O.K., so last Friday I replaced the leaking intake manifold on my 1997 Ford Thunderbird. The manifold, which is made of a plastic composite, cracked at the rear heater core hose connection, and I was losing lots of engine coolant (there had actually been a class-action lawsuit against Ford over these intake manifolds cracking & leaking coolant, necessitating replacement, but the extra warranty Ford offered on this manifold as part of a settlement expired at least 10 years ago). I also replaced all (8) spark plugs, as well as my plug wires, due to this coolant leak. The leaking coolant had gotten into some of the spark plug wells, and that was causing a rough idle due to a misfire. Ive solved my coolant leak problem, but Ive still got a rough/low idle problem. Im wondering if Ive got a vacuum leak somewhere - after all, the vacuum lines on my motor are at least 17 years old, by now! Time to replace all of them. Fortunately, there arent that many on these engines. Despite this issue, this car still runs amazingly well for being 17 years old and having 200,000 miles on the odometer. If I can just get it to last another 6-12 months, then maybe, just maybe I can get that brand-new Mustang I so want! :-) The pictures below are, from left to right (or, top to bottom), before, during, and after.
Posted on: Fri, 17 Oct 2014 16:30:33 +0000
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