71MercKid

I've recently become the new owner of a 1971 Mercury Marquis. What I know: its a 2V 429, she's got 126,188.8 miles since new, was a desert car, no rust, all original powertrain with no rebuilds. It gets what I think is phenominal mileage, 24-26 mpg city and 20-24 highway. She's got the simple gauges, speedo with idiot lights. Being as old as she is, I'd like to know whats going on. I want to add temp, oil psi, volt and a tach. So. What should I be looking for? Whats normal idle oil psi? Normal psi under heavy acceleration? Whats her normal operating temperature? Where does she redline? Normal level in the charging circuit? I had numerous trials and tribulations with getting her to run right and I think having actual full instrumentation would have helped greatly. Had burned fuseable link in the charging circuit, no horn(actually did, just didn't know how it worked) nonfunctional gas gauge, no blinkers or hazards, and no reverse lights. After 8 days of round the clock work and hanging out at the local autozone, with the help of the store manager, we got her running like a top and ready for the 700 mile drive back home. With only one break down which, may I say, could have well been prevented (overheated in the north texas desert because a rad flush and new rad cap slipped my mind as something to do before hitting the road), I think we got all the bugs worked out. I'll post a picture if I can figure out how. ..Thanks for any and all info, help or tips :)

Paul Kane

Nice car! The engine is a high compression 429, around 10.5:1 compression ratio. Peak power is just below 5000 rpm, and more power can be had with a larger carburetor and a few other changes....all at the expense of the fuel economy, of course.

It would be best for you to install the gauges and then report back what your idle pressure, high rpm pressure, operating temp, etc, are. We'll tell you if anytting is a red flag.

Paul

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