USA Made Quality Control:

Robert Herndon said:
The lipseals on the pistons harden and the cast aluminum pistons crack on the seal groove. This causes pressure loss when hot.

Most trans techs will miss this, because you have to spread the seal groove with a tool to see the crack.

The forward clutch is the most likely culprit. That's the one that engages in drive.
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This is the next project on my to do list. We just got back from 10 days in the bay area and now it’s time to get it flat bedded somewhere along with a pile of cash.
 
Robert Herndon said:
So, recently, i began to get fault codes for catalytic converter efficiency, which at 224,000 miles, wasn't surprising.

I'm actually fond of the clean exhaust smell of a catalytic converter equipped vehicle, so i sought a 'direct fit,' California Compliant replacement from Magnaflow, made and shipped from Oceanside, California.

I needed to pass smog recently, so i wrote a custom tune that leaned fuel mixture and spark timing, which allowed the catalyst monitors to set and the car passed smog with no issues.

Yesterday, i took some time off to install the new cats on my friend's hoist.

The monolith in the old cats looked remarkable for 224,000 miles:

View attachment 36318

View attachment 36319

But, the chemical compunds break down and they gradually become inefficient.

So, i move on to installing the Magnaflow catalysts.

The flares at the flanged sections didn't look right, but i installed them anyways. Overall, the install was very slow because the pipes had odd bend angles and the fit just wasn't good like the factory catysts.

I then discovered that i could not tighten down the flanges because of the mis-shapen flared sections, which resulted in a huge exhaust leak from the left bank on startup.

View attachment 36320

View attachment 36321

Magnaflow was contacted and advised to just "run the bolts up with an impact and it will seal." They even confirmed the replacements they would potentially send me looked just like the one i now have.

I was floored...break an ear off a manifold or strip/break a stud??? No way...

So, i spent about 3 hours yesterday afternoon for nothing.

Grrrrrr....!!!!!
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Loosen all the clamps brackets on the exhaust pipe...
Lineup the cat con to the pipes...
tighten the cat con connections first, making a good seal alignment...
Last, re-tighten the pipe brackets after the cat con is aligned first.

Yes, it is common to experience misalignment of exhaust components. Happens frequently.
It would be unusual for everything to align perfectly on the first try without loosening all the other pipe clamps first.
 
Amp Mad Scientist said:
Loosen all the clamps brackets on the exhaust pipe...
Lineup the cat con to the pipes...
tighten the cat con connections first, making a good seal alignment...
Last, re-tighten the pipe brackets after the cat con is aligned first.

Yes, it is common to experience misalignment of exhaust components. Happens frequently.
It would be unusual for everything to align perfectly on the first try without loosening all the other pipe clamps first.
Click to expand...

I had to heat and straighten the headpipes to get them to work.

Funny, the factory catalyst drops right in without mods.
 
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Robert Herndon said:
The lipseals on the pistons harden and the cast aluminum pistons crack on the seal groove. This causes pressure loss when hot.

Most trans techs will miss this, because you have to spread the seal groove with a tool to see the crack.

The forward clutch is the most likely culprit. That's the one that engages in drive.
Click to expand...
How do you know this? Robert.

Been around a lot of Modern Jeeps or something?
Do you know my AOD or ZF 5 speed on my Mustang and 88 F250?
 
Amp Mad Scientist said:
Loosen all the clamps brackets on the exhaust pipe...
Lineup the cat con to the pipes...
tighten the cat con connections first, making a good seal alignment...
Last, re-tighten the pipe brackets after the cat con is aligned first.

Yes, it is common to experience misalignment of exhaust components. Happens frequently.
It would be unusual for everything to align perfectly on the first try without loosening all the other pipe clamps first.
Click to expand...
Or do like my 88 F250, My cat has no guts in it the past 20 years. WTF do I need fault codes on cat efficiency for?

Oh and 27 MPG is ok, but at today's california gas prices, I would hate driving unless I got 3x 27 mpg.
 
chilipeppermaniac said:
Or do like my 88 F250, My cat has no guts in it the past 20 years. WTF do I need fault codes on cat efficiency for?

Oh and 27 MPG is ok, but at today's california gas prices, I would hate driving unless I got 3x 27 mpg.
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The price of gas is still relative.

In 1970, minimum wage was $1.45

In 1970, gas was $.040 per gallon. That's 27% of an hour's wages.

Today, minimum wage is $15.00 and gas is $5.75 a gallon. That's 38% of the hourly wage.

It's designed to frighten people into electric cars.

Guess what??? No more free EV charging down here. All the chargers have credit card interfaces now.

People we know who had the high smp service installed in their homes to charge a Tesla are spending the same amount charging the Tesla they did putting gas in their cars.

Edison doubled their kwh rate effectiveness March 1st, 2022.

I'm not too worried about it.

They've been doing this for years.
 
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chilipeppermaniac said:
THIS makes total Sense.

A few years ago, I watched some informative How To videos on how to rebuild a C4 and or C6 Ford Trans. The presenter sure seemed to know his stuff.

I cannot even fathom 2020's high tech transmissions.
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The newer transmissions are not much different from a mechanical standpoint, the electronic controls are the major differences.
 
Robert Herndon said:
The price of gas is still relative.

In 1970, minimum wage was $1.45

In 1970, gas was $.040 per gallon. That's 27% of an hour's wages.

Today, minimum wage is $15.00 and gas is $5.75 a gallon. That's 38% of the hourly wage.

It's designed to frighten people into electric cars.

Guess what??? No more free EV charging down here. All the chargers have credit cars interfaces.

People we know who had the high smp service installed in their homes to charge a Tesla are spending the same amount charging the Tesla they did putting gas in their cars.

Edison doubled their kwh rate effectiveness March 1st, 2022.

I'm not too worried about it.

They've been doing this for years.
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This is all good, except if one is like me, I have NEVER EVER earned enough to keep up with 1960's prices in 1980's and certainly not able to keep up with INFLATION and Skyrocketing costs of EVERYTHING - not just GAS, we are now seeing in the 2020's.

I almost have to essentially figure out a way to turn JUNK into $$$$$$ and somehow do it all CASH and somehow keep Uncle out of my pocket until I die. I already stocked up on as Cheap transportation as I could accumulate in the 42 years since I started driving hoping to never ever ever ever need to buy a car/truck at retail prices until I am no longer fit to drive.

With this accelerated Hell bent on ruining the lower class to profit the already rich, force people into spending all they worked hard to scrimp and save for that is now 3x what EVERYTHING should cost. This leaves little choice for those with limited education, marketable skills or resources anyone will pay a rapidly aging individual. Pretty soon, I fear great masses will go on the dole and bow down to those who hold the power.
 
chilipeppermaniac said:
Is this because of what you know about AT's reliability or just your comfort zone on driving a vehicle?
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I've always found automatics to be unpredictable.

Back when I was a kid drag racing, we blew up C6's with a 427 Ford I built for a friend.

I split the case wide open on a GM TH400 with a 427 Chevrolet we built for a client.

I never had problem with my A-833 behind my 440's, my M-20 behind my Pontiac 413 or the 1-1/8" TopLoader behind my Fords.

My first car was a manual, so I just stuck with that.
 
chilipeppermaniac said:
This is all good, except if one is like me, I have NEVER EVER earned enough to keep up with 1960's prices in 1980's and certainly not able to keep up with INFLATION and Skyrocketing costs of EVERYTHING - not just GAS, we are now seeing in the 2020's.

I almost have to essentially figure out a way to turn JUNK into $$$$$$ and somehow do it all CASH and somehow keep Uncle out of my pocket until I die. I already stocked up on as Cheap transportation as I could accumulate in the 42 years since I started driving hoping to never ever ever ever need to buy a car/truck at retail prices until I am no longer fit to drive.

With this accelerated Hell bent on ruining the lower class to profit the already rich, force people into spending all they worked hard to scrimp and save for that is now 3x what EVERYTHING should cost. This leaves little choice for those with limited education, marketable skills or resources anyone will pay a rapidly aging individual. Pretty soon, I fear great masses will go on the dole and bow down to those who hold the power.
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Yes,

I firmly believe those in power want only two classes - the rich and the poor....
 
chilipeppermaniac said:
This is crazy, I see how that trans is being held in a vice and bolted to a red bar in the vice.

MAN that is sumn,

View attachment 84324
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In this photo, I'm actually building my Son's 4R70W out of his 2003 Mercury Grand Marquis.

It developed a bad leak from a work front pump bushing while here on a visit. Because it had 200,000 on the clock, we decided to just build it from the ground up and do the "J-Mod" while we were in there.

Turned out to be a great transmission...
 
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