My new 2002 Lincoln Ls V8

[Santio]

Hello Everyone,

I am new to the forum and I have recently purchased my first Lincoln LS. I have always wanted an ls8 and recently came across one in my hometown. The car has been sitting for around 2 years they say. It has 87,000 miles on it. I bought the car for $1,400 thinking I would have to put a little tlc to bring her back to life but has ended up becoming more work than I had anticipated. When went to look at the car the engine was running rough. The previous owner told me to bring dry gas as he thought there was water in the gas. After putting the dry gas in there was minimal improvement. It was throwing many misfire codes 6 cylinders misfiring. I replaced the spark plugs and three of the cylinders had a lot of oil in them. I Replaced the valve cover gasket and rings today and cleaned the throttle body changed the oil and after putting it all back together it started smoking a thick white smoke from the exhaust. After the smoke had all burned off the car was idling great and was running spectacular after revving the engine a few times I thought the car was fixed as it sounded great as it should. I shut the car off after a while and started it back up to leave and it was running really rough again. I forgot to mention before 80% of the fires were misfiring and after the valve cover gasket was replaced we tested them to be around 30% or so. There was much improvement and now only three cylinders are misfiring as apposed to six. After taking it for a long ride and finding great improvement in the overall running of the engine and acceleration it started shuttering again. It became nearly impossible to accelerate. When I finally reached my destination the egr hose close to the fire wall on the passenger side popped off while sitting in park idling. It will not go back on now without a clamp and would not run in gear before it popped off just kept stalling in reverse or drive. Why did the egr pressure all of a sudden get high enough to pop the line off? Why is it still misfiring? The coil packs in three cylinders were drenched with oil on the outside of the long tub, could that be the issue with the misfires and why the engine roughs rough and does not accelerate at all? Please help me.
Thank You,
Santio

 

[1LoudLS]

that owner knew damn well, the old gas was not the problem.

have you replaced your coils yet? if not, expect to replace every coil and spark plug (again)

oil shorts out the coils, the coils then fail, the failed coils damage the spark plug...

so if you only replaced a spark plug and put it under the same bad coil, that spark plug is probably no longer good...


also since it is an LS, for every coil that you think is bad, there is at least one more starting to fail...


every minute it runs while misfiring is causing damage to the catalytic converters and sooner or later your repair bill is going to increase by a couple thousand dollars...

 

[Santio]

yes I am sure he did know damn well lol I made a hasty decision I was excited at the opportunity to own one though. no i have not replaced my coils yet. I was planning on testing them and doing the ones that were not functioning. Do you think that I should do them all? Why would I have to replace the plugs again? They looked fined after I replaced the valve cover gasket? Could the coils be the main reason the car does not accelerate, misfires and runs rough in general?
sorry I am not a mechanic but I am mechanically inclined and I am usually able to fix my own vehicles through research. Any help you could provide would be appreciated

 

[1LoudLS]

also there is not a single "coil pack" under the hood of an LS...

 

[LS4me]

Have you searched at all? Start by replacing ALL the coils (no coil-packs on the LS) and plugs. Use Motorcraft coils and (I used) NGK Iridium plugs; making sure they're gaped correctly.

 

[Santio]

ok will do thank you I will post results after I'm done. I purchased the vehicle yesterday so I have not done to much research on the ls this is the only forum i have joined just looked through a few.

 

[1LoudLS]

I was planning on testing them and doing the ones that were not functioning.

the problem is most people do not have the equipment to actually test them correctly, and the ways that most people (try to) test them, doesn't really tell them if they are good or bad, and actually having them tested cost more than replacing them. so...

Do you think that I should do them all?

only if you want the problem fixed

Why would I have to replace the plugs again?

read above

They looked fined after I replaced the valve cover gasket?

oh, well as long as they "looked fine"...

Could the coil packs be the main reason the car does not accelerate, misfires and runs rough in general?

most likely, however there is an extremely good chance that your misfired have destroyed your cats, and now there are clogged and not allowing the motor to run at any real speed.



Long story very short, this car may cost you many times what you paid for it just to get it working again, I hope you are prepared for that... its (or at least was) a $40k+ car... if it was in good or decent shape, it should cost a whole lot more than $1400... there is a reason the previous owner needed to sell it for so cheap, and that is because it needed a whole lot more money to fix that he was willing to pay.


I would do a lot of searching and reading, this is an extremely common problem with LSs along with many more common problems, its going to do you well to know what to expect and what you are getting yourself into.

 

[Kid_Lyrics]

Welcome to the party!

 

[joegr]

When you say "EGR hose", I think you mean PCV hose. Those are two very different things.

 

[grizzlyls]

do a search on COP (coil on plug) here you will find alot of information about them - and whether to go oem or aftermarket. You will probably see my post too, but I havnt finalized my findings. This is my second ls and as the guys are saying, you must keep the oil out of the coil/plugs. I found that 80k ish miles is max for swap of valve cover, coils and plugs as a basic target. My car I bought in march - $3500 btw for 2001 - had the work done at 90k which was only 10k miles ago. It is starting to behave like there is a problem, the dealer says there is oil near the plugs, so I am not sure that mech did a good job. Valve cover gasket shouldnt leak after 10k. I do know that only 3 cop were replaced so I am going to do a full, just start fresh.

Good luck, and its not all gloom and doom. If your car is in good condition otherwise, you could easily spend 3k more total and be around market value.

 

[RigsLS]

^ you did 10K on it since March this year, now just only a few days into May? That's some serious commuting to work and back I guess. Most people don't even do that in an entire year.

 

[grizzlyls]

LOL, no. I have put on 500 miles since March 1st purchase date. My commute is 3.5 miles one way - and I bicycle it! Save the new baby for impressing the ladies!

The 10k is a reference to the receipts from the previous owner, and they were dated 2 years ago. So even then they did like 5k each year.

 

[RigsLS]

I was going to say. was scratching my head here. In my DD (Peterbilt work truck) I do 5180km (3218mi) each week and that's 5 days of highway driving about 12hrs each night. Some nights close to 13hrs legally.

For you to rack up 10K miles since March ... I thought were the hell this guy work? He should move closer to his job. LOL

 

[joegr]

... I thought were the hell this guy work? He should move closer to his job. LOL

I commuted (drove) to work for two years at 1000 miles a week. The first year and a half wasn't too bad, but by the end of the 2nd year I really couldn't stand it anymore. Fortunately, my house finally sold then.

 

[1LoudLS]

dang, what is that like three hours or more a day? man that makes for a long day!

 

[LS4me]

dang, what is that like three hours or more a day? man that makes for a long day!

I spent 4 years commuting 3 1/2 to 4 hours 3 days a week and 3 the other two. Changed the oil every 3 weeks (like Joe 1K miles a week!). And yes, it got old. I survived on talk radio and old radio dramas. Nothing like Box 13, Dragnet, Johnny Dollar, etc. to make the time go by...

Now my "commute is from our bedroom to the garage!! That's IF I feel like doing anything

 

[Santio]

Alright so I have now replaced all coils and plugs. Before replacing them I had it running and it would not start suddenly without starting fluid so I had the intake off and was fueling it trying to get it started after getting it to start it ran on its own for a few moments with the intake disconnected completely including mass air flow sensor and air-box. After that I replaced the coils and plugs. After putting everything back together I can say it runs the best I have ever heard it run. It was idling just under 1k steady but the engine had a slight shake as if there may still be a misfire? But I do not think so.. When you put the car into gear and go it makes a deep grumble sound and the back pressure blows the tube off from the EGR Sensor(I Believe that's what the part is) There are two hoses that connect to it one is slightly different size and there is an electrical connector that plugs into it located near firewall on passenger side.) Not even a clamp will hold it on. Also I noticed at the same time the hose blows off the car gets a sudden burst off power and runs much better disconnected. I do not believe the car is misfiring anymore I believe that the shaking at idle and back pressure is caused by the Catalytic converter or both maybe clogged due to all of the misfiring. I ran the codes and they were P102 P113 P300 P352. I believe that the first two were due to the car running for a while with the entire intake disconnected and will turn off and same with P300 should go off after driven when I looked it up it came up as random misfire. Now P352 I am not so sure about I can confirm after taking them off at least 3 Coils were not functioning and I thought that would've caused P352 and will clear now that I have replaced them but my stepfather says it could be bad computer... I do not think that is what it is but what do you think? any experience with P352? Also can someone confirm the cats are probably plugged? If so any experience with Cataclean or potentially cleaning/hitting them or is it going to need new? Can a Clogged Cat cause any damage to any other part of the exhaust that may need attention? I only think of potentially trying to save them because exhaust comes out of all 4 tips but there is a clear difference in the amount that is coming out on each side. I have also heard clogged Egr valve could cause all of that back pressure can anyone confirm?

 

[joegr]

I'm not sure that you are describing the EGR valve.
A clogged EGR valve does not cause any exhaust back pressure. Clogged cats from misfires that have gone on too long cause exhaust back pressure.
P0352 (there is no "P352" code, all the characters in the codes are important, all OBDII codes are five characters) is an electrical problem with the ignition for cylinder #2. It could be the COP, the wiring, or the PCM. PCM can and do fail if misfires are allowed to continue. Note that you should have replaced all eight COPs and all eight plugs at the same time. All plugs must be set to 1.0mm.

Note that if you replace the PCM, you will not be able to start the car until someone with a good scan tool (like the dealer) marries the replacement PCM to you PATS and at least two keys. Alternately, you can send your own PCM off for repair and then reinstall it without having to do any of that. You should, of course, first verify that the problem isn't wiring or coil #2.

 

[Santio]

Thank you for your knowledge. I did replace all coils at the same time. Do you have any experience with clogged cats? I would like to try to unclog if possible. I have good scan tools I work for a dealer but I'm not a mechanic i'm a salesmen lol but I'm not afraid to take fix my cars myself I just do not posses all of the knowledge it requires sometimes so I am not sure what I would test for but I'm sure I have one that is capable. As I understand and please correct me if I should follow a different procedure given all of the back pressure and the fact that it had been misfiring safe to say cats are clogged or exhaust is restricted so I will start by giving the cats a few whacks with a rubber mallet and trying to see if cataclean by Mr. Gasket will work and and just drive it the suggested 15 miles locally with the egr hose disconnected so that the cataclean can work as it should as it will not stay on. Hopefully that works if it does not I was going to replace both Cats and inspect the rest of the exhaust. The car has not had the opportunity to be driven anywhere since the coils and plugs were replaced so I was thinking driving it the 15 miles should potentially make that P0352 go away as I have replaced the coils since it was discovered right?

 

[joegr]

That's a picture of the DPFE. It is related to the EGR valve.
You can unscrew the forward O2 sensors, and that will relieve the pressure as a test.
If you succeed in knocking some of the catalyst material loose, it will travel down to the muffler where it may just cause another clog there. There is also (believe it or not) a very small chance of some of the material being ingested by the engine and causing major damage.