Thread: 87 Grand Marquis 2 door build

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It's got potential; it's a full framed rear wheel drive two door with a V8. Go for it, most of us have never seen one of these done and it might be interesting.

Originally Posted by falconvan

It's got potential; it's a full framed rear wheel drive two door with a V8. Go for it, most of us have never seen one of these done and it might be interesting.

Yup,,certainly different,,and by that,I dont mean to be rude...I quite like some of these years of cars..specially the coupes..I had a 1978 Mercury Zephyr wagon for a few years,which someone had thrown a 302w into..went okay,but was butt ugly..Was intending to build a new engine,and lower it a tad,but something else got in the way,and it had to go..That coupe of yours looks better..Just needs lowering a little,and a stroker in the engine bay..What did they come out with?Windsor??carbs or injection??

Long before the wheels and tires first mods were to the engine. earlyer yeas were carbed low performance 302s. Later CFI and by 86 were SEFI, Hyd roller what were LOPO 5.0s. 351Ws were aviable in Police intercepters and started out as carbed then veriable venturi to CFI. Never went to SEFI with these 351Ws. Think if Ford had always offerd a high performance version of this chassis sales would have been different.

My first change was to install a 5.0 HO throttle body on the engine. Std these came with 48 ish MM TBs. The Mustang came with a 60 MM TB. The upper and lower intake were the same as the early 5.0 HO Mustangs. The differance was the upper inlet faced the driver side in a Mustang it faced the passenger side. The EGR spacers were also different. The bores were different and the throttle linkage attached to the EGR spacers differently. For a first attempt just champhered the TB side edge to clear the TBs butterfly. Also installed a bleed to remove air from the coolant passage for the EGR as it was a high point in the system.

The 5.0 TB was the next issue, the belcrank was 180* out. Fixed it by redrilling attachment points of the cables. 5.0 HO TB on the right Grand Marquis on the left.
The other pic shows it redrilled and cleaned up.

The engine bay looked basicly like this another 2 door I purchased.
The reality is I was busy working on other cars like my Mustang. I realy started to enjoy the Merc and its comforts. Ease of getting in and out of great on trips, roomy, nice ride. The TB swap improved performance and economy. Was a bit difficult to get it to idle but smoothed out after a couple months. Years later getting into EFI and programing it I undestad why. Traded my 84 mustang with a 70 Boss 302 in it for half down on an ofshore boat. Started realy thinking about tricking out the Merc. Have owned I dont know how many Mustangs and guess got a bit tired of them.

Deciding to go old school NASCAR started to look into the suspension. First supprise was that this chassis used upper and lower A arms. Before looking thought it was the typical front strut rod lower I arm suspension often called in circle track the Hollman Moody front end.
This ment had to look at different options than the stock car parts for the H&M style.
The front suspension was different than standard A arm set ups. So ideas for using tubular upers and lowers were out the window for now.
Best lower arm that would fit were the Police lowers. A bit stronger than std ones with better ball joints. Was lucky I purchased the last ones from Ford. OEM replacements for these do not exist.
2 choices for uppers. The Police uppers used bronze bushings as the 70ish Mustangs. They have to found used and are not servaceable at this point if found. Have one pair found in 15 or so years.
Endes up going with the original uppers with new rubber bushings and the PI upper ball joint.
Brakes in the front were upgraded to PI units which only required PI pads and calipers. Went with Raybestos units. Loved the almost dustless Super Stop pads. Think they went over 100k before replacing and still had meat on them.
Front sway bar was the weeny one and none on the rear. Went aftermarket and purchased front and rear Addico ones.

Been busy. The next step was springs and shocks. Checked into the weight of the car. Aprox 4000 lbs, 2500 front 1500 rear. Selected Street Stock 12.5 length 1000# springs. Figured this would lower the front about 1.5". Front shocks also street stock units from Afco.