1988 Lincoln Town Car

[87gtVIC]

Not to go off topic but try and further uncover why some cars are turds......I also have a 2200 or 2400 stall converter in my car. I dont know if that has anything to do with the car being so sluggish from a stop or not. Just throwing more info out and maybe something sticks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipSM56DqXsM

Some pull for reference.

[nfldfordltd]

I'm going to fix the noisy valvetrain problem first before I go at anything else there. The TV cable seems like it's way off (too soft) now, and though I have the timing roughed in, it needs to be brought up to operating temperature and fine tuned, idle speed set, etc. It's not likely going to happen for a few days as I got a ton of other crap to do around the house. You know, stuff that got neglected while I was trying to get it put back together and running.
The stock HO cam is going to have to live there for this year at least. The car budget for this year has already been blown.

[DerekTheGreat]

I'm certainly not sure where to go with my Townie. I have an HO that's viable but is it really worth it to yank out a perfectly fine engine for it? Or should I just complete the HO upper swap? Still need a damn EGR spacer for that though. There's one at a yard but I've got too much going on this weekend to get out there to pull it.

[nfldfordltd]

I'm certainly not sure where to go with my Townie. I have an HO that's viable but is it really worth it to yank out a perfectly fine engine for it? Or should I just complete the HO upper swap? Still need a damn EGR spacer for that though. There's one at a yard but I've got too much going on this weekend to get out there to pull it.

If my engine was still good, I definitely would have done the HO conversion to it, rather than build a new engine like I did. Your old engine would need to be torn down pretty good in order to do a full-on HO conversion, but I'd rather do that than pull/set an engine back in. I only did what I did because my old engine was very tired, consuming oil at a significant rate, gutless, complete with ear-splitting rod knock. I got a low mileage (yet poorly maintained) 93 truck engine for free and used that as my starting point for the HO conversion.
As for the EGR spacer, I got my stock lopo one bored out to 58 mm to match the upper intake and TB. That being said, I'm running an "86 5.0 Mustang" setup at 58 mm, not the 87+ that most HO conversions use. That'll happen later, I just used what was available to me at the time.

[DerekTheGreat]

I've got an HO engine, still in the donor car but donor car could be put back on the road reliably so not sure if I should just do that or yank engine and scrap it (1991 Mark VII Bill Blass). It has 151k, my car has ~114k.

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[gadget73]

Not to go off topic but try and further uncover why some cars are turds......I also have a 2200 or 2400 stall converter in my car. I dont know if that has anything to do with the car being so sluggish from a stop or not. Just throwing more info out and maybe something sticks.

Higher stall would actually make it better from stop with a cam that has weak bottom end. The idea is that the engine can run up to a higher rpm and theoretically be at a speed where it makes more power on launch. Ideally you want to have the converter stall at a high enough point that the motor is actually making power though, otherwise it won't do much for you.

[nfldfordltd]

I've got an HO engine, still in the donor car but donor car could be put back on the road reliably so not sure if I should just do that or yank engine and scrap it (1991 Mark VII Bill Blass). It has 151k, my car has ~114k.

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Not telling you what to do, but I'd leave the good roadworthy cars intact whenever possible. This is where rust actually serves a useful purpose...
Maybe do the HO conversion on the Lincoln, put the lopo parts back in the Mark VII and sell it? Just a thought.

[nfldfordltd]

LH valve cover coming off tomorrow to see where the clacking is coming from.
Wish me luck.

[sly]

Good luck.

[DerekTheGreat]

Not telling you what to do, but I'd leave the good roadworthy cars intact whenever possible. This is where rust actually serves a useful purpose...
Maybe do the HO conversion on the Lincoln, put the lopo parts back in the Mark VII and sell it? Just a thought.

That's what I was thinking. Although part of me would want to keep the original engine should I choose to put it back the way the factory had it. However, if I just went away for several days and say while I was gone Ashley had the LoPo swapped into the Mark VII and it's HO swapped into my car I wouldn't object. Sometimes I need to be forced off the fence in order for things like that to get done. As it is right now my mind is telling me to find a driver's side fender and put it back together yet it's been a month and I still don't have a fender for it.

LH valve cover coming off tomorrow to see where the clacking is coming from.
Wish me luck.

Well, what's the verdict??

[nfldfordltd]

That's what I was thinking. Although part of me would want to keep the original engine should I choose to put it back the way the factory had it. However, if I just went away for several days and say while I was gone Ashley had the LoPo swapped into the Mark VII and it's HO swapped into my car I wouldn't object. Sometimes I need to be forced off the fence in order for things like that to get done. As it is right now my mind is telling me to find a driver's side fender and put it back together yet it's been a month and I still don't have a fender for it.



Well, what's the verdict??

I just finished putting it all back together and test driving it a short while ago. Had to change two 'suspected' bad lifters and I had a couple pushrods in upside down. No serious damage to anything.
The valvetrain is still noisy, but drastically quieter than it was. The little remaining noise actually goes away off idle now. I'm hoping it will clear up as the engine breaks in and the lifters get all comfy back in their bores. If not, it'll get all new parts in the future.
I had it out for a better test drive tonight (hood reinstalled now-pure classy) and there's still some bugs to work out (idle speed, final timing set-up, TV adjustment, other little odds and ends). Seems to be a lot better behaved off-idle, but there's still a flat spot mid-accelerator. That will have to be investigated further in the near future. Generally speaking, the verdict is it's moving in the right direction, although definitely still not complete.
Oh, I can't forget this one: Yesterday I pulled the upper and lower intake to assess the lifters. Did the parts changing in the effort to quieten things down, got the lower intake all set in place and torqued down, had wires and stuff hooked back up. Then I found the lifter retainer that goes in the valley under the lower intake on the workbench.
I am getting sick of doing stuff over and over again on this engine project.

[DerekTheGreat]

I hear that. Changed wires, cap & rotor on k1500 over the weekend. Guess it pissed the distributor off and it died. Replaced that with "Duralast Gold" from Korea or somewhere. Now I think that thing is no good so looks like I'll be doing that again too.

[gadget73]

The pushrods are not direction dependant. Same roundy end on both ends.

Try unhooking the EgR valve to see if the dead spot changes. I had issues with mine, turns out the regulator wasn't regulating and popping the valve full open when it should not have been. A snort of WD40 in the reg fixed it, but unhooking the vacuum line is a quick test to see if its related.

[nfldfordltd]

The pushrods are not direction dependant. Same roundy end on both ends.

Try unhooking the EgR valve to see if the dead spot changes. I had issues with mine, turns out the regulator wasn't regulating and popping the valve full open when it should not have been. A snort of WD40 in the reg fixed it, but unhooking the vacuum line is a quick test to see if its related.

I know they're not direction dependent (in theory) but the wear pattern on the used rods was quite different on the lifter vs rocker arm ends. Seems to be a lot quieter now since having them all in the same orientation and changing both # 8 lifters.

As for the EGR piece, that is eliminated. Vacuum line is plugged at the source on the back of the upper intake. Wiring is left unplugged. I do get the occasional pop when it's flattened out and struggling. Maybe the old lopo fuel pump isn't feeding enough fuel and it's starving. It does behave similar to when the Chinese fuel pump I had in there a couple years ago had the pickup tube fell off from the nipple on the pump hanger. I noticed the Mustang spec pump I have (Walbro 520) is quite small...I've seen the thread that uses a piece of rad hose to close the gap and make it work. I'm not fussy on putting non-gas treated rubber hose in the gas tank. What else is everyone doing to fit those pumps into the panther hangers?

[87gtVIC]

I'd use a fuel filler neck hose.