Thank you, Chickenbone. I had one of her doctors tell me years ago after a very difficult surgery for endometriosis that she's a tough old bird! LOL

 

Cheese Louise

Is there any brutal illness left that woman has not crossed paths with?

I have a few friends with that and they said they had to take opiates for the pain because nothing else even touched it.
​​​​​​ Apologies for the threadjack

 

No apologies necessary. My family has been going through their health issues for the past 15 years; although not as severe; still hits home for me. Still amazes me how tough some people are; and how not tough I am

 

I agree with how tough she is. If I'd had 1/3rd of the issues she's had, I would have pulled the trigger a long time ago.

 

So I had a half successful weekend. I finally got around to installing the valve covers on my Grand Marquis. Lately, the passenger side valve cover has been leaking onto rear header primary tube. And every once in a while, I get into short rev battles (by revving, I mean 3500-4000 rpm) with Scat Packs and a random Supra. When I get home and shut the car down, it's a smoke show. So I decided to put an end to that.

I've been looking at the engine compartment and figured the passenger side (where the smoke show comes from) has the most obstructions and should be tackled first. I spent all of Saturday afternoon removing the obstructions (wiring harness, loosened coils, removed heater hoses, removed a/c box insulation [important], and a pollution control pump) in order to remove the valve cover. It took an hour and a half to remove the valve cover. As I was wrestling with the valve cover, I had to remove more obstructions. Finally, I figured that I needed to remove the a/c box insulation to gain an extra 1/8" clearance. Then I still had to wrestle it out of the engine compartment. The a/c box is thankfully plastic; so there is some give. I cleaned up the flange and stuck the new valve cover on top and covered the engine because it was looking to rain on Saturday night.

Yesterday afternoon was mostly spent hunting down an 8mm x 12-point socket; which nobody seems to have (AutoZone, NAPA, Harbor Freight, Home Depot). I have 8mm sockets, but they're all 6-point. I need the 12-point because ARP uses a 12-point head. I ended up using a box wrench for those bolts. So I literally crammed the new valve cover onto the cylinder head. Also, the Ford cylinder heads look to be a 2-piece design; as the timing chains compartment has a seam. So the factory used rtv on the seam to seal it up. I squeezed some Permatex hi-temp copper stuff in that spot and snugged the bolts and studs with my fingers. As I waited for the Permatex to set up, I went to the driver side valve cover and started moving things around. I cracked the valve cover loose and tried to wrestle it out, but I realized that despite there being more open space and less obstructions than the passenger side; the brake booster was a deal breaker. It being metal, has no give. There was no angle that I could put the valve cover at to remove it. So, I made the decision to give up on that side. I would have to either remove the coils, throttle body, and fuel rail to roll the valve cover back far enough to remove; and/or loosen (or remove) the brake booster to lift the valve cover off the cylinder head. I just didn't have enough time for that. So I buttoned it back up and replaced the factory bottom bolts with the ARP bolts. I tightened those bottom bolts a bit more because that is where I can see oil seepage. By the time I did that, an hour had passed, so I tightened the passenger side valve cover and spent the rest of the time putting everything back together.

As I typically do; I went into this with a plan that only half worked. Since I had that mishap with the ft/lb torque wrench with the Explorer valve cover bolts; I tried using the inch/lb torque wrench this time. I've only used it once in my life; and that was when I had the Malibu. So it must have died sitting in the toolbox the last couple of decades; as it too failed to click at the set poundage. So, my next Amazon order will include that, an 8mm x 12-point socket set, and other miscellaneous things. I will probably send my car to the mechanic to install the driver side valve cover; as I want to use the 4th of July weekend to complete house projects. I'm not mad as I at least replaced the leaky valve cover; but I am frustrated because what used to be a simple task; is made complicated by how "newer" cars are put together at the factory. So, here is the 1 pic I took during this process.

 

I remember that engine in that car! One of the maintenance jobs on our fleet of Crown Vic police cruisers was valve seals at 100k miles. Since a police cruiser runs almost continuously with two twelve hour shifts a day. They need oil service by hours not miles. The strangest things wear out on fleet cars that never fail on daily drivers. Things like trunk light wiring fails after so many cycles. LOL so many memories..

 

I managed to get a little work done to the Crown Vic over the weekend. It wasn't much; but I confirmed that my main relays (fuel pump, ECM, horn, power accessories) were in good shape. I had forgotten that the important relays such as the fuel pump and ECM are 5-pin; and the other 2 relays are 4-pin. I spent a good amount of time on Saturday looking it up in the EVTM manual. I also discovered that I can't go by that manual because whatever factory that this car came from didn't follow the color code; at least not for the 4-pin relays. I ran out of time to check the 5-pin relays to see if they matched. I kind of remember that 2 relays had broken terminals; but I could only find the one relay that I repaired. Not only that; but I dug around in the basement and found the terminal that I cut off for replacement. Somebody had duct taped that wire because the insulation crumbled off and exposed the copper. I was going to mess with the fuel pump and horn relays to see if the terminals were secure; but I couldn't get to do that yesterday due to the local stray getting injured and parking itself under the Crown Vic. I was told to not go back there until it was taken care of; hopefully sometime this week. When I do get back to it; I distinctly remember a relay with a loose terminal that I want to check out. I bought 2 replacement relay connectors (5-pin) for a reason some years ago, but I didn't write down why.

 

So what happened with the stray? I hope someone took it to a vet. Even a stray deserves to be cared for.

 

It limped away Sunday night and we haven't seen it. We have been feeding it for a couple years; it just won't come near us despite us giving it food. My Mom contacted Animal Control to have them come and pick the cat up. Since my neighbors have 2 cats of their own; we can't see having it stick around, even if we get medical treatment for it. Its best bet now is going with Animal Control.

 

Man, I thought you were talking about a stray pooch. If your neighbors have cats, they'll probably either run it off or kill it if they're like my neighbors cats. They don't like outsiders!