Greetings! This is a somewhat lengthy question/future plans, but I will try to keep it as short as possible.
My dream car(s) are the LTD Country Squires from 1970-1990, two different generations with varying facelifts per generation, etc.
(Sidenote; I already currently have a reliable daily driver while I get this car to be suitable for replacing my current)
I'm looking to get a good, solid, no rust LTD Country Squire from one of the years mentioned, more than likely 1970-1972, or 1979-1987 as I love those revisions most visually. I have performed research slowly over the years on these cars, and more concentration within the last few months. I would like some of your guys's experience, preferably more mature individuals who used to daily or work on these cars. How do they age? How do they handle stress/being beaten? Which engines/transmissions are best?
From what I have gathered, and please correct me if I'm wrong about any of these-
Engines:
390 - A pretty reliable engine, no any overbearing flaws
351 - A meh engine, not particularly great but not bad, but start to wear about 125,000/150,000 miles
400 - Age horribly, have compression issues at a mere 100,000ish miles in their life, basically a waste of time for my needs personally
460 - Excellent reliability, last a very long time and have no overbearing issues
302 - I'm getting mixed results on this, everyone's talking about power, but nobody is talking about reliability. From what I gather they're decent, better than a 351, but maybe not as durable as a 460 or 390, but I'm not sure at all
As for transmission options, they seem to all have identical reliability / no real transmission issues.
Basically after I acquire one, I'm going to replace all the seals to ensure it isn't peeing all over the place, among other proactive repairs to ensure a solid experience.
However, if you guys feel these vehicles age terribly and NONE of the engines above were that great to begin with, I have some engines (there are RWD transmissions that bolt to these, I would just have to source them) that I personally would trust with my life as I have heard if not had first hand dependability with them, and know some of them intimately.
Vulcan would be slow, but not much if not at all slower if I end up getting the third gen LTD wagon (1979-1990)
3800 Series II supercharged would give the vehicle quite notable haste, and make the sloppy boat more agile
4.6 modular would be probably a middle ground between the two.
I'm thinking of possibly swapping in a different engine/drivetrain to make the unit even more reliable if all the options they come with ultimately suck. IF this is necessary for being daily driven, and road tripping, I was thinking of the following engines due to their notorious reliability, and accessibility to acquire them affordably- (I also mention what I know of the engines, please correct as needed)
Engines:
Ford 4.6 Modular - Incredible reliability, age well, and generally don't have any overbearing issues, and in fact better than any of the engines any LTD ever shipped with
Buick 3800 Series II / Supercharged - Basically bullet proof, however I'm not sure how much less reliable the supercharged version is when driven crazy
Ford Vulcan 3.0L - An engine I'm intimately familiar with first hand, they age well, they can handle being driven crazy and have no overbearing issues, basically bullet proof
I look forward to anyone's input, thank you!
Well I'd get a 460 but realize one thing you are talking about dinosaur cars buying cars that old expect to have to do just about everything over breaks electrics you name it. And of course before you buy any of them check for rust if the frame is rusted don't buy it those were rust buckets and unless the car comes from Texas or Arizona it may be just falling apart underneath
So I have a 1977 Ford LTD Base 4 door model with the 302. I'll try to give you the best answer I can based on my experience. I know it's not the country squire, but it has the same internals, so let's focus on that.
It depends on how old the car is and how good of condition, but if you're getting something that's older than maybe an 86, you're gonna run into some reliability problems. Back in the day when my Grandfather's family took road trips in that car, it was pretty reliable and had no issues. These days after I started dailying the car (because I have nothing else), something small will have to be replaced every 5k to 10k miles. If you're thinking about dailying one of these really old cars and unless you do a full restoration and rebuilt engine, be prepared to replace stuff every 10k miles and probably break down once a year. You mentioned that you would replace all the seals which is an excellent idea.
So let's assume you find a good 1975 model that is in excellent condition and low mileage. Depending on the engines, it can be an ok car. I personally have never had transmission issues with mine, and I am a lead foot driver. I have a 302 in mine, and it was rebuilt about 10 years ago. They don't have a lot of power, but it can definitely move the car. Since then I have probably put about 40k miles on it. I've had to replace the carburetor, mechanical fuel pump (3x), gas tank, fuel sending unit, oil pressure switch, coolant hose and now the power brake booster (That's only 9 parts within a 2 year period. Not too bad for a 44 year old car). Everything that I had to replace has been easy to find except for that power brake booster. It took me about 3 weeks to find someone who had it in stock.
If you want to daily the car and plan on staying within a 30 mile radius of your home, it might be an ok option, but please do not take it on road trips unless you absolutely have to or if you completely restore the thing. If something bad fails on the car (like your brakes) and you're 100s or 1000s of miles away from home, you will be in a terrible mess because most likely nobody will have a part in stock or they will have to special order it.
These are awesome cars to drive around, and very comfortable ride, but there is no way on earth I would ever take them on road trips. You may have a difficult time finding one in excellent condition that is for sale.
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Thank you both for the excellent feedback, keep them coming!
So far it seems my research is very on point since I have yet to be corrected on anything.
The first thing I'm doing to whatever I end up with is the entire brake system and of course all the seals. My 1984 Chrysler Executive was a gentle way of showing me just how important both of those are. Its brakes started failing, and as soon as we started getting things apart, EVERYTHING in the brake system started to go.
So what I will try to do is get a 1971 model, swap the engine with a 460 (ideally a re-manufactured/rebuilt one unless I rebuild it myself), replace anything and everything with the brakes and fuel system, spark, rebuild the carbuerator, and for wiring, I'll just see how it goes.
Regardless if I end up with the slightly newer or older models basically I will do the exact same thing, but if I end up with one that already has a 460, or, if I end up with the 1979-1991 models, maybe I'll try to keep the 302 in it, if not replace it with a rebuilt 302, otherwise a 4.6 modular may be pretty easy to pop in, I would have to do more research.
Thank you both very much!
You are welcome. All that work will make it a solid car. Good luck with your LTD when you get one.
Oh I forgot to ask! How is the Ford 429? The 1971 LTDs (my main goal vehicle anyway) have an optional 429, I see they're at least the same series as the 460, are they identical in build quality or do they have drastic differences?
Honestly, they are all good engines (even the 400). Take good care of them and keep up with maintenance and any of those engines will last a long time.