Ever since my high school days there were two vehicles I "always wanted". One was a '64-'66 Thunderbird-- which I obtained back in 1987, and the other was a mid-late 70's Pinto wagon.
Finally, in 2001, I became the proud (second) owner of this great specimen from the 70's. A true California car, it's rust free and even appears to have the original exhaust system-- fully intact! This is the only vehicle I have that has working A/C... So, it spends more time in AZ than the rest of them. It's got a V6, which gives it some reasonably good "giddyup". The cargo area is the perfect size for hauling duckies to market!
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| While the wagon was in pretty good shape for its age, the engine struck me as needing a little TLC. It had 109,000 miles when I got the car and while it drove quite well, the idle wouldn't come down from roughly 1500rpm and I couldn't find where the apparent vacuum leak (what I suspect caused that) was coming from. It also had some visible oil smoke in the exhaust when at idle (or as close to idle as it got). There was no smoke when it was accelerating, so this looked like valve stem seals. I have learned that the 2.8L V6 which this has was notorious for that. The oil smoke was far from noticeable. 90% of the population would ever notice, but I did. I wanted to know that I could get another ten years or more out of this car without problems, so the summer of 2003 it was brought back to Michigan to get a complete engine job. I did not want to wait until it got worse, or to just patch up the valve stem problem. I wanted that 'new' Pinto wagon ride, and a newly rebuilt engine was the way to go. As it turns out, I managed to take care of the transmission, steering rack, and renew most of the other under hood items while I was working on the engine. With the exception of the body and the rear differential, the great majority of this car is new as of 2003. You could say I reset the odometer at the 114,305 mile mark (no-- it still shows original miles, but the present reading of 115,550 miles equates to 1245 SMOH (since major over haul-- aviation terminology). | |
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Just before starting the engine work (early September 2003) I noted the there as some slippage going into first gear when the car was cold. Because of this, I had the transmission redone by a D & W Auto in Traverse City. They're supposed to be the best transmission rebuilders in the area, so they got the work. The end result runs great. On removing the engine I discovered that the old EGR valve was toast, and also the 'hot idle compensator' on the carburetor wasn't closing properly. These two most likely contributed to my idling problems.
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The old carburetor had worn throttle
plate bushings which gave a pretty sticky off-idle spot to the
accelerator. In addition, there was a gas drip from under the
'power valve' which led me to believe the Motorcraft
2150 carb may have had some internal problems. The leak
persisted after my installation of a rebuild kit. The former owner
reported the best gas mileage he was able to obtain was 14mpg (the
same as my big block 390 '64 Tbird!)-- quite possibly related to
the problem in the enrichment/power valve area. I ultimately
replaced the carb with another.
I removed the engine 'per the book' as a separate piece from the transmission. Putting it back in was different. It's pretty tight at the rear of the engine so I opted to mount the transmission to the engine before lowering it into position. This worked like a charm. To the left is the engine bay amidst cleaning. I ultimately scrubbed it clean, primed, and painted the engine bay so it looks reasonably 'new'. I was lucky in that the air conditioning system was able to be pushed aside and didn't require discharging/recharging. It provides nice cool air now that the job is done, just as it did originally. |
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Getting the engine redone wasn't
necessarily a slam dunk until I put the job into the hands of Northwest
Engine Exchange in Williamsburg MI. I originally wanted to have the
original engine remachined locally by Thirlbys Automotive (where most of
the parts come from) but they declined the opportunity. It turns out
that the 2.8 liter 60 degree V6 (vin code Z) from the car is a bit hard to
come by, and parts aren't as plentiful as they would be for other vintage
engines. Northwest Engine put in a valiant effort and was able to
provide me with a fully rebuilt long block, but they couldn't find another
set of cylinder heads, so the original heads were redone. I would
have just assumed they use the original block too, but that would have
delayed the process considerably-- and it had already been a few weeks
behind schedule as it was (and winter was approaching fast).
To the left is the 'to go' case that an engine comes in. Because I was doing the installation/removal work myself, I was known to them as a 'carry out' customer. I don't exactly think of 'carry out' as a term used in automotive engine work, but it is. That black box in the back of my van contains my old engine. It's the engine shop equivalent to the little Styrofoam containers that they put Big Mac's in. |
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| Thanks to my friend Keith Farley who came by the day we put the engine in I have some digital photos and don't have to wait for my new scanner. This group was taken the evening we put the engine in. It's always nice to see everything so fresh and clean. The rubber duck (a genuine latex duck with a deformity) has become the mascot of the car now and still rides on the dashboard. | |
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By mid October I had the 'new' engine
back in the vehicle and it started up and ran.
To purists I committed a deadly sin. I painted the engine Ford/Chrysler blue instead of the original factory black. Since I'm not planning on competing in car shows with this car, I opted for the blue as I prefer the look of a clean blue engine to that of a clean black engine. Personal preference run amok. Regretfully, I had infant mortality with the rebuilt water pump and had to replace that again. I also had an intermittent 'slow crank' issue with the rebuilt starter. Now on my third starter, and with everything else in the starter electrical circuit replaced at least once, the slow crank is still there-- but very rare, and has never left us stranded (it still manages to start, even if it's a slow crank). I took care of nearly all the 'might as well's in this job. About the only thing I didn't do was replace the radiator, as the previous owner had that done not too many miles previous. The power steering pump is also original. |
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I even replaced the steering
rack&pinion assembly. The original steering rack had a spot that
felt funny. It was leaking fluid too. That went easier than
expected.
Add in to the job that a new brake master cylinder was added and the system was switched over to DOT5 silicone brake fluid. The brakes feel superb now. The old master cylinder was showing signs of seal leakage-- and being as important as that was, I didn't want to let it get any further along. The DOT5 fluid should allow me to not worry too much about water in the brake lines with the vehicle sitting for long periods of time. DOT5 is NOT hygroscopic (meaning 'to pick up water') and therefore doesn't subject the interior of the brake system to rust buildup. I've got it in almost all my other cars (but the Z28-- it's on the list!) and I swear by it. No more seized up brakes! |
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Here's the Pinto in Arizona (the
other photos were from Michigan). A fresh coat of wax, new tires, and it's good to go. Perhaps later this year I'll replace the carpet inside. Now that it's got 1200 miles on it the ride is just like a new car. Plenty of power, steers straight, stops on a dime (or nearly so). ... And it doesn't drip anything! I haven't quite added up all the bills for the 'engine project' but I figure I've put about $3500 into it this year. It's not too many people who put that kind of money into a car that might be worth $2000 optimistically when done. I'm sure I'll get my moneys worth, as there are no plans to sell it. God willing, it'll be part of the family for another 20 years or more. By then, if its in as good shape, it should be worth at least $3600! |
| I have a whole bunch of great photos of various parts of the engine job. I took most of the photos so that I knew where things went on reassembly. I'll scan them in and put them on here at some point. I'm expecting to buy a new scanner shortly and that's the cause of the delay. | |
