I was 12 when I first discovered that suicide door Lincolns existed. Going thru the family photo albums, I discovered that my dad once owned a '61 as a used car in the late 60s. I pulled the photo from the album, put it in a little frame and told my self that one day I'd have one too. Fast forward 15 years: my friend and Lincoln collector David Glavy said he was going to do some restoration on a Sheffield Grey and red '61 sedan that he owned and I'd seen some years before. He wanted to know if I was interested in it when he was finished. He named his price and I promptly agreed.
The intervening years presented a lot of opportunities to own a slab-sided Lincoln. Many good examples got away. Most for lack of funds and others because I came to my senses and realized they'd be overwhelming projects with seriously negative returns. I even managed to own a '62 that fit the latter category.
Three years passed between the time I told David I wanted the car and when he finished the cosmetic restoration. During that time, I saved my pennies and dreamt of the day of delivery. January 20th, 2004 the car was finally delivered. I could hardly believe the day finally came. I thought I'd just park the car in the garage and just stare at it for a good week or two.
David did all the body and interior work and had the car painted. I'm left with tackling the electrical and mechanical. So far I've done the usual tune-up and fluid changes. I've also redone all the brakes including a conversion to a dual master cylinder, fixed the locks, speedo, fuel sender, drag-link, and a handful of other smaller things like locating and installing the missing trim pieces in the trunk and hiding a modern radio. Yet to be done are several major items, including a transmission rebuild and some engine valve train work. The exhaust needs to be completely replaced too.
And now, here it is several months and a couple hundred miles later and I'm got the engine in pieces and scattered about my garage. After patching up the exhaust with a couple of mufflers I could now hear the valve train more than ever. And with the mileage I'd put on the car producing more and more leaks, I decided to tear into the engine to have a look at the noise problem.
At first, it didn't seem too major. I found the two pushrods for the No.3 cylinder bent and broken into pieces and rattling around in the valley. I figured the valves were stuck from sitting, and when the car was started, the rods broke trying to push the valves open. One of the valves was free now, but one was still stuck -- and stuck good.
So off came the heads, and with that everything else. I hope that'll take care of the leaks when everything is back together.
Here's the head off the car:
Notice also that the manifold is cracked. No supprise there, though I am supprised that I couldn't hear anything leaking.
The head are C4 1964 heads so someone has had this apart before. The block is 1961 but there's not much wear for 120+K miles so it might have had an entire replacement in the 60s. Who knows.
