Worked on a 1998 FWD Lincoln Continental today

[LeoVampire]

A friends father went for his inspection before registration renual and ended up failing due to the PCM saying the forward o2 sensors and the single temp sensor not working properly.

SO before I touched it he gave me the money to order the parts and I sugested changing out the plugs and doing an oil change as well seeing he has never done the plugs on it and hasn't changed the oil in 3 years.

Yes he is the type of guy that dosn't do anything till he has to love working on those cars.

Anyways everything was going without a hitch till I got to the spark plugs. As you know these have the DOHC 4.6 in them as well.

Took off the forward coil cover no problem did the plugs and they were worn down pretty good had a gap of almost 60 thousands.

But on the coil cover facing the interior cabin they were all filled with oil up to where the round seals are to keep the oil out of the spark plug chamber. :eek: I was shocked this thing ran with out a skip and was as smooth as could be.

I had to suction all of the oil out of them wich took some time and I checked the coils with an ohms meter all were in the 5.8 to 5.6 range to my surprise.

I found the same wear and tear on those plugs and basicly the same gap as the others. He needs the car and could not even think about my doing the cam cover seals. So I put it back together finished the job and cleared the codes. I told him to drive it @ least 100 miles before he hits the inspection station again.

I had never seen that much oil build up in a spark plug chamber and still can not understand how this thing ran without an issue. Aparently once the oil hits the top of the seal it leaks back inside of the engine so it dosn't over flow to the top of the coil cover it's the darndest thing I ever saw.
:awe: I did learn one lesson out of this. After the oil change it smoked like all the rings and valve seals were gone. I put in the Mobil 1 synthetic. So for ha ha's I decieded to drop the oil back out of it and put in conventional oil and the smoke stoped almost right away.

I told him he is on his own now once he passes inspection seeing he dosn't even try to take care of it. I just hope he passes now without an issue.

I figured you guys might find this job interesting.

[Matt In Detroit]

Had a few of those continentals. Nice cars, fast too. Thats somethng about the oil in the spark plug holes.... Not the first time ive heard about certain cars not liking syn oil.

[Egon Spengler]

People like that anger me. Let it get bad and then ask you to work on it? I have been there a few times and I was not happy about it. An hour job turns into a 2 day job because of stuff breaking, waiting for parts, etc.

I can't believe that oil story! That is amazing!

Never heard of a car not liking synthetic. Thanks for the heads up! If I were to every switch over and have that happen I would have figured I was screwed, so thanks for the information. Never knew that about synthetic!

[SpartaPerformance]

I can't believe it ran with all that oil in the spark plug bores. WOW.... well it is a Ford!! :D

[Vortex]

Synthetic is great for real cold climates, racing ect... That said, a high quality conventional oil is just fine if changed regularly. Ive heard sometimes guys with older Harleys change to synthetic and go out to the garage a day later and see their bikes in big puddles of synthetic oil. It tends to find the weak gaskets.

[justbob]

I got one better for ya Leo. I'll have a 305,xxx mile 2000 Chrysler 300 in the garage tomorrow for it's first timing belt:eek:

BTW, all drivetrain is original and perfect.

[babbage]

Wow what a job! 3 years. Just wow. I bet when you drained the M1 out of it was black too after running it for 10 mins. (was it?) That thing could use an Auto-Rx treatment or 3 for sure.

[Egon Spengler]

I got one better for ya Leo. I'll have a 305,xxx mile 2000 Chrysler 300 in the garage tomorrow for it's first timing belt:eek:

BTW, all drivetrain is original and perfect.
Wow... I will never buy a chrysler because I find them to be garbage... this is amazing!!! I thought for sure that thing would have at least 3 transmission replacements by now!

[LeoVampire]

Actualy what surprised me about the oil droping it was how clean it actualy was. But it seriously failed the sticky spread test between my fingers and was more like water than oil.

When I started it with the synthetic it was like I had just used Sea Foam on it there was a cloud behind it that no one would be able to see through and it was very steady and the rear spark plug wells filled up fast with the oil too so had to drain them out again.

After I added the normal oil in and changed out the filter again as I said it started to clear up almost right away and with a few in gear guns of the engine it finished clearing out the smoke problem.

He went through inspection today after doing the 100 mile run around I told him to do and it passed fine seeing they only pluged into the PCM to do the test.

He called and thanked my for everything but I did tell him he was on his own for now on seeing he isn't taking car of the car until he needs something. But I think that went through one ear and out the other.