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  #46  
Old 03-04-2018, 02:55 AM
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Looks like a Ford advertisement poster or something. Both white, but look like new.
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  #47  
Old 03-04-2018, 04:49 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dishdude View Post
I couldn't agree more, and see more K-cars on the road then any other 80's cars...however, I took this pic a few weeks ago in Phoenix. Ford fans, here you go!
I can't recall the last time I saw an Aerostar. I saw a dark green Topaz in nice shape parked on the same street quite a few times not that long ago; chances are it's still in use, I just haven't been to that area in a while. Also, last month I saw a teal '92-'94 Taurus wagon, also in nice shape. That's pretty good for cars that were built while this region still had a winter.
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Originally Posted by mgross0 View Post
K cars have outlasted most of their domestic contemporaries at this point. I still see a few Reliants and such on the road here in Phoenix, but it's been years since I have seen a Topaz or Citation. I would recommend avoiding the turbos, unless they have some sort of service history. That being said, I would also recommend that you go for an M body and buy a Diplomat. In an accident, an M body will demolish just about anything currently on the road.
Sounds good to me. I would add one of those bumper stickers that say "Your car is my crumple zone".
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  #48  
Old 03-04-2018, 11:30 AM
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The only thing I would suggest avoiding in the K-cars is the optional Mitsubishi-built 2.6L engine. My dad had one of those in a 1981 Aries wagon, and it would eat timing belts and fuel pumps on a regular basis. The standard 2.2L engines were quite reliable, in my experience.

Of course, as a lifelong Mopar guy, it kind of galled me to see the "2.6 HEMI" fendertags that came with that POS engine.
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  #49  
Old 03-04-2018, 03:15 PM
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Originally Posted by N2IXK View Post
Of course, as a lifelong Mopar guy, it kind of galled me to see the "2.6 HEMI" fendertags that came with that POS engine.
Well, heh, it was legitimately a hemi, though. Hemispherical combustion chambers ftw. But yeah...
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  #50  
Old 03-04-2018, 03:25 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by N2IXK View Post
Of course, as a lifelong Mopar guy, it kind of galled me to see the "2.6 HEMI" fendertags that came with that POS engine.
Even Ford's 1.6L I4 is technically a hemi but fortunately I haven't seen any fender tags announcing this. While I have a soft spot for the early model Lynx and Escort I think the SS (1981 Escort only), RS and GT trim packages are a bit much for a subcompact without a lot of horsepower or low-end torque.
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  #51  
Old 03-04-2018, 03:42 PM
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I have heard that the dodge 2.2 was the best motor in the K's. In the photos
of the K's for sale that are still around and running it always seems to have a 2.2.

As for the smog era cars, and I like that term, My uncle's last Chrysler was a 74-76?
Dodge Monaco like the ones on Blues Brothers, and it kinda came apart like in the
movie, just not all at once. It use to take a lot of cranking to get it running, it had
no power, 6mpg, lights and horn were active together at times, turn signals came
with audio accompany. It was the worst car he had, he followed that with a 4WD
Eagle, AMC I think at the time.

By the time that car died mostly of rust. I had got my '89 Prelude, the wife got her
'91 accord, and I talked him into an accord too, they had that car till he died.

On some of the sites about the Blues Brothers movie, they said they got those cars
for $100 -200. from the city as they were replacing them. Also hollywood got
hundreds of '77 Coronets for $35. because of smog system problems that
chrysler did not want to pay to redesign and fix. I remember seeing on PBS
about the decline of the auto industry 70's edition that chrysler and others would
take delivery on stuff like engine blocks by the thousands and by the time they
needed them for production the discovered there was a casting problem and
could not use them, so they would have to idle the factory, re order new run
and wait.... The bad blocks rusted. Same kinda story for GM and using known
bad or under designed bolts in the early Quad-4's. They all knowingly made
and sold crap for way too long....

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  #52  
Old 03-04-2018, 06:47 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Username1 View Post
I have heard that the dodge 2.2 was the best motor in the K's. In the photos
of the K's for sale that are still around and running it always seems to have a 2.2.

As for the smog era cars, and I like that term, My uncle's last Chrysler was a 74-76? Dodge Monaco like the ones on Blues Brothers, and it kinda came apart like in the movie, just not all at once. It use to take a lot of cranking to get it running, it had no power, 6mpg, lights and horn were active together at times, turn signals came with audio accompany. It was the worst car he had, he followed that with a 4WD Eagle, AMC I think at the time.
The 2.2 probably is the best K motor, the 2.5 seemed rather problematic to me.

I doubt your uncle's Monaco was a '74 because it's a model made before catalytic converters so it runs good on regular gas. For '75 I believe only the Royal Monaco came with hideaway headlamps, and all '76 models have them.
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  #53  
Old 03-04-2018, 09:14 PM
mgross0 mgross0 is offline
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Who says unicorns don't exist? I saw an AMC Eagle rolling down Greenway Parkway last week, and was shocked by how 'good' it looked. At least it was distinctive and had personality, which most modern cars lack.
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  #54  
Old 03-04-2018, 09:47 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jon A. View Post
The 2.2 probably is the best K motor, the 2.5 seemed rather problematic to me.
Did you mean 2.6? The 2.5 is just a 2.2 with a larger bore and longer stroke with a balance shaft added. The 2.5 adds a lot of low end torque, and the balance shaft really smooths the engine out.
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  #55  
Old 03-05-2018, 01:34 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dishdude View Post
Did you mean 2.6? The 2.5 is just a 2.2 with a larger bore and longer stroke with a balance shaft added. The 2.5 adds a lot of low end torque, and the balance shaft really smooths the engine out.
I meant 2.5, but I only have experience with one car so equipped and none with the 2.2 so I'm not really a good barometer. The head gasket cracked letting coolant into the oil, the timing belt broke and it blew a handful of frost plugs but never suffered any major damage. It was rather loud for a gas engine, noisy lifters maybe? It seemed sluggish sometimes but I reckon that had a lot to do with its temperamental 3-speed slushbox. If I recall correctly I often had to let up on the accelerator briefly to get out of low gear. I used to drive on a long stretch of level road and make a left at the end to go uphill; it wasn't very steep but that's when I would be mashing it and still be unable to keep up with traffic, no idea why.

Edit: Apparently the engine was getting tired, it sounded just like the one in this Aries (startup at 6:10).

Last edited by Jon A.; 03-05-2018 at 02:25 AM.
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  #56  
Old 03-05-2018, 03:06 AM
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Originally Posted by Jon A. View Post
Even Ford's 1.6L I4 is technically a hemi but fortunately I haven't seen any fender tags announcing this.
Prob because 'Hemi' is a Chrysler-owned trademark lol

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jon A. View Post
The 2.2 probably is the best K motor, the 2.5 seemed rather problematic to me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dishdude View Post
Did you mean 2.6? The 2.5 is just a 2.2 with a larger bore and longer stroke with a balance shaft added. The 2.5 adds a lot of low end torque, and the balance shaft really smooths the engine out.
^ This.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Username1 View Post
My uncle's last Chrysler was a 74-76? Dodge Monaco like the ones on Blues Brothers, and it kinda came apart like in the movie, just not all at once. It use to take a lot of cranking to get it running, it had no power, 6mpg, lights and horn were active together at times, turn signals came with audio accompany. It was the worst car he had, he followed that with a 4WD Eagle, AMC I think at the time.
It's a shame that some cars get a bad rap just because nobody bothered fixing them. It sounds like it only needed a carb cleaning/adjustment and some ground wires fixed. As if those were uncommon problems in the 70s... >_>

Quote:
Originally Posted by mgross0 View Post
Who says unicorns don't exist? I saw an AMC Eagle rolling down Greenway Parkway last week, and was shocked by how 'good' it looked. At least it was distinctive and had personality, which most modern cars lack.
I really like the original Eagles. I mean... they're basically a car bolted onto a Jeep CJ chassis. You can legit go rock crawling with a stock Eagle. A buddy of mine in college once asked if I wanted to ride in his friend's 'AMG' as he was going to get an oil change. I shrugged, and went along because I had nothing better to do. I kept looking around in the parking lot for a Mercedes, but I was pleasantly surprised that the dude hopped in an AMC Eagle! I think my friend was a bit disappointed lol.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Username1 View Post
Same kinda story for GM and using known
bad or under designed bolts in the early Quad-4's. They all knowingly made
and sold crap for way too long....
A lot of 70s cars sucked, because of auto factory workers' union problems. Strikes and all that.
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  #57  
Old 03-05-2018, 10:25 AM
dieseljeep dieseljeep is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dishdude View Post
That's just what the warranty was back then, 1 year/12k miles. I think Chrysler was the first to provide a long powertrain warranty in the 80's, think at first it was 5/50
My '64 Valiant had a 5/50 warrantee on it. Chrysler first started it for the 1962 model and kept it until the 1971 model year, then going back to 1 year, 12k miles. My '82 Dodge Ramcharger had a 5/50 Warrantee. I don't remember when they resumed the warrantee coverage.
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  #58  
Old 03-05-2018, 05:48 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jon A. View Post
Even Ford's 1.6L I4 is technically a hemi but fortunately I haven't seen any fender tags announcing this.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MadMan View Post
Prob because 'Hemi' is a Chrysler-owned trademark lol
And "SS" is a GM-owned trademark but that didn't stop Ford from using it on some first-year Escorts; only the resulting lawsuit did. Geez, grownups today, they're not allowed to kill each other one on one so most of them do it in court, shameful.

Last edited by Jon A.; 03-05-2018 at 05:52 PM.
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  #59  
Old 03-05-2018, 09:22 PM
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Our family was two-time Aerostar users. They were great family vans. Later on in life I considered buying one because the removable seats are a great bonus but:
-They are heavy as hell
-The engines are a MASSIVE pain in the ass to service.
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  #60  
Old 03-06-2018, 09:18 AM
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DavGoodlin DavGoodlin is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jon A. View Post
The 2.2 probably is the best K motor, the 2.5 seemed rather problematic to me.

I doubt your uncle's Monaco was a '74 because it's a model made before catalytic converters so it runs good on regular gas. For '75 I believe only the Royal Monaco came with hideaway headlamps, and all '76 models have them.
+2 on that 2-2, Jon - My '78 Celica GT 5-spd with a 2.2 could not catch the Mopars, which had an edge for some reason My Dad traded a 1975 Rabbit 1.5 L for an '81 Horizon with 1.7L 4cyl with a horrible-shifting 4spd, (VW or Peugot-built IIRC) and what a pooch that was.

That '81 was involved in 4 accidents, last one a sideswipe requiring half a body from a junkyard. Being Orange I guess it was hard to see. They just would not total it, so it was traded for the 2.2L in the '85 Omni, which had an automatic, which he always shut the car off leaving it in "D" with the parking brake on, being used to manuals. Even with a 3-spd auto, the 2.2 could spin the tires on dryypavement, with the expected torque-steer of MoPar's front wheel drive.

For my first ride, and under $1000, all I had to chose from were gas hogs nobody wanted in 1980. I had a choice of a 76 Monaco with a 360- probably a lean-burn 2bbl; A 75 LeSabre with 350 2bbl. Since both were smog-sleds, I opted for the 73 Fury II 400-2bbl - the small-town's unmarked squad car, dark green. I was not sorry.

I know of a few 2.5 Liter 4 cyl Caravans turning out to be reliable beaters. Cheap parts is one reason.
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Last edited by DavGoodlin; 03-06-2018 at 09:30 AM.
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