'86 5th Avenue

[68fury]

Not sure if this is the right forum section, so sorry if not...

I have just been to look at a 5th Ave as a winter beater, but the car was 99.7% mint, so I'm really tempted to get it and look after it.

#1. Anything particular I should look at on buying one of these?

#2. The heater/aircon doesn't work. (no blower on any setting) Is there anything complex about fixing this?

#3. The whole engine is burryed under pipes and stuff for the emissions. Am I better leaving it or junking it for a 4bbl on an Edelbrock Performer? I have no emmissions to pass and would like to wake the motor up a bit. If I just junk the cat and fit a stright pipe will I mess up any thing? Is this one of those lean-burn computer carb cars I hear about? Its a 318 as far as I can tell although the log book says its 5.4 liters. Did these also come with a 360?

#4. Suspension is all real good, but definitley factory soft! Anyone make a handling kit for this car?

Sorry for obviosly dumb questions but we don;t have a lot of these over here and this car is so much more modern than the stuff I'm used to.

[dwc43]

Those are some great cars and are very solid. No real major problems to speak of.

The a/c heater blower is most likely to be a bad fan switch. These are about the only part that fails regularly.

As for the emissions and lean burn you can remove it all. I would use the stock distributor and add an msd 6 box for your ignition. Not sure what you might find at a salvage yard in your area so this would be the best add on. Please remove the cat and add some dual pipes with an x or h pipe installed between the manifolds and mufflers. This will get you a great hp tq increase. Use 2 1/4. If your saving money just add the straight pipe adnd it will still gain some.

As for 4bbl and intakes use the Weiand action plus dual plane. It's the best small block intake for your combo. I would also use the thermoquad which would have been stock on that car if it had the E58 police car package on it. THis will be your best set up.

As for the suspension, in my years of setting up Mopars for racing and street use, Myself and others have found Mopars like softer spring rates and really stiff sway bars. I would leave you springs and torsion bars alone and add a 1 1/8 front sway bar and a rear 7/8 to 1 inch rear bar. The police car package had a rear bar and 11x2 1/2 rear drum brakes. This would help if you cab find the parts too. Also add the 255/60 15 tires and 8 inch wide wheels. THis will greatly improve handling. Also a good set of adjustable gas shocks will help. They need an agressive valving for the softer springs.
If you need anymore help or some parts let me know.

[Mister Fiberglass]

The blend-air door is probably negative function toooo.... ....this situation happens an AWFUL lot and can be expensive to fix.

The engine?....I would replace that intake and carb(for an SP2P and TQ)....AND dump that ignition for that Mopar orange box system.

As far as the suspension....the police package offered CAST IRON bushings that replaced those k-member rubber donuts. There are several companies in the aftermarket that offer this kit in steel and aluminum.

AND as far as the other rubber parts in the rear suspension.......alot of those are available from those aftermarket supplers in MUCH stiffer material.

[68fury]

Originally posted by Mister Fiberglass
The blend-air door is probably negative function toooo.... ....this situation happens an AWFUL lot and can be expensive to fix.

I was worrying there might be something like this... I have a tight budget for the car so was going to haggle a bit off for the u/s heater, but its just starting to get cold here now.... As it seems to just be the fan blower thats not working I'm hoping its simple electrical, although the car has A/C and that doesn't work either. Hard to daignose when you're on someone elses driveway.

Salvage yard stuff is next to impossible here. Since I can remember I've seen two 5th Aves total, one Diplomat and a wrecked New Yorker (I think) but that was a few years back. so common they are not. There is a specialist Mopar slavage guy about 100 miles from me but he's mostly A, B, E body. But has plenty of smallblock stuff in which would be OK for budget motor bits.

I might go back this afternnon and try ome haggling. Plan was cheap Volvo or similar beater while I fix up the Fury a bit, and I had a budget of about £250 GBP for this. Leaves me £750 GBP of my wagon sale proceeds for the fury "kick start" The 5th Ave is £1000 GBP or best offer, so if I plan on having cash left over for the Fury I got to deal hard on