Originally Posted By: gallydif
First off welcome to BITOG
I see we share a common interest in full size American autos. If you have facebook, check out a group called "The Brougham Society" I believe you'd like it.
Hitting your daily question first. Man, both the panthers and bbodys are wonderful cars. Can't go wrong with either. Which panther do you have? All you said is true- the build quality is phenomenal and there's a plethora of them out there. There's just something about that 4.6. Don't know how to explain it. But every time I got in the Town Car and went to turn the engine over, I had full confidence it would each and every time. Not the fastest engine, but it's bullet proof. To me, it's the most reliable engine for cars on the road. Now the 5.7 lt1 is no slouch either. Way more powerful than the 4.6. More fun to drive. My 4.6 had 200hp. I know later on towards the end of production, the CVPI's were rated at 239hp.
Both my lt1's feel different. I put OESpectrum Monroe shocks on the Roadmaster sedan. Drives nice and soft like I'm riding on a cloud. Also note that the RMS was much better taken care of mechanically by the previous owner. It was garage kept. No sludge from what I can see. The RMS and Town Car had the same ride quality pretty much. The Caprice have shocks made for towing and it has a much firmer sporty feel to it.
The 4.6 is know to burn oil. That's common and nothing to worry about. Mine did it as well about 1qt/1k like yours. I tried everything even including the Lucas Oil Stabilizer snake oil to no avail.
It's funny you mention M1 and magnesium. Earlier today I was on the PQIA website and researching calcium, phosphorus, calcium, moly, zinc, magnesium, boron and what it all means. After comparing many dinos and synthetics, I noticed that M1 has a huge amount of magnesium. (Mobil Super is like the rest- all calcium and hardly any magnesium). It's more expensive than calcium.
I noticed that M1HM has high levels of zinc and phosphorus comparable to that of HDEO's. Know that know, I may go M1HM over HDEO now since they seem pretty comparable as far as cleaning and anti-wear agents.
What I understand is that magnesium and calcium are the detergents that will actually clean the sludge/carbon up while phosphorus and zinc are the anti-wear agents. Moly and boron are the protective coatings.
I was lucky enough to find BITOG ~’08 with the Oil Bible, but try to check in a couple times a decade to keep up to date. It’s a great resource, I feel a lot better having some tiny understanding of the products that I put my trust in. Don’t be an enabler! I waste enough time as it is looking at ‘70’s/’80’s Cadillacs on craigslist that I have no money, time, space, or use for
I found myself a 03 Grand Marquis in decent condition at a good price. It has really benefitted from a MAF cleaning, injector cleaning, & addressing the timing chain, & now has more power than I really can use. I love the interior- leather, bench seats, digital gauges, tasteful/simple design. I really enjoy the time I spend in the car. On the list of things to do is swap to front HPP springs & replace the rear coils with (originally equipped) air springs. I’m trying to address the floppiness of the suspension ~40mph curves; already replaced the shocks with standard KYBs before I found out about the early 2003+ spring sagging issues.
Other than that, I love driving it. It’s my first Ford, wooden steering wheel, bench seat, V8, RWD, burn out capable, & many other things. I’m really enjoying the experience, especially considering the cost of admission.
I was looking for a 94-95 Impala (wanted the digital gauges + bench) in black, or possibly dark green grey metallic, and as stock as possible. They exist.. but in my area either at $7-8k+, or beat up, & a lot of shady stories on craigslist. My plan was to spray my way into the 12’s & laugh up the entire experience.
For whatever reason, it seems like the Ford modulars don’t respond well to go-fast mods. Maybe it's the smaller displacement. I'm watching the 2016 Drag Week & there's a Marauder running mid 15's, & a Lightning in th high 14's/low 15's. Ultimately that’s fine for me. For a daily driver I think I made the right choice, the comforts of the newer generation Panther to B Body make up for the lack of power potential & cool factor of the Impala. And at ~1/3 of the price for a 20 year old car. The Grand Marquis is really fun to work on & tinker with, it’s still fun trying to eek out MPGs & restoring some of the broken bits. Plus, I'm not wasting money chasing performance in a daily driver. Like I said though, I’m not ruling out picking up a B Body one day and sticking a 150 shot on it
Glad to hear you're making progress with the Caprice!