The "LHO", OVERKILL's '89 TC Cartier

[gadget73]

Needs a waffle, otherwise I give it a pending replacement of the lame grille

[p71towny]

The TC and CV driveshafts are the same length, it is the tranny that is different as I understand.

Not true. The town car and PI both have longer tailshafts on the tranny, however, towncars have longer shafts. Scott and I can both attest to this. When you put an aluminum or MMX driveshaft in you must make sure you have the longer tailshaft.

[OVERKILL]

Suspension:

I forgot to add this

When I was at the "$40.00" wreckers, I picked up a rear sway bar out of an older Vic.

I then ordered Police Interceptor shocks for all four corners and new PI springs for the front-end. I was able to get a set for the rear out of the same '03 cruiser I got the driveshaft out of, so that wasn't an issue. With the rear air-ride removed and the suspension upgraded, the car handled better than my Mustang.

One of my front sway-bar bushings was coming apart (thanks to a leaking hose on the power steering pump) so I replaced those with greasable Energy Suspension polyurethane ones.

I am anxious to see how the car handles with the 17's and the wider rubber on it, as with going from the stock 15" rims to the 16" rims with my winter tires, the car seemed to grip the road that much better........ With some wide rubber on the 17's, I'm thinking it should feel even nicer.

The PI suspension is a lot "rougher" than the stock stuff, but it's not harsh. Kind of a nice compromise between ride quality and all-out handling.

I have a feeling the drivers-side wheel bearing is on it's way out now, too, so I'll need to get that fixed in the next few weeks......... Oh the fun

[OVERKILL]

OK, update!

To get back some gas mileage, and to get rid of having to have the idle set at 900-1000RPM, I converted the car to mass-air. Engine doesn't pull enough vacuum to keep the MAP sensor happy at idle so it was surging unless you set the idle up a bit. That was unacceptable. 15 inches wasn't enough for SD, so off to MAF she went!

I bought an A9P ECM off a board member, it should be here shortly, but in the interim, I've used the A9L out of the Capri to test it with, and thanks to Nickm50 for supplying a cold air kit from his wife's Sebring, and thanks to Josh (StealthGT) for the 19lb Pro-M MAF.

Car runs like an absolute TOP! And will pass E-test with flying colours I am sure, which is part of the reason I was doing this conversion, because the rich idle was likely to fail me.

I'm thinking the cam is NOT a stock HO cam, as it came out of the "Mystery Motor" and we just assumed it was a stock HO camshaft.......... 15 inches is not normal for a stock HO cam, and this was with two separate vacuum gauges, as the original gauge I was using was giving me high readings and thus false assumptions of normal vacuum. A new gauge gave me a much needed insight as to why it was rich (brand new O2's, known-good MAP sensor and no vacuum leaks.......) and thus this conversion was performed.

Some pics:

Don't mind the spark plug in the 3/8th's fuel hose, I haven't got a vacuum plug for it ATM, need to dig one up, so it's just temporary. The wiring will also be cleaned up and hidden, it is just this way until I get the A9P installed, as there is the removal of the cruise control wiring from the ECM harness so I can install the stand-alone Mustang cruise control, as the Lincoln ECM's have integrated cruise.

[gadget73]

Performance any better with MA ? What kind of fuel economy were you getting before changing to MA? Stupid question but the cam was timed correctly, right? My motor had low vacuum but my cam was a tooth off.

[OVERKILL]

Performance any better with MA ? What kind of fuel economy were you getting before changing to MA? Stupid question but the cam was timed correctly, right? My motor had low vacuum but my cam was a tooth off.

Car seems to have better throttle response MAF, but that might be due to the fact it's not longer rich at idle.

When I had the fubar TPS on it (the ECM thought the throttle was open) it was getting great gas mileage, but would occasionally lean-pop when I tried to accelerate hard. I put a good TPS on it, and it started sucking gas like no tomorrow. It was getting 25MPG highway with the baffed TPS and probably like 18 or so in town, but with the good one, it was like 12 in town and maybe 18 highway.

It seems to be getting about 25 highway again now, and gas mileage in town is around 18 or so again, except it WILL suck fuel if you hammer it, and it's not going lean and seems to pull harder throughout the power band. This could have a lot to do with it having the right A/F now though.......

[LTDMan83]

I'm definitely liking your Towncar, Makes me want one even more.

I want to convert my motor to HO,but it just runs so damn good,I can't justify it at present.

[OVERKILL]

gadget: To answer your question about cam timing, it was installed dot-to-dot with the same timing set that was on it from the engine it came out of. I did NOT put a degree wheel on it, but it's definitely not out a tooth. The fact that it has a slight lope would lend me to believe it isn't stock, and it also comes on REALLY hard just before the car shifts, which is unfortunate, though it does work well throughout the entire rev range and has a noticeable increase in power at about 2,500RPM or so. Do you know of an easy way to bump the shift governor up a bit?

[interceptor1985]

That lincoln is bad ass! Just lettin yeh know that

[OVERKILL]

That lincoln is bad ass! Just lettin yeh know that

Thanks!

[gadget73]

Do you know of an easy way to bump the shift governor up a bit?

Bumping the TV pressure a bit will help a little but mostly the only proper way to do that is changing the governer. They aren't very expensive, I think the gasket and the governer together cost me about $30 at the dealership.

[OVERKILL]

Bumping the TV pressure a bit will help a little but mostly the only proper way to do that is changing the governer. They aren't very expensive, I think the gasket and the governer together cost me about $30 at the dealership.

What governor did you get that increased the RPM before shifting?

[gadget73]

one for a mustang or mark vii with an AOD. good for about 4800 rpm WOT shifts vs the 4300 or so the stocker shifts at.

[OVERKILL]

Good to know.

[1987LTDmasta]

i noticed you ran into the same problem with the oil fill cap on the aluminum valve covers as i did