Well it finally happened.

[dlo73]

My 2000 LS ran perfectly fine all day Saturday, when I went to go start it up saturday night I turned the key and the engine was missfiring and there was a banging noise coming from the upper passenger side of the motor, after 10 seconds car died and would not start, it would crank but no go. Had a strong smell of fuel coming from the exhaust pipe. Took it to the mechanic and they can't figure it ouot other than saying that I need a new motor. went to the dealership and they agreed. Dealer wanted $5300.00 for remanufactured motor plus $1500.00 for install. The other mechanic didn't even want to touch the car. So I called a well known Salvage yard in my area and the car is being towed there wednesday. They are going to be putting in a used motor with 87,000 miles. They want $1500 for the motor and $800 for the install. What can I say I love my Lincoln. I still want to know what happened to the motor.

 

[jmtiseo]

Timing chain and tensioner?

 

[chronjuan]

Yup timing chain brroke and you need to replace the upper tencioner I've done about 5 of them. You need to check for tappet and valve damage. If the motor you are geting hasn't had that replaced you should get it done before its installed and use the metall tencioner. And newa chain you should be good for another 100 thou or more miles

 

[dlo73]

motor should have a 1 year warranty. I will plan on doing the new chain and tensioner next spring.

 

[chronjuan]

Ok I have worked on a couple of these engines that had the same problem @ about. 90 thousand miles on the engine the plastic wears out on the tencioner. Then. The chain has too much play which eventually breaks the chain when replacing the tencioner get the metel tencioner it will last for the rest of the life of engine

 

[chocolat1701]

So he questions is on gen1 and gen2 when should we change out the tensioner at what interval and does anyone have a rough amount on what it coat to get it done

 

[jmtiseo]

I was suggesting that's what happened not that is what caused this fiasco.

 

[oddball]

motor should have a 1 year warranty. I will plan on doing the new chain and tensioner next spring.

FWIW, it's a 30 minute job with the engine out of the car. Once in the car, the book time for the job is around 8 to 12 hours. Folks experience here has run two to four days. Mine (along with doing some other housekeeping) ran about 60 hours between me and a friend.

So he questions is on gen1 and gen2 when should we change out the tensioner at what interval and does anyone have a rough amount on what it coat to get it done

Tensioners are not maintenance items. The very early ones (2000, 2001, maybe some 2002) with the plastic body were made from a substandard material, leading to breakage. The later ones with metal bodies have not shown a tendency to break.
It may be worth pulling a valve cover or two every 75k or so to replace the gasket and check the chains and tensioners. If everything is tight and no chunks missing, then you're in good shape. If something does break, it's pretty obvious - a loud rattling. Driving it at that point will break things. If you shut it down and fix it, then there's usually no harm done.

 

[marcredd]

Sorry to hear about your engine. This is a no brainer, but change your oil every 3000 miles if running conventional oil. I have a "very" early 2000 model and have 207,000 miles on it(conventional oil). From other behind the scenes conversations, some of us agree that keeping fresh oil is a must do in order to prevent harmful sludge from stressing already suspect plastic. Financially, if you cannot go to the metal tensioners, I cannot stress enough to run clean oil at ALL times and do not run your motor overly hard. They truly seem to like highway miles more than city miles.