Need some advice on main bearings and engine gaskets for 2002 Lincoln ls 3.9 V8

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easycous723

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I posted a Thread last week on looking for engine main bearings for a 2002 Lincoln ls 3.9 engine and someone suggested to use the same engine bearings as the 2002 Jaguar S-Type 4.0 uses, Well I call the Jaguar dealership to order the upper and lower bearings and the problem that I ran into was that they wanted the vin number or the color thats on the side of the upper and lower bearings. Has anyone here ever use the 4.0 engine standard main bearings for a 3.9 engine if so what color is on the side of the upper and lower main bearing or if someone has information on Jaguar S -Type 4.0 engine bearings colors it would be highly appreciated, I'm thinking I should just go online instead of the Jaguar dealership and order the standard upper and lower bearings for the jaguar s type 4.0 engine.
The next question that I have is about the engine gaskets for the lincoln ls 3.9 engine. I've order a complete gasket kit for the Lincoln ls 3.9 engine at least thats what the seller on Ebay claims it to be and after overlooking everything all the parts and gaskets seems to be here except for two I think, can anyone tell me if the parts in the picture below that's outlined in red and black calls for a gasket whether if its blue silicone or a gasket maker type sealant?
The 3.9 v8 engine is a very interested engine to rebuilt but there are not a lot of aftermarket parts available that could make the job alot easier like most engines but if anyone needs parts to fix the timing on this engine go to www.rockauto.com to get a complete timing set with everything for $185 compare to Ebay's $350 to $475. Well I guess its back to my problem once again if anyone has any information on Jaguar S -Type 4.0 color main bearings and the gasket concerning this engine please let know...:gr_hail:
Thanks from easycous723:V

3.9 v8 engine.jpg
timing.jpg

3.9 v8 engine.jpg


timing.jpg
 
What you may need to do is pull the engine down, mic the crank and take the old bearings down to the dealer. From what I gather, aside from the cooling system and Gen 1 timing chain guides, and leaking valve cover gaskets nobody ever has to go into the engines on these cars so not too many people know what's needed for a rebuild.
 
The color on the bearings has to do with the clearances. The different colors are going to be a little bit thicker then standard (like 1 or 2 thousandths of an inch bigger). The idea is that you match the bearings to the crank and case to get the correct clearance. It's to take up the slop from the manufacturing process. It's cheaper to stamp out different thickness main bearings then make a more precision casting/machining on the block and crank.

Knowing what color bearings for a different engine won't really help you much with yours. You could use it as a starting point but that's about it. The colors are matched to the particular block and block half. I would take it to a machine shop and see if they can measure it up and help you figure out which bearings you need.

I've only seen a block like the LS done once and the guy basically had a complete bearing set of each bearing. Not sure what procedure he used though. I'm guessing there was a lot of plastigauge and trial and error.

I still vote you take it to a machine shop. If the machine shop isn't comfortable working on the engine then ask them for recommendations. If they come up blank just look for somewhere that works on european engines (porsche, VW, etc) or a place that can do lycoming aircraft engines. They all use a split case so they should be familiar with figuring out which bearings are needed. You will probably still have to buy a set of bearings though.

Some google foo revealed useful threads like this on another board: http://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/xj-x308-xj8-xjr-27/4-0l-engine-rebuild-97096/

If you read you'll see a rebuild manual posted for the Jag 4.0/4.2. This may help you figure out which bearings you need.

The block halves are selaed with a flange sealant. The actual bottom oil pan has a rubber gasket. That Jaguar manual calls for Loctite 5699 Ultra Grey RTV for the block halves..
 
What Kumba wrote is correct if your mains are in good condition and within the stock color coded diameters. If you have to have them polished/reworked and the cank becomes undersized, then you need to get in touch with Racing Green cars. they make oversized main bearings for the early engines with 56mm rod journals

http://www.racinggreencars.com/Jaguar/Parts/XK 1996-2006/c|.htm

If Racing Green doesn't have what you need, then you will have to get a custom set made.

http://www.obbco.com/custom-babbitt-bearings.html?gclid=CPC4p8SQjKwCFccbQgodI2wZmA

Hope this helps.
 
My neighbor purchase the car almost brand new, the car may have had about 15,000 miles on it back in 2005 and my neighbors had been driving the car from 2005 til last year and then they stop driving it and they brought a newer car I've had always seen it sitting in the garage but I never thought nothing of it, so about 4 months ago my neighbor ask me did I want to buy a cheap car so when he told me it was the lincoln, I told him usually we repair imports like VW's, Nissans and maybe a bmw's every once in a while but I was curious to know what he was asking for it, so when he said $500:Beer I told him that I would buy it without thinking twice about it cause I know what they paid about $27,000 for it, I ask him what was wrong with the car after i got it on the car trailer :runaway: and he isn't a mechanic but he told me that he thought it was the head gasket because it was overheating, I was still ok with that, well a couple of weeks ago we started to work on the car and notice that the engine wasn't turning over freely so my son suggested that the engine maybe warp after finding a crack water outlet pipe and about a pound of that stop leak crap in the left cylinder head so we took the engine out and disassemble it and then took the short block by the machine shop and 2 days later they told me that the engine block was warp bad.:confused:
So we found another 3.9 engine and I decided to do a complete overhaul before we put it in the car just to be on the safe side but we didn't realize that Ford has a scam that they are doing with the rod and main bearings the ford dealership sent me an email saying that don't sell any of the bearings for any of 3.9 engines from 2000 -2006 but they can sell me a short block with all the bearings included for $5,250 :mad:
 
Thanks for the information I have a friend that works in a machine shop but it will be a week before he can start to look at the engine I'm just doing some research till then.
 
It's not really a scam as much as the way the engine is manufactured and designed. I'm not sure if Ford even has another engine that is manufactured the same way. It was a better move on their part to just not work on the bottom end instead of training every dealership on how to rebuild a one-off engine. If this engine used a more conventional main bearing cap that was line bored/honed as a set with the block then you'd probably see bottom end parts for sale from Ford.

Plus like others have said not too many people ever have to go into the bottom end of these engines. Usually when they do it's more for peace of mind or the fun of it then because the engine threw a rod or something.
 
Same exact problem exists with the 4.2 Jaguar engines. Now that the 4.2 has been replaced with the new 5.0 engine, Jaguar isn't making any more spares for these engines. I am rebuilding a 4.2 STR engine and have been running into all sorts of part availability problems. There aren't very many new 4.2 long blocks left in the USA. When available, they are going between $5K and $7K.

I just got back a 4.2L crankshaft that I had the journals and mains reworked, they are now undersized and the only choice I have is to get custom bearings manufactured. BUT, the shop I had rework the crank was very-very careful to make all the journals exactly the same size, so I can use all the same ID bearings. This rebuild will end up costing me $5+K. but I am doing "other things" to the engine to make it stronger, something you don't get with a stock longblock.
 
The reason you never heard of too many people going into the bottom of these 3.9 engines is because most of the time when these engines fail people will just sell the car for parts or just send the car to the crusher.
 
could just take a 4.2L bottom end and put an LS top-end on it. Bigger displacement, easier bottom end parts availability, and you get oil sprayers for the pistons! :)
 
I've been rebuilding engines for about 15 years and i've never ran into the problem like this, usually the older parts are harder to locate than the newer ones I'm going to look for the original bearings that we took out and take a couple of pics the bearings if I can remember were not in bad condition but i prefer to go back with all new parts when i rebuild a engine.
 
Don''t get me wrong, parts are still available from dealers, but they all want top dollar/outrageous prices! Somewhere around I have the dimensional ranges for the main and rod colored bearings. If you are lucky, perhaps your journals were on the larger side, and you can have them micro polished without removing much material, and then still find a bearing that will give you the proper clearances. In my case, I am pretty much outside the stock range of bearings.

One thing I am not too sure about is since the block uses a lower main bearing girdle, when you rebuild one of these engines, do you have to still get the mains line bored? I don' have a clue how much the OD of the main bores vary in these blocks.
How stable are these aluminum blocks? Do they flex much?
 
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We found the original upper and lower crankshaft bearings that we had taken out of the engine earlier and we basically trashed the shop looking for them if my son would had empty the trash cans like I told him to a couple days ago then the bearings would had been history. There are only 3 bearings that looks questionable to me but i'm too sure. ( 2) of the upper bearings have markings that you can barely feel with your thumb and the 1 lower bearing you can see the markings but the bearing of sort of smooth to the touch.

2 bearings with marks.jpg

lower bearing 2.jpg bearing thickness 1.jpg

2 bearings with marks.jpg


lower bearing 2.jpg


bearing thickness 1.jpg
 
Yeah you're right about the prices I can see why so many people run to imports and don't get me wrong some ford's are ok, I think its crazy how you can pay $37,000 for a car and 10 years later after the warranties and recalls have expired and there are no more free oil changes from the dealership all of a sudden you get a knock in the bottom of your engine, now that hurts especially when you find out that the dealership will not sell you the $150 parts that you need but instead they're trying to get you for another $5000 for parts that you don't even need. I am so glad that I'm not the original owner that spent over $30,000 for this car.
As for the engine I had the machine shop to check it out and they said it was ok the original engine that came in the car the block was wrapped bad from overheating and the 1st engine that I got from the junkyard had a broken piston rod so I took that engine back and switch it for one that had 90,000 miles but it had a bad timing chain tensioner and guide so we just decided to rebuild the whole engine without checking around for the prices for the parts. Me and the guy at the salvage yard made a deal on the engine where we traded, I overhaul a 2003 nissan altima engine for the lincoln ls engine which wasn't bad because he paid for the parts for his engine and that was the best deal that I could find at the time because everywhere else i check for a 3.9 engine they were asking $1300 for an engine with 140,000 miles.
 
Thanks Tijoe for the information and especially the websites I contacted the parts department at Racing green cars and in the email I explain the problem about how difficult it is to get the crankshaft bearings for the 3.9 engines and the guy that runs the parts department email me back and he advised me first to go get the crankshaft clean, polished and mic and get the measurement of each crankshaft Journal and match your measurements to the factory ones and if your measurements are not too far off then the Jaguar S-type 4.0 (green) standard crankshaft bearings should work with not a lot of belt sanding on each crankshaft journal and the Jaguar S-Type 4.0 blue crankshaft bearings can also be made to work in the 3.9 engine but all the work should be done by a machine shop
You can buy the single bearings but you're better off buying the lower crankshaft bearings set for $90.00 and the upper crankshaft bearings set for the same price.
 
So... Clean it all up, and measure it to find the right bearings that fit. Dejavu :)
 
I've already gotten the engine block straight Im just waiting on the crankshaft bearings and hopefully that will be all the parts that i'll need, for a minute there I thought about giving up on the engine and just sell the car for parts but the car itself is in very good condition. I like to Thank You Guys :Beer for taking the time to help me out with this and If everything work out ok with the jaguar bearings and the lincoln crankshaft there may be some new lincoln ls 3.9 crankshaft bearings on Ebay :D in a couple of weeks I'll you know how works out "Once again thanks for the information"

lincoln picooooo.jpg
 
If you REALLY want to thank the folks here, document your engine build here, concentrating on hurdles and how they are overcome. It'll be appreciated.
 
What Telco said. I'd rather hear about if the bearings fit, any issues with fitment, what you had to do to get them to fit if so, etc etc. Details are very much appreciated :)
 
Ok i will as soon as the crankshaft bearings come in I'll take pics from start to finish and I'll write down all crankshaft journal measurements and the torque specification for everything, the most important part of the rebuild for me probably would be getting those jaguar s type 4.0 bearings to work smoothly with the lincoln ls 3.9 crankshaft if everything goes ok I may send Lincoln and the Ford some pics also. lol
 
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