Lowering 0-60 time on Mark VIII

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ZacUnknown69

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Hello, everyone!

I'm new around here, so I'll have a lot of questions, bear with me. All of my friends have highly tuned Nissan's, Subaru's, Audi's, etc. that do 0-60 around 4-6 seconds. And my Mark VII does 0-60 in 7.4 - so I'm looking for ideas that could give my car a better 0-60 time. Whether it be weight reduction, or modifications. I'd appreciate it!

Here's a little information about the car;
Its a 1995, has 164k miles, sat for 3 years until I bought it (never turned over even, so I've been driving it carefully), mechanically - its perfect, visually not so much.

I do have a lot of plans for this car, basically making it into a semi-race car. But before you rant, I'm aware - it's not a race car. But it IS a sports car, why else would it have dual wishbone suspension? Anyhow, to anyone reading, thank you! I look forward to hearing your ideas on dropping the 0-60 time!
 
4.10 gears and a track lock, 3000 stall torque converter, maintenance, good tires, and a custom tune for the pcm.
 
Chris? Seems like I run into everywhere. But I'm doing a simple tune up today. Spark plugs, oil, filters, intake, CPU reset, etc. Hopefully today if it stops raining.
 
First it is not a sports car (has to many seats and a hard top) it would be classified as a gt car.
Second Chris has you pointed in the right direction.
 
Mines an LSC, isn't that a luxury sports coupe? Well, whatever it is - I'm doing an unnecessarily in-depth tune. Found out that vavle cover gaskets are $140 a piece. Oh well! But just look at that engine. Screenshot_2016-03-14-00-29-31_1.jpg

Screenshot_2016-03-14-00-29-31_1.jpg
 
As stated above, yes, the Mark is certainly more of a Grand Touring car than anything. With that being said, a decent amount of time and an equal amount of money can turn any well maintained Mark into a formidable machine. Here a few things for you to bear in mind however, and please remember that I am in no means trying to sway your opinions or bash the car.

So, you are driving a 21 year old car with a few miles on it. It is very important that you take care of all of the moving parts and wear items that can potentially fail with that kind of age and mileage first, before worrying about how quickly it will turn 60mph. Things like the VCRM, IMRC valves, a spare PCM, maybe a fuel pump and a bunch of front end parts certainly would not go amiss, unless of course they have been looked into already. Remember also that your 4R70W transmission is also 21 years old, and without excellent maintenance, it can, and will fail.

Keeping all of this in mind and setting realistic priorities for the car will give you many years of stellar Mark VIII-ness, but it is important to keep an eye on all of the things that make it go, specifically the ones I've mentioned in my experience. These cars are starting to get a bit long in the tooth. I wouldnt put a Mark VIII in the same category or pit if you will with a well tuned Subaru or Nissan personally, for a few reasons. Chances are these cars are newer, and built to a different purpose. Which isn't to say that you can't do these things with a Mark, because it is possible. Just make sure the car is up for it first. The rest, up to and including how far you want to go and how much money you have/want to spend on it, is up to you. Good luck. : D
 
That's very true. Just replaced some gaskets, changed the oil, spark plugs, wires, etc. But a good point, it's not an F1. Like every car enthusiast, we always want to upgrade. But I'm leaning more towards the muscle-car-like style of Mark VIII.
 
I got ones for both sides, and they were. Forgot the brand, but whatever it was it was "premium" kind. But I put them in, holding fantastic.
 
I got ones for both sides, and they were. Forgot the brand, but whatever it was it was "premium" kind. But I put them in, holding fantastic. I put them on myself, shops would charge waaay too much.
 
We have gone from a serious make over to valve cover gaskets. Look at it this way instead. My 93 buries the needle and a nearly stock 93 went 180+ mph at Bonneville.

They are fast, just leave em' behind.
 
That..is pretty fantastic! Nice, man. Yeah - I realized my dreams of having my car be extreme is..extreme. I should focus on the minut repairs it needs.
 
I think you should just continue as your going replacement maintenance with high quality stuff. Smoother it runs the more power it utilizes. 300hp isnt that bad and when you get to replacing things like the rings or head gaskets throw in a little somethin somethin like cams or pistons. Before you know it you be stompin on everything
 
I used to have a Crown vic which is pretty similar in regards to the powertrain and what i learned from having it was that it's not about the hp numbers or how fast the 0-60 is. It's where that power is and how long it can be used.

A little bit of a story here but i think it's worth saying. The local drag strip(Legitimate one) around here is about 45 minutes away and have midnight races every now and then, me and a few friends went out to race. The CVPI's are normally pretty slow running about 15.6 stock even with the few mods i had i didn't expect to beat alot of people. We got there and waited in line for about another 30 min to go. First race was fine, I went against a Turbo diesel truck and tied, then another CV and won, eventually as it went on there was a Civic that wanted to race we got to the line and his overheated and needed to be pushed off the line, so a WRX lined up next to me and i beat him in the 1/8th but not the 1/4.

The point i'm getting at here is you can have it fast but you need to have it at a constant functional level, i didn't win because i was faster i won because my car had all the coolers and everything it needed to function at a consistent level all night while all the other cars fell apart as they went
 
JamesVinar said:
I used to have a Crown vic which is pretty similar in regards to the powertrain and what i learned from having it was that it's not about the hp numbers or how fast the 0-60 is. It's where that power is and how long it can be used.

A little bit of a story here but i think it's worth saying. The local drag strip(Legitimate one) around here is about 45 minutes away and have midnight races every now and then, me and a few friends went out to race. The CVPI's are normally pretty slow running about 15.6 stock even with the few mods i had i didn't expect to beat alot of people. We got there and waited in line for about another 30 min to go. First race was fine, I went against a Turbo diesel truck and tied, then another CV and won, eventually as it went on there was a Civic that wanted to race we got to the line and his overheated and needed to be pushed off the line, so a WRX lined up next to me and i beat him in the 1/8th but not the 1/4.

The point i'm getting at here is you can have it fast but you need to have it at a constant functional level, i didn't win because i was faster i won because my car had all the coolers and everything it needed to function at a consistent level all night while all the other cars fell apart as they went
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A valid point you raise. I need to fix some things on mine, fairly minor but still would be nice.
 
Mark viii and cheap/budget typically don't go together on way or another. Factor in skill level, tools and the unexpected when digging into them kinda throws the for mentioned out the window. Strongly suggest that you have an additional form of transportation if you start taking on anything aggressive project wise. As you have started to figure out nothing on these cars is easy and likely turns into a bigger job than you thought one way or another.
 
OU812IC said:
Mark viii and cheap/budget typically don't go together on way or another. Factor in skill level, tools and the unexpected when digging into them kinda throws the for mentioned out the window. Strongly suggest that you have an additional form of transportation if you start taking on anything aggressive project wise. As you have started to figure out nothing on these cars is easy and likely turns into a bigger job than you thought one way or another.
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Oh yeah, I understand that. I used to have a Town Car - that was just as you stated. But I got the car put back together in 3 days. Replaced a ball joint, control arm, sway bar link, valve cover gaskets, fixed a vacuum leak, then little things like spark plugs, wires, etc. But these really are fantastic cars - mechanically mine is perfect. But not so much visually; has some rust, a pretty good sized dent on the drivers side panel, another on the passenger door from a tree stump. I bought it like this, so far I've only improved it. But hell - for $700 and 165k miles, I think I did pretty damn good. And I'm 19 and a lifeguard, so this is a perfect project for me.
 
To bad you do not live close. I have a 3:73 pumpkin with trac-loc assembled and ready to go and a 3800 stall convertor.
 
OU812IC said:
Mark viii and cheap/budget typically don't go together on way or another. Factor in skill level, tools and the unexpected when digging into them kinda throws the for mentioned out the window. Strongly suggest that you have an additional form of transportation if you start taking on anything aggressive project wise. As you have started to figure out nothing on these cars is easy and likely turns into a bigger job than you thought one way or another.
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^he speaks the truth. My Mark is my daily. If I do something, it has to be finished before Monday morning when I have work. It can be extremely stressful to get the jobs done in time. Also a good thing in a sense because it pushes me to be a problem solver and get it done lol.

On that note, I got mine for free. It was torn up, beat up, "ugly" and lacked most everything in terms of maintenance. Three years later, I'm about $7,000 into it (including the $1200 for paint) and I haven't really "upgraded" much of anything and I did all of the work myself aside from the paint and the headers/oil pan gasket (I helped though and got a really good price on that work).

Be prepared to spend money. It's not a cheap car to work on, it's not like a Mustang.
 
Mine has been in her shelter. It's winter here, she don't go out in the ugly, my Sammy loves it.

She will soon be back up with, new Konis on the back, new calipers all round, got a Rockauto left rear for $28, near new everything else in the brake dept. A few new rear end bits and a new water pump. Hey, water pumps are easy, easy is unusual. ;)

Not much really but only the tranny has not been gone over now. That's next. A J mod will get done as I have the parts. I have a lot of parts now actually, been collecting them, quite a few here. ;)
 
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