New MarkVIII owner here

B

Blenderhead

Well-Known LVC Member
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Apr 22, 2008
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Location
Tinton Falls, NJ
Hey there everyone. I just bought a 98 MarkVIII LSC, and I was referred to this site by someone on TCCoA. I've had a whole bunch of cougars over the years, and a couple tbirds, but this is my first MarkVIII. I found it sitting in front of a trans shop, and basically the guy who owns the shop got it with a blown trans for dirt cheap, then rebuilt the trans and was going to give it to his wife, but she wanted to keep her chevy suburban, so he just wanted to get back what he had into it. I picked it up for $2700 with 128K miles and a freshly rebuilt trans with updated accumulators and forward clutch. The interior on this thing is immaculate. The paint on the front bumper and grille is a little messed up, but that's nothing I can't fix. Also the center tail light and the blend door don't work, so I'll have to fix those too. Other than that, everything seems to work, and I've been beating on the car for 2 days and loving it. Anyway, here are a couple pics of the car.





First up is to fix what is wrong with it, then it desparately needs a Jmod cause the 1-2 shift takes all of memorial day weekend to complete. After that, probably a 3.73TL, higher stall converter, and then somewhere down the line maybe a KB. I'll have to wait on all that until I finish all my other project cars though.
 
Nice car. What state is Tinton Falls in? Be sure to check the regional section. Sometimes there are meets and such, and maybe you'll be close to one.
 
Tricky-Dick said:
Welcome to "LVC" "Blenderhead"! Looks like you got a good deal on the Mark!

Does your head really look like a Blender? :D
Click to expand...

Not quite, it looks like this


The name comes from a Bad Religion song:
"Hey blenderhead, you ask so many questions. Your confusion is a life-affirming sign. Break from tradition and carry on with valour and feel those flywheels turn in your blenderhead"

Yeah, Tinton Falls is in NJ, didn't realize that wouldn't display. Fixed now.

As far as the car goes, for the price I think I did pretty good. The interior is absolutely perfect, and with a little cleaning and repainting the front bumper and grille, the outside will look just as nice. The one thing I don't like about it is the wheels. I was thinking about swapping them for a set of black early style tbird SC wheels. What I really want is a set of 03 cobra wheels for it, but it will be a while until I can justify spending that much money on the wheels, so for now I just need something that will look decent on there.
 
Nice deal on a Gen 2 :D
Shows you what you can find if you keep your eyes open.

Your hair might have got caught in a blender ;)
 
Hey MadMikey!

Looks like ya found the place OK - these are THE guys to ask the questions.

And see you back over on TCCoA :).
 
welcome
blender from all of us on this side of the MAP (LVC) that is
 
Air ride started doing something weird

Ok, I've been driving the car all week now, and I've decided that the air ride is AWESOME and there is no way I will be putting coil springs in this car. However it has started acting up occasionally. I had the car on a lift and all the bags look good, with absolutely no signs of them starting to dry-rot, and there are no leaks. When I first went to look at the car, the nose was sitting all the way on the ground. I started the car up, and it came right up, then it had dropped back to the ground again later that night. Once I got it registered, I drove the car home, and took it out for a couple rides that night, and the next morning it was still at normal height, so I figured it might have been something stuck from sitting for a while. Anyway, 2 days ago I was driving to work and the check air ride warning came on. I cleared it, and all day at work the car stayed at normal height. That evening I drove home, and the next morning it was down on the ground again. I drove it again and it has stayed up ever since, until today when I pulled into my grandmother's driveway and got out, and the front end was sitting really low, not quite all the way down. I left the car sitting there running for about 10 mins, then all of a sudden the nose started coming back up, and came right up to normal height. I'm leaving my grandmother's now, and the car is still at normal height. I'll see what happens when I get home and tomorrow morning. The check air ride warning only came on that one time, and it has been fine ever since. Anyone have any ideas what this might be?
 
First off, you want to turn off the air ride any time you lift the car.

Secondly, if the front or rear is dropping after the car sits there is a leak some where. The only time the bags should vent is right after you shut the car off and open the door, after that the suspension should not change heights at all.

The check air ride message comes on when the compressor runs for more than a certain time, I can't remember what it is though.
 
I know to turn off the air ride, and I did. Its only the front that ever drops down, and its intermittent so I don't think its just a leak. Plus like I said, the bags look perfect with no cracking or dry-rotting or anything, and I sprayed them down with soapy water and they weren't leaking.

New development though, on the way home from my grandmother's house, the front of the car dropped down while driving down the road. When we left, the front was at normal ride height. The check air ride light warning came on twice on the way home. When I got home, I got out of the car, and the front is completely down as far as it goes. It also was making a weird humming noise that sounded kind of like a wheel bearing. I don't know if that was just from the tire riding on the edge from the suspension being all the way down, or if I have a separate issue. I suppose I'll fix the air ride first, then if I still have the noise I'll do the wheel bearings. Anyway, I really don't know much about the air ride system and how it works. Is there any kind of valve or something that could be sticking opened intermittently causing the front to drop down like this?
 
Yeah, it sounded like it was coming from the right front. I thought the compressor was in the left front cause I heard humming coming from there the other day. The thing with the humming though, it stopped when the car stopped moving, and it changed its pitch when I turned the wheel, so I don't think the compressor running is what was causing that noise.
 
I just read through the entire diagnostic section on that american air suspension website. It looks like I do have leaking bags. I never knew before that bags could leak intermittently. Tomorrow I'm going to put the car on a drive-on lift and look again for leaks.
 
It's a likely bet the front bags are leaking.
And because of the nature of rubber, and the way the rubber folds on itself determined by ride height, unless you have a radical hole in the side, it'll be difficult to detect unless you're spraying them with water looking for tiny bubbles.

But, since you're dedicated to the air ride, though they aren't cheap, it is easy to replace the air suspension components on the car.
 
Yeah, I remember that thread. I almost did that swap to my 94 cougar 5-speed, but I ended up parting out the car. If I get another 4.6 MN12, I'll swap in the DOHC, but I think I have enough. I now have the MarkVIII, an 89XR7, and a 91 cougar with a 393, and I also have an 80 firebird formula that is going to be quite a project. I think between all the cars I have now, it should be a good 10 years before I run out of stuff to do to them.
 
i know the feeling, i got my 98 markviii lsc, my 00 5.0 explorer (waiting for the eng to blow then its fun time) and my 88 MR2 supercharged (currentlly not running) just keeping all running at once is a task itself, hence the MR2, just did the oil pan on the mark, and the explorer needs some minor cosmetic stuff. most of my time has been on finishing the thundermark, and it almost almost almost done!!!!!
 
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