Lord of the Piston Rings

[Marauder57]

Well I finally got around to doing some more Mods to my Blue MM. So of course I went to see the "King of All Marauders"...the big man himself.....Dennis Reinhart!

I had some concerns about the recent tranny issues with the MM and I wanted to get the Level 1 Kit done by Dennis...plus he would be opening up the tranny and letting me know how we were looking so far....every thing looked good and now I have a real "O Ring" instead of the ones you get for a Quarter out of the bubble gum machines at the Supermarket.....

But of course I did not stop there.....ended up getting the MMDS, PI Converter, The tranny upgrade (mentioned) and probably the best mod to date....the engine cooling kit.

While only the PI Converter would really add speed per se....these mods together really produced a smooth riding car.....my ride home was just as smooth as silk....and the car just takes off.....I was getting chirps in 1st and 2nd.....and no vibration at all with the new drive shaft.....did not really know how much vibration there was until the new driveshaft was added on......really great Mod and at a good price....and I also went for the KVR pads and Reinhart rotors for the brakes......very good stuff....looks great and the new stopping power is noticable....I have a tendancy to get lead footed and I had noticed the stock brakes getting a little soft....so really good upgrade.

But the most noticeable......measureable mod for me was the engine cooling kit....now hold on here....it will get pretty technical....normally on my little tempature "thingy" (gauge) when the MM is up and going my little pointer would be about 2/3 to 3/4 up on the reading.....or towards hot. Since the new engine cooling kit....the needle won't go past half...in fact it is a little shy of half......almost like it is being stopped by a little invisible finger...and that is after 3 Reinhart test drives, a Dyno run and 2 hours of doing 80 to get back home....and still no higher than half.....I have NEVER seen that on my car.....this kit was worth the money and if you are a big time Mod guy....you need to have this baby.....

Over all I got a lot done to my MM this week...and it is all for the better.....really running great...and as I was driving home...I was thinking...this car runs so much better than the day I got it...13,000 plus miles and it is a new car.....I really enjoy driving it....

And as an added bonus before I left we put my car on the Dyno.....no tuning...not yet.....just to get an idea of where I was at....I am going to hold out for a full Dyno tune with Jerry and Dennis...when he opens up his new larger shop....and has a big open house......but my numbers (which I am sure can be tuned up...) were 278RWHP and 291RWT...not too shabby....I think 300 is easily attainable with a mod or two and some customized tuning...and I think that cooling kit will help with that.....

Overall a great trip to Castle Reinhart.....wanted to send a shout out to Dennis, Lonnie and Arthur....great job on my car....and thanks for the hard work!

:bows: :up: :rock: :banana2:

[Ross]

Glad to see the good results, but we have all come to expect nothing but the best from DR! I have a question about your temp guage. You say that when your engine was hot, the guage was usually 1/2 to 2/3 up towards HOT. Mine has never been more than 1/3 of the way up, even in the Houston summer. I wonder what other people are getting for their max engine temps? Anyone want to chime in?

[TAF]

First of all, I was fortunate enough to see your "bad, blue, man-of-steel" at Dennis' place last week. She looked good and I know you were being taken care of by Dennis and his folks.:up: Glad you're happy and I'm envious of what you had done!

Second...my Temp gauge when the engine is warmed points to about 18MPH on the speedo, way below 1/2 but more than 1/3 Ross.

[RF Overlord]

Second...my Temp gauge when the engine is warmed points to about 18MPH on the speedo, way below 1/2 but more than 1/3 Ross.

Mine, too...I would have said "about 20" on the speedo...since there are no usable markings on the temp gauge itself, the 20 MPH mark on the speedo is a good reference point...

[Paul T. Casey]

Just under 20 mph for me since the new stat. To poke a little fun at myself now, last week (maybe the one before) with all the posts on temp. and heating woes, it took me several days to figure out how everybody was reading speed on their temp. gauges. It came to me while driving back to the hotel after work, almost laughed my emptyish head off. People at the stop light were staring at me. :bounce:

[crom]

I've only got 6600 miles on mine, owned it since Jun 03. After warming up needle has always pointed at aprox 20 mph.

[Murader03]

It came to me while driving back to the hotel after work, almost laughed my emptyish head off. People at the stop light were staring at me. :bounce:
Paul, just what makes you think they were starin' at you? :confused:

It just might have been the "CAR!" HEhEhE!:lol:

[FordNut]

Both of mine have always pointed about to 20 mph. The one I changed the stat in dropped about the thickness of the speedometer tick mark. Most I've seen have been about the same. However, the inaccuracies are possibly one reason the gauges just say hot & cold instead of indicating an actual temp.

[martyo]

My temperature is always 19 to 20 mph.

[Zack]

Well I just got my kit the other day and am putting it in tonight.
This mod is a cinch to do in the car.
Jack the car up high, get yourself a 2 ft. bar with a small, blunt end and knock the freeze plugs out from below.
Im not kidding here, once the car is up in the air, it takes all of 5 minutes to knock the plugs out. Make sure you are wearing a rain coat or youll be sorry.

[valleyman]

My temp is always right around 18 -19 mph, both before and after the new thermostat that came with the plugs and chip from Dennis Rienhart.

[MapleLeafMerc]

I asked the same question in the Engine warm-up time thread- I wonder why they didn't just ink in some actual numbers on the gauge.

I don't want to start referring to the engine temp as miles per hour, though! Imagine the look on the other guy's face if you say "yea, I was really pushing it the other day- had 'er up near 60!"

I'll just say between 3 and 4 o'clock ;)

[greyghost]

Marauder57, I saw your car getting the cooling mod when I was at DRs last Thursday. Nice looking ride.

I will be picking up the GreyGhost this Thursday at DRs and really look forward to the ride home. I hope it's not rainimng so I can enjoy my new tranny and stuff.

Maybe I can find some to play all the way back to Atlanta.

[jgc61sr2002]

Marauder57 - Congrats on the DR mods. The cooling mod sounds good. :up:

[Ross]

OK, I did a search for "Reinhart engine cooling", and I couldn't find a description of what this kit is. Can someone describe what this engine cooling kit is that DR has?

[TAF]

OK, I did a search for "Reinhart engine cooling", and I couldn't find a description of what this kit is. Can someone describe what this engine cooling kit is that DR has?
Ross,

Pics and description is found here...
http://www.mercurymarauder.net/forums/showthread.php?t=7479&highlight=stock+motor

TAF for President!!!!!!:banana2: :up: :rock:

[Ross]

Thanks, Todd