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At the risk of starting a major argument, oiled filters pose some risk of fouling hot wire mass air flow sensors.

Marauderman, read my feeble explanation above. MOST stock shafts can handle some extra revs. Shaft revs, not mph are what is important. That is why going from 3.55 to 4.10 gears will lower any given shaft's critical speed about 15% in terms of mph. As I said MOST stock shafts will survive...

Typical industry practice is to design drive shafts with about a 25% speed margin of saftety. What that should mean is that Ford thinks its shafts are perfectly safe at their limited max RPM's. What that also means is that typical shafts will be OK at 25% higher revs. Some shafts will go even...

Earlier I said my car was built 9/3 and had traction control. I pulled that date from aging memory and goofed. Actually it was built 10/2. In an earlier life I used a manual 5.OL Mustang for a 60 mile daily Michigan winter commute with Michelin TRX rubber. For those who don't remember...

One thing needs to be kept in mind here. The CURRENT production police shaft won't raise your critical speed. The only higher speed shaft in the Ford parts system is the metal matrix shaft used for a short period on 3.55 rear axle police cars.

My car was built September 3 and has traction control. The calibration is not overly aggressive and allows a bit of wheel spin. The on/off switch has been moved to a much more convenient position above your left knee, next to the pedal adjustment switch.

The relative safety of the Panther can be pretty well determined by looking at the bottom line on your insurance bill. Your insurance company writes checks every day. They have been writing checks covering Panther accidents for 20 years. They KNOW what the risks are.

I recently did a 2000 mile trip in mine. At night truckers CB chatter usually called it a "black Lincoln". It seemed to blow their minds that a big Lincoln could zip by them with such ease.

The important thing here is something called "critical speed". Every rotating shaft has some critical speed at which it will whip and vibrate violently. My old references say critical speed equals about 4,700,000 times the square root of the sum of the OD squared plus the ID squared, divided...

There is not as much real clearance between the inboard side of the tire and the shock bracket as you would at first think. In roll most of the apparent clearance goes away. A good trick is too put modeling clay on the bracket and try some really hard cornering. However much clay is left...

Ford dealers can supply Police Interceptor oil coolers and mounting hardware. A much simpler and cheaper solution is to just use synthetic oil. The Marauder has a very effective transmission cooler sandwiched between the radiator and the AC condenser.

There was one other thing that changed in 1998. The engine driven fan went away. The only time you really need the big fan is when you are towing a heavy load uphill (high power required = high heat), at low speed (very little ram air cooling), with high ambient temperatures. The...

If you are going to change your Marauder filter, pick up a few simple tools to make it easy. My local Murray's has a socket tool which works on both the original Motorcraft and also on courser end filters like Frams. A short 3/8 inch flex ratchet will allow you to loosen and tighten the filter...

One nice feature is that, with the proper wrench, you can loosen or tighten the filter from above. Unfortunately, you can only finish removing or installing it from below.

Even without the truck blower and manifold, the 5.4 is a taller and wider engine. I think the Lightning will be a very snug fit. Expect problems with the AC case, windshield wipers, and maybe the brake booster. The exhaust system will also take a bit of work.

The Marauder springs attach relatively far out on the lower control arms. The wheel rate goes up at the square of the attachment distance/effective arm length ratio. With the same spring rate, the new suspension is about 70% stiffer than typical earlier designs--and many that are still in...

If you want to keep rolling radii relatively correct, the Miata guys have a great tire size calculator at http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html[/URL].