1985 Grand Marquis question

[colinlesser]

ok i just bought a 1985 Grand Marquis for $50 yes thats right FIFTY DOLLARS! and i have a few questions, the reason i got the car so cheap was the previous owner said it had a blown head gasket, he based this on the fact that it overheated once and the car started losing power and thecheck engine light came on and the heater stopped working or somthing like that, now what could cause those symptoms other than a blown head gasket? the reason im asking is i checked the motor and it has a slight tick on the passanger side but nothing serious and the oil is normal not milky or contaminated and i let it run for about 20 minutes sitting still and the exhaust smelt normal (STINKY BUT NORMAL) and help would be appreciated. thanks

[colinlesser]

you can check out pics of my car here http://photobucket.com/albums/c190/c...and%20Marquis/

[fredjacksonsan]

Cool. I had an '86; they're great old cars.

If it overheated on him, I'd first take a look at the cooling system. I would bet that the radiator is partially clogged and needs to be replaced. A flush and fill probably wouldn't hurt either.

More seriously, the head gasket issue. Check first on the outside of the engine, look for leaks at the head. Of course it could have the gasket problem on the inside. Look for either white (coolant) or black/blue(oil) smoke coming from the tailpipe. If you've got neither, and the car doesn't use any oil or coolant, you should be ok.

[colinlesser]

well at this point i dont know what it is, i went to drain the cooling system and the guy had only put water in it and it had been below freezing for the last couple weeks here, so i found a frozen solid radiator. after thawing it i began to drain it with hot water and i got pure mud from the radiator. after draining and filling with antifreeze i noticed the upper rediator hose was retaining pressure so im guessing the thermostat is stuck solid closed. no the question is if i have blown head gaskets. im not really looking forward to replacing them on this car so i may pull the motor from my 79 F150 with a 351w and put it in. it would have some real balls with all my edelbrock parts on it. but the main problem is that the car has no getup and go. i mean it has like no power and i know the car isnt so heavy the 215hp under the hood in the 302 cant push it. so what do you thinks causing the loss of power?

[fredjacksonsan]

If the dumba** just put straight water into it and it was frozen up, then that might be why it overheated.

Sounds like it needs to be brought inside to a heated space for a couple of days. Once it's thawed out, definitely check the freezer plugs in the block. Start it up, look for leaks and let it get nice and warm.

The "sludge" in the radiator indicates to me that this care wasn't well cared for; but it's still salvageable. New radiator, thorough flush and fill of the cooling system, and replacing all fluids is where I would start.

[colinlesser]

i already did that, i need to take out the thermostat and see how it does, but i dont know why it has no power

[fredjacksonsan]

Check.

When you say "no power", remember that in those years the 5.0 only had about 170HP in the MGM, and you're hauling a lot of weight around.

[panther79]

you need to clean out the coolant system and replace what you need then take the time to bleed the system fully, leave the car for a day then recheck the coolant and top up if needed start the car with the cap off and watch the coolant is should bubble over untill the thermostat opens once it opens top up again if needed and watch to see if air bubbles come up id they do let me know

[Marco Sr.]

Originally Posted by colinlesser

i already did that, i need to take out the thermostat and see how it does, but i dont know why it has no power

Ok this might be one of the things going wrong here.

The one thing that I haven't seen anyone posting here is that the exhaust may be restricted (most likely the Catalytic converter) this problem can give you both symptoms of overheating (especially under load) and loss of power, and the power loss would be more noticable the higher the RPM are and if you try to accelerate in low gear and push the RPM's up to 3 or 4 thousand RPM's you acually might even slow down the harder you push the throttle.

Marco