Head removal Lincoln Town Car 2004 Executive

[Ken Tolley]

Head removal
I have read that you need to remove motor to replace head gasket on Lincoln Town Car 2004 Executive.
I have also read it can be done with motor in.
I have blown head gasket on LHS that need replacing.
Does the motor have to be removed to carry out replacement?

Thanks,
Ken

 

[Town]

The 2007 Service Manual does not have an in-vehicle procedure for removing the heads. The head removal procedure begins with removing the engine. The 2003 models and up have the engine tucked under the metal cowl which may not give enough space for the heads to be removed.

I think I have heard of heads being removed in the car but this may apply to earlier models with more space at the back of the engine compartment.

Good luck.

 

[Town]

I checked the Town Car series 1994 and 1996 and the service manuals show in vehicle head removal. So that should apply to the series 1992 thru 1997.

The 2000 model service manual does not show in vehicle head removal so it appears 1998 thru 2011 models must have the engine removed to remove the cylinder heads.

Sorry, good luck.

 

[Ken Tolley]

Just updating my original post / question.
We have just removed both heads with the engine still in position.
All the manuals say it can't be done but they are wrong.
Big job but all done.
Suggest replacing inlet manifold at same time.
It appears the original inlet manifolds had a few issue with weak spots.
Wish I had known that before.

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[Town]

Congratulations on doing the heads in the car. Did you see any particular reason why the manual says you cannot do it? You did well to overcome any restrictions.

I would have thought the original intake manifold would have been replaced before now. The plastic front coolant jacket was prone to cracking and leaking and even breaking off a large part which flooded the engine with coolant. The factory introduced an aluminum cross-over intake manifold in 2001 to resolve the problem of coolant leaks. Aftermarket manifolds have the same aluminum cross-over too.

Good luck.

 

[wimpy]

As Town stated, FoMoCo changed the front of the intake manifold to eliminate cracking problems(it had to do with the heat/cool cycles that the plastic couldn't accommodate). That was done in 2001, to my knowledge the issue was eliminated in by late 2001 model year, so your 2004 wouldn't have a problem. I've got 3 LTCs (03,05,09) none have intake manifold problems.

 

[wolf_walker]

The later intakes still fail, just differently and they take awhile, even with bad coolant changing/type practices.
I put one on my 04 the other month, it looked to be original, was failing quite handily and predictably
where the alloy and plastic at the front mate and the gasket between the intake and head as well.
That was at 220K, had been leaking for awhile, and had dirty improper coolant in it. Given better
attention it'd likely have lasted longer. The plastic was absolutely rotting and crumbling, and there was very
little external sign of it in the condition shown below. The current production Ford Motorsports intake
looks to be identical to my 04 (assuming it was stock) and the upgraded felpro gaskets were a definate
improvement(no plastic and oversize port gaskets to account for corrosion).

 

[Slick Fan]

Wolf_Walker, thanks for posting with your experience on this issue, great photos too!

I have a feeling my '03 Town Car may have developed a problem with this, it's been very slowly losing coolant over the past few months & so far I haven't been able to track it down. Looks like I'd better pull the intake & have a look-see.

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[Town]

The later intakes still fail, just differently and they take awhile, even with bad coolant changing/type practices.

Welcome to the Forum.

Bad coolant is very corrosive so perhaps that is responsible for the intake manifold gasket and plastic failure. Hope you flushed that out of the cooling system.

Thanks for the update, never heard of that before.

 

[wolf_walker]

May well be, this one was full of green stuff and a bit cruddy. I've drained/filled it a couple times with G05 and it'll be due a radiator next spring due to a slight bend on the lower
part of it and the ac condenser from the PO driving up on something, I'll get it proper then.
Though if I'm honest, I've seen/owned numerous cooling system with plastic components that had green for many decades with
no ill effects(since new even), I'm not sure why this one failed as it did unless the plastic in both the gasket and the intake has a shelf life so to speak.
Those were plastic radiators and valves, maybe the heat or something creates a different circumstance for an intake.
Also it did last 200K miles as near as I can tell, can't complain but so much.
I have other G05 users in the fleet so I'm happy to stock just the one coolant though.

 

[Town]

The earlier models used the green coolant that is not compatible with the current gold colour G05. The coolant only lasts for a few years (3 for the replacement Ford coolant version of G05, although original was 5 years). Old coolant becomes an acid and destroys cooling system components so even worse when it is not the correct formulation.

Good luck.

 

[wolf_walker]

Interesting, generally G05 is 5 years/150,000 miles in light duty use and 3 years/300,000 in heavy.
I'm sure mine was well over that by several times on either scale, and with the lesser coolant at that.

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