Driver's side LCA...two choices..

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GRWeldon

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So I have a brand-new MevoTek Driver's LCA with a non-greaseable ball joint... OR... I have the OEM LCA with a brand new ball joint to press in. The choice would be obvious EXCEPT the old OEM LCA has a pretty worn shock bushing.

Which would YOU choose... New shock bushing with un-greaseable ball joint OR old OEM LCA with an old shock bushing and a NEW greaseable ball joint?

I'm in a dilemma. I'm almost temped to use the new non-greaseable LCA.... what say y'all?
 
I would recommend to use whatever matches the other side. Maybe it's just mild OCD, but I always keep each side of the car the exact same brand and always replace in pairs.
 
KevinVarnes said:
You can buy a new shock bushing for around $10. I would rebuild the OEM arm.
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Can the old bushing be pressed out? I took more than a casual glance at it and I thought it was molded-in. If it can be replaced, do you have a source? I don't do business with Rock Auto anymore...
 
Yes it will press out. Moog K8604 is the bushing. Most everyone else just copies their part number scheme so you should be able to search for that part number just about anywhere. RockAuto sells it for less than $10. No clue how much it would cost at a local parts store.
 
If they have been replaced, they may be molded in.
 
Grog6 said:
If they have been replaced, they may be molded in.
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The are OEM. The car only has 83K miles on it but it's not in nearly as good of shape as I originally though. I ended up putting in the drivers LCA without the OEM-style ball joint for expedience but I will refurb the OEM and put it back on in the near future. I suppose I need to do it before I get the wheel alignment after the front suspension rebuild.

Thank you everyone for your replies.
 
Yes, the control arms change it, so replace all the arms before the alignment. Look at the bushings in the back and see if they're coming apart.
 
We have easy alignment adjustments, so if they give you any bs, take it elsewhere. You want all 4 wheels aligned.
 
Grog6 said:
We have easy alignment adjustments, so if they give you any bs, take it elsewhere. You want all 4 wheels aligned.
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I bought my own tire machine and balancer about 5 years ago because I got tired of dealing with tire dealers. I'm not looking forward to taking it to get aligned. As you probably know, it's almost impossible to find an honest, moral shop that does alignments well. I did a crude alignment with a level and a measuring tape just to be able to drive it to the alignment shop. When I took it for a spin it was much better than I expected but certainly needs adjustment. When up on the rack, you can tell that the rear tires are tilted out where the bottom is wider than the top. I'm pretty sure this should be the opposite way when the suspension is unloaded on the rack.

When you ask about bushings on the rear, I'm assuming you mean control arm bushings? I didn't really look at the attachment points but looked at the spindle bushings. They aren't great but they aren't too bad. This car has rear drum brakes. My 97 has rear disc, so after I wring out the 96, I most-likely will swap them over. I'll pay attention to the condition of the bushings and will replace at that time if necessary...probably so!
 
Ummm. looking at your sig, you're putting a conti 4.6 in your 97?
 
Conti's are front wheel drive. There is no transmission that will fit your car, and bolt up to that engine. And there's no engine mount on one side.
The guts could be swapped over into your 97's 4.6 engine, if the bores are good, and the same numbers.
The engines have a pinstamp area on them, that encodes the piston size; it will be a sequence of numbers from 1 to 3. My teksid block was a 22223222. those are slightly different stock piston sizes. the same numbers are on the pistons.If the two match, you can slide the pistons in,put newbearings in the crank, and use it. The heads are 4v c-heads. The attached adapter plates will allow you to use any B head manifold, but none of them clear the hood.You will need a mach 1 intake from a 2004 mustang, ~400 on ebay, when I bought mine.
 
Read Matt's build thread for more info on the 4v swap, and how you make the hood clear. :) Good Luck!
 
The Continental block wont work in a longitudinal arrangement, it needs to be a RWD block.
 
There's a conti block at my local jy that has been on fire. I'm going to go look at it, to see if it has the xr3e cams in it. If it has them, and they aren't wasted. I may see what they want for it, if it's not full of water. It's been outside for 20 years, lol.
 
Well, this engine must not have come out of a Continental. Must have been a town car? I saw the body. I also saw the rear axle that came out of it that was sold to another individual. Standard differential. This engine came from a rear-wheel drive car. 2002 I believe.
 
Ok, probably a towncar. it's a standard pi. Depending on year, you want to inspect the chain tensioners; the 2003 I bought was the bad ones, less than 1000 miles, and they were already coming apart.
 
Ahh, FWIW the Town Car became the full size Lincoln after 1982 and the Continental was spun off to the midsize segment until its demise, the 95-04s had the transverse 4.6 DOHCs, hence our confusion
 
I bought a set of heads off a 99 conti for my 4v C-head build.Much thanks to Matt, for leading the way.
 
Here are pictures of the engine. Like I said, I saw the rear straight axle/differential when it was laying next to the car. I guess I don't have a clue what model Lincoln it was. It was long and wide and had a rounded rear roof. As you can see, it's an SOHC engine. I haven't decided if I'm going to disassemble it at all before installation. I have a complete gasket set with MLS head gaskets, timing chain, oil pump and standard rings that I could put in it. The guy I bought the car from couldn't tell me how many miles it had on it. He's a friend and neighbor. The electrical system had been removed from the car and he never thought to write down the odometer reading before selling the wiring harnesses.


20240204_180712.jpg20240204_180720.jpg
 
Nothing wrong with that engine at all. Looks like a PI engine. If it came out of a Lincoln then it came out of a Town Car. It never ceases to amaze me how absolutely huge these engines are. I feel like you could hide a small block Chevy in the (non) lifter valley.
 
I'd pull the caps and look at the bearings to get an idea of wear and then decide based on that to tear into it. It's probably good to go if I were to put money one it, I'd do the guides and iron tensioner upgrade, and new seals everywhere but the head gaskets for the refresh, valve seals included which are fairly easy with the special tool.

Definitely Town car
 
Get some plastigage from summit, and read up on how to use it. Check all the bottom end bearings.Replace the cheezy plastic tensioners with iron ones. Replace the tensioner slides, chains and gears. likely you will see wear marks on the crank pulley gear from the chains, use the one piece gear, stamped crank trigger wheel, and spacer to match. Quality sucked in the 00's.
It's a great time to swap out the stock main bolts with arp studs, head bolts to arp studs, and other assorted bolts. but those are some damn expensive bolts, lol.
 
I’d stick with the factory TTY hardware, ARP studs can distort the block/caps compared to them and ideally should be align bored with that in mind, and besides for NA they’d be complete and utter overkill. I wouldn’t bother with plastigage either unless you are actually changing the bearings, I’d just take a look and observe if there’s abnormal wear, and put it back together if there isn’t

A PI Town car will have the one piece crank sprocket and stamped trigger wheel already, it just need s the upgraded tensioners to bulletproof the timing set
 
Since I have a set of standard main and rod bearings, it might not be a bad idea to check. I have some plasti-gauge and know how to use it! I wouldn't think that ARP hardware would be required with a stock engine. I don't ever intend to try to get more HP out of this one. I'll wait for the DOHC to find me! Then I'll have to worry about getting that power to the ground without wheel hop, which is something my SC is plagued with.

I know nothing about iron tensioners. PLEASE ENLIGHT ME! When I rebuilt my last 4.6 (circa 2005) I used the OEM style that came in the rebuild kit. The engine failed 33K miles later and when I finally get around to tearing that engine down, I think I'll find the cause of the seize was timing chain related.
 
GRWeldon said:
Since I have a set of standard main and rod bearings, it might not be a bad idea to check. I have some plasti-gauge and know how to use it! I wouldn't think that ARP hardware would be required with a stock engine. I don't ever intend to try to get more HP out of this one. I'll wait for the DOHC to find me! Then I'll have to worry about getting that power to the ground without wheel hop, which is something my SC is plagued with.

I know nothing about iron tensioners. PLEASE ENLIGHT ME! When I rebuilt my last 4.6 (circa 2005) I used the OEM style that came in the rebuild kit. The engine failed 33K miles later and when I finally get around to tearing that engine down, I think I'll find the cause of the seize was timing chain related.
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The iron tensioners came on the 90s modulars, all stock MN12s have them and you can actually just swap them onto your new engine if you’re comfortable with it. Ford switched them to plastic with O rings in the early 00s and they have a notorious habit of leaking. The plastic ones don’t have the ratchet limiters the iron tensioners have either, so if they lose pressure the guide can compress the plunger it all the way in and potentially jump time. Just a cheapened design all around, Ford’s composite kick (along with the intakes) wasn’t one of their better ideas
 
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