1993 Lincoln Mark VIII - Rallycross and other general nonsense

Hello everyone,

Have been reading this forum for about a year now, after a friend turned me onto the site. I'm an automotive engineer by trade, and like working on my own vehicles. So naturally once I got my daily drivers squared away (well, the superduty continues to like surprising me with random things it needs..) I needed a car that I could work on. And that is where the Lincoln comes into play: 

(There would be a picture here... What image hosting site is everyone using now since photobucket is on the fritz?)

The basic details: 1993 Lincoln Mark VIII, runs and drives, stops, air suspension still functional, interior pretty beat, had a previous front end collision with some mediocre repairs

The original idea came from a friend and I wanting to run the Detroit Gambler 500 next year. I have a couple of friends that have run it in the past, and sounded like an absolute blast. One day I was browsing the local CL, and came across this car. Owner had advertised it as great for a Cobra kit car swap, so naturally I questioned what was special enough to make this ugly-a** lincoln desirable. Little did I know, it has the 4.6L Ford 4 valve V8 out of the early mustang cobras... Not to mention the block is a Teksid all aluminum casting... Coupled to that is the 4R70W 4 speed auto with electronic overdrive, which you can lock into 1st and 2nd gear with the console shifter. Also there is the MN12 platform IRS out back, with a Ford 8.8 IRS center section. Accompanying all of the powertrain goodness is a air spring suspension setup that still functions. Sounded like a pretty good setup in my mind...

Build thread to follow

In reply to KonaBoss :

The other MN12 benefit- the suspension on the MKVIII is aluminum, where the T-bird/Cat are steel/cast iron.  Much lighter.

Which would matter IF the car was actually light.

BTW, if you want to freak your friends out- put your knee into the grill and push.  It's flexible.  I did that at a dealer once, the eyes on the seller popped out of his head.

In reply to alfadriver :

Good point on the vehicle weight... We are doing everything we can to lighten it up. Front bumper removed, all interior behind drivers seat, etc. Planning on removing the sunroof and welding in a panel as well. Dont think the car will ever really be all that light, but we will do what we can. Eventual plans for the car involve swapping the engine into another legendary ford chassis and putting a 3650 behind it, but we are going to start with rallycross and the gambler and go from there. 

All Mark 8s came with 3.07 rear gears and an open diff. Depending on how much you want to spend/how serious you want to get with this, you'll want to replace them with a Trac-Lok diff out of a Supercoupe or V8 MN12 car and the gears of your choice. 3.73s are popular with these cars.

I've been messing with MN12s for 15+ years, so if you have questions I'll help however I can.

In reply to KonaBoss :

You're a kindred spirit.  I have been saying for years that a Lincoln Mark 8 is the "Easy Button" to a GRM Challenge.  In 2015 we did just that with a $800 Mark 8 that had a Challenge total budget of $1000.  It finished 20th out of 41 competitors.  It was sold the next week for $1,600.  

It ran 14.9 in the 1/4 mile.  It was just plain, old stock and beige.  As much interior as possible was taken out the night before. The day after the whole interior was refitted so the car could be sold.  As a little surpise to the new buyer a few years down the road we hid all of the drag strip time slips back in the car.  Some in the door panels, some under the carpet, some under the rear seat, etc.   The Mark 8 pretty much became the "town bicycle" at that years Challenge with just about everyone taking a turn with it down the drag strip.  There were probably 20 time slips hidden within the car.  Thats 20 passes within about 3 hours (alot!)  By the end, it had a much harder 1-2 shift than when it started.  

The whole story is here but as you eluded, Photobucket has pretty much ruined it.  

I read mkviii and rallycross, and knew we'd be friends. Welcome. 

In reply to Will :

Will, 

Agreed, the open diff is the biggest downside of the car (other than no manual)... As far as budget, we are going to try to stick to challenge budget in case that thought ever crosses our minds (I'll put it out there, we will go when Robbie and Ian finish that crazy Fiat Frankenstein project... Am a small contributor to that project as well). Do you have any potential leads on getting a limited slip? I knew about the Supercoupes as donors, buutttt those are pretty rare finds in junkards.. What other MN12 platform cars are other potential donors? I have done some reading that says it is possible to take one out of a stick axle car, but by the sounds of it there is alot of work to do to ensure the halfshafts are retained.

In reply to John Welsh :

John, 

I figured we couldnt be the first ones to think of it... We got this one for the miserly sum of $350, so suffice it to say there is alot of wiggle room left in there for budget. I'm both amazed and intrigued that it survived that many runs in that short amount of time... Might actually have a chance at standing up to a good amount of rallycross runs (planning on running multiple drivers). Somehow, I dont think we are going to be able to sell this one at the end..

The front seats go about 100lbs each. No E36 M3.

I have a set in my duster, because they are really comfortable. 

I may also be one of the few to like the styling of these cars. But im a mopar guy, so im odd.

Please don't think I'm trying to claim "firsts".  Rather, I am trying to fan the flames that will bring you a great time!    

The toughest thing about the Mark8 is the lug pattern.  Same as the Taurus and its derivatives like the Continental.  I forget the bolt pattern but lets just say it is not the same as Mustang, Crown Vic or F150.    

We took 300lbs of weight out of the interior by getting it down to a full dashboard and just a aluminum driver's seat.   

Is it Mark 8 or in new Lincoln nomenclature is it MKAte

KonaBoss said:

In reply to Will :

Will, 

Agreed, the open diff is the biggest downside of the car (other than no manual)... As far as budget, we are going to try to stick to challenge budget in case that thought ever crosses our minds (I'll put it out there, we will go when Robbie and Ian finish that crazy Fiat Frankenstein project... Am a small contributor to that project as well). Do you have any potential leads on getting a limited slip? I knew about the Supercoupes as donors, buutttt those are pretty rare finds in junkards.. What other MN12 platform cars are other potential donors? I have done some reading that says it is possible to take one out of a stick axle car, but by the sounds of it there is alot of work to do to ensure the halfshafts are retained.

Trac-Lok was an option on V8 MN12s. The best way to tell if a V8 car has an TL diff is to look at the tag on the diff cover, which lists the gear ratio and ring gear size. If it says "3 27 8 8" it's an open diff. If it says "3L27 8 8" it's a Trac-Lok. It may have been possible to get a 3.08 with a TL, too--not sure. But the L on the tag is what you're after.

I have a 97 V8 parts car. Not sure if it's got a TL diff or not, but I can check if you're interested.

@John,

Well we certainly appreciate the support! And agreed, bolt pattern is 5x108... Good news is one of my friends has some steelie 17's that are dual drilled for 5x108, and I have some old snowtires off a car sold long ago, so we are actually in half decent shape there for the time being. 

@Dusterbd, as far as the seats are concerned, yes those are coming out. Since the car had a sunroof leak at one point or another, the rails are completely seized together, so getting them out is going to be quite the adventure... They have to go though, since unfortunately they are currently seized in a position that makes my chest entirely too close to the steering wheel, and my head rubs the roof...

In reply to Will :

Thanks for the great info! If you dont mind checking your parts car when you get a chance that would be great!

Onto the progress on the Lincoln thus far:

After a small test drive when first purchasing the car, and driving it onto the trailer, first order of buisness was to go through the car and take care of general maintenance and start stripping the interior. Thus far we have done the following: Oil change (old stuff came out looking half decent, not all chunky). Interior partially stripped (everything behind the driver and passengers seats is gone). Really old fuel removed (hooked up to the schrader valve on the fuel rail and jumped the fuel pump, pumped out 8 gallons of the worst smelling fuel I have ever been around). Checked correct routing of coil wires to spark plugs for firing order. Removed intake tube and cleaned, checked all hose clamps. 

As we sit the problems are as follows: Broken rear swaybar (no idea how, rest of car really is in pretty good shape from a rust perspective??). Vehicle cranks, but does not start (started fine a few days ago, thinking we either killed the fuel pump by pumping all of the crappy fuel out of the tank, or some of the really janky coolant fan wiring we pulled out is to blame)... We replaced the fuel filter and verified that we have both spark and fuel injector signals, so next step is checking fuel pressure and re-connecting the old fan wiring. Other issues are our fuel and coolant temperature gauges on the dash do not work, and we still need to wire up the coolant fan to either operate as intended with signal from the PCM or just run it off of a switch in the cabin. Otherwise, we took the front bumper off of the car and are really digging the look (again, will upload pics once I figure that whole gig out). I do believe the direction will be to throw some square LED lights in a couple of opportune holes in the bumper beam, and a skidplate or two to protect the wiring and the bottom of the engine. Also thinking a cheap roof basket screwed into the roof with a spare tire will complete the rallycross look quite nicely... However, first order of business will be to get the ol girl back up and running again.

This is a Mark VIII that has previously been in the Gambler 500. I dont know how well it would do at a rallycross but i do know that it would probably be a blast!

In reply to edizzle89 :

Wow that is amazing! I'd love to know how they scored a set of remote reservoir shocks at that price, or maybe they are just for looks? But yes, that is pretty much what I was envisioning in my mind for our car...

Does look freaking cool!  

Very reminiscent of the ole Baja 1000 cars. 

In reply to edizzle89 :

More info on that Mark, please.

Kona, I'll check on my parts car's diff as soon as it stops raining. Even if it does turn out to be TL, it's heavy. Not sure where you're located, but shipping alone might make it cheaper to source one at a local junkyard.

You're in luck:   5x108 on Dino 246 , 308 and so forth.

In reply to Will :

As far as I can find, I do believe the mark pictured above was built by some of the founders of the gambler. It has Icon suspension underneath it and 31" super swampers. Pretty fantastic...

In regards to the TL diff, let me know if you do end up having one and we will make something happen..

coexist said:

You're in luck:   5x108 on Dino 246 , 308 and so forth.

 

 

...and all 5-stud Volvos since the 140. Might be easier to find Volvo wheels than Ferrari wheels.

But you need to check centre bore as well.

Ford went to 5x108 when the MkIII Mondeo came in 2000/1 in Europe so I guess the Fusion is the same, as well as the Kuga/Escape and later Focus too. All 5x108 at least here in Europe.

Cool ride and I have been eybealling the few ones on this side of the pond.

Gustaf

In reply to KonaBoss :

Message sent on the diff.

Will,

Got your email. We need to get the ol girl up and running again before we put too much more money into parts... So call us still interested, I'll let you know once we have it up and going again. 

On a separate note, our crank no-start condition really has me scratching my head... One day the car started and ran, the next day it didnt... We have verified that we have spark and fuel injector signals being sent (only checked 1 cylinder, will check the others this evening). Also, we changed out the fuel filter and checked fuel pressure @ the fuel rail, and have 37psi while cranking. However, the pressure does bounce around as the engine cranks, it is not steady at 37. We have checked the fuse block and all fuses appear to be in tact. The engine coolant fan is currently not hooked up, but I dont see why that would cause any issues... We do believe we might have a bad ground in the ignition module, have to verify it again. I think this evening we will grab some starter fluid and spray that down the throttle body and see if the fuel pump is not making enough continuous pressure... Anyone else have any ideas of what it could be? The thought of a crankshaft position sensor going bad has crossed my mind, however I dont know whether those just randomly crap out overnight...

An update from Friday evening's work:

Checked spark and fuel injector signal at each cylinder. It is present. Verified fuel pressure only bounces up and down a small amount during cranking. Completely pinned out the ignition module, everything checks out there. Tried the starter fluid trick, and almost blew myself up when it backfired through the intake manifold (definitely made me jump lol). Another thing we started on was pulling the injectors to start going through them and cleaning them, will probably replace the o-rings while we are at it. Also, we pulled the old spark plugs and replaced them (they were very, very worn....). Hopefully with a good injector cleaning and some new spark plugs, we will be up and running again! If not, I'll bite the bullet and finally swap the crank position sensor...

Thats all for now, will update again this evening after today's work day.

Update from the work on Sunday:

Spent all day on Sunday working on the mark. Ended up pulling injectors, plugs, and the entire intake manifold... That got outta hand fast... Glad we pulled the intake manifold however, since the IMRC's were completely stuck closed in the housings by carbon buildup. We took a brass wire brush on the drill and cleaned out each of the intake ports, so now the IMRC's move quite nicely. We back flushed and cleaned out the injectors, and put new O-rings in them. Spark plugs were really nasty, so replaced those as well (electrodes were extremely worn out, not sure if they had ever been replaced...). RTV'd the IMRC housings back onto the intake manifold, then went to put the manifold back onto the heads and remembered that we had snapped one of the intake manifold bolts upon removal.. Sooo tried a few different things to get that stud out to no avail. So we laid down some more RTV and put the manifold back on the heads. Let the RTV cure overnight, and said we would wait 24 hours to fire it up.

So here we are, the next evening... Hooked up the intake tube and MAF, and cranked... And it started! Must have been a combo of the plugged injectors and old spark plugs. However, now we have developed one hell of a nasty knocking noise near the drivers side head/intake manifold area. Thoughts on that are as follows:

Left something in the top of the intake side of the heads while the manifold was off? Unlikely, since we had them taped off during most of the process, and made sure to vacuum them out before we put the manifold back on. Regardless, I'll pull the injectors and use my $20 amazon boroscope to double check. 

IMRC's have de-coupled from the vacuum actuators, and are flapping around.. 

Intake manifold air leak? Dont think it would sound like knock however...

That is where we currently stand