Alice: FDR's Build

[FDR]

I always wanted a build thread, so now seems like a great time. Nobody is here anymore, but the gravity well known as Facebook makes me want to have something searchable. Posts over there get lost in the timeline and you can't see the light. Before I get into that rant... I was going to wait to make a build thread for when I boosted it or an engine swap or something, but I got into bikes and that has really quelled my need for 4 wheel speed. I'm happy (for the time being) to leave that dream alone and just make it excel where it already does well: spirited cruising. I don't expect this build thread to be the highlight of your day. Best I'm hoping for is one of my fixes or repairs will help someone in the future or at least give an answer as to what was done.

2002 Lincoln LS V8 Sport. I've had the car as long as I've been on here: 10 years. I acquired it in 2014 from the passing of a cousin, so those that know me, know this is a sentimental car. It had 63k miles at the time, now around 115k. Despite going through all the classic problems, the knowledge I've gained in this forum (both actively searching and passively absorbing) has made this car secretly reliable since I could detect all the nuances of imminent failure and then stress for a month or three about dealing with it preemptively.

Some general info as I find time to post more details of projects. Radiator, brakes, wheels, ignition coils, euro rear, exhaust, tune, aesthetics, audio

Radiator: Most recent project was retrofitting an all-aluminum Mishimoto radiator for a 2005 Mustang, pioneered by @DeviLSh. Not a friendly job, but not particularly complicated. Main thing is modifying one lower mounting tab to be more centered to the car by about 2", plus some work to adapt the cooler mounting bungs. Same screws, different height. I'm not sure I'd actually recommend this one, especially since there's that no-name all aluminum radiator (and degas) on ebay these days. But, if you know me, tHaT wAsN't GoOd EnOuGh FoR mE.
Brakes: 06+ Jaguar S-type R brakes all around, the 355mm fronts and 320mm rears.
Wheels: 03-5 StR "Zeus" 18s to get a 255/285 staggered setup but beware, the fronts needed a 3mm spacer and caliper grinding to get them to fit the StR front brakes. Might just be an LS thing with shallower disk mounting. Hindsight is 20/20 so I wouldn't have ground the nubs on the caliper had I known I was going to use 25mm studded spacers later. It's pretty when I jump the battery and get to see a clean-but-bent spare Zeus in the well.
Ign Coils: I swapped the COP pins to use the Mustang 2v 4.6 Accel 140032 coils pioneered elsewhere on here. They've been in since 2014 for over 50,000 miles. They've had a few misfires over the years, but cleaning water/oil out of #8 and now #7 has straightened it out each time. The oil is from sloppy filling, not valve cover gaskets. I've replaced the wiper seal, but I think too many things are warped. A flaw in running without the coil cover. I'll try to modify or copy the stock covers this summer to accommodate the outward plug. Dielectric grease and the thicker coil boot works well, but you can't fight the expansion and contraction of the well air forever -- it'll suck everything in eventually.
Euro rear: The rear has a pair of prototype Euro inner tail lights (diffferent from Japanese), standard Gen 2 outers, and the Euro license surround. Japanese inners are just like American, but clear tops. Euro takes that but makes the red bulb a 3157 for rear fog use and adds a 3156 reverse light to the top since the license plate would interfere with the American lights.
Exhaust: Muffler swap, tips, bumper cuts. SLP LM2s were too quiet for a generous member we used to have, another Devin, but I find them perfect on the LS with the factory resonators. The Magnaflow kits have a certain popping or clapping I'm not a fan of, which I believe is specifically canceled by the resonators. Tips are 2014 Saleen Mustang tips. I thought they mirrored the tail lights nicely, but I can't deny I often think about going with standard quads. The bumpoer was cut up to about the metal bumper frame. Gen 1 people, go ahead and cut the bumper. It's such a visual improvement.
Tune: Unleashed aggressive tune via SCT X3. Gen 1 lost compatibility with the X4 after some firmware update and managed to brick my PCM. I have a 2018 thread on here about that issue. We all know we can't actually feel the supposed 15hp, but those A shifts sure are a thrill. It has a knack for chirping into 2nd aty WOT.
Aesthetics: Wings West rear spoiler. Gen 1 LSE front bumper. Gen 2 headlights and header panel with an adapter pigtail. Non-LSE people: paint your door sill covers flat black, get rid of that faded plastic look forever. 03 Mach 1 Chin spoiler cut down on length and sliced behind to flex wider. Some older pics feature a roof spoiler as well, some original SPoilerKing I think. The body tape wore out so I peeled it before I lost it. 50% tint on the sides and 35 on the rear glass, just to clean up the look bnut not get pulled over all the time.
Audio: nothing special, an ok JVC head and 8" round subs in the deck. Stock everything else. The deck took some cutting.

That's all I got for today. I'm sure there's a dozen things I'm forgetting but that's why I'm here. I've forgotten more than I've done.

 

[clubairth]

Great to see your LS!
And all those mods too. McClaren grill by chance? I had and sold about 4 of those. I had no idea how much they would be worth when I bought mine.

Post more pictures and yes I avoid the facebook junk too but that is the world today.

I had an 2005 STR! The 2006 and up did not use the Brembo brakes? Did you want to avoid those for a reason?

With all you have done any thoughts on adding a LSD rear? On my old 2003 LS Sport I thought Lincoln should have offered a LSD from the factory. Same with my STR only worse! It had 400 ft-lb of torque stock and was crippled because of no LSD.
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[rgorke]

Yes...more pictures!

And a few questions...

What does these mean?

Non-LSE people: paint your door sill covers flat black, get rid of that faded plastic look forever.

Gen 2 headlights and header panel with an adapter pigtail.

and I'm trying to picture this...

Euro rear: The rear has a pair of prototype Euro inner tail lights (diffferent from Japanese), standard Gen 2 outers, and the Euro license surround. Japanese inners are just like American, but clear tops. Euro takes that but makes the red bulb a 3157 for rear fog use and adds a 3156 reverse light to the top since the license plate would interfere with the American lights.

I have all red LSE rears on my 2004 but not sure of the difference between Japanese, Euro, and American.

 

[soflolincoln]

2005 83k miles had it for a little over two years

 

[Slick01]

Nice, that car is clean!!!

 

[HyeLifeLS]

Nice, more pictures would be cool. Front wheels with 20mm adapters fit perfectly, match rear 9.5” wheels right.

 

[FDR]

I can't believe I up and ghosted my own thread so quickly. Life's a cluster right now.

Great to see your LS!
And all those mods too. McClaren grill by chance? I had and sold about 4 of those. I had no idea how much they would be worth when I bought mine.

Post more pictures and yes I avoid the facebook junk too but that is the world today.

I had an 2005 STR! The 2006 and up did not use the Brembo brakes? Did you want to avoid those for a reason?

With all you have done any thoughts on adding a LSD rear? On my old 2003 LS Sport I thought Lincoln should have offered a LSD from the factory. Same with my STR only worse! It had 400 ft-lb of torque stock and was crippled because of no LSD.
.
.
.

I'm not big on the Mclaren grille. I feel they have too much surface and not enough hole. I'm pretty satisfied with the standard grille painted all gloss black, at least on a black car.

The 06-08 StR brakes are close to being bolt-on parts - barely more work than replacing calipers, rotors, and pads. Grind a nub inside the front caliper bracket and cut down the bracket-knuckle bolts. IIRC rear only needed an adapter for the e-brake, which someone recommended a ~67 Corvette clevis. Don't quote me, but I think that's all it took. The Brembo years have fixed calipers so they're thicker and have an entirely different rotor.

I've certainly thought about an LSD. I have a Mark VIII diff in a box somewhere around here and a spare rear subframe. As it sits, the wide/heavy StR wheels with sporty all seasons are adequate for grip. I rarely break traction. Sometimes I do think about getting stock 17s for the rear and putting eco tires on for the weekend...

Yes...more pictures!

And a few questions...

What does these mean?





and I'm trying to picture this...

I have all red LSE rears on my 2004 but not sure of the difference between Japanese, Euro, and American.

Base/Sport trims have plain, unpainted balck plastic trim along the bottom of the door sills (this also applies to bumper lower trim and the cowl/wiper trim). Over time, these fade the same as the plastic trim on every Chevy Avalanche ever - splotchy banded pale white stripes, white scrapes, dark spots, etc. I've tried various black plastic restoration products over the years. Some last a few weeks, some a few months, but there's a certain dusty appearance that doesn't go away with them and they're rapidly degraded by UV now. My go-to is just some standard flat or semi black paint, the Rustoleum type with plastic primer. It makes the plastic fade out of view the way unpainted trim should.

Not sure what exactly you're asking about the gen 2 header panel and pigtails, but I'll try to answer it from the bottom-up. The HEADER PANEL is the fragile complex panel in front of the radiator above the bumper. It's what the bumper slots into, what the headlights screw into, and what the little beauty panel with the ambient temp sensor behind the grille attaches to. It's brittle fiberglass-filled plastic. Gen 1 and 2 have slightly different panels in regards to the bumper tabs and the headlight mounting holes and clearances. To swap headlights between gens and to get them to fit well, this panel needs to be swapped. Beware, they snap in the middle every time. I got a mending plate from the deck/simpson strongtie section at Home Depot and put some 6-32 screws through the panel across the snap. Once installed, you should be good. PIGTAILS: Gen 1 headlights have a 3-bulb removable harness outside the headlight housing, similar to the tail light harness. Gen 2 puts a 6-pin bulkhead connector in the inner corner of the headlight so the low/high/LED marker light uses an internal harness, while the signal light has a stubby short external harness at the socket. I bought 9006-style male plugs (male pin, female plastic) and figured out the bulkhead plug on the Gen 2 headlights is actually a Molex MX150 series connector, so I bought some and made an adapter pigtail. I said it'd be temporary until I make a proper harness from a spare Gen 1 headlight harnes, but nothing ever lasts as long as a temporary fix...

TAIL LIGHTs: Gen 2's base/sport tail lights are compliant for Asia/Europe regarding yellow rear signals. There's a Euro export license surround some have found where one reverse light is red and intended to be wired independently as a rear fog light. The LSE all-red tails would not be legal with red signals. For Gen 1, all USDM builds got all-red tail lights - a small tail/brake lower-outer light, a small tail light on the inner half of the outer tail light, and a tail light on the trunk-mounted tail light assembly. For the Japanese market, the only change was making the upper half clear for yellow signals. For the European market, they needed the clear upper half as well as adding 2 lights. The Euro license plate surround has no reverse lights to fit the wider license plate, so they get relocated to the upper half of the inner light assembly. They also need a rear fog light, so the inner tail light gets changed to a 3157 socket for dual function instead of the 168. I chose base Gen 2 outers and scored Euro inners. The outers don't have the ribbed Gen 1 texture but I don't mind. I much prefer the large brake light.

Nice, more pictures would be cool. Front wheels with 20mm adapters fit perfectly, match rear 9.5” wheels right.

I wish I could remember everything I've done and where I got the info to give credit. You are actually the reason I ordered the 20mm spacers. I beleive I saw your post on Instagram at some point, I may have even commented asking you about it. Might be a shock, but I'm FDR_Auto over there. There's a lot less LS activity over there these days.

 

[FDR]

I do sometimes miss the all-red lights. They have a unique presence. I also miss the feeling I had when it was new to me and stock. Not that I prefer it being stock, but it was given to me posthumously so the experience I had at the time was unique. I've driven a couple other stock ones and the feeling comes right back. Stock intake and exhaust noise, standard appearance, clear windows. I dunno.

On the topic of lights, 2 things I thought of. Can't find a pic, but I cut the headliner a little and ran an extension wire to use a Gen 2 upeer high brake light - the LED bar at the top of the window. So much cleaner than the trapezoid deck light of Gen 1, IMO. I also did a bunch of work to convert the interior dash lights to orange. That's one BMW copycat item I wish Ford did from the start. Maybe I've jsut spent too much time in pedestrian Ford Tauruses, but the standard green evoques nothing in me. Needles are red, as that's the only color that works on them. I don't feel like going into detail at the moment but it's a whole project using SMD LEDs, through-hole LEDs, and LED bulbs to varying degrees with varying success and varying longevity. Anothe project waiting for me to revamp it when I get a spare 2 months or something.