The Road Less Traveled

[wildturkey]

Yesterday morning was the start of a friends 1st Gen Mark VIII OBDII conversion. This conversion will also get an ebony 2nd Gen Mark interior and engine/transmission swap.
I am thinking that starting with the interior is best bet because there lies the most wiring.
First we took out the seats, front and rear. Next, we removed the seat belts and then the trim around door frames to prepare to lift the carpet. Then attacked the center console and wrapped up after removing the dash. The shifter and the carpet were the only pieces left in the floor. We learned a lot as we jumped around the dash to figure the mounting points and hopefully removing the donor car's dash won't be so tedious.

I scanned thru some of the post on Mark VIII engine/trans removal and very impressed with the way it was removed and reinstalled from the bottom. I had always believed that it had to be done from a lift instead, a cherry picker takes care of business. It's late and I'm about to fall out.
Read ya later, Nick

 

[chris2523]

awesome. take lots of pictures. :Beer

 

[wildturkey]

Dang it, you're right on that Chris. There is so much going on, I am definitely going to need some references.

Today we took out the shifter, carpet, rear quarter plastic, seat belt retractors, rear dash carpet, headliner, and removed the interior door panels. The wiring harness inside the cabin is exposed... so we are thinking it is about time to remove the interior of the donor car and wrestle out the wiring harness. I best prep for pics, this should be interesting.

Read ya later, Nick

 

[LSC HUNTER]

Mmaker has done the OBD1 to OBD2 conversion already I believe a few times. Look on LOD as he did it on Drillers Blue Flame for better tuning.

 

[chris2523]

Lonnie did it on his 95 for the same reason, more better tuning.

 

[wildturkey]

That is our biggest reason for conversion. We have not done much in the past few days but we will try to step it up.
Here is the beneficiary

Here is the donor

Here is a Cougar we slap with a 4.6 DOHC from a Mark and a Cobra intake.

He has 2 set of 17x7.5 and 17x9 to give the staggered look

 

[chris2523]

so, where abouts in missouri?
i am in Jeff City and Columbia.

 

[wildturkey]

Jackson is on the west side of Highway 55 across from Cape Girardeau in southeast Missouri, about 100 miles south of St Louis.

 

[wildturkey]

Today, we started breaking down the donor car. We got out the seats, quarter interior panels, rear deck carpet, sun visors and headliner. We found the the differences between 1st and second generation sunroofs and wiring. We kick it around for a bit and figured out how to blend in the first gen sunroof to 2nd gen wiring and make it a one touch opening. Two wires black and black with white stripe went to number 2 sensor trigger on the donor cars wiring, did not hook them anything.

We found a couple of bare wire at the sun roof to the sun visor. the donor car had been setting for a couple of month and the mice did not waste any time stripping wire

 

[Modular97LSC]

that's one sick looking cougar.....my first car was a 95 Cougar.....to bad it had a 3.8....but I still wish that I would of kept that car I would of done a 4.6 DOHC swap on it.

 

[wildturkey]

I could assist in making those dreams come reality. I've got a sweet 96 Cougar for sale, if you interested.

 

[Modular97LSC]

nice kitty....im moving to Vegas soon from Miami next month actually and im having difficulty taking both my LS and my Mark VIII so another car is completely out of the question for now.

 

[dnsherrill]

nice kitty....im moving to Vegas soon from Miami next month actually and im having difficulty taking both my LS and my Mark VIII so another car is completely out of the question for now.

if you can only take one Lincoln what will it be? I may move to Raleigh NC later this year and have to say goodby to one of my Marks; sux b/c they're both rock solid but neither will bring more than $1500-2k

 

[wildturkey]

Hey all. It has been awhile since my last post. We have logged in over 120 hours total in to this project and we are making good progress. The wiring, A/C heater box, gas tank engine and trans have all been swapped.
Thee fire wall had to be trimmed a bit to allow the heater box to seat

The dash was problematic because the top clips under the windshield like to be in the way.

Can you really have to many TEKSID blocks?

Here is the engine in its new home.


Read ya later, Nick

 

[wildturkey]

Hey all,
I'm having a dilemma, we are just about ready for an engine start, but I am not getting any voltage to the fuel pump . We do have 12v at the inertia switch but, we don't have a schematic to show where the white wire goes from there. Any help would be appreciated.
Read ya later, Nick

 

[wildturkey]

I Did a search and found some things about the VCRM. Could that be my problem, or do I have a broken wire between the inertia switch and the fuel pump?

 

[wildturkey]

Finally... we figured it out. I trace the white wire from the inertia switch, left side in the trunk, back into the cab over the gas tank, to the right side, back into the trunk and found a plug in for a box on top of the wheel well that had not been transferred from the donor to beneficiary car. It was good to hear that engine run. filled up the fluid levels and going to next bunch of hurtles.
Read ya later, Nick

 

[wildturkey]

This is how close it is to put a gen2 engine in a gen1 body.

I suggested using body shims as an alternative, but here is where we are. Pretty tight, eh.

 

[chris2523]

why not swap for the superior gen 1 intake?
i see you have it right there.

 

[wildturkey]

I did not know the gen2 intake was a step back.

 

[wildturkey]

Hey Fellas,
I know it has been a while since the last post, but we finally got Rick's Mark VIII most lined out, except for cruise control not working and a tuner, and we're on the road. The biggest problem we had was making sure all ground were secured. that seem to come up a couple of times. Other than that it was plug'n'play with lots of patience and persistence.
Crappy day for taken pics, but he had got the exterior clean.

What do you think of those wheels? I thought with the black molding and gen2 black mirrors it works.

Ebony interior finally and heated seats are nice.

I got my bird back from the votech. Do you think I ought to buy 'em a pizza? LOL

Read ya later, Nick