Hi Folks,

Kindly posting here in the FTE as suggested by an FTE poster who saw my thread in the Lincoln website. Would greatly appreciate any comments or feedback on our situation, thanks!

My father recently started up his 1979 Lincoln Continental Mark V. It has only 16,000 original km (roughly 10k miles). The car has been in storage since 1995. The very last time it was started was back in 2011, which at that seem to idle just fine.

Now in 2016, it's a different story – car didn't want to start. We now got it back running again after doing the following: took out fuel tank, cleaned it out, replaced fuel send unit, replaced spark plugs, dropped SeaFoam into fuel tank and oil crankcase. Also will mention that after adding SeaFoam, engine knocking occurred. We discovered to bent pushrods: One on cylinder #4 and one on #7. We replaced those with new ones -- no more knocking and oil pressure back to normal.

Engine runs smoothly, except for a persistent blue smoke that appears to come out of exhaust after engine warms up.

We did a compression test and found out the following (please see attached photo).

My question is, are we looking at a rebuild? All cylinders seem to have good compression except for that one #4. Could it just be a blown head gasket?

Trying to avoid a rebuild which would cost $3,500+TAX(cdn). After all engine only has 10,000 miles.

Any opinions are greatly appreciated. Thank you!!


-Romel

 

My initial thought is the valves are sticking, I would remove the valve cover on that one side and see how things look with the engine operating.

Can also do a leakdown test which will tell you to where the air (compression) is leaking.

 

As for the blue smoke, hope it's something simple like valve stem seals and nothing caused by rust on the cylinder walls.

 

I would drive it awhile to see if the rings seat after use. But I agree with Chris - do a leak down test rather than a compression test. And the blue smoke may well be valve stem seals - after all, that's one of the cylinders that had a bent push rod.

 

Any oil in the water? Water in the oil? Have you tried pulling the plugs on 4 and 7 and spraying some PB Blaster or other penetrating oil in there and letting it soak for a day or two? Bent pushrods would suggest that a valve was stuck in the guide. If the stuck valve got unstuck by way of piston contact, you may need to pull the heads to get the valves replaced. First I would follow Gary and Chris' advice and do a leak down test to see where it is losing compression. Air leaking out of the PCV or oil dip stick tube - try the PB or W-D 40 in the cylinders. Air leaking from the carb or exhaust - try backing off of the rockers to see if the valve will seal. Still leaking air - try gently tapping the valve stem (rocker off)with rubber mallet to see if carbon or rust is built up on valve face that you might dislodge it. Still leaking - probably have to pull the heads. Others may have a different approach/solutions.