quote Originally posted by cliffw: I can not knock the Crown Victoria. The standard Fiero engine was the 2.5, .

My Crown Victoria is loaded, basically every single option that was available that year, except the sunroof (which was a special-order option), and the performance gears. With a 3.33:1, I would usually run very low 15s with the GTECH (yes, I still have one, haha) back in the day when I cared. It's a totally stock 4.6 SOHC V8 with the factory performance improver heads. Only thing I'd done to it at that time was an ECM reflash, a larger throttle body, larger mass air flow sensor (80mm), and a larger air box (from the Mercury Marauder). Obviously, I took out the spare and anything I had in the trunk and left it with my buddy, but the car has full leather bench seats, the extra layer of factory sound deadening underneath the plush carpet, and so many other totally unnecessary things. It even has the factory subwoofer... so it's absolutely a heavy Crown Vic...

quote Originally posted by cliffw: This thread's discussion led me to explore what engine was in the Police Interceptors. They were equipped with a 3.3 hybrid (318hp), an available 3.0 EcoBoost put out 400hp. New to me, the Police Responder came equipped with a 3.5 EcoBoost which also gave 400hp under the hood but with a muscular 500-ft lbs of torque.

To be clear, that's current for the Ford police/duty vehicles. It's a 3.5 Twin Turbo V6... really powerful. They also sell the twin turbo in civilian duty, but as is always the case with Ford, when you get the police version, it always comes with a ton of things that the civilian one does not. Chrysler doesn't really do this with the Dodge Charger. With Chrysler, in almost every case, they just take their performance version, and offer a stripped-down version of the chassis to get rid of all the options, and then do a few things like replace the floor mats with rubber, etc...

With my Crown Victoria, I tried to upgrade it as much as possible with police hardware... to be clear, not police "looking" stuff, like no lights or teardrop stuff or any of that nonsense. I absolutely do not want it to look like a cop car. But I upgraded it with all the other performance stuff. For example, the Police Interceptor was the only version where you could get an aluminum driveshaft. So I swapped it right out with my steel one.



I also installed all the radio interference straps, the jack mount from the older cars (so it mounts in the fender well, and not in the trunk), I upgraded the door lighting with the lights from the older 1995-1997 models (98-02 just got a reflector), upgraded to the factory Ford blue silicone hoses that were optional on the P71. Gosh... so many different things. There were even a lot of luxury things that you could get from the Lincoln Town Car which swapped over (usually to deaden the sound), like little inserts in the core support that minimized harmonics from the fan and engine... I even swapped over the safety / impact components from the P71 that were added later to protect you in a 100mph crash to prevent the fuel tank from being punctured. It's one of the few cars that can withstand a 75mph impact front and back. I also took the exhaust system from the Grand Marquis Limited Sport Edition. The Police Interceptor has a slightly better exhaust, but it's too open and loud. The LSE version of the exhaust is chambered, but designed to be super-quiet while you're just cruising around ... but when you stomp on the gas, it wakes up... I mean, it screams, like a roar.


The website is old... I haven't updated it in like over a decade, but it's all here: https://www.pontiacperforma...t/car02CrownVic.html

Some of the images are broken because I upgraded from a Windows host to a Linux host, and as you know... Linux is case sensitive, so a bunch of the images broke. I just have to go back and fix it one day.

This is what it looks like...



As you can see, not at all police looking. Also, I swapped out the cornering lights with the one from the Grand Marquis. It has actual cornering lights. So... when you use the turn signal, it will direct a corner headlight in the direction of where you are turning. It's pretty sweet. Because Ford would often re-use stuff... they found it easier to just include the Crown Victorias, Grand Marquis, and Lincoln Town Cars with this wiring, even though the Crown Victorias never came with it. So literally all I had to do was replace the light, and plug it in, and it just worked. Even the existing relay was there.

Honestly, I love that car... but to be completely honest, it literally just sits in the garage. I haven't driven it in like 3 months, and when I did, it was just to take it around the block. I think I've driven it less than 40 miles on the past 2 years.

I envision one day I have a large enough garage where I can have all these cars easily parked and ready to go... and not squirreled away in the side of the garage, and then I can just hop in one whenever I feel like it and take it for a drive.

Hopefully none of this comes out like a brag... I've spent a lot of work keeping it looking stock and trying to find upgrades from the other platformed vehicles. The car is basically worth nothing... it has no real value. I don't even think I could sell it for $5 grand if I wanted to... but I love the car.

quote Originally posted by cliffw: I am a big fan of the Ford straight 6. My 85 CJ has an almost identical engine. I also like the Chevy straight 6.

The AMC 4.0L Straight Six... really strong engine. Worst thing Chrysler could have done was get rid of that engine and replace it with the 3.6. The long crank and inline 6 is what gave it that torque. They could have fixed the emissions... but they didn't want to put in the effort.

[This message has been edited by 82-T/A [At Work] (edited 05-17-2023).]