Any Opinions?

[milterino]

I have a 76 450 sel. Am thinking of applying undercoat to my underhood(original stuff fell off). Any thoughts on this? Could this ignite?
Also have faulty cruise control. Have contacted the company in Morro Bay, Ca. and they have one for $195. Anybody have any experience with some other source which might be less expensive. I have a manual turn off/on valve for my heater located in the engine compartment. The original heater valve is not working. Would like to replace the original heater set up with a valve which would operate from the passenger compartment. Does anybody have any ideas on doing this. Thank you, Milt.

[ptoro01]

For the undercoating on the hood...in my opinion thats a bad bad bad idea. Go to ebay and purchase a hood pad for $45 and about $10 in 3M adhesive and you will get a wonderful finish, search the forum for hood pad and you will find tons of tips.

For the cruise control, check out the system to see what's wrong first and foremost. There are, I belive, 3 items that can go wrong but im not sure. The cruise control amp, the cruise control thing under the hood and the cable running out to the engine. The cruise control is a good feature but I dont personally consider it important but I will try to fix mine before the Toronto-San Luis Obispo trip so my feet dont hurt as much.

For the heater valve, I believe there is a replacement item through fastlane but I dont exactly know which part you are talking about.

Most parts are also available at junkyards for cheap, if you have the time and enjoy hunting for scraped cars then this will help you fix up your car for a lot cheaper.

Some of these cars need initial maintenance to bring them back up to your satisfaction but once they have been restored, they will be reliable beasts.

So far in a year ive spent over $2500 in just replacement parts for my car including an initial full service maintenance of $250. Lots cheaper than a new car but you have to put in the time and diagnose every little problem and the fix them yourself. Thats how you get to know these cars.

Welcome to the forum,
Peter

[MunichTaxi]

I replaced my core with a new core for a 1984 Mercury Marquis.
Radiator Barn.com has the dimensions on the website, so I just matched them up. Cost was $35.00 dollars. I then used a Ford Bronco manual heater control valve, with the cable running to a knob on the dashboard.

[milterino]

Thanks for taking the time to answer. I have exhausted the junk yards on all three of the problems I presented, to no avail. Alll the junkyard heater valve units(plastic) are cracked, all the cruise control units are defective, in fact mine is better than any of the (4) I have tried. I do like the idea of that Ford Bronco heater control unit that Taxi used. Taxi, you mentioned replacing the heater core. Why did you do that? Was it defective? Can you tell if a core is clogged up by some kind of volume test? I am a little suspect of my core as I don't think it heats up quite as hot as it should. Milt.

[MunichTaxi]

would be to disconnect both heater hoses in the engine compartment and run a garden hose to see if it comes out the other end.

I had to replace the radiator on my W108 (leaking) and I figured the heater core needed it too.
The positive result was a brand new heater core, and a shut-off valve system (Ford Bronco) that worked.
The negative is the time-consuming process of 16-18 hours, as a newbie, it took to complete.
Good luck.

[wbain5280]

Taking that a little further, run the garden hose into the return hose and backflush the heater core. You would need a garden hose to regular adapter and a hose clamp, but you could get one at the hardware store.