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Im going to be redoing the headgaskets on my mom's mercury and would like any advice you may have. Ive done HGs on Chevys many times before but never a Ford. From the looks of it, the process is farily easy and stright forward alibiet labor intensive.



The car is a 1993 Mercury Grand Marquis with the 4.0 (I think) SOHC V8. It has well over 100k on it and the headgaskets have finally kicked it. I picked up a hayes book and found plenty of good info. What im looking for though is any advice, tips or insights into working on this car because as we all know Haynes and Chiltons can leave important bits of information out from time to time.

Also Id like to know if theres anything else I should check or replace as I do this. Ive already decided to pick up 2 new chains and tensioners for the cams as that seems to be something easy to replace as Im doing this. Is there anything else I might want to check or replace pre-emptively so Im not tearing this thing apart again in 6 months?

I appericate any help, even if you have a link to an actual merc forum.

Thanks guys,
Manitcor

1.make sure that you get ALL of the old gasket material off of thd heads and block


2.use NEW headbolts only !


3.use a high quality replacement gasket


4.take the time to have the heads checked by a professional machine shop BEFORE you by ANY replacement parts, because it may not be just the gasket that has failed but cracked or warped heads...and if the heads are not cracked have them milled to make SURE that there is not even minimal warpage, because usually as soon as you untorque the headbolts , some warpage WILL OCCUR no matter what !


5.use the correct torque settings and follow the torquing procedure to the letter and you should be able to do a professional job !


good luck !smileys/smiley2.gif

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thanks, I plan to have the heads rebuilt by a very good local shop. I am familar with most of the process as I have done quite a few HG replacements on pushrod type motors however this will be my first job on an SOHC type engine.


A couple things I have found out that I am curious about:


1. From what I have read the gaskets (at least orignally) were multi-layer steel.Will I have to do anything to the block other than get a good clean surface to assure a good seal? Are there gasket options that use teflon fiber composite type gaskets instead?


2. The engine has about 150k on it, should I look into replacing the chains and tensioners as well? Ford seems to want alot for new tensioners and I havent had much luck finding aftermarket replacements alibet being a GM guy I may not be looking in the right place. A good aftermarket source for all my parts would be nice, Ford wants an arm and a leg for everything.


3. Can someone point me to a page or resource that provides proper torque specs on the head bolts, intake bolts, etc. The Hayes book I have seems to have spotty info at best (as usual smileys/smiley6.gif) and being an engine that has been around awhile I want to make sure there isint a revised specification for that kinda stuff.


4. Being a stang engine (4.6 v8 SOHC) I imagine there is quite an aftermarket for this engine. Can you reccomend any good mods that I could do during this process? Im not looking for major power but if theres something I can do for a few hundred that would be good to do during all this I would certainly be up for it.


Thanks in advance for the help, Ill be sure to post again when its all done and let you guys know how it went.


If anyone wants any pics of anything (good reference pics are sometimes tough to find), let me know and Ill be happy to take some snaps with my digi.

just make sure the heads and block are super clean and YES go ahead and replace the chains and tensioners..it will save you much agony later on ! ..go to autozones website and you should be able to get the torque specifications that you need