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1989 towncar 5.0HO conversion?

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Posted by: gascap

i just bought a 89 tc and my friend has a 90 lsc mark 7 he is willing to get rid of for 200, the front airbags are blown out so he just wants to get rid of it. im thuinking i could either fix up the lsc and sell it for a little profit or swap the engine just for fun it has 110000 miles on it and my tc only has 51000. will i feel the difference, will it be somewhat simple, is it worth it, is it a common thing to do?

Posted by: thamarkman

I don't think you should swap out your 51,000 mile engine for and engine with twice the mileage. I do think that a working Mark VII is worth more than $200 with bad front air bags. Have fun with that thing. Don't waste time doing an engine swap. I don't recommend doing this but you could use the cam and heads off the LSC, put them in your towncar with the H.O. intake and you would essentially have the H.O. engine. It really won't give you that much extra horsepower though.

Posted by: gadget73

If you have no problems with the Townie's engine, leave it alone. I might say otherwise if it was bad or very high mileage but at 51k its still got a lot of life in it with proper care. For $200 that LSC should be worth fixing up, unless it has other problems, but just front airbags aren't that much of a problem. In any case its worth more than $200 even as a parts car if the engine runs.

Posted by: Moby and Lucille

If you want the power that the HO engine would afford you, but the HO engine has such high milage and the TC engine is practically brand new, then rather than swapping engines, you should just modify the newer one.

Or you could do external mods. Underdrive pulleys, true dual exhaust, a new rear gearbox with a lower gear ratio, new injectors, and a new chip in the car's CPU are all relatively cheap ways to pump up your car without even having to mess with your nice engine.

If you are gonna mod the engine, then study deep the differences between the HO and standard 302 and then meet or exceed the HO's specs in those different areas.

You know, If you wanna get some head-turn cred, put a supercharger on.... how many people do you know who have a supercharger or a turbocharger on their late 80's Town Car? Probably none.

Back before I had decided to sell Dr. Lincoln (my 89) I had wanted to restore/modify it and had considered all of these things for myself. I was gonna be that guy who had the supercharged town car.

Hell, even without the engine work, or the supercharger You could probably add another 100-150 HP without too much trouble, and then the gears would speed things up even more.

But remember two things: 1) that is a very big, heavy car and it's not very aerodynamic either, so unless you go absolutely nuts, and I mean KARAIZIE nuts on mods, you're never gonna get it up in the league of a camaro/corvette, though you probably could take on some chevelle SS's.

And 2) That the Town Car is designed for luxury and comfort, and if you go too overboard with making it fast, then you could start to lose some of it's manifest benefits.

So, have fun and let us know what you end up doing. But to reiterate my answer on the original question, even though at 110k, that engine is still fairly young and should last quite a bit longer if properly maintained, it's also got twice as much milage on it as your practically newborn TC engine, so don't do the swap.

Instead, pump up the HO and leave it in the Mk VII and make that your "fast and furious" car, and keep your TC smooth, daddy-o. Make it faster, sure, but don't go nuts....use the Mk VII to go nuts on.

That's my plan for my Moby and Lucille.

My advice, leave the engine alone in the TC and just do the extra-motor mods I've suggested. That'll make a more than noticeable difference. And your engine left just as-is will be more than up to the challenge.

Posted by: evillally

Leave the Townie alone. Buy the Mark and mod the hell out of it. I know a guy with the HO conversion in a Town car, and all he runs is 17.5 seconds. A suped-up Mark VII can run 13's with cheap mods- probably without even modding the engine that much...

Posted by: pro-five-oh

I would fix the Mark, sell it, and use the proceeds to buy HO parts. I smell an HO swap! Here's your reference.

http://www.lincolnsonline.com/article66.html

Posted by: godnmbrseven

i have a 1988 lincoln town car and i'm lookin to do something along those lines, would it be easier to do the HO conversion or to do a full engine swap?

Posted by: evillally

You're better off reading this article first, then decide if you want to throw money away on OEM HO stuff...

http://carcraft.com/techarticles/116_0307_ford/

Posted by: godnmbrseven

is that 400 hp achieved with the HO engine or with the regular 302 5.0l engine in town cars?

-richard

Posted by: gadget73

"The foundation for the test was a bone-stock 5.0L H.O. engine taken from a '91 Mustang"

Posted by: godnmbrseven

Quote:

Originally Posted by gadget73

"The foundation for the test was a bone-stock 5.0L H.O. engine taken from a '91 Mustang"

so in order to get that power i would need to do the 5.0 HO conversion, but would it be easier to just throw in a 5.0 HO engine or to do the entire conversion?

Posted by: godnmbrseven

any responses

Posted by: evillally

You'll need to swap the entire motor (heads, 19lb injectors, throttle, intake, cam, etc.), along with the Mark 7 harness in order to maintain the correct firing order, cruise control, etc.

While they do sell adapters to make life easier, the driveability sucks and you already have the Mark VII harness anyway. You'll be able to keep cruise control with the M7 computer too.

I still highly adivse you to fix the Mark VII, though. The HO conversion won't make your car run as fast as a Mustang. Modding the Mark VII will...

Shoot on over to www.grandmarq.net and register. Tell them evillally sent you and that you need help on the HO conversion. Someone may even have spare parts to sell to you and you can keep the M7 as a second car. Many folks in the 5.0/5.8 tech forums have completed this swap and can give you more detailed information on the HO conversion...

Posted by: gadget73

I'm actually in the process of doing just this to my 86. I have yet to overhaul the heads, but the donor was an 88 Mark 7 and it will be going into an 86 TC. In theory it won't be too much work, but as absolutely nothing else with this project has gone according to plan, we shall see. Once done I plan on doing a sort-of howto on the complete engine swap with parts needed and what mods need to be done to make it all happen, but in the meantime, have a gander at this and see if it gives you some useful info. http://www.lincolnsonline.com/article66.html

Also, over on grandmarq.net you want to talk to Lincolnmania about an HO swap. He's the panther guru and does these conversions on a regular basis.