Big Red 1977 Ford!
 

LOL! I got this one for practically free from a friend a few streets over.. It runs good, has 80k original miles even. Was used by a local Fire Department years ago, then sat, and sat..

Reminds me of Uncle Buck's Mercury..!

I had an "Uncle Buck" Mercury that was that color from the factory, but was repainted black by the time I got it. I love the big Fords from the seventies.

I looked at the photo before reading the post and thought right away that it looked like something out of The Towering Inferno. Pretty sweet.

Nice!:thmbsp:

How big is the engine?

One of the things I was looking at during last year's car shopping was older station wagons....Did not find any nice ones, and mom hates station wagons for some reason. One day I'll find a classic one of my own.

Nice car!

Station wagons never got a lot of love, they were the family hauler of their day, and were used up and disgarded - finding a nice one on the used market isn't too easy! When I got my lisence a station wagon was generally regarded as the least cool form of transportation possible :) I think that old red Ford would be awesome though

Very cool ! I liked those a lot ! ! I had a '73 Green Grand Torino Wagon years
ago.... Like a living room you can drive ! ! With the extra rear seating.....
Did not have the wood trim though.... 351 2V and a C6.

.

Yeah, this one is the 400 2V with C6.

I like these, don't see many around anymore.. In the 80's they were getting junked like crazy. You would see them with rusted off rear bumpers, and knocking main bearings on the 351M 400 engines.

My wrecker had the 351M, got it cheap because of that. Once I replaced the mains, it was a good vehicle.

My brother had one of those pig engines. It threw a rod at 57K miles. A '77 Mercury wagon. The irony of it, it happened on his birthday. What a birthday gift! :thumbsdn:

Oh, they were! I caught the ones on the wrecker in time.. If people let the (prematurely worn by 30k) mains go without replacing, the oil pressure would of course get lower and lower, until there would not be enough to keep the rod bearings from spinning, and roaching out the rest of the engine.

At least that's what I experienced with the fords I went through back in the 80's.. The old man at Richard's Automotive that sold me the parts back then, said Ford made the main bearings smaller when designing the modified for whatever reason, and they just didn't last.

I found this on the internet about the 351M/400.. This guy says otherwise..
All I know, is mine was fine once the bearings were replaced!


All 351M/400's have crankshaft oiling problems because Ford enlarged the main journals from 2.75" on the 351C to 3.0" on the 351M/400 but did not decrease the size of the oil galleries leading up into the top of the engine to properly balance the oil pressure -- This myth is one that most everyone, even people who like the "M" engines, hold as being fact. Some people believe that because the "M" engines have a larger journal diameter than the Cleveland engines that Ford "forgot" to restrict the oiling galleries to make up for it. Well, if this is so then why isn't the 351W rumored to have the same problems due to fact that it has the same journal diameter as the "M" engines?, Also, installing a 400 crank shaft in a 351W has become a popular "stroker kit" for this engine, yet no one is complaining about 400 CID Windsor engines throwing crank shafts! And what about all of the "M" engines out there with 200 or even 300K miles on them without a rebuild? Despite all this, some people still insist that there are abnormal oiling problems with this engine. There is even an "oiling restrictor kit" available from Moroso to supposedly "fix" this "problem". This kit is designed for high-volume oil pumps in racing applications only. From my experience the only time an "M" block may experience oiling problems on the crankshaft is if someone installed a full-competition high-volume oil pump in an engine driven on the street. I used a standard volume Melling oil pump on my engine and it has fantastic oil pressure! The only thing I can think of that may have "fueled the fire" on the "M" oiling problem rumor is the fact that this engine was installed mostly in full-size 4x4 trucks and even saw duty in many 1-ton F-350s. Many of these trucks were used to tow enormous amounts of weight back in the days before overdrive transmissions. The "M" engines were also some of the first small block engines that were now being asked to do the job previously reserved only for super heavy-duty big block engines. It is quite possible that some "M" motors may have worn out sooner than some of the older HD big block truck engines. However, I believe that the "M" engines are the only small blocks made by anyone that can even attempt to take this kind of abuse. I think the "M" engines simply got a bad rap because they were being used in applications where no small block engine should have been in the first place. In short, if you need to tow a 10,000+ pound trailer on a daily basis, then get a diesel or a HD rated gas engine. But if you use the "M" small blocks they way they were intended to be used (i.e. in a half-ton Bronco) and you don't exceed your Bronco's rated towing capacity, then you should get many, many miles of trouble-free service out of it.

They must've improved the design for the '79 model year. I knew of a few people that owned them and they seemed to be fine.
My brother had a salvage engine installed in his Merc and it seemed to be alright for a used engine. :scratch2:

Very nice wagon :)

Old wagons dont get enough love. You can haul your stuff with you, take a nap in the back at a rest stop, just handy in general. Heck, my daily driver is a '66 volvo 122s amazon wagon. The body may be beat to heck, but i keep the drive train factory fresh.

My only issue, is that people keep thinking its something its not. Ive been told its a chevy, mercury, studebaker.. all sorts of things. Do people NOT see the Volvo emblems on it? lol

Pretty impressive. And even bigger even than my mom's '91. How are the floors and frame?

For that car you need to get those teeth like on 18 wheeler radiator covers, put
one on the grill for highway driving.....

So, now you got that '77 ford and the Aspen/Volare .... You could keep the Chrysler
inside the ford for emergencies......

.

A Quinn Martin Production!

F.B.I. Barnaby Jones, Cannon...

That's what these remind me of, seems like many of those old shows used them, not wagons usually but the sedans. QM must have sold a load of those for Ford.