What did you do to your Mark VIII today?

Well, I'm going to be getting my settlement from the other driver in my accident from May in a couple of weeks. So it's possible I may be in the market for a Mark VIII again. Hopefully. I've got my T-Bird as a DD and the Exploder as the multi-purpose extra vehicle. So now I need another Mark. I'd like to find a GEN1 for $1k or less that's not perfect but still half way decent. I really miss having a Mark VIII in my driveway. It just doesn't feel right. And I look at picutres of my old '95, '96, and '97 Marks and it just makes me want one more. But I'm stuck on the GEN1s now. I loved my pearl white '95. That car was pure bad ass. And I desperately want another one.

This might still be for sale (?). I may take a look at it if it is. I live in Charlotte.

https://charlotte.craigslist.org/cto/4595139473.html
 
Went to LKQ on Saturday because a 93 had been dropped there Friday night.

It was a green/tan early 93 (had the dimpled air tube) and it had only 53,000 miles! Yes, FIFTY THREE THOUSAND. Poor damn car. It had "runs and driven into yard" written on the side. Tires looked almost brand new. Everything in the engine bay looked great. Interior wasn't bad at all. Headlights were pretty much perfect. I didn't want to buy them but I couldn't leave such good headlights there. They looked like they weren't ever hardly used.

My brother and I started tearing into the engine trying to figure out why it was junked. Pulled the fuel rails, injectors, complete intake and IRMC plates, throttle body. Coolant still looked and smelt good, oil looked pretty clean. Tranny fluid looked clean and smelt good. Finally, we pulled the passenger side valve cover. Looked clean as a whistle. Found a rocker arm that the bolt had come out and it was just laying in there. If I had to guess, it was ticking and the guy panicked and scrapped the whole car because of that. Poor damn thing, she had so much life left in her.

I guess I will be going to LKQ this weekend, I hope you left me some goodies in there...
 
Did a brake fluid change on the 98 silver mark. Did inner tie rod, brake and power steering fluid change on my 97 mark.
 
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Just some pics of the 'Bird. I got my drilled/slotted rotors on and the AM/FM/DVD stereo. It's also got Bluetooth so I can play Pandora radio from my phone without cords cluttering up the console. I'm also planning to put an extra 12v outlet with USB ports in the console. And I got my 55W 6000K bi-Xenon HID headlights installed. Now I can see at night :D

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Changed my temperature sender today. Accidentally dropped the new one when trying to quickly put it in since coolant was pouring out. It somehow managed to land INSIDE the water pump pulley. I just had to sit there and watch coolant spill out all over my engine.

Pulled the belt off to clean it up, pulled the pulley out to get my sensor back and install it. Figured I should probably clean up my mess. Ran to the store in my wife's car and got some GUNK engine cleaner. Came home, soaked it up and when I rinsed it I noticed a couple REALLY tiny spots of aluminum under all that black. Sprayed some more and rinsed and saw slightly more. I had honestly thought all this time that the engine was black. Apparently that was just 10+ years of cooked on oil.

Grabbed a green dish pad, sprayed more and started going at it. After going through that process, grabbed some Brillo pads and started at it again. Two hours later, arms and hands covered in cuts, I discovered the engine is quite nice underneath all that LOL.

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Went back down a few hours later to top off my coolant after burping it and did a few minor touch up spots.

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Got the passenger window working again waiting for the tint guy to to 20% in the 3 rears then took the crappy street tired stock trailblazer off roading ImageUploadedByTapatalk1410752985.218535.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1410752998.637423.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1410753006.443870.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1410753018.028615.jpg and yes it got beat i bent the k member that goes under the gas tank ImageUploadedByTapatalk1410753065.855722.jpgand theres a high light into the 20% tint i attempted so i knew what it would look like when done right all in all was a good day

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Changed my temperature sender today. Accidentally dropped the new one when trying to quickly put it in since coolant was pouring out. It somehow managed to land INSIDE the water pump pulley. I just had to sit there and watch coolant spill out all over my engine.

Pulled the belt off to clean it up, pulled the pulley out to get my sensor back and install it. Figured I should probably clean up my mess. Ran to the store in my wife's car and got some GUNK engine cleaner. Came home, soaked it up and when I rinsed it I noticed a couple REALLY tiny spots of aluminum under all that black. Sprayed some more and rinsed and saw slightly more. I had honestly thought all this time that the engine was black. Apparently that was just 10+ years of cooked on oil.

Grabbed a green dish pad, sprayed more and started going at it. After going through that process, grabbed some Brillo pads and started at it again. Two hours later, arms and hands covered in cuts, I discovered the engine is quite nice underneath all that LOL.

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Went back down a few hours later to top off my coolant after burping it and did a few minor touch up spots.

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Looks gr8...I need to do an engine and engine bay clean myself. I have a intake manifold from my JY scavenging that I am soaking in degreaser to clean up and paint and install at some later date!
 
Updated my password to get the pop up to go away. So much better! Nice to post again too. Recently acquired a 1996 Mark VIII. Have wanted one for years and it came up. Not the prettiest one out there. I do like the cypress gold frost color. Its different. It has 115,000 miles. have receipts for Upper and lower ball joints both sides, strut rod bushings and a trans rebuild from the previous owner. I removed the mufflers in favor of straight pipes. Doing front brakes and wheel bearings soon and probably do the air silencer delete when the wheel is off and probably fuel filter too. All in all not a bad driver quality car.
 
This was on sunday, but I got the mark viii out for a mustang car show. They stuck me in the mercury class. I got 2nd place to a 63 mercury comet.

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JMOD has been started, per say.

Went and picked up bits today, drilled out the separator plate except #11 (waiting on gasket) and #8 ("B" bit was back ordered everywhere I checked, had to order it). Ordering the springs/accumulators tomorrow morning as well as the gaskets.

Saturday, I'm grabbing a valve body from the JY. Going to clean it up real good and when everything comes in, I'll build the body outside my car that way it'll be a relatively quick process of swapping it in.

Can't wait!
 
Hit 215,000 miles a couple days ago. Had to change idler pulley, she's been noisy lately, all's quite once again.
 
After a good amount of troubleshooting I found that one of my hid ballasts was dead, drivers side. It was fine with the car off but after 3 or 4 minutes with it running it would pop the fuse. It was doing some funky stuff as I guess that fuse also controls the light switch. The light that did work stayed on with car off, strobing, no lights at all, ect. Threw in one of my spare cheap Xentec ballasts and they, as I already knew, are complete sh!t. Doing research on a decent set of ballasts that don't twitch or flicker.
 
Aftermarket. The kit lasted 4 years, within the last week the passenger side hid got really dim and the drivers side ballast failed yesterday. I'm not shocked that the ballast failed as I had a nasty intermittent short on that side a while back. The bulb failing could've been from me handling it a couple weeks ago, not sure. Didn't touch it. :confused: Probably just a coinkydink.

I have plenty of spare bulbs in various flavors laying around so a full kit isn't really needed.

I hear decent things about ddm but am looking at hylux ballasts currently.
 
Wired up the CD changer input to be an aux input connected to a Bluetooth receiver, made the Bluetooth receiver and a 12v power point for a car DVR be switched, added a non switched 2 port USB adapter, cleaned up the factory head unit and center console, covering off colored ash tray door with a carbon fiber sticker.

I made a separate post about the aux input thing.

I also grabbed an intake manifold from the you-pull-it place to clean up to install, as I have a big air leak and it seems to be the intake or the IRMCs. I will then take mine and attempt to polish it over the next months/years/decade.
 
I have DDM kit on my Town Car and it's not all that. I had one bulb literately explode in the housing and now one of my HID light is not working. Don't know whats wrong with it as I didn't get the time to diagnosis it yet. Their customer service is good though so far as they did replace the bulb that exploded. IDK why these aftermarket kits suck but they do in my experience. Still running the OEM HID in my Mark VIIIs.
 
Got some goodies today from advance auto parts. I love their $50 off $100 coupons. Plus scored Moog upper control arm for both sides as my dads Mark VIII needs them.

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Got the K&N recharge kit to clean the filter which I am doing it right now.

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Might as well do the Town Cars filter too while i am at it.

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Aimed my headlights with the 4300k bulbs using my existing old ballast and the spare xentec ballast on the side that failed. Xentec side is weaker causing the light to be dimmer/more blueish, it was fine while the other ballast was working. Not that it matters.....Bought a vvme kit and crossing my fingers that it works the way I want it to. Didn't want to wait around for 2 weeks for the ddm kit to get shipped out..

Other than that just a wash.
 
Found This:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lincoln-Mar...ce8c8f82a&item=261603522602&pt=US_Cars_Trucks

Too bad it's in DC :(

And just a little FYI for us Falcon lovers:

http://www.ford.com.au/cars/ultimate-falcon/models/xr8

I have heard that Ford was going to pull out of Australia and stop building the RWD Falcon. But the Falcon appears to be continuing uninterrupted. I don't think they would completely redesign the car if they were going to stop production. Now, if they would just start exporting it to the USA...
 
All signs point to a Ford shut down in Australia in 2016. the Falcon will end along with Australian production.

a rhd drive mustang is slated for production, probably to fill the hole left by the Falcon, among other things.
 
Loaded the trunk up with everything I'll need for the JMOD this weekend.

Leaving my car at work tomorrow, having my wife pick me up, then going up there Saturday with my brother to do the job. I have a large hanger bay at work I can do the job in, to avoid the elements and excessive dirt.

Should be interesting!
 
Received my VVME hid kit from China in 4 days. Ebay ad said it shipped from Cali but whatever, 4 days is impressive. Bought it from mydepots (VVME's accounts akaik) on ebay for a hair under $40.

Kit has nice metal ballasts, everything else was pretty standard. Most importantly it doesn't flicker, still turns on w/ auto-lights and is much brighter than the temp xentec ballast I had to put in and just a little brighter then my old 4yo ballast. If they hold up i'll be most impressed. Left in the 4300k and they might be too hologenish for me, i'll get some nighttime drives in before I make a decision.

Edit:

I loved the 4300k output but they were indeed a little too yellow. Put in the 5k's that came with the kit and it's perfect.

Anyone wanna buy 2 sets of <1hr 4300ks? $12+shipping ;)
 

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