The Art of the Sleeper. 500 inch F.E. in a 64 Lincoln.

Every once in a while, we run across something that is done to excess. it is pointless, a little silly, and wonderful to behold. It can be anything from that really, really big beer that you are in no danger of finishing before it gets warm, a 72 ounce steak, or one of those moments when you can't help but think "There is no way those are real. Her doctor must be driving a Bentley!"
...but I digress.

Sorry about the delay Fellas. 2011 was a "busy year" to really understate it. between a brand new addiction to the gym, moving in with my sweetheart Miss Sarah, and myself and the boys busting hump at the shop, I kinda ran out of "H.A.M.B. time". but to make up for it, I will give You all a taste of one of those brilliant moments in excess...all wrapped up in a plain black wrapper.

about a year ago, A young man walked into my shop. He said he had just purchased a 64 Lincoln Continental convertible, and that it (and I quote) had no balls. none. nada. I said I would like to look at it, and when it appeared a few days later, it was a pretty basic 64 Lincoln. a little "wheezy" from age, but complete, and showing all the signs of a pretty well cared for, semi restored land yacht on stock running gear. The motor was, for lack of a more eloquent term, wore slap the hell out. the trans, aside from being "slippy", also liked to deposit a quart or so of a.t.f. onto the shop floor every evening, but that was okay, because it made the half pint of oil it leaked at the same time easier to clean up.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the shop, we were wrapping up a 69 Charger with an all aluminum 572 inch r.b. motor- that would be a 440 based engine for the non mopar clans- that made ball busting power, and looked damn good doing it. ( If You happen to be cruising around Austin and decide to test a nice black Charger on Cragars with a flat hood...well, let's just say I hope You are swingin a big stick, because 700 h.p. is real hard to argue with.) The Lincoln owner heard it fire up, and he then said something great. he said "Why don't we just stuff that into the Lincoln?" har dee har har. yuk yuk yuk, right? ummm, The kid was dead serious. So, the boys and I set out to see what our options were.
We have this silly thing about motors at Crushproof. see, outside of the random Model A, we generally like to stay brand specific. So our natural ideas were to stab some Ford variant into it. so we went down the list. Small block ford? it would have to be a hoss to move that road boat. Big block ford? u-g-l-y- You ain't got no alibi, You ugly. just a big ass lump of iron that takes a helluva lot of work to shoehorn into most anything. This left an easy answer. The venerable f.e. Ford. so many tried and true go-fast combos, and powerful surnames, like Cobra Jet, Side Oiler, and Super Cobra Jet. with an aluminum intake, they don't weigh much more than a small block Chevy, are large, but not huge, and most important, they make SCADS of parts for them. and they are pretty motors.

So f.e. it was. from that point, things got a little out of hand.

here is where we started...ho hum. no big deal, just an old lincoln motor.


and here is where we ultimately ended up. This, friends and neighbors, is a 500 cubic inch, ALL ALUMINUM Side Oiler/ Super Cobra Jet, with a mid rise original Three Deuce set up. the only major difference is the sizes of the carbs, which instead of 500/300/300, is 500/500/500.


it also employs the services of this...

That is a LenTec a.o.d. It is rated to 1000 h.p., and has overdrive. which is a plus, because that means we can then use one of these...

which with 4:10 gears, oughtta get this big boy scootin. but before I get too far ahead, I want to show Y'all the HOW it went down. it may look like it just fell in there, but I assure you, it did no such thing.

see, some of this was easyish. for example, I used the stock Lincoln motor mounts reversed from side to side, and there were a set of "knockouts" already in the crossmember to do so. sort of. the biggest troubles we had to start with was simple. time. The transmission and block were built to order. ( yeah. if you wanna build a motor like this, expect your "6 to 8 week wait time" on your block to be more like 4 months. and the first one they sent us my machinist immediately rejected for a myriad of reasons. lesson learned. if it doesn't say "WORLD" or the name of one of the big three on it, don't expect to just pull it out of the crate and start slappin parts on it. )

but I digress. We went ahead and bought a poly block and heads for mock up. this is the first one I have ever purchased, and I gotta say it was pretty damn awesome. not without it's flaws (impossible to make ANY weight related changes, and sometimes the bungs act out.) the Transmission, thankfully, arrived on time and was a beautifully built piece and only had 1 or 2 minor things to change, at no fault to Len Tec.

so I bolted the two together and after some wrangling, whipped them into the engine bay.

( I got a bit ahead of myself here, as I am already building headers at this point, but You get the jist.)

the immediate issues were this. the pumkin sized gearbox, and frame rails were in no danger of making for a set of easily built headers. so I ditched the box, and "clipped" the rails...


trimmy trimmy...


tracie tracie


weldy weldy...


grindy grindy...


lil flesh tone, and done...sort of.

the gearbox was 86'ed. so I decided to get all modern and such. Flaming River has just released "universal" power rack and pinion assemblies. cake.

I started by removing a pretty good sized chunk of crossmember to get to a parallel spot with the steering arms. then boxed the bejeezus out of it.
Then, I faced the logistics of mounting the rack....








the silver colored plate bolts to the modified crossmember via about 20 countersunk grade 8 bolts. the "carrier" plate then bolts to it the same way.

another issue at hand was a fairly complex one. see, we decided to use a deep sump oil pan, and it hung out below the crossmember. on top of that, there were a pair of flat stock "braces" that no longer had anywhere to bolt to. hmmmm...
one skidplate/ chassis brace comin' right up.

next step was headers. by now, we have all seen headers get built, and know that even an easy set is a pain in the ass.

the other side was waaay trickier.
. if you look close, you can also see the heim ended engine limiting straps I build. trick, eh?

then, one day, it finally happened. the damn motor showed up!




'nuff for tonight, boys...more tomorrow.

 

Wow. I like it.

 

Shiney!

 

Holy fuck. cool build. I love those lincolns and you gotta love a fast tank. I will say that I was rootin' for the Mopar engine.

 

Super bitchin'...

 

All I can say is WOW! Excuse me while I throw my tongue back in and pick my jay up off the floor. You took on a helluva task and it certainly looks like you have rose to the occasion.

 

I'm diggin' it!

 

Looks good so far. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

 

More ,more ,more ....... Please.

 

In that slow, deep disco / hip hop voice: Ohhhh, yeah...

 

Hubba, Hubba!!!!!!

That should make that barge a little more "responsive"!!!!!

 

YEAAH, Viva FE. Bookmarked and will carefully follow this thread. Best of luck.

 

cool

 

Good god this is awesome. Nice Job Lux!

 

Very interesting build. The ingenuity, engineering and workmanship are very impressive, as is your writing style!

I am anxious to see the followup posts..........

Ray

 

cool build man
glad to see you back in action here.

 

Wow....love sleepers...

 

That flaming river steering box looks a lot like a fox-body Ford piece..

 

Fucking psychotic.... gonna be a tire-burner for sure.

Bob

 

I like it.

 

Wow just wow. Arlo that's amazing..

 

You so coo. I think good thoughts about you guys everytime I look at my truck which is still not finished.

 

That's going to be a killer Linc for sure! Please tell me there will be a video.. Or that there already is!

 

Wow!

 

Wow! Crazy nice work there. How about pics of the car?

 

Love it....more pics please!

 

Can't wait to see the rest of this.

 

Like the guy said, fucking psychotic! A big fan of FE's, 'specially BIG FE's in Big cars. That's what they were made for.

 

If some is good, then more is better, and too much is just enough.

 

Don't stop there !