Added another Fox to the fleet - 1985 Marquis LTS

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Re: Added another Fox to the fleet - 1985 Marquis LTS

Reply #45 – October 07, 2025, 08:53:59 PM

Able to budget my time and got the timing cover, water pump and oil pan installed this evening.

Re: Added another Fox to the fleet - 1985 Marquis LTS

Reply #46 – October 08, 2025, 08:34:52 AM

Looking good!

Re: Added another Fox to the fleet - 1985 Marquis LTS

Reply #47 – October 09, 2025, 08:15:11 PM

Got into the valve seals this evening.

Wait...

All of the valve seals on the DS of the engine are gone.
They are intact on the PS, however.

I have 2 sets of valve seals here, and neither fit the 0.550" guide diameter of these heads. Awesome. Now I'm looking for some that aren't the "umbrella" type to fit.

Re: Added another Fox to the fleet - 1985 Marquis LTS

Reply #48 – October 10, 2025, 07:15:31 AM

WTF??? That is so weird. Did I miss it or how did the compression/leak down tests go?

Re: Added another Fox to the fleet - 1985 Marquis LTS

Reply #49 – October 10, 2025, 09:10:33 AM

I didn't get a compression test done before I pulled things, due to time constraints to get that done.

I didn't do a full leakdown test, as I could tell the valve seals(or as it seems, lack thereof) were making things worse.

I know the engine has some wear, but it's not close to dead yet. If it could keep oil, etc inside of it, I'd still be driving it as it was.

Any big drivetrain changes are FAR down the list of things to do.

Re: Added another Fox to the fleet - 1985 Marquis LTS

Reply #50 – October 10, 2025, 10:25:47 AM

Gotcha. Was just curious as to how healthy it is with it being 40 years old. You are making some great progress but the seals missing on the one side is crazy.

Re: Added another Fox to the fleet - 1985 Marquis LTS

Reply #51 – October 10, 2025, 02:29:28 PM

Pssst, Project Creep. Just saying. LOL

Re: Added another Fox to the fleet - 1985 Marquis LTS

Reply #52 – October 12, 2025, 06:19:59 PM

Still getting things done.

While I wait on valve seals (got the Ford kit), I wasn't just going to stare at the wall, so I worked through a couple other details.

I went ahead and installed the thermostat and dropped the lower intake onto the block.

I took a couple bits of AL can to seal off the EGR ports before I dropped things on.

I'd cleaned up the motor mount brackets and decided to at least attach the isolators to them.
While doing so, I noticed that the replacements didn't have the little locator nubs on them. So I added some.

More than likely not really needed, but I do know I had issues with some of my 2.3T mounts I used to make. If folks were lazy and didn't install the secondary hardware to keep the bases from twisting on the K-member pads, there would be some binding and vibration. So I just began installing the "nubs" on my mounts. Not a direct correlation, as those were poly mounts, but they were there for a reason.

The transmission x-member was crusty and the bushings were pooched, so I picked up another "adjustable" one and got it welded and cleaned and in paint (No painted pic)

Final task for the weekend/day was getting the injector harness trimmed down.

The harness I have has sensors and such all tied into it with the injectors, but I don't need that, since my sensors are already in the harness that I have together.
Got it down to just the injectors, and now I need to cut off the big connector and group up the "banks", as I'm doing batch fire. Slightly different grouping vs the trucks, since I have the HO firing order.

Looks like I need at least 1 new u-joint on the driveshaft, so I'll just replace them both.

I've had this gear-reduction starter sitting on a shelf for who-knows-how-long. It's going to finally get used.

I would like to add an oil pressure gauge to the car, and I have a couple old VDO ones in my stash. Just need to get a sender and figure out mounting. My coolant gauge is just mounted down low currently, which is fine, but there's not room for another gauge there. I may replace the ashtray "drawer" with something, that I'll probably just 3D print.

Once the valve seals land. Aside from priming the oil system and replacing the rear main, the block is basically done.

Re: Added another Fox to the fleet - 1985 Marquis LTS

Reply #53 – October 15, 2025, 11:05:34 PM

Valve seals arrived yesterday.

Had a chance to get them installed today.

Re: Added another Fox to the fleet - 1985 Marquis LTS

Reply #54 – October 17, 2025, 08:35:21 AM

Slapped the rest of the valvetrain together last night.

Going to prime the oil system before I put the valve covers back on.

Re: Added another Fox to the fleet - 1985 Marquis LTS

Reply #55 – October 17, 2025, 10:38:21 AM

Looking more and more like a non-leaking motor. Is the provision for a mechanical pump on the timing cover functional? I’ve seen where they are there but cast closed so was just curious. Hopefully that makes sense.

Re: Added another Fox to the fleet - 1985 Marquis LTS

Reply #56 – October 17, 2025, 10:52:45 AM

It's cast, but closed.

Looking ahead at 3 busy weekends in a row coming up. I'll have time to get things ready to drop in, but probably won't have time to stuff the engine/trans back in until after that.

Am I correct in remembering that the upper intake won't clear the PBF valve covers I have on the engine? May have to add a spacer, if so. I know there were certain covers that were kind of tall and interfered. I haven't messed with a port injected EFI 5.0 set-up before.

Re: Added another Fox to the fleet - 1985 Marquis LTS

Reply #57 – October 17, 2025, 01:29:46 PM

I want to say that what hits the valve cover is the throttle body linkage as it is directly over the valve cover. If you remove the EGR spacer then it move the throttle body in far enough that I think it may clear. Easiest way to know is to mock everything up.

I did a little looking around and found that Mike has valve covers similar to what you are going to run so check this thread out:

https://stangnet.com/mustang-forums/threads/valve-cover-clearances.901669/post-9338386

Re: Added another Fox to the fleet - 1985 Marquis LTS

Reply #58 – October 19, 2025, 11:10:39 PM

Was able to squeeze in a little work around everything else this weekend.

I'd attempted the install of the new AOD front seal, but I managed to slightly damage it on the install, so I opted to buy another. This time I printed up an install tool, to avoid any issues.

This evening I had a little time, so I thought I'd at least get the PS pump rebuilt.

Compressing the unit to get the big c-clip out to release the valve cover.

All of the guts. That cam assembly on the left with the shaft came apart on me during reassembly---. Had to fight all 10 of the springs and "slippers" back into place. Pretty easy to push that all apart when you're trying to get it installed and the shaft pushed through the new shaft seal.

Aside from the 1 fumble, it all went together pretty quickly, and I wrapped it up just after dinner.

All of the internal o-rings and that shaft seal were pretty stiff and obviously not doing their job.

Re: Added another Fox to the fleet - 1985 Marquis LTS

Reply #59 – October 20, 2025, 10:50:29 PM

Stopped and picked up some oil on the way home from work. Dumped 5 quarts into the engine and primed up the oil system.

The #8 intake took quite a bit longer than the rest to finally flow oil.

I picked up an FL-1A filter as well, but I think I'm going to run on that MANN filter I put on to paint things for a short bit, then change it out. The MANN is a quality filter, even though this one is shorter than the FL-1A . (It's the same size as the ones used on the 2.3T turbo cars, though). Gonna run it for a couple hundred miles, then pull it and install the FL-1A.

Then I grabbed a few more parts and got them installed.

Gotta clean up the valve covers, then they get put back on. Also going to stick the distributor in it.