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IIRC, Mercury hasn't offered the old GM based engines in years. A while back, they switch to their own in-house designs.

I concur that the 4.6 is barely adequate for full sized truck/van use. They'll get the job done, but aren't pleasant in doing so. Especially in an exceptionally heave brick like a conversion van, they have to be pushed and revved up to overcome the slightest resistance (hills on the hwy, for...

Not sure I understand the question. If they don't care, I don't care? They probably think the same about my not caring about golfing or their landscaping projects.

HEI conversions are pretty commonplace on everything now from cars, to trucks, to vintage tractors and construction equipment. The beauty of it is that modules are still available almost everywhere when there's ever a failure!

Not exactly. Even at the basic level, there are some fundamental hardware and module differences between the muliple Durasparks, TFI, EEC setups. HEI is HEI.

There was some evolution as far as features go. For example, the addition of electronically controlled spark advance to eliminate the old traditional centrifugal/mechanical setup. However, at it's core, the HEI system was pretty much unchanged.

HEI was in use until '95. After, OBDII became the standard and the last of the distributor ignitions went away. The Cadillac 4.9 is the last engine I can think of that still had a distributor and may be the most recent implementation of HEI. Optispark is it's own animal. Admittedly, unlike...

Looks like there is no bearing shell: the machined cam cap itself is the bearing. In that case, you have no choice but to run it or replace the entire head. The cam tunnel is align bored with the caps in place. They are mated to that head, in that position for life. You cannot mix-match, or...

Um...Hyundai oil heat exchanger is in the radiator. OE's never use full flow oil coolers/exchangers. They usually use some sort of restricted flow with a bypass valve. Restricted flow is there to reduce dynamic pressure in the cooler so that the cooler isn't subjected to the normal high...

OHC maximizes area for head design. Combustion chamber shape/size, valve size and orientation, intake and exhaust port size/shape all aren't influenced by the pushrod holes in the head casting, which are a significant portion of real estate in the head casting. It also eliminates restrictions...

Generally on an r12 system, the 1/4" SAE charge hoses thread directly on the fitting. There are no special adapters. Because of that, pay attention to your connections. Don't want to get them backwards.

Hey now. At least in the GMT900 years, I thought the Avalanche was a fairly handsome, timeless design. A far cry from Aztec and Cube ugliness. But otherwise, yeah. I want to like the Camaro for it's specs, but then I see one in the wild and I'm over it.

Key word. Mortgaging a house works because it allows you to live in your asset, which in this case is also an investment in that historically, it's value increases over time. You have something to sell when you are done with it, and the money you tied up in it likely kept up with alternative...

I've had two of these generation trucks. One 99 4.6 and one 2003 5.4. These engines get the job done, but aren't without their flaws. As mentioned, not a ton of power and the power they have is higher up in the rev band. Their peak numbers aren't terrible, but they never feel like they've got...

My 1974 Dodge 3/4 gets only 1.5mpg less than that on the highway and it doesn't even have OD. Fact is, trucks are still the heavy bricks they've always been, and as far as efficiency, it doesn't seem to matter what drivetrain or technology changes are made. Trucks big or small have been getting...

As far as I know, most of the TCC problems are solenoid related, not hard parts. And unfortunately, the solenoid lives in the side cover. Not ideal when stuffed in a FWD car. Not sure TCC problems are as much of a function of maintenance as it is blind luck.

Account for the kerf? Pretty sure that, no matter which process is used, the hole is machined AFTER the cap is split off.

I'm a closet GM fan, but I'll admit their chassis quality in this era wasn't the greatest. However, a lot of it was a function of environment. Probably fine cars where rot isn't a concern. Where it is, things weren't good. For example, GM used regular cheap galvanized fluid lines a decade later...

Standards are different now. Back in the day, a universal look with the old aluminum camper shells made fitment easy. An 8ft shell was an 8ft shell. Nowadays, everything is molded for a seamless look with the bed/cab sheetmetal, making them all direct-fit for specific models. Kinda dumb that...

It's not all bad. I chose an older full sized SUV because, at the price point, not much depreciates less. Even as the years and miles increase, a full sized SUV is worth a few bucks. Conversely, a $10k minivan will be essentially worthless later. That more than makes up for a MPG difference...