Hot Rod Lincoln

[Dino]

Purchased this a little over a month ago.

2014 Lincoln MKZ, got a smoking deal on it. Was a Texas Hurricane car that suffered no damage but was covered under a large insurance claim from a wealthy woman. Car was always garage kept and came with all the service records, low miles to boot. 29,000

It had the polished 19" wheels on it but they all suffered a little curb rash, so I replace the wheels and tires with some TSW Snetterton's wrapped with Continental Control Contact rubber. I am going to refurb the original wheels they look pretty cool on the car as well.

They have new Perrelli P7's on them.

I have only driven the car three times, NE Ohio winter this year has been brutal, and this one is a fair weather driver for me.
I have been out in the garage tinkering with it, changing all the fluids, detailing it and had it to the paintless dent guy to remove a couple little dings.

Called and ordered a Livernois tune, they tell me their new tune will add 60HP and 40 TQ to the wheels on a stock motor, added their 160 thermostat as well.

 

Then I called CP-E and orded a new intercooler, they gave me a good deal on it, it was on sale for 449.00 and they gave me another 90.00 off if I take pictures of the install process and send them in. I guess nobody has ever put one of their intercoolers in a Lincoln. I also ordered a Turbosmart BOV from Steeda.

 

These mods should wake this car up and get it moving down the road.

I really like this car, pretty soon I will have my pilots license to drive it after I figure out how all the do dads work on it.

[MediumWilly22]

Glad to see another tuner here. I'd like to see those pics too. Welcome.

[riff raff]

That's pretty exciting!  Keep us posted.  Those mods should definitely wake her up.  Do you plan on doing anything with the exhaust?

[Izzy3906]

Looking good enjoy it.  Did you painted the calipers or did they came like that. 

When you get the Turbosmart BOV let us know how it feels after the install.

[Dino]

That's pretty exciting!  Keep us posted.  Those mods should definitely wake her up.  Do you plan on doing anything with the exhaust?

At this point no plans to do exhaust, the gains are very minimal. I want to see how it performs with the modifications I have planned first.

The bottle neck with this platform is the intake side, the stock intercooler is very restrictive and does not do a very good job of cooling the intake charge.

A good intercooler will give you more gains with less boost. So imagine the gains with having the ability to adjust your boost to a safe higher level.

The Livernois tune will give me three tunes, 87...91...93 octane levels, and each tune will be set for a specific boost level. The real goal here is to fix the little quirks with turbo lag and some of the flat spots in the power curve and increase fuel mileage. the side benefit will be better passing and getting on the highway abilities.

[DeviLSh]

I recently contacted CP-E as well and received the same offer for test-fitting parts on the MKZ. Great offer.

 

Looking forward to your updates/feedback on the mods.

 

:D

[Dino]

I recently contacted CP-E as well and received the same offer for test-fitting parts on the MKZ. Great offer.

 

Looking forward to your updates/feedback on the mods.

 

:D

 

 

I installed the intercooler yesterday, it was a direct bolt in. I was even able to reinstall the shroud that directs air from the lower grill opening to the intercooler with no modifications.

 

One thing I need to point out is you will have to totally remove the two bolts that hold the bumper cover to the fender on each side, and remove the two 10mm bolts and the T25 bolt that hold the headlight to the core support. It will be easier to remove the cover with the headlights attached to it.

[MKZMark]

Does it have to be retuned after the intercooler is changed?

[Dino]

Does it have to be retuned after the intercooler is changed?

 

Not if you are running the stock tune, but if you have an aftermarket tune I would have it re mapped to take full advantage of being able to tune it for optimum performance.

 

I have a Livernois tune to add, it has not yet been installed. I am waiting to get the bumper cover on and some better weather to take it out and see what difference it made.

 

Then I will add the tune to see what it does, my tuner is calibrated for stock, 87-89-91 and 93 octane. I will go in steps to see what gains I come up with, maybe even some dyno time.

[tmf2004]

any update?  i was looking at Ford Fusion parts at Steeda and it looks like the Fusion steeda instake will fit the MKZ and also maybe the Fusion strut bar.. I'd like to see the BOV also.. 

[Dino]

The weather here in Ohio has not given me many chances to drive the car. I don't want to drive it in the real bad stuff, all in all I have driven the car maybe 5 or 6 times.

I wanted to install the intercooler, BOV, and 160* thermostat and drive it first to make sure that everything is good with just those mods before adding the tuning software.

So far everything seems to be good, a little bit of a difference, but not much. I am sure once the tuning software is added it will be very noticeable.

 

I did do a major cleanup and detail to it. Took it to the Paintless Dent Guy to get a couple of door dings removed, added an amp and sub woofer, and tinted the rear tail lights. I tinted them with a light smoke tint film that almost identically matches the Smoke Quartz color of the car, the tail lights look to be a translucent Smoke Quartz color.

Looks really neat. Might de badge the deck lid.

 

Now that the weather is getting ready to break I plan to do the tune this weekend, but will be loading it in stages starting with the 87 octane first to see what a difference it makes over stock then will try one of the others.

 

Those Steeda parts will fit your car, the strut tower brace will require you to modify the hood strut mount, but is very doable.

If it were me I wouldn't bother with the CAI, nothing to gain, and a lot to lose. Just drop in an aftermarket air filter and save the rest of your money.

[tmf2004]

The weather here in Ohio has not given me many chances to drive the car. I don't want to drive it in the real bad stuff, all in all I have driven the car maybe 5 or 6 times.

I wanted to install the intercooler, BOV, and 160* thermostat and drive it first to make sure that everything is good with just those mods before adding the tuning software.

So far everything seems to be good, a little bit of a difference, but not much. I am sure once the tuning software is added it will be very noticeable.

 

I did do a major cleanup and detail to it. Took it to the Paintless Dent Guy to get a couple of door dings removed, added an amp and sub woofer, and tinted the rear tail lights. I tinted them with a light smoke tint film that almost identically matches the Smoke Quartz color of the car, the tail lights look to be a translucent Smoke Quartz color.

Looks really neat. Might de badge the deck lid.

 

Now that the weather is getting ready to break I plan to do the tune this weekend, but will be loading it in stages starting with the 87 octane first to see what a difference it makes over stock then will try one of the others.

 

Those Steeda parts will fit your car, the strut tower brace will require you to modify the hood strut mount, but is very doable.

If it were me I wouldn't bother with the CAI, nothing to gain, and a lot to lose. Just drop in an aftermarket air filter and save the rest of your money.

 

 

 

 

 

which drop in filter?  K&N?  thanks 

Edited March 14, 2018 by tmf2004

[Dino]

which drop in filter?  K&N?  thanks 

K&N would be good, or one of the equivalent brands.

 

The intake side of the motors is more than ample enough at supplying enough air, and they do an even better job at supplying a colder air intake charge over after market.

[tmf2004]

what other brands do you recommend?

[Dino]

I purchased my car it already had a K&N in it, but if I was going to purchase new I would go with AFE Power.

 

It is the same concept, washable gauze filter, but is a dry filter. No oiling required after you clean it.

[tmf2004]

I purchased my car it already had a K&N in it, but if I was going to purchase new I would go with AFE Power.

 

It is the same concept, washable gauze filter, but is a dry filter. No oiling required after you clean it.

 

Dino,   Do you hear more intake noise with the AFE?  I'v seen those on Ebay.. 

[Dino]

Can't say that I do, The car came with the reusable filter when I got it.

 

I am not trying to make my car make any noises. That is why when I replaced my BOV I put in a recirculating one so you could not hear the turbo sneeze.

 

This is a Lincoln, a nicely built American sport luxury sedan. Not some kids Honda sporting a fart can and the loudest BOV he can find to advertise he has a turbo.

 

I want my ride to be quiet and stealthy.

[tmf2004]

fair enough . yea i’m way past the Honda stage in life my friend. I’ve heard great things about filters. Any throttle response difference? I need to do a cabin filter as well.

[Izzy3906]

Dino any pics with all the mods installed?

[Dino]

I don't have any yet of the tail light tint, but here are a couple of pictures of the intercooler install.

 

I will post up more when I get the strut bar brace installed.

 

The last picture is an electrical diagram manual I found from a Lincoln dealer, 500 pages of all the wiring and modual components in these cars.

[riff raff]

Wow, that was a great find.  Manuals for this platform seem hard to find.

 

 

The last picture is an electrical diagram manual I found from a Lincoln dealer, 500 pages of all the wiring and modual components in these cars.

[Izzy3906]

I also got that manual it help me figure out the wiring for the sound system I installed.

[Dino]

My original intent was to put in a mono amp for the sub woofer and add a 4 channel amp for the rest of the system.

 

I was going to use an Audio Control LC7 to do this. But after adding the Soundstream PN1.650D nano amp, it is a class"D" 650 watt sub amp I don't think I need the second amp.

 

System sounds really good. I may replace all the other speakers, I have Polk Audio component speakers for all the doors, and may match them for the center channel in the dash.

 

That Soundstream amp is a real power house, gain is turned way down, and it doesn't even get warm cranking it for an hour. And I am running it at 2 ohm. Nice thing about it, the amp has a bass boost knob to adjust the amp output up to an 18db gain. I am somewhat of an audiophile, and have put together some really amazing SQ systems. This one still needs work, but definitely has potential to be a great sounding system. The center channel is a big plus. I highly recommend the Soundstream amp,

a lot of punch for the buck.

 

That manual is a wealth of knowledge, especially in a car with about 10 miles of wiring, and countless moduals.

[Izzy3906]

My original intent was to put in a mono amp for the sub woofer and add a 4 channel amp for the rest of the system.

 

I was going to use an Audio Control LC7 to do this. But after adding the Soundstream PN1.650D nano amp, it is a class"D" 650 watt sub amp I don't think I need the second amp.

 

System sounds really good. I may replace all the other speakers, I have Polk Audio component speakers for all the doors, and may match them for the center channel in the dash.

 

That Soundstream amp is a real power house, gain is turned way down, and it doesn't even get warm cranking it for an hour. And I am running it at 2 ohm. Nice thing about it, the amp has a bass boost knob to adjust the amp output up to an 18db gain. I am somewhat of an audiophile, and have put together some really amazing SQ systems. This one still needs work, but definitely has potential to be a great sounding system. The center channel is a big plus. I highly recommend the Soundstream amp,

a lot of punch for the buck.

 

That manual is a wealth of knowledge, especially in a car with about 10 miles of wiring, and countless moduals.

That's true about the manuel it does come in handy. When you get a chance post pics on your audio setup.

[Dino]

Here are a couple pictures of the audio setup, I wanted to keep it as simple and compact as I could.

 

The sound is nothing short of amazing, Soundstream equipment is some really good stuff, they make quality products for the money.

I have been using their amps for quiet a few years. You get the rated power out of their amps. attached is an amp dyno test done on the amp that I purchased.

This amp hits hard and draws very little power. Class "D" amps are your best bet for driving subs because of their low power consumption.

I would bet that my single 10 and only 650 watts hits as hard, if not harder than your 2600 watt amp and two 12's.

In theory you should drive your sub between 100% to 150% of its rated power to make it work the way it should.

The Kicker CVR10 that I have is a competition dual voice coil speaker, I am running it at 2 ohm load to extract the power from the amp, and it rocks.

 

 

I also loaded the LMS tune today, and it definitely is up on power, and my MPG have jumped up a little to between 27 and 30 around town. It was hanging around 24 and 25 before. Shifts are a little firmer and much quicker to go through the gears, turbo lag is next to nothing now. this is on the 87 octane tune. More to come as I load the other tunes and do a comparison.