Ford's plastic intake manifolds....

[The patriot]

My Dad has a 1997 ford crown vic.

The intake manifold failed the other day, luckily he was close to home.

Does anyone have much experience with these?

Evidently Ford recognised the problem and recalled all police, taxi, and limo's, but didnt do a full blown recall even though all these cars with the 4. 6 engine share the same int manifold.

I've been looking into it, and Ford DOES make an updated version, with an aluminum water passage in the front, but it's $400+.

That's a lot of $$$ for something that not designed right from the start.

BTW I have a 2000 mercury with the same manifold on it. :-{}

Is there another alternative that will bolt in with little or no mods, and save some $$$?

TIA

Eric

 

[TBurow]

there is an aftermarket manifold made by dorman, stocked at most part stores and can be ordered by most others that dont stock it. it goes for $250 if i remember right and comes with all gaskets and a new bracket for the top of the alternator as the crossover for the tstat is now metal. total job takes about 2-3 hours. i have done hundreds over the fast 5 years.

 

[Neal Cassady]

Check eBay, you can find them for around $200. 00. Replaced the one on my wifes Crown Vic. The nipple for the heater core on the rear of the manifold was cracking off. They usually fail at the crossover near the tstat, dumping most of the coolant in less than a minute.

It is pretty easy to R&R one, just alot of crap to move out of the way. You don't have to disconnect the fuel rail, just move it out of the way. Might want to change the spark plugs and heater hoses while you are in there. Some of the 4. 6 have a heater hose crimped to a hard line that runs under the manifold, moves coolant from/to the water pump to the heater core.

You can buy a the police package intake for a few more dollars. It sits a bit higher and has tuned intake runners. Good for a few more hp and some low end torque.

Have Fun

 

[The patriot]

Thanks guys. From what I've gathered, it's about a 3hr job.

I've also heard the Dromans are sometimes a tough fit. I sure dont want to have to "make it fit".

The poilce manifold might be something to look into. Heck after the initial $400 what's an extra $50 or so.

I'm also told the dealer wants somewhere in the $1200 range for this job. #@$%!

 

[swexlin]

My Dad has a 1997 ford crown vic.

The intake manifold failed the other day, luckily he was close to home.

Does anyone have much experience with these?

Evidently Ford recognised the problem and recalled all police, taxi, and limo's, but didnt do a full blown recall even though all these cars with the 4. 6 engine share the same int manifold

Go on over to Crown Victoria, Grand Marquis, Marauder, and Towncar and you will have HOURS and HOURS or reading. This may be the most discussed topic over there in the 4. 6 forums.



FWIW, the intake manifold on my 2001 Grand Marquis is original, and haven't had problems (yet, knock wood). It has about 66,000 miles.

 

[bighammer]

GM has had the same kind of issues. I had a '98 Bonneville that had the plastic intake fail. GM said I was out of warranty, and wouldn't fix it even though they knew it was their fault. I fixed it myself and finally got rid of the car. No more GM for me, I now have a Honda in the garage.

My brother who works for GM doesn't know about the Honda yet.

 

[The patriot]

Yea, even though ford knew the problem existed, they didnt do any significant design changes until mid 2002 model year.



I do my best to spend my $$$ here, but shyte like this sure makes me think about it more and more... ... #@$%!



I bought my wife a new Mazda 626 back in 1999. She drove it for 100K miles and it was a pretty good car. The A/C compressor froze up once, it went through a few O2 scensors, and she burned through break pads, other than that it was OK. I feel it should have gotten better MPG's than it did. We NEVER got over 24, even all highway.

I always kept the car in good tune, and it always had it's oil done @ 3K miles.

Now that she has the Grand Marquis, she dont miss the mazda at all.

It only has cost about 2 MPG's around town compared to the mazda. It's well worth the room and comfort.