My $400 LS Registry

So I got email verification on that my parts from rockauto shipped today, and since it's in Illinois, they'll be here tomorrow.

Never got any emails or verification from FPG other than the "Thank you for your order" or whatever I said after I sent payment. Still never debited my account, so I logged on to see what the deal was. I had to click through to get to my order history then click on that order and only THEN i saw this small message saying my order needs attention. The degas and one hose are on backorder and won't be there until the 10th and they needed my "okay" to still go ahead with the order.

Pretty pissed about that, not a single form of contact to let me know nothing was happening with my order until I went back and "okayed" that message.
 
Communication is not their strong point, but so far I have always received an e-mail when that has happened.
 
It is interesting that RockAuto has the degas on back order for 6+ days. It is such a 'high demand' part I assume. I had to wait for 10 days to get mine from Ford that shipped it to Tasca Ford before sending to me.

Maybe the Ford stock is now getting low or maybe most assume Dorman will get the bulk of the degas business going forward.
 
No Dorman for me. Multiple members have had Dorman bottles fail very soon or immediately after installation.
 
You're doing a great job fixing this one. Keep up the good work! I remember when I ordered all my suspension parts, that you mentioned, to overhaul my gen I. I never did get around to it because I had an offer to trade straight up for a Tahoe I wanted....man I still miss that car.


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Thanks man! It's been a heck of a job for sure, but it's been a great learning experience. I plan on driving this one until it dies (engine or trans) and would love to pick up a mint, low mileage 06. That would be after I found a new daily though. I plan on buying a truck next year when I pay my debts off, and will be on the lookout for a boat. Probably the year after I'll be looking for the 06 LS and she'I'll be a garage queen. Spring/Summer/Fall, never gonna see rain car.
 
BrianDye said:
Thanks man! It's been a heck of a job for sure, but it's been a great learning experience. I plan on driving this one until it dies (engine or trans) and would love to pick up a mint, low mileage 06. That would be after I found a new daily though. I plan on buying a truck next year when I pay my debts off, and will be on the lookout for a boat. Probably the year after I'll be looking for the 06 LS and she'I'll be a garage queen. Spring/Summer/Fall, never gonna see rain car.
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Wait that long and there won't be any left! Less than 10K '06's were made.
 
Damn, thats sad to hear. I thought there would've been more. Well, maybe ill be able to start looking sooner than that.

Anyways, bought some Meguiar's chrome wheel cleaner (Can't remember the exact name, its in a magenta-ish bottle) and took my front wheels off while its parked in the garage dismantled.

Wanted to see if there was any way to save my wheels. The faces aren't bad, but there was so much brake dust just baked on. Regular cleaning and scrubbing did NOTHING.

I sprayed this stuff on, did a little light agitation with a bottle cleaner type wand, rinsed them off, and they are so clean now. Doesn't fix the chrome peeling, but its still night and day. Can't wait to fully clean and detail the car once its back on the road and get some nice pictures.

The pictures really didn't show how bad the wheels were before. Maybe it was just the light and being dark outside, but they were nasty.

939C75F8-AF35-4554-AA71-EDA61D278F3B_zpsxfnm2dfd.jpg


BBD45367-E30A-4C80-80A9-B838EC4218DA_zpslthqkujg.jpg
 
voyeur said:
Maybe the Ford stock is now getting low
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this is definitely the problem... they stopped making this part long before it was figured out how many of them would need to be replaced...
 
Well, good news is the order will be here tomorrow, (Saturday) and as far as I know, its everything. Very happy if thats the case. My personalized plate came in the mail, too.

Stopped at Wal-Mart for some spray paint (touch up the grill on my Explorer) and noticed all the Rain-X beam and hybrid blades are on sale for $9.99. Picked some up for the LS. It had some of the hybrid ones, but I personally haven't had good experiences with those. (Wears quickly and starts streaking/smearing after a month or so) but I picked up some of the beam style.

Can't wait to get this cooling system revamped, and get the car back on the road (again!). First stop will be Belle Tire to get the wheels balanced. I read something about these wheels being terrible to try and balance, something about they have to be road force balanced. Ill have to look that up.
 
Sitting here with my head up my ass waiting for USPS. When I don't have any packages or important mail, they deliver between 10am-12pm. When I AM waiting on something, they show up around 4pm or later.
 
BrianDye said:
I read something about these wheels being terrible to try and balance, something about they have to be road force balanced. Ill have to look that up.
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a lot of people have had a problem with vibrations at speed and that was the only cure.
 
Road-force checks the roundness of the wheel/tire at the same time as the balance. These cars seem to be very sensitive to balance and roundness. Also note that alignment issues with the front end can give you similar symptoms.
 
Ok guys, need some help, im stumped. No "issues" temps are staying below 200 now, right around 198-199, but I am not getting ANY flow of coolant from the bleeder valve.

I still have the directions printed out and followed them to a tee. I started the car, put the defrost on high/90, let the valve stay open. It said when there is a steady flow of coolant, close it.

I have NOT got that steady flow of coolant. Most I got was a few small burps, when I decided to try switching from def to regular vents, still on 90. Car has been up to temp for awhile now, heat is blowing hot as can be.

Am I missing something? No leaking, no drips out of any hoses, etc. I did at first have the upper degas bottle hose switched to the capped one on accident. Thats fixed now. Still no change though.



Also, when it says add as much coolant to the degas as you can, does it mean literally like to the cap full, or to the Full lines? I only did it to the fill lines. Maybe that could be why?
 
I doubt that's why, but I believe that it means to the top of the cap. During the bleed process, a lot of it will suddenly be sucked in. Anyway, I think that failure to get coolant out of the heater bleed usually indicates that something still isn't sealed somewhere or maybe that the aux pump have failed.
If you go ahead and bring it to 2500 RPM, does coolant start to pour out?
 
Well that sucks to hear, I hope its not a pump going out. Ill have to search some info on that aux pump. I know its there, but I know nothing else about it.

So I decided to take it for a drive, temps are staying under 200, heat works great. I kept coming back home and opening the bleeder. Seemed to make a bit of progress. Drove to Mickey D's to get some food (8ish miles round trip) it did well. Came home and opened the bleeder again, and was actually getting something. Its weird though, its like its basically steadily dripping, but every 2 seconds theres a decent bit of air that comes out. Perfectly in sync like that. I decided to close it and come eat, so ill see what happens tomorrow.
 
Joe, in my case, you've been right about everything, but from some reading, I believe my aux pump is fine. (Knock on wood)

I still have to check the bleeder at higher RPMs like you suggested (it was getting too late to be in the driveway with my exhaust notes at 2000+ RPM's)

From what I read (and I could be completely wrong, but I read this in more than one thread from multiple members) it seems that the aux pump provides a few features.
1. Push hot coolant through the heater core because at idle, our water pump can't keep up and in cases like sitting at a stop light, we'd lose heat
2. Keeping coolant flowing under certain circumstances when the engine is off, to prevent excesssive heat soaking.

So in my case, without actually testing it, I would say it's "good" because I had scorching hot heat the whole time I was idling.

I believe I just have excessive amounts of air in my system because of nearly every hose being disconnected and completely drained. One guy on the FB page said it took him over an hour to bleed the system and have coolant flowing from that bleeder. We'll see tomorrow. I added more coolant to the degas as well, it was definitely slowly dropping. Quite a bit of air pockets were coming up in it during one of my sessions sitting there idling with the bleeder open and def on high.
 
Is the system pressurizing when you close the bleeder? (I did say "or".)
 
Might be a dumb question, how can I check if it is or not?
 
With the bleeder open, it wouldn't pressurize, right? I'm thinking I can test your question by slowly (and safely with a large rag over the cap) starting to unscrew the degas cap and I would hear air hiss out? If that's the case, then I don't recall it being pressurized anytime I added coolant last night, BUT I had the bleeder open 99% of that time.
 
BrianDye said:
... I'm thinking I can test your question by slowly (and safely with a large rag over the cap) starting to unscrew the degas cap and I would hear air hiss out? ...
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Correct.
You can also kind of tell by squeezing the radiator hose.

I have had to put a little dielectric grease on the degas cap seal to get it to seal well now and then.
 
So I just went and did the process again (minus adding coolant, because the degas bottle is pretty high still) and am getting better results. I cannot get anything consistant though. I get a steady stream of coolant sometimes, other times its a steady drip, other times its a steady drip followed by a puff of air about every 2 seconds.

I closed the bleeder and let it idle for 5-6 minutes, shut it off, and heard no signs of hissing when I unscrewed the degas bottle cap. However, when the temp gets up around 200 or higher, both hoses are pretty firm. I know the degas fluid is circulating because the fluid has yellowed up a tad (It was the glowing green coolant color when I first filled it, now it has mixed with the system and is not glowing green anymore), and when I had the engine fill cap off, the degas bottle filled that up (as per directions when filling/bleeding)

Under 200, I grabed them (Can only poke the lower hose, as the gigantic intake tube and its silencer pieces are in the way) and they weren't soft, but they were alot softer, I could "bend" them I guess you could say. When they were pressurized, they were pretty firm.
 
I also want to mention, I tried both degas caps. The one I replaced (Which was not OEM, as it doesnt click, nor are there any markings on it) and the new OEM Motorcraft cap. Though, I only tried the old cap for 2-3 minutes which might not be long enough to build pressure (The engine was at full operating temp though)
 
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