Supercharged Lincoln Continentals

[Frederic Breitwieser]

>Say Fred.

Say Garfield :)

>Uh, is the MAF unit you refer to above, the STOCK OEM MAF unit that
>comes on all 93 Continentals? 

Yes, its the MAF that came with the car.  The only thing I did to the
engine support system was to replace the injectors with one size larger
than OEM, bolt on a paxton supercharger from a Mustang 5.0L, and move the
air conditioning compressor from the back of the engine to the front of the
engine (its a transverse engine, looking at it with your knees against the
bumper).

The engine is the factory 3.8L engine, balanced, blueprinted, intake, heads
and exhaust ported, with forged pistons and shot-peened rods, maintaining
the original compression ratio, at least thats what the shop said when I
got the car back.  I drove the car around for about a month, then had time
to put in the new injectors (one size larger), and the paxton.  Brackets
had to be fabricated, and the air conditioning compressor relocated,
because the Paxton unit wouldn't fit in the front of the engine between the
engine and the radiator support bracket - its fatter than the A/C.  

When I first got the supercharger attached to the new, longer belts, the
car ran like crap.  I replaced the MAF with a 5.0L MAF (from the same car I
got the paxton from), and it ran the same way.  Idle was okay after the car
ran for about 10 minutes, but hard acceleration was pretty bad, so I put
the original MAF back in.  I decided just not to push the car for a week,
and worry about taking it out the following weekend (I installed this on a
Sunday night, which was pretty stupid).  Anyway, over the week, from
driving from upstate NY to NYC, the problem went away.  I'm assuming the
ECM learned a new trick.

Anyway, you weren't interested in the brackets, so onto the MAF issues.  I
just looked at the MAF for ya, and it says this:

	FORD
	F12F-12B579-AA
	AFH55-03B
	2F0

I know this is the MAF that came with the car... when I first did this, the
car ran like complete crap at idle, and after a few minutes, seemed to be
more "stable".  Under boost conditions, the car ran like crap, sputtering,
and obviously being confused.  I put the original injectors in thinking
something was wrong with them, and it got worse under boost.  So, I put the
new ones back in, called a friend, who told me to drive nicely for a week,
and the ECM should learn about the new injectors, as it will be using the
O2 sensor.  So, I did that, and he was right, it did get much better, and
started to purr like a kitten, in about, oh maybe 30-40 miles worth of
highway driving?   SOmething like that.  Under boost, it still ran like
crap, though the point where it would cough seemingly getting higher.  So,
I tapped the intake and put on a 0-10PSI pressure gauge, and watched what
was happening.  7PSI is about all the ECM will take before the thing chokes
to death.  Below that, it runs fine with more power/torque I can actually
feel.

That was then, this is now.

After learning a lot more about MAFs, MAPs, EEC-IV, Fuel Injection, etc,
I've done some tests over the last few months.  The MAF reaches full
voltage (5.2 or 5.3V) somewhere between 1-2PSI.  Its a cheap analog gauge,
so it could be off.  Anyway, the MAF is maxed out right away, and somehow,
the car is either ignoring it, adapted to it, or something else happened
because of the larger injectors, I really couldn't tell ya to be honest.
But this MAF does max out at about 1-2PSI.

I don't have a scan too, but the engine light and the service light stay
off.  Originally, the service light would blink on and off when I first
installed everything, and eventually it stopped, at about the same time the
car seemed to "adapt".

There are only two situations where these modifications don't peform well.
The first is when the car sits overnight in 0 degree weather, the engine
turns right over, but runs a bit rough for abut 35-40 seconds, then it
settles down, but no engine/service lights.  The second is if the car's
been run on the highway for about an hour or so, then is shut down, the
service light comes on if I start the car within a few minutes, but goes
out after about a minute.  This happens when I drive home from work (65
mile ride), and stop at the smoke shop on the way home to get a nicotine
refill.

Other than that, it seems okay.  I hope I told you something useful, or
answered your question.  To be entirely honest, I "slapped" this together,
without any real research or understanding of fuel injection systems, and
lucked out.  I know 10 times what I knew then, and still haven't a clue (10
times zero is still zero, right?)


Frederic Breitwieser
Bridgeport, CT 06606

Homebrew Automotive Website:
http://www.xephic.dynip.com/

1993 Supercharged Lincoln Continental
1989 HMMWV
2000 Buick-Powered Mid-Engined Sports Car

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