Crown Vic and the Ford OHC V-8

[gedcruise]

Not sure whether this belongs here or not, so please bear with me.
I bought a couple of Crown Vics with a bit under 100K for our perimeter patrol.
We have replaced both of the cars' engines with low mile salvage units, at around 150K. Oil consumption had gotten ridiculous, to the point that our people cried about having to drive them.
Now, I happened to be out at our garage last week, and looked at the most recently removed engine, which had had its valve (cam) covers removed. It looked remarkably clean. There was a light tan coat of varnish, but no sludge at all. I asked our mechanic whether he though the rings or bores were worn, or that the rings were stuck. He replied that, were he to rebuild the engine, he would start with the heads. I may have him take it apart, just for grins, and to maybe build a runner to keep on the shelf.
My question is, why did both these Ford mods wear out in fairly short miles, without showing any evidence of inadequate attetion to OCIs?

 

[Colt45ws]

How much did they idle? IIRC, ford says that 1 hr idle = 33 miles at 60mph. Or something similar. Id bet the bores still have their crosshatch though...
What year are they? Pre-96s had poor valve stem seal design that would wear out prematurely and let oil by.

 

[Steve S]

Was a compression test done?

 

[Oil_Can_Harry]

Good point about the valve stem seals. You notice it on a lot of older crown vics while they are idle at a traffic light. As soon as the light turns green and they move out, you can see the cloud of blue smoke from oil that leaked from the stem seals.

 

[gedcruise]

Yes, they were idled a lot of hours, and rarely driven at decent speeds.
Both of these were 2000 cars, and were not very expensive as two year old 90K vehicles. About $6K each, if memory serves. I drove one 100 or so miles, and it was not as fast as I thought a "Police Interceptor" might be.
A compression test was not done. Our mech told me that he felt that, since we can buy 50-60K used engines for less than a grand, it made sense to treat them as throw-aways.
I also trust the guy's experience and skills enough that I don't think he overlooked something minor and easily fixed.
I tend to agree with him.

 

[JustinH]

Valve stem seals, no doubt.

Keep oil in them, they will run forever.

No need to replace the motor.

 

[wantin150]

The 1999 Vic I drove while on the Patrol ate oil. Granted, it frequently saw lots of idle, stop/go, WOT, and cold WOT. It's OCI's were pretty much 3k but I would have to add a qt or so in between sometimes. IIRC, it had a 4.7 which was not fast by any means. Mine was limited to 120 mph (fuel shut off or rev limited, don't recall) and took a while to get there. It would do 124 downhill with a tailwind but no more.

 

[gedcruise]

I thought that too, however, the staff tasked with patrol complained bitterly about the oil fumes when idleing. Lord forbid that you should have to endure outside heat on a one hundred degree day, or not enjoy shirtsleeve comfort on a below zero one.
You are right, with no more than regular oil adds, those engines would have gone a good many more miles. Nobody would have replaced their own engine just because it burned six quarts a week, invoving roughly 140 hours of operation.

 

[alreadygone]

Six quarts weekly, had they been going thru cylinders, would require a set of plugs,probably weekly due to fowling! Must have been exiting past exhaust valve seals. Can't imagine that cat converters aren't clogged! Could be reason cars seem doggy!

Bob