see a ground signal to activate the 2nd rev limit, so I wired a relay off the brake light switch to convert the + signal to a - to activate it through a push button. Apparently my LCM doesn't like that. Every time i hit the brake pedal my lights freak out and I can hear a relay in the LCM go nuts. So I'll have to revisit that.

Had to pull my trans out (prior to getting hurt) to replace the TC seal, it was dripping since install. Hopefully that's now taken care of.



20190606_213731 by Cheapthrillb2, on Flickr
 
#173 ·
The new trans cooler works well, def. keeps the temps in check better.

Took the car on a cruise, joined in with Great Lakes Panthers for their summer meet across the u.p. of michigan. Had a great time and more importantly the wife had a great time.

FB_IMG_1564618311328 by Cheapthrillb2, on Flickr

FB_IMG_1564285488628 by Cheapthrillb2, on Flickr

FB_IMG_1564285493549 by Cheapthrillb2, on Flickr

FB_IMG_1564618290396 by Cheapthrillb2, on Flickr



I think I put 600-700 miles on the car over the course of 3 days. But wasn't without incident. I knew going in that good fuel wasn't easily accessible in the u.p.. 91 was the best 99% of places had. I figured I'd just take it real easy and be fine. Unfortunately my lack of self control got the better of me lol. On the return trip I passed a buddy in his military convoy, and on one of the passing lane stretches I rolled into while driving by his specific truck up to 120 and got some detonation. I developed a misfire about 150 miles from my stop. I drove about 20 miles to the next gas station and pulled off. Removed the plugs and found cyl 7 had the gapped closed. No obvious marks or damage to the strap. I bent the gap back open and reinstalled and made the 150 miles w/o issue. I got home and pulled that plug again and seemed fine. But I got my bore scope out and took a peak in the hole...

190729_174954 by Cheapthrillb2, on Flickr

So off came the head. No damage to the cyl wall, and no damage to the head. I was amazed. I still had the last motor I ate earlier this year, so I robbed a piston from that and swapped it on this motors rod and reinstalled. All seems good now. Next time I better just detune the tune to be safer and not rely on self control which I clearly have none of lol. I had $80 into the repair mostly just fluids and one head gasket and head bolts.

20190729_185320 by Cheapthrillb2, on Flickr

20190730_142847 by Cheapthrillb2, on Flickr

20190729_185327 by Cheapthrillb2, on Flickr



Buddy did tag me in a ad on facebook for the same motor I run (04.5-06 5.3L). So I figured why not. $200 and another spare on a pallet. I'm still off work due to my back injury so I had nothing better to do with my day. SO I went and scooped it up. Currently I have 2 5.3s, another that I was told was a 5.3 but turned out to be a 4.8 (and has a bad cam lobe and lifter, that was supposed to be a good runner), and parts and pieces from two other 5.3's that were hurt or damaged. All less then $800 combined.

20190802_173104 by Cheapthrillb2, on Flickr

We verified timing on my motor as LS motors are known to have the tone rings slip and give false timing. After verifying mine we found mine was off 2*s. So we revisited the tune and made some adjustments and decided to be on the safe side we pulled a little more timing out just in case I have more self control issues lol.
 
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