Crown Vic

[ engines revving ]

(Alli)>> Welcome to Powernation Builds. I'm Alli Walker. Everyone gets a little nervous when they see blue lights but we're giving you the green light with Detroit Muscle's Crown Vic upgrade.

(Marc)>> To get you up to speed we took a 2008 police interceptor with a ton of miles and added a few budget friendly upgrades.

(Tommy)>> We started with a remote mount turbo and fabricated a bit of plumbing to get all that power to our 4.6-liter V-8.

(Marc)>> Of course with all that added air we needed more fuel as well. So we switched it over to a return style system with a bigger fuel pump.

(Tommy)>> Then we took our old police cruiser down to Engine Power and strapped it onto the dyno.

(Marc)>> With a little tuning help we went from 200 horsepower at the tires stock to 368 horsepower, 410-pound feet of torque.

(Tommy)>> First thing we're doing today is seeing how she performs on the street.

(Marc)>> Well Tommy you were right.

(Tommy)>> I'm sorry, what did you just say?

(Marc)>> I said you were right. This car's cool!

(Tommy)>> How is that cool?

(Marc)>> Well because it's cheap and you get a lot of car for your money.

(Tommy)>> Absolutely!

(Marc)>> And you throw some parts at it and have a lot of fun.

(Tommy)>> Yeah I know you could have been skeptical in the front half of this thing because it is a big ole four door car but man the potential is here. It's V-8, it shares a lot of components of the other pony car if you will from the Ford lineup, and with that it's got room to expand. There's room under the hood, room under the car, all that kind of jazz. So where's the oh-no handle? Make sure you know where that's at. [ engine revving ]

(Marc)>> We're gonna die! [ Marc laughing ]

(Tommy)>> That wasn't bad. That was about a bill 0-5.

(Marc)>> That's nice. It does what it's not supposed to do, and that's why it's cool. [ engine revving ]

(Marc)>> I have a feeling before we make it back to the shop today you know what else it's gonna need?

(Tommy)>> What's that?

(Marc)>> A set of tires.

(Tommy)>> Well let's just see what we can do. [ engine revving ] [ Music ]

(Tommy)>> You know this is a stop sign? Probably ought to stop.

(Marc)>> Yep, which way we going.

(Tommy)>> Go back that way.

(Marc)>> That way?

(Tommy)>> Yes sir.

(Marc)>> Just the good ole boys! Okay.

(Tommy)>> We gonna go this way one more time.

(Marc)>> Which way are we going?

(Tommy)>> I'm undecided. [ engine revving ]

(Marc)>> Yeah that's awesome. I think we should get out of here.

(Tommy)>> You know I almost want to bet you a six pack of whatever you like to drink and some chicken wings that we gonna get a bit greasy and rusty today working on this thing.

(Marc)>> Absolutely but I'll be willing to bet you that it's gonna be worth it because look at the turbo. A little bit of work, big payoff! Apply the same thing to the suspension maybe we'll get the same results, but before we start digging into that let's talk about the actual design of the suspension.

(Tommy)>> The suspension up under our Crown Vic was started back in '03 whenever they converted from the gearbox to the rack and pinion. It only has a couple of bolts that hold this entire unit up under the car, which makes it pretty popular with the guys building the resto-mod trucks.

(Marc)>> Another reason is it's got this aluminum K-member, super lightweight. The rack and pinion's already integrated like Tommy said, but it's also got this s-l-a, or short arm long arm suspension design, which makes it handle really well. It's kinda like a race car just a little more heavy duty.

(Tommy)>> Now with our car being a police cruiser it has a few better goodies up under it, which is a thicker sway bar, better valving in the strut, and heavy duty springs, not to mention better biting brakes.

(Marc)>> So overall on a scale of 1 to 10 I give it an APlus, and the rear, it's not so bad either. Let's check it out. My favorite is the parallel four link with a watts link, and that is what's on our Crown Vic here. The only drawback would be packaging. It's hard to fit all those bars in on a smaller car, but we've got a big car and Ford saw it necessary to put it on all of these and I'm glad they did. It's great from the factory but there is room for improvement. So we're gonna dig in and fix it up. [ Music ] [ drill humming ] [ Music ] [ drill vibrating ] [ Music ] [ drill vibrating ] [ Music ]

(Marc)>> Well we've already established there's not a ton of aftermarket support for these Crown Vics but thankfully there is some, and to keep you from searching all over the place to get all the parts you need there's a one stop shop called ADTR dot net. We actually talked to a guy there named Chris. He helped us assemble a parts list of everything we need to make our Crown Vic handle the way it should, and that's everything you see here on this table, but before we get into all that stuff I want to talk about these specifically. These are the stamped steel watts links that we removed from the car and these are the ones that we're gonna replace them with. They're billet aluminum from Metco Motorsports. What's nice about these is they're a lot stiffer, they're lighter, and they've got these stiffer bushings in here. So it's not gonna flex the way the factory ones would, and they just bolt right in. But before we get to those let's do the control arms next. I'm gonna do one at a time. There's new uppers and lowers also from Metco. Same design, billet aluminum, heavy duty. They're gonna do everything we need to do, bolt right in. So let's start with these. [ drill buzzing ]

(Marc)>> I said I was gonna do these one at a time, and the reason I'm doing that is because if I take more than one out the rear end's gonna move and I'm gonna have to re-align it to get the bolts back in. This way I can just pull each arm out, put the new one in. [ Music ]

(Alli)>> The interceptor ups its pursuit power coming up next.

(Alli)>> We're back just in time for Marc to revamp the front end and Tommy to rehab the rear.

(Marc)>> Well since Tommy kicked me out out back before I could get that wrapped up I figured I'd take this opportunity to move up front and get it torn down, which is exactly what I've done here. Everything here on this table is going in the scrap bin because we've got all new stuff to replace it. You saw this earlier. It's everything we got from ADTR dot net. What we're gonna focus on right now though is gonna be this coil over kit for the front. This is an HQ Series kit from Ridetech. They're lightweight, they have adjustable ride height, and even adjustability in the valving on the shock. Probably more than we need but this is what's available and they're super cool. So this is what we're gonna put on. [ Music ] [ ratchet clicking ] [ Music ]

(Marc)>> With that upper mount in place we can slide our coil over in and bolt it down. [ drill vibrating ]

(Marc)>> Now we can just re-install our ball joints and our steering linkage, and we can move on to our sway bar. This is a bigger, beefier sway than the stock one. So it's gonna provide better handling. We are making some serious progress on our '08 Crown Vic Police Interceptor. This may find a little unconventional but we are doing a generic single turbo system mounted out back here where the driver's side muffler used to be. It's gonna be tons of fun. LT came in from Truck Tech, welded up the hot side of our exhaust system. That's going into the turbo, and then coming out of the turbo he's got this nice down pipe, and the waste gate, looks really nice. Then we focused on the cold side. We've got this air filter here. Probably not gonna be able to drive this thing in the rain, but that's okay because we don't want to suck any water in there. But we also did the charge pipe. It goes from two, two and a quarter, up to two and a half. Slides right up here next to the exhaust and goes up into the engine bay.

(Tommy)>> Whenever you start doing some work on the back side of a rear end like we are a bit of an aroma is gonna be a thing you're gonna be plagued with. Ole Marc said he didn't want no part of this. I think he was the wiser man. We are gonna have to do a bit of teardown to get all these goodies off. One more! Then we've got to remove the pin and get our hands a bit dirty. What we're gonna do here is swap into a lower set of gears. Originally this car came with a set of 3.27s. We're swapping in a set of 3.73s. It ain't really a whole lot to it. You just swap out the ring gear. [ drill buzzing ]

(Tommy)>> Torque it to spec. Then you've got to remove the pinion and install a new one. [ Music ] Now there is a way that you need to set these things up correctly. Once you set your pinion depth you can slide in the carrier, torque it to spec, then check your backlash. [ Music ]

(Marc)>> Well if your brake pads are starting to look like the ones we just pulled off of our Crown Vic here then you know it's time to upgrade your pads and rotors. Now you could just upgrade to stock, or you could get something that's a little more high performance and higher quality, and you could do that with EBC's S-4 brake kit. It's made for spirited street driving and it comes with these u-s-r rotors that are coated with a black anti-rust coating, and they're slotted, which is for better performance braking. It also keeps the surface nice and clean, and free of brake dust. The pads that come with the kit are EBC's red stuff ceramic pads. These things are ideal for repeated heavy braking without fading, and they also prevent your rotors from being damaged. [ Music ] [ drill humming ] [ Music ] Well that's it for the front. We just need to wrap up on the rear because we are getting dangerously close to heading out on patrol. ADTR sent us this new watts link pivot bolt, which is stronger than the stock one. With it tightened down we can finally start installing those watts links. We'll get the outer links in. [ drill vibrating ]

(Marc)>> Attach them to the center link. Then attach it to the pivot. [ drill vibrating ]

(Marc)>> So we've got to get this adjustable spring perch mounted here because it'll fall off otherwise. That's what this little stud here is for. Just gotta wiggle it in there. That's it! Tighten that nut down. There we go. Then the rear springs can go in, followed by the driveshaft, the shocks, and the new rear sway bar. [ Music ] [ drill humming ]

(Marc)>> Alright get some brakes on and this rear end's done.

(Tommy)>> While Marc's in there finishing up the suspension under our Crown Vic I'm gonna go ahead and slap on some new shoes, and by the looks of them somebody's been abusing these. I don't know who that would have been. Not me! What we're putting on is a set of General GMax RS tires. Now these are a little bit smaller in diameter and a bit wider too. It's gonna help accommodate the stance that we're looking for. Plus give us plenty of performance out on the street. Put a little more air in this thing. We about ready to ride. Alright hoss I got you some skins for this thing. What else are we gonna need?

(Marc)>> I think that's it.

(Tommy)>> Really? Then we can ride?

(Marc)>> Some gas.

(Tommy)>> Woo-wee, that sounds sweet.

(Alli)>> Stick with us for more Powernation Builds up next!

(Alli)>> Welcome back to Powernation Builds, where Detroit Muscle's getting ready to convert the Crown Vic.

(Tommy)>> Our plan is to swap it over to a manual, but we've got our Crown Vic all disassembled and we're pretty much ready to start going back in with the new pieces. Now what's cool about this conversion is it's not so crazy that it's gonna require one off pieces because the power plant in this Crown Vic is shared in the Mustang and in the pickup trucks, but it is handy to have somebody to help make your dreams happen like with what we're going with. So we went to American Powertrain for all the hard parts. Flywheel, clutch disc, pressure plate, and so on. It's time for us to start putting some in. I'll knock in the new piloting bearing and set our flywheel into place, add some thread locker to the bolts, torque it to spec. Then we can add our clutch disc and pressure plate. Once that's all in we can add our bolts and cinch them down. That's it!

(Marc)>> Well here's the transmission that's going in our Crown Vic. It's a Tremec TKO 600 that came from American Powertrain. Now there's several advantages to this thing. First and foremost is gonna be the fact that it's a manual compared to that slush box that came out. Another thing is gonna be this thing is gonna handle all the power we can throw at it with that turbo we added. This thing's kinda on its last leg. At this point it's the weakest part of the car. So it's just a matter of time before this thing ends up in the scrapyard. So we figured we'd go ahead and do some preventative maintenance and go ahead and yank it out. Some other disadvantages to this automatic. This is a four speed. Even though it does have an overdrive it's gonna have completely different gear ratios than our five speed here. First gear in this transmission is gonna be super low. So you're gonna have that performance feel off the line, but then the overdrive is a nice and high gear. So when you get out on the highway you kick it into overdrive and just cruise. It'll actually even save you some fuel. Another thing is this thing is an electronic transmission. So it's gonna go into whichever gear the controller tells it to. As for this one it's gonna go into the exact gear we want at that exact moment. One more thing though we need to take into consideration before we start throwing this thing in. Since the Crown Vics were only offered with automatic transmissions like this one here the floor kinda contours the housing here. If you look at it from the side it kinda flows downhill, and if you look at our manual it's kinda flat across the top. So that might actually be an issue for us. We need to check it out. Another thing we've got a shifter that's gonna need to go through the floor. We're gonna have to make a hole for that. So we need to see where this lands and go from there. All we need to do is measure from the engine block to where that shifter's gonna go and make a mark. Alright 26.5 inches is right there. I've got a hole drilled there where I need to drill with my hole saw but it's gonna be difficult to do from underneath here because of the contour of the floor. So I'm gonna put the car down and do it from inside. [ Music ] [ drill humming ] [ Music ]

(Marc)>> Now we can go ahead and get the bell housing in place, and then put the transmission in. [ drill humming ]

(Marc)>> Come on, we're there. Release bearing went onto the collar. Let me wiggle the engine a little while you move it.

(Tommy)>> Perfect!

(Marc)>> Alright well let's hurry up and get some bolts in it.

(Alli)>> Up next, Marc and Tommy live out their alter egos in a test drive like no other.

(Alli)>> Hold on to your seats. Detroit Muscle is hauling the mail in the interceptor.

(Marc)>> I've said it before and I'll say it again. You were right. This car is awesome. Great project!

(Tommy)>> It's been a fun car and it didn't a whole lot of work to really improve. We made a lot of bolt on type deals with it with the suspension, and then turbo was the most complicated. After you done that man it was game on. Other than it being just a teeny bit too loud that's about it.

(Marc)>> You can't take anything away from this car. Name something about it that you don't like. It's got four doors. It's not very gorgeous looking. It doesn't have the curb appeal but what it lacks in curb appeal it makes up for in presence.

(Tommy)>> Fun factor.

(Marc)>> I want this car for myself. Like I want to drive this car every day.

(Tommy)>> You know it isn't all that often we get to have this much fun and no more work than we had to do.

(Marc)>> Yeah I absolutely love this car. It's actually one of my favorite projects we've ever done. I hate to see it go.

(Tommy)>> I got you man but there should be something else that we could do to have a little more fun with it.

(Marc)>> I think I know what you're talking about. I got this.

(Tommy)>> What the heck were you thinking man? I'm like a Super Trooper and you're like Reno something or other.

(Marc)>> We're cops! When do we ever get an opportunity to do this?

(Tommy)>> I guess we need to take a spin.

(Marc)>> Let's go have as much fun as, whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm driving.

(Tommy)>> You could have got me a shirt brother that fit. Hot Pursuit let's go. Time to ride.

(Marc)>> We're gonna get'em. I'm telling you right now boy. [ engine revving ]

(Tommy)>> So maybe you should try to create a diversion?

(Marc)>> Explain to me what you mean by that.

(Tommy)>> Big smokey burnout cuz.

(Marc)>> You think it'll do it?

(Tommy)>> Hell yeah this thing will do it. Or as my grand pappy said, dale yeah. Make sure nobody's coming. [ engine revving ]

(Tommy)>> Oh yeah. [ engine revving ] [ Marc laughing ]

(Tommy)>> I don't know which one of us right now is Smokey and which one is Bandit but I can tell you we're both postal workers cause we're hauling the mail.

(Marc)>> Well this thing just drives itself through this drive-thru.

(Tommy)>> I bet they already know what we want.

(Marc)>> Just give me 3 dozen glazed then. ( )>> Can I get you a coffee or anything else today?

(Marc)>> No I think we're good. We've got some beers in here. Root beers, root beers!

(Tommy)>> They don't know who they're messing with. Need to ask if they give an official discount.

(Marc)>> Do you give guys like us discounts?

(Tommy)>> I guess that's a negative.

(Marc)>> I guess that's a no. Noted! Thank you! ( )>> You have a great day!

(Marc)>> Yeah this is about the best day I've ever had at work.

(Tommy)>> I know man. I can't believe I actually get paid to do this.

(Marc)>> Sure we're not the first ones to ever do this.

(Tommy)>> I see why they do it.

(Marc)>> I've got an idea.

(Tommy)>> What's that?

(Marc)>> We're eating doughnuts. What if, hear me out. What if we did doughnuts?

(Tommy)>> I hope you don't plan on doing a whole lot of them. [ engine revving ]

(Tommy)>> That's what I'm talking about.

(Marc)>> Doughnuts while eating doughnuts. I better get away from that trailer a little bit. Dude this thing will do some serious doughnuts.

(Tommy)>> Don't get Krispy Kreme.

(Marc)>> Look at that. It just loves it. It lives for this. Hell I live for this.

(Tommy)>> See y'all, we out. Hot Pursuit!

(Alli)>> Those are my favorite kind of donuts. More fun and less filling. Be sure to check out all of our projects at Powernation TV dot com. I'm Alli Walker and I'll see ya down the road.