i was wondering if anyone had turned their grand marquis, crown vics or whatever into a street sleeper? im kind of wanting to do this to my car, i origanly got it to use till i could afford something better. that was till my hours got cut at work and it will take even longer to get a decent ride. so i was thinking of fixing up this car. ive got a few problems, all fixable im sure. my main problem is the way it rides and the steering. in my opinion the steering feels numb. any way to fix that? also are the anti-sway bars for these cars? how much horse power can these cars handle before needing to be beefed up to handle the extra power? i have a 80 country squire with a 351w in it, will any parts from it work with my car?

 

gears, exhaust, head work, carb, intake, cam and stuff would benefit the engine to add the power you probably want. i know a few people that made sleepers. i planned on making one outta my 2 door i have, but lack of funds is messin that up and sellin it.

 

im more interested in my making my car handle better, getting more power from the engine really isnt a problem. its getting this thing to handle better is my main issue, but really seeing how im only getting 10 mpg as is, getting better performance really doesnt mean much

 

better performance will lend itself to better gas mileage. I put the dual exhaust and fresh air intake on my car along with a wide range gearset in the trans (the gearset alone will drop low end mileage and increase highway mileage) and ended up with 1 mpg increase on the low end and 4 mpg increase on the high end. if you don't change the gearset (most expensive part of this by FAR) you can probably expect 2 mpg increase (if you don't already have duals). If you just need a fresh air intake, you may get the 2 mpg increase with just that. Also, tweaking the carb would probably help increase mileage too.

 

Since you car is carbureted, I'll bet the catalytic converters are in a dismal state..

AS far as handling, the springs and sway bar off the front of the wagon a a good upgrade.. AS well as some good shocks.. Make sure all the suspension parts such as tie rods, ball joints, and rubber bushings are in good shape...