Hi,

I recently purchased a 1970 Lincoln Continental Mark III that I plan to fix up a bit and drive over the summer. I am wondering if these engines (460 Dove casting) can run alright on reg. gas or if I need to run premium. Right now I have to run it with the vacuum advance unhooked and plugged or it will ping and misfire (currently have reg. fuel in it). Also I now these engines were rated a 365 hp but I remember reading somewhere that they put out closer to 400 hp. Anyone know if this is true? Thanks

 

they came from the factory with 10.5:1 compression ratio, so even running on todays premium is pretty iffy. as long as you aren't putting it under a heavy load and back off a little on the total timing, you can probably run it on prem fuel quite okay, but regular fuel is probably a big no-no if you don't want it to detonate itself to death after awhile.

also they didn't come with hardened valve seats, so you have to either put some lead subsitute in to keep the valves from recessing even farther or get the heads redone.

nice motor and plenty of toque out of these motors (factory rated at 500ft/lbs, that is diesel territory) other than the fuel issue.

rgds
Mike