Some of you already know about and hate this build; the rest of you are about to read this and hate this build. This build has been posted on FB (of which I do not belong to) and a forum (of which I am not a member of), so I figured that I should chronicle my build myself. Another warning, I know very, very little about the Lincoln LS and the usual “bugs” with it. Every area we determined to be an “issue” was eliminated and replaced with what will indelibly be a bigger issue. I’ve been a member on here a long time and haven’t chimed in on a lot of threads because of this.
My background: I have next to no mechanical or car knowledge outside of research, forums, and friends. I got some “around the house” training from my Dad and then a lot of trial and error/error/error. What lead me to this car and website wasn’t actually the Lincoln LS. I’ve always been a fan of the JZX100 Chaser. I’ve also been a fan of builds outside of the box... and so the gears started turning for the most drawn out build ever.
Resume: The NoPro MetSHO- A Geo Metro with a mid-engine SHO motor (soon to be twin boosted [in the hands of a new team capitaan]).
I had a hand in the FireBug- http://www.build-threads.com/build-threads/firebug-subaru-360/
I’ve also had an AE86 with a 20V ITB set up (my biggest learn by error experience).
Onto this build:
Purchased one 1st gen Lincoln LS for like $600 in the middle of Wisconsin, in the rain. This was after the car salesman of a large Wisconsin dealership hit a pothole and dumped all of the oil. Upon realizing he was highly intoxicated, he proceeded to try and drive the car back to the dealership, or his house. The engine didn’t last long and imploded.
This was around… 2011… I got the car and then a lot happened with life. Insane job, no garage, etc etc etc. All the excuses in the world but I did the best with what I had. I’d drive 2.5 hours home and work a little here and there in the dirt floor open shed an usually destroy more then I fixed. At some point the power outlet stopped working so everything became very limited. Not much happened during this period car wise, but I started accumulating parts.
The idea was to put an unusual motor into the LS. I have also been a fan of the UCF11 and the high revving V8 it had. The LS400 had been done, a lot. There were good LS400’s out there that I saw as stand outs. At the time (though it has changed drastically lately) there were only a handful of high quality LS builds and none that really matched what I had in mind. So the logical decision was made to put a 1UZ-FE from an early LS400 into a Lincoln LS, obviously.
1uz acquired.
The 1uz has had its own series of issues. With the MetSHO build, the FireBug and a couple other projects looming, the 1uz was transported to a friend’s house… 1.5 hours away. I’m not good at making nearby friends I guess. This location and project seemed fine until I got to the friend’s house one day, and I noticed small parts missing as well as my organized parts completely mixed up (small things like cylinders…). My plan of grabbing a $150 1uz from the junkyard on 50% off day (which was done in a snowstorm) and throwing it into the LS was dashed.
Thus began the new direction of the build, boosted 1uz with the track/drift/daily/car show mash-up. I know everyone who tries this has the words of wisdom shed upon them, "You'll compromise if you try and do all of those things." I fully plan on having something that does 4 things poorly and none of them even that well. With this new direction, the parts were promptly swooped to the rescue of my build partner Brian (everyone knows him as Crab). From there, the engine sat in the corner of a golf maintenance facility for months with not much happening (about an hour away… trend…). The kick in the rear for this build thread was when I saved up enough to send the block to a shop near O’Hare. Everything got all race car’d up there based on the new plan of forcing induction. The build shop was oooold skool, but they knew their stuff.
More parts accumulated:
Decide to bolt the 1uz to a Nissan 350Z trans… (this will prove to become the worst decision).
Basement floods and washed carefully laid out CD008 trans parts into the drain…
By the grace of a friend who I knew wouldn’t mess with my stuff, I was lent half of a garage. Thrash session began, but he still lived about an hour away with no traffic (damn it, I’m not good at this…). I learned through Crab, Dave, and extensive interwebzing. During this time I was also getting married and had a VERY time consuming B2B tech sales job. But that job afforded a lot of cool stuff.
My wife “allowed” the apartment to become a staging area for the stupid crap that took up a lot of wasted time at the friend’s garage. She’s the best. And hot. So I did well.
Next up… Life changing career decision, back to college to have no life, theft, move with my own garage! and some build pictures (coilovers!).
My background: I have next to no mechanical or car knowledge outside of research, forums, and friends. I got some “around the house” training from my Dad and then a lot of trial and error/error/error. What lead me to this car and website wasn’t actually the Lincoln LS. I’ve always been a fan of the JZX100 Chaser. I’ve also been a fan of builds outside of the box... and so the gears started turning for the most drawn out build ever.
Resume: The NoPro MetSHO- A Geo Metro with a mid-engine SHO motor (soon to be twin boosted [in the hands of a new team capitaan]).
I had a hand in the FireBug- http://www.build-threads.com/build-threads/firebug-subaru-360/
I’ve also had an AE86 with a 20V ITB set up (my biggest learn by error experience).
Onto this build:
Purchased one 1st gen Lincoln LS for like $600 in the middle of Wisconsin, in the rain. This was after the car salesman of a large Wisconsin dealership hit a pothole and dumped all of the oil. Upon realizing he was highly intoxicated, he proceeded to try and drive the car back to the dealership, or his house. The engine didn’t last long and imploded.
This was around… 2011… I got the car and then a lot happened with life. Insane job, no garage, etc etc etc. All the excuses in the world but I did the best with what I had. I’d drive 2.5 hours home and work a little here and there in the dirt floor open shed an usually destroy more then I fixed. At some point the power outlet stopped working so everything became very limited. Not much happened during this period car wise, but I started accumulating parts.
The idea was to put an unusual motor into the LS. I have also been a fan of the UCF11 and the high revving V8 it had. The LS400 had been done, a lot. There were good LS400’s out there that I saw as stand outs. At the time (though it has changed drastically lately) there were only a handful of high quality LS builds and none that really matched what I had in mind. So the logical decision was made to put a 1UZ-FE from an early LS400 into a Lincoln LS, obviously.
1uz acquired.
The 1uz has had its own series of issues. With the MetSHO build, the FireBug and a couple other projects looming, the 1uz was transported to a friend’s house… 1.5 hours away. I’m not good at making nearby friends I guess. This location and project seemed fine until I got to the friend’s house one day, and I noticed small parts missing as well as my organized parts completely mixed up (small things like cylinders…). My plan of grabbing a $150 1uz from the junkyard on 50% off day (which was done in a snowstorm) and throwing it into the LS was dashed.
Thus began the new direction of the build, boosted 1uz with the track/drift/daily/car show mash-up. I know everyone who tries this has the words of wisdom shed upon them, "You'll compromise if you try and do all of those things." I fully plan on having something that does 4 things poorly and none of them even that well. With this new direction, the parts were promptly swooped to the rescue of my build partner Brian (everyone knows him as Crab). From there, the engine sat in the corner of a golf maintenance facility for months with not much happening (about an hour away… trend…). The kick in the rear for this build thread was when I saved up enough to send the block to a shop near O’Hare. Everything got all race car’d up there based on the new plan of forcing induction. The build shop was oooold skool, but they knew their stuff.
More parts accumulated:
Decide to bolt the 1uz to a Nissan 350Z trans… (this will prove to become the worst decision).
Basement floods and washed carefully laid out CD008 trans parts into the drain…
By the grace of a friend who I knew wouldn’t mess with my stuff, I was lent half of a garage. Thrash session began, but he still lived about an hour away with no traffic (damn it, I’m not good at this…). I learned through Crab, Dave, and extensive interwebzing. During this time I was also getting married and had a VERY time consuming B2B tech sales job. But that job afforded a lot of cool stuff.
My wife “allowed” the apartment to become a staging area for the stupid crap that took up a lot of wasted time at the friend’s garage. She’s the best. And hot. So I did well.
Next up… Life changing career decision, back to college to have no life, theft, move with my own garage! and some build pictures (coilovers!).
