'96 Crown Vic Cooling System?

'94IDITurbo7.3

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I asked this in the ford gas engine section but there is more activity here.

We are going to be doing a flush of my dad's crown vic soon. i was wondering if it has the drain plugs on the engine block like my IDI does? the engine is the 4.7L V8.

Thanks
 

itsacrazyasian

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4.6l V8

and yes it does, on both sides.

When i flush these panther cars i usually end up draining all the old coolant out of the system, then removing the thermostat and reinstalling the upper water neck and running a garden hose into the coolant degas bottle and letting the old water run out the top hose till it runs clear. I usually do this twice, then pull the lower hose and refill with 50/50 Ford gold. It keeps the systems much cleaner than the old green stuff and keeps heater core problems at bay (which is fairly common on these cars)

But what do i know? I only maintain a fleet of them.
 

itsacrazyasian

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take the upper radiator hose off at the radiator and keep it aimed down between the radiator and airbox. shove garden hose in coolant bottle and let it run without a tstat so the water will run through the motor as the motor is running. It'll get most of the crap out. Pull lower hose off and empty and rinse radiator out. I get alot of sediment out of the cars this way, mostly the casting sand thats still in the motors after over 100K.
 

stumpjumper3

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Boy I'm glad I stumbled on this. My 97 interceptor is due for this as well. Hey itsacrazyasian, you got any factory air box setups for these panthers laying around? /end hijack/
 

itsacrazyasian

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what years?

i might have a pre 04 zip tube and air box. What exactly do you need?

I usually don't keep the older stuff, mine is the oldest (being a 2000) but its supercharged and the stock intake/airbox is long gone.

94. i forgot to mention you will need a new thermostat o ring.
 

itsacrazyasian

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not like it matters. i think we are a bunch of the most random so....b's.

94, for some reason i have a ****** cranium inversion today.

I posted how i flush these systems, i forgot to tell you don't bother messing with the block drains. I've actually broken a few many years ago when i first started messing with them.

96 should have the coolant bottle on the passenger side. The lower fill hose from that comes off really easy to flush out the bottle too.

If the system is really bad, after an inital flush like how i said, including dropping the lower hose to get all the sediment out. A chemical treatment flush maybe needed. This is usually rare but i did get a 94 once that the bottle was caked and so was the rest of the system. After a traditional flush, cooling system flush was added and the car driven for a few hours, then flushed again and it was nice and clean. If the thermostat looks iffy replace that too with MOTORCRAFT only! Also while you're in there, check the rubber hose under the intake manifold.
 

stumpjumper3

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Mine is a 1997 P71. I need the whole works, airbox, zip tube, new MAF wouldnt hurt, pretty much if you had all the sensors that go in it, I would like to replace them. The previous owner put one of those awfull eBay cold air intake kits on it. It looks like garbage. Although the rest of the car is tight and it was the best 700 dollar purchase I could have made. If pics would help, I can deffinately take some and pm them to you.

94iditurbo7.3. Glad I didn't jack your thread. These are just such awesome cars I love learning about them.
 

itsacrazyasian

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Mine is a 1997 P71. I need the whole works, airbox, zip tube, new MAF wouldnt hurt, pretty much if you had all the sensors that go in it, I would like to replace them. The previous owner put one of those awfull eBay cold air intake kits on it. It looks like garbage. Although the rest of the car is tight and it was the best 700 dollar purchase I could have made. If pics would help, I can deffinately take some and pm them to you.

94iditurbo7.3. Glad I didn't jack your thread. These are just such awesome cars I love learning about them.

let me check and see what i have in the shop tommorow.
 

itsacrazyasian

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So i will be able to get all the old stuff out of the block without taking the plugs out?

Yup. Drain radiator and then pull the lower hose off to get the remaining coolant out. You will need to physically push or pull the hose down to drain the remaining coolant. Put the hose back on the lower rad (no need to clamp) and leave the upper hose off the radiator and put the garden hose in the coolant bottle. Run it till it runs clear. You can put the hose in the upper radiator neck and do the same with the engine running the whole time to flush the rad out too. When you are done, pull the lower hose back off and get it to the lowest point you can and the rest of the block will drain out. There will be a little water left in the block and heater core. About 1/2 a gallon to be exact. Refill with ford gold 50/50 (no tap water)
 

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Another thing on these engines you might want to check out that I run into alot down here is at about 150k the timing chain guides take a crap so you may want to check for pieces of plastic in the oil when you do an oil change. I've done at least twenty in the last three months. If you do run into it drop the pan and clean the pickup tube out. All that plastic goes somewhere and it's usually the pickup.
 

itsacrazyasian

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Another thing on these engines you might want to check out that I run into alot down here is at about 150k the timing chain guides take a crap so you may want to check for pieces of plastic in the oil when you do an oil change. I've done at least twenty in the last three months. If you do run into it drop the pan and clean the pickup tube out. All that plastic goes somewhere and it's usually the pickup.

Thats not a problem for our cars and Pulling the oil pan on his car is a PITA.

Had a 2007 and a 2004 Town Car in the shop today. Did rear axle shafts on the 2004, it had 434K on it. Original Chains and guides. Mobil 1 Extended performance oil and extended performance oil filter done every 15K.
2007 just did control arm bushings, shocks and new front struts. 377K on it. Same oil and filter.

The chains and guides on the cars i service will make it to 500K.

I've only replaced the chains and guides on one E350 5.4 van with 230K, that was still considered low mileage but when we opened the motor up we found the motor was not maintained.

Don't touch spark plugs in these things until 300K usually.

The origional engine out of my 2000 Crown Vic was still on its stock guides and chains with the 190K on it when i took the motor out and shoved it into another town car that DID blow the guides and it bent some valves. But that town car had 513K when it started getting noisy and the driver buried the go pedal.

edit: i just realized you might be working on Civilian cars. The cars i maintain are all fleet cars racking up hwy miles and run 24/7. One driver gets out, another jumps in. The only time the cars get shut down are for oil changes. So the mileage we see out of the guides is going to be much different from what civialian car sees.
 

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