luigisho
SHO Member
Good luck. I've had my eye on a Panther platform car for a few years now.
A fresh start / JMS's 2013 Gem Green Build Thread
- Thread starter Junkyard_Mad-Scientist
- Start date
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Bronco2fan
SHO Member
Little old lady across the street from me has an 03 Grand Marquis. 4.6, fully loaded, air suspension. She calls it Queenie . Needs some love, but still pretty decent.
Junkyard_Mad-Scientist
SHO Member
Yessir and a taurus platform of all things, weird choice for the 4 cam for a sedan but the continental is a rocketship for sure. I just wish they wised up and stuffed the dohc or at least a 5.4 or something stronger in the town car. Sticker on these things was around SHO prices so I feel a bump in performance would've been in order, but the elderly probably don't need 400 horse on tap just to hit the wrong pedal pulling up to water aerobics.
The SHO pulled harder than ever after fixing the pcv issue, and she was always a monster, it was just the endless repetitive issues, I couldn't afford to fix it while driving my back up vehicle, the next looming issue was the steering rack and knowing that huge bill was either years or days away I couldn't justify everything that had already happened and anticipate that. It was time but maybe some day I'll snag another one, I see so many high mile shos so I just got a bit of a lemon I think. That said she was good to me when it counted and I had a lot of fun with it.
I wouldn't have a name like junkyard mad scientist if I didn't already have a plan of dumping a 5.0 in the Lincoln with a 6r80 and 3.55 gears with a locker. But, the wife has made it very clear before I make a reliable car unreliable (what ever that's supposed to mean) she gets her long awaited expedition.
Junkyard_Mad-Scientist
SHO Member
Green is the siren of car enthusiasts, looks great, lures you in, crushes your soul
Junkyard_Mad-Scientist
SHO Member
I had the fleeting thought of keeping the SHO as a project and just driving the Lincoln as my worry free daily, if I was in a better financial position I probably would. Can't go wrong with a dead reliable panther. I sold my vic with 240k on it and it went through 2 kids actively trying to **** it, as of 3 years ago it was over 350k and still going.
Zpak
Es Aich Oh!
Maybe this one is different? Hahaha
Junkyard_Mad-Scientist
SHO Member
Nope, it has me drooling so definitely a man eater. That's an L too, extended wheel base. Honestly even if it was a cursed color, you can rebuild an entire panther for the cost of a PTU in a SHO, or if you're creative enough, a diverse dumpster and a death wheel. These will be the end of the world cars everyone wants
SM105K
Streetlight Grand Prix Champ/ IG @fafomotorsports
**** yes. Start a new build thread here with the new car. The more traffic here the better, to keep this place from being swallowed into the abyss.
I agree, this has been the best car community for me as well. That is why I continue to stick around as well.
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luigisho
SHO Member
That sounds like fun.
There is also something to be said for a vehicle you can get in turn the key and go. My 5.0 '14 f150..other than consumable parts like pads, rotors, tires, battery has only had a starter replaced and I had a front caliper and/or hose fail and I just replaced both like 3 weeks ago. For almost 13 yrs and 195k miles. I am dumbfounded since I drive this thing like it owes me money
Also had to replace the famous leaking coolant seal for these engines at a top front plastic Y pipe. Did it twice, once for leak and another for prev maint. Now that I post this it will likely blow the f up
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Junkyard_Mad-Scientist
SHO Member
Ive got a tuner buddy working up a tune for it. I figure maybe if shes not showing signs of death by 200k (which it probably wont) maybe I'll do something drastic to greatly reduce its reliability so that when a piston exists the chat I can justify the 5.0. Who knows what'll happen, but sure, Id rather share it here than the panther forums, That place is kinda scary. lots of purists and extreme builds, not much in between and not much sleeper/muscle builds. I asked if anyone knew how to blank off the hood ornament since its redundant. I was all but attacked lol. SACRELIGE!!!!
That said, Ill keep the hood ornament, might change the badge in the grille since its the same thing 2 inches apart. But I scored some OE floor mats and black reflector headlights at the junkyard, theres the start lol. Need to do tie rods and tires this weekend, once I have it back to cherry, or close enough, then ill probably start making some fun adjustments. Starting with cosmetic and what ever I can find in my stash, The wife has been extremely understanding with the whole ordeal with the SHO so I told her I would cool it for a bit and work towards getting her an upgrade next. So some inexpensive heres and theres are fine but gotta wait on the bigger things.
Junkyard_Mad-Scientist
SHO Member
for a low mile built pull out thats not bad, but Ive been seeing pullouts in the 2-3k range lately which tells me theyre finally becoming affordable
oh I know...just trying to add to the "fire"
Junkyard_Mad-Scientist
SHO Member
I dropped the idea last night in conversation with the wife, she didnt shoot it down so thats practically a yes lol. the 5.0 swap WILL happen, a 5.4 2v is too much work for not a lot of gain, I dont hate myself enough to put a 3v in there on purpose, and a 6.2 would be a tight fit. 7.3 being the only logical other option is 2-3 times more expensive right now than a gen 1 5.0, so 5.0 it is. For the cost to rebuild a 4r70w (about 2-3k last I checked) I can replace it with a 6r80 with an engine and wire harness attached to it for the same price. so even if the 4.6 is healthy, that transmission wont last forever, only one of em has to break
That listing I posted above, does include the 10 speed...just sayin'
Zpak
Es Aich Oh!
Would be kinda fitting for my ‘96 F150.
That would be fun
Junkyard_Mad-Scientist
SHO Member
Olivia Update: I ordered most of the suspension for the hefty bill of what one SHO strut costs (about $160), now it might not be OEM or even a brand I can pronounce but the reviews didnt suck and replacing struts was not on my radar when I bought a turn key car. but the bounce is a little more hoopty than land yacht so Im hoping the struts will fix the bump steer and bounce issue. She was a kansas car and for the first time in years I had to fight rusty bolts, im spoiled in florida. but I managed to swap the rear shocks just before its tire appointment. Front struts and tie rods are next but before I could do that I had a paying job roll onto the car port so I had to stop.
I'd like to share the insanity of what I found, purely for entertainment as this thread has had almost nothing to do with SHOs. Less than a year ago I sold my wife's mail jeep that I built from the ground up. it was a 98 Grand Cherokee 4.0l. 4x4 from the junk yard. it had a rebuilt engine, but a bad transmission, and no rear axle. I spent 2 weekends putting it back together with a donor. over the next 5 years it evolved to have onboard equipment you would find on any service vehicle (strobes, compressor, full time camera, air horn, etc.) anything that made my wife safer and the truck more reliable and more capable.
the woman I sold it to admittedly didnt know anything about cars, I offered to maintain the jeep but only half hearted since I was happy to be rid of it because there was literally nothing but the engine itself I hadnt replaced. So she ended up declining my offer and taking it to the new shop nearby. This man is the definition of a hack, after the last 3-4 months of hearing the boohoo horror stories I decided to offer to "unfuck it" after he tried selling her a $600 distributer and a $700 ECM after charging her $500 for a crank position sensor. and that was just recently. I had heard about his parts cannon approach and every time I heard a symptom it was followed with the google top result as his fix. which is fine on occasion when you have no idea after basic diagnostic. and at $130 per hour I feel like 30 minutes wouldve gone far.
The issue that led the jeep to me was a stall/no start after it gets hot. thats why the CPS was replaced to no avail (not surprising since I replaced it when it DID fail 3 years ago) then he said the entire distributor was bad, Doubt it since the electronics inside were replaced by me just over a year ago, but the ECM "had dirt in it" so its bad. It was sealed and definitely not full of dirt. Gentlemen (and any ladies following along) I spent 3 minutes under the hood and saw the arc from the coil wire to the block and knew everything I needed to know. basic troubleshooting. I advised her to get wires, a new coil since I was sure the once black now gray coil had overheated a few times probably causing the stall when hot issue, valve cover gasket since it was drenching everything in oil including the new CPS sensor connector that was literally full of oil, a pcv valve since that was probably why it was puking oil, and some heres and theres.
Like an onion, there were layers of shotty workmanship everywhere. Battery hold down was tossed in the engine bay, the AC (which she mentioned mysteriously stopped working) was disconnected everywhere and the relay to the clutch was missing, wires crudely yanked from under the dashboard, loose and/or missing bolts, it was a mess. the key complaints were: stops running after hot, rough idle, no brake lights at all, steering conversion broken and unsafe, shift interlock failure not allowing for shifting when running, no turn signals, and heavy oil consumption.
Here's what I found: Airbox not properly fastened, caked dirt in throttle body, baked on lime rock on spark plugs, failed plug wires, failed coil, corroded distributor cap on coil terminal only, oil soaked sensors, incorrect brake light bulbs, and 2 blown fuses. I ended up having to take the entire steering conversion out and redoing it to fix it because the power steering failed after he fixed a leak and she had an emergency turn that destroyed the bearing under heavy load with no power assist. The jeep left my house running better than it has in months with a laundry list of things she has to save up for but I will be performing the services on.
When the mechanic caught wind I was working on it, he laughed when she said "he said it was the spark plugs or the wires or something" (again, completely car ignorant) he said "well its your PCM not your spark plugs, but good luck, let me know when you want me to fix it" since then my wife has blasted his business and his doors have been shut after I showed the picture of the spark plug to the woman and my wife. this man is actively sabotaging this jeep while performing work subpar to that of a 12 year old me. seriously? wrong bulb? shit happens but when you are running down an issue you double check things like that. this is why I dont trust shops, He wanted to charge her $1300 to replace parts that werent bad, or conveniently sell her a car for $1300, Labor and parts combined I charged her $700 and fixed things he couldnt even figure out not to mention the things he intentionally disabled. here is a few pics of my adventure over the weekend.
its worth noting that these plugs were just over a year old, but he said with confidence its not the spark plugs, which I didnt think so either but I checked anyway. this was the worst one, but 3 of them had baked on limerock
The airbox, obviously not closed, sucking dust straight into the engine. how does a mechanic miss this?
The result, the dirtiest throttle body I have ever seen, again, how is this missed during diag? whats worse is he has replaced this throttle body because I had one that was painted on there when I sold it last August
After I gutted the old column out, younger me deserves a kiss on the mouth for making it bolt in, I forgot how I had everything attached but I made it easy for myself (sort of)
and an honorable mention that the hack didnt have anything to do with. look at how clean that is, there is NO sludge at all, a testatment to regular maintainence and Rotella 15W-40.
I had my fair share of "short cut" repairs on this jeep keeping it on the road every day to get my wife a paycheck, long days, late nights, but everything no matter how ugly, was safe, and functional. it ran 6 days a week so opportunities to correct some of my band aids were few and far between, but for gods sake I at least got the air box to close.
I'd like to share the insanity of what I found, purely for entertainment as this thread has had almost nothing to do with SHOs. Less than a year ago I sold my wife's mail jeep that I built from the ground up. it was a 98 Grand Cherokee 4.0l. 4x4 from the junk yard. it had a rebuilt engine, but a bad transmission, and no rear axle. I spent 2 weekends putting it back together with a donor. over the next 5 years it evolved to have onboard equipment you would find on any service vehicle (strobes, compressor, full time camera, air horn, etc.) anything that made my wife safer and the truck more reliable and more capable.
the woman I sold it to admittedly didnt know anything about cars, I offered to maintain the jeep but only half hearted since I was happy to be rid of it because there was literally nothing but the engine itself I hadnt replaced. So she ended up declining my offer and taking it to the new shop nearby. This man is the definition of a hack, after the last 3-4 months of hearing the boohoo horror stories I decided to offer to "unfuck it" after he tried selling her a $600 distributer and a $700 ECM after charging her $500 for a crank position sensor. and that was just recently. I had heard about his parts cannon approach and every time I heard a symptom it was followed with the google top result as his fix. which is fine on occasion when you have no idea after basic diagnostic. and at $130 per hour I feel like 30 minutes wouldve gone far.
The issue that led the jeep to me was a stall/no start after it gets hot. thats why the CPS was replaced to no avail (not surprising since I replaced it when it DID fail 3 years ago) then he said the entire distributor was bad, Doubt it since the electronics inside were replaced by me just over a year ago, but the ECM "had dirt in it" so its bad. It was sealed and definitely not full of dirt. Gentlemen (and any ladies following along) I spent 3 minutes under the hood and saw the arc from the coil wire to the block and knew everything I needed to know. basic troubleshooting. I advised her to get wires, a new coil since I was sure the once black now gray coil had overheated a few times probably causing the stall when hot issue, valve cover gasket since it was drenching everything in oil including the new CPS sensor connector that was literally full of oil, a pcv valve since that was probably why it was puking oil, and some heres and theres.
Like an onion, there were layers of shotty workmanship everywhere. Battery hold down was tossed in the engine bay, the AC (which she mentioned mysteriously stopped working) was disconnected everywhere and the relay to the clutch was missing, wires crudely yanked from under the dashboard, loose and/or missing bolts, it was a mess. the key complaints were: stops running after hot, rough idle, no brake lights at all, steering conversion broken and unsafe, shift interlock failure not allowing for shifting when running, no turn signals, and heavy oil consumption.
Here's what I found: Airbox not properly fastened, caked dirt in throttle body, baked on lime rock on spark plugs, failed plug wires, failed coil, corroded distributor cap on coil terminal only, oil soaked sensors, incorrect brake light bulbs, and 2 blown fuses. I ended up having to take the entire steering conversion out and redoing it to fix it because the power steering failed after he fixed a leak and she had an emergency turn that destroyed the bearing under heavy load with no power assist. The jeep left my house running better than it has in months with a laundry list of things she has to save up for but I will be performing the services on.
When the mechanic caught wind I was working on it, he laughed when she said "he said it was the spark plugs or the wires or something" (again, completely car ignorant) he said "well its your PCM not your spark plugs, but good luck, let me know when you want me to fix it" since then my wife has blasted his business and his doors have been shut after I showed the picture of the spark plug to the woman and my wife. this man is actively sabotaging this jeep while performing work subpar to that of a 12 year old me. seriously? wrong bulb? shit happens but when you are running down an issue you double check things like that. this is why I dont trust shops, He wanted to charge her $1300 to replace parts that werent bad, or conveniently sell her a car for $1300, Labor and parts combined I charged her $700 and fixed things he couldnt even figure out not to mention the things he intentionally disabled. here is a few pics of my adventure over the weekend.
its worth noting that these plugs were just over a year old, but he said with confidence its not the spark plugs, which I didnt think so either but I checked anyway. this was the worst one, but 3 of them had baked on limerock
The airbox, obviously not closed, sucking dust straight into the engine. how does a mechanic miss this?
The result, the dirtiest throttle body I have ever seen, again, how is this missed during diag? whats worse is he has replaced this throttle body because I had one that was painted on there when I sold it last August
After I gutted the old column out, younger me deserves a kiss on the mouth for making it bolt in, I forgot how I had everything attached but I made it easy for myself (sort of)
and an honorable mention that the hack didnt have anything to do with. look at how clean that is, there is NO sludge at all, a testatment to regular maintainence and Rotella 15W-40.
I had my fair share of "short cut" repairs on this jeep keeping it on the road every day to get my wife a paycheck, long days, late nights, but everything no matter how ugly, was safe, and functional. it ran 6 days a week so opportunities to correct some of my band aids were few and far between, but for gods sake I at least got the air box to close.
Attachments
Junkyard_Mad-Scientist
SHO Member
Ran up the tail of the dragon for the wife and I's anniversary, decided against taking the Lincoln but somewhat regretting selling SHO, the Fusion did great but I could only imagine how the SHO would've torn through the curves
Now I've got all these ideas of what to bring next time. Crown vic buggy, fox body, FPIS, 90s thunderbird with IRS. I pulled off 11 miles in just over 20 minutes, I wasn't pushing very hard because I already got the talk after the Vogel State Forrest on the way up to not drive like a teenager and make our kids orphans. But for a stock 2.5l NA Fusion she did great. I love this platform and the scenery is amazing. I got a hyper lapse video of the entire thing too
Now I've got all these ideas of what to bring next time. Crown vic buggy, fox body, FPIS, 90s thunderbird with IRS. I pulled off 11 miles in just over 20 minutes, I wasn't pushing very hard because I already got the talk after the Vogel State Forrest on the way up to not drive like a teenager and make our kids orphans. But for a stock 2.5l NA Fusion she did great. I love this platform and the scenery is amazing. I got a hyper lapse video of the entire thing too
