84 Continental Turbo Diesel

[tony1963]

Yes, I bought a very nice 84 Lincoln Continental turbo diesel. Replaced a few parts and mostly went via BMW on the engine parts.

The big problem is the cooling hoses, radiator and heater.

Where do you ever find these hoses?

[pro-five-oh]

Those hoses are pretty hard to find. Ford won't have them, and BMW certainly won't. Odds are you are gonna have to take the hoses off and find a similar shaped hose at a large parts store like Napa. I have seen universal fit hoses made from metal tubing on custom cars, I assume this would work if all else fails.

The radiator is a tough one: I expect that you'll have to have yours rebuilt (re-cored?)and hope for the best.

You should go to the Mark VII board also and chat with the Turbo Diesel Mark owners. Some of them may have found a source of the radiators or something else you may need. There are about 3 of them there. I know one guy was looking for a radiator. smile.gif

Best of luck and welcome to the boards!

[ December 02, 2003: Message edited by: pro-five-oh ]

[tony1963]

The radiator is fine, it's the hoses that are the issue.

[franco]

Like Pro said, for the water hoses, just remove the current hoses and take them to your local auto parts store that has a wide selection of gates hoses.
They'll usually let you have access to the inventory to find the closest match possible. There will be hoses hanging all over the place so don't get overwhelmed at first sight.
Be sure hose is just as long or longer than original. And make sure the inside diameter is the same size.
If you are unable to get a/c or p/s hoses, you can have those fabricated locally using the old fittings/tubing if they're still good. It's cheaper than it sounds.
I've done it many times with different makes/models when the dealer price(even after discount!) is astronomical.
p/s hose on both the land cruiser and range rover models is over $270, fabricated it's about $40.ymmv

[ December 02, 2003: Message edited by: franco ]

[tony1963]

Well, I guess that is what we are doing. Some of the BMW hoses will work while some are strictly Ford.

Ford stopped servicing these parts in 1997.

[pro-five-oh]

Best of luck. Tell us which part numbers and what modifications (cut, or whatever) you needed to get the hoses on. We can post them in the TECH section for future Diesel owners to see.

[reynolds]

Hi Tony,
Glad to see another diesel owner in the group. We just bought ours recently also and this site has been a great source of information. We're in the process of trying to have the timing belt changed... apparently it takes special tools that our mechanic doesn't have, so we'll have to find out if the BMW dealership can do it. Just talked to a guy in Texas who has a Lincoln diesel with over 300K and he says he wouldn't trade it for anything, owned it since '89.

[tony1963]

I just had my timing belt replaced, too. The car has just at 100k miles. Replaced oil pan gasket, rear main seal and timing belt. The timing belt looked to be original!

There are no timing marks on this motor and your mechanic will have to make his own.

Bought the part for a BMW 524td 85-86 model and it is an exact fit.

Make sure and I mean SURE that your mechanic knows what he is doing on this engine.