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WARNING: this article is intended to be a guide, as no one has both finished and documented this conversion. Parts listed here may or may not interchange between your car and the donor car. Use this guide at your own risk. A Ford EVTM wiring manual for your car and the donor car's model year are recommended.

Introduction

Used on Central Fuel Injected (CFI) Lincoln vehicles from 1980 to 1983, EEC-III is a system that nobody wants to fix. Though EEC-III is durable with only 18 basic components, the self-test method is difficult and sometimes gives no error codes. Most mechanics have given up on EEC-III, and for good reason. Instead of spending hours with a voltmeter and a vacuum pump finding the problem, if you are mechanically inclined or know someone who is, you are better off swapping over to the much-loved EEC-IV system.

How would you like your EEC-IV Prepared?

There are two ways to attack this problem, depending on what you intend to do with your car. The first way is to stick with Central Fuel Injection (CFI) but convert over to easy to use EEC-IV. These CFI EEC-IV donors will be easier to swap, as the intake ports, fuel injection design, cruise control, and most other parts are very similar. Both use a similar CFI throttlebody too.

The second way is to ditch the CFI and go for Sequential Electronic Fuel Injection (SEFI). Models with SEFI will provide more power, fuel economy, and better drivability because of their tuned upper and lower intake manifolds and 8 fuel injectors. If you are a hot-rodder at heart, doing an SEFI High Output conversion and complete engine from a 1986-up 5.0 Mustang would be the ideal choice. If you are wishing to put a new engine in your Lincoln, this would be an IDEAL time to do the High Output Mustang EEC-IV swap.

Make no mistake, either route is fairly complicated. This article will discuss the CFI to CFI conversion. There is more detailed SEFI conversion information that can be found in the 1986-1987 Town Car conversion if you wish to go this route.

Finding a Donor Car for the Conversion

Here is a list of 5.0L donor cars to make sure you are getting the right parts. If you own a Mark VI, or Town Car/Lincoln, you have a Panther chassis car. Continental owners have a Fox Body car.

NOTE: To make the conversion go smoother, please stick with your chassis when getting the parts from the donor car.

Model	Year	Chassis	Induction

Thunderbird/Cougar/Continental	84-85	Fox	CFI
Thunderbird/Cougar/Continental	86-88	Fox	SEFI
Continental	86-87	Fox	SEFI
LTD Midsize	84-85	Fox	CFI High Output (not recommended)
Mark VII	84-95	Fox	CFI
Mark VII LSC	85	Fox	CFI High Output (not recommended)
Mark VII, non LSC	86-87	Fox	SEFI
Mark VII LSC	86-87	Fox	SEFI High Output
Mark VII, all models	88-92	Fox	SEFI High Output (integrated cruise control)
Mustang/Capri 5.0 automatic	84-85	Fox	CFI High Output (not recommended)
Mustang 5.0	86-05	Fox	SEFI High Output
Crown Victoria/Grand Marquis	84-85	Panther	CFI
Crown Victoria/Grand Marquis	86-87	Panther	SEFI
Crown Victoria/Grand Marquis	88-01	Panther	SEFI (integrated cruise control)
Town Car	84-85	Panther	CFI
Town Car	86-87	Panther	SEFI
Town Car	88-90	Panther	SEFI (integrated cruise control)

One last thing: With the exception of the fuel pump relay and inertia switch, you may not reuse any part of the EEC-III wiring or sensors, as this system uses a higher reference voltage than that of the EEC-IV system.

Getting Started: EEC-IV CFI parts

When you find the right donor car, remove everything and make notes as to where it went. You may need a Chilton, Haynes, or Ford (preferred) shop manual to guide you through the tasks of removing the parts from the donor car and installing on your car. Do NOT rush this process because taking the time to learn where everything goes will cut hours off the time it takes to install these parts on your car.

Here is a list of the components you will need to remove from the donor car. While this may look scary, remember that wires connect everything. This system is like a tree, and you are just pulling it out from the roots!

Complete EEC IV wiring harness, including diagnostic pig tail (near driver's side shock tower)
CFI induction (NOTE: examine fuel lines to make sure your lines will attach correctly)
EVR, EGR vent sensor assembly (on back of passenger side shock tower or under coolant tank)
EGR Valve and EVP sensor (both bolted together on intake manifold)
ECT, coolant temp sensor (on intake manifold)
Ignition Module (on Driver's side fender apron)
EEC Power Relay (under RH side of instrument panel)
Oxygen Sensor (on driver's side exhaust manifold)
Exhaust Heat Control Solenoid (on front of driver's side shock tower or under coolant tank)
Idle Speed control assembly (on valve cover near CFI induction)
MAP, Manifold Absolute Pressure sensor (on drivers side fender apron)
ACT, Air Charge Temperature Sensor (on top rear of intake manifold)
TAD/TAB, both are Thermactor sensors (on the firewall or under coolant tank)
Throttle Kicker Solenoid (on driver's side shock tower or under coolant tank)
TPS, Throttle Position Sensor (on CFI Induction)
A/C compressor sensor (on A/C compressor)
TFI/PIP: Thick Film Integration and Profile Ignition Pickup sensors (part of the distributor)
Distributor
Engine computer (located in the passenger side kick panel for Fox bodies or near the steering column under the dash for Panther Cars)
Computer mounting bracket
Firewall grommet for wiring
Check Engine light (Yes you need it, get enough wiring from the EEC computer to put a warning light in the glovebox)
All misc. brackets you find when you pull off the sensors

NOTE: I have tried my best to give you all the exact names and locations of EEC-IV parts you will need. Locations are given using a 1985 Ford Thunderbird as a reference.

Here is a list of parts that may or may not be on your CFI donor car. If they are there, you will have to use the appropriate part or bracket to make it work on your EEC-III car.

BOO, Brake On Off Switch (on the brake pedal assembly)
PSPS, Power Steering Pressure switch (on the power steering pump)
NSS, Neutral Safety Switch (on the transmission)
VSS, Vehicle Speed Sensor and its wiring from the transmission (on the transmission, can be modified to run off the Lincoln speedometer)

Because the CFI conversion has not been documented before, I would also recommend taking:

Intake manifold (to ensure the EEC-IV distributor and sensors mounts correctly)
Charcoal Canister assembly (since you are replacing a sensor related to this part)
Crankshaft pulley (since you will no longer need the EEC-III specific pulley with its pulse ring for the crankshaft position sensor)
Fuel Pump Relay (its wiring is integral with EEC-IV wiring, so why try to splice the EEC-III relay in?)
Fuel Pump Inertia Switch (see above)

EEC-III Removal Guide

The EEC-III parts you will remove from your car include:

Engine computer (same location as EEC-IV)
Full EEC-III wiring harness and vacuum lines
CFI induction
Distributor
ECT, Engine Coolant sensor (on the intake)
MAP/BP, Manifold Absolute Pressure/Barometric Pressure sensor (big aluminum thing near the washer fluid tank)
ACT, Air Charge Temperature Sensor (on the #7 intake runner)
EVP, EGR position sensor (on EGR)
TPS, Throttle Position Sensor (on the CFI induction)
CPS, Crankshaft Position Sensor (near the crankshaft pulley)
Oxygen Sensor (on the driver's side exhaust manifold)
A/C clutch switch (on A/C clutch)
EGRC/EGR: both EGR related sensors (on the firewall)
TAD/TAB, both Thermactor sensors (on the firewall)
EVP, EGR valve position sensor (on EGR valve)
Canister Purge Solenoid (on a hose near the charcoal canister)
Throttle Kicker Solenoid (on the CFI Induction and on the valve cover)
Ignition module (metal box on fender apron, one 4-pin and one 2-pin wiring harness)

When all is said and done, you will have a big box of wires, hoses, and sensors. Keep it in a box and show it to your friends so they can appreciate the level of work involved with this conversion.

Installation Notes

This is the fun part: installing the EEC-IV system! Install the new intake, distributor, and CFI induction. All CFI induction wiring and sensors (TPS, Temperature, EGR, etc) should bolt up to the intake and throttlebody with no problems.

The other EEC-IV sensors will bolt in their respective location that you saw on the donor car. This should be a simple task of drilling holes to mount the EEC-IV sensors to the body, using the length of wiring given as a yardstick to see where each sensor can be mounted. The MAP sensor and others that used to sit near the coolant recovery tank on the donor car might have to sit closer to where the original MAP sensor was on your car. If you need to install parts like the PSPS, you may have to go back other parts from your donor car to get them to work. Again, this is not a perfect science since nobody has done this before.

The new engine computer will go in the same location as your current one. You will have to route the EEC-IV wiring in the same firewall grommet, or cut your EEC-III grommet to get all the wires in. Since your car's chassis was designed to hold both types of computers and the computer dimensions are similar, swapping the two should take minimal effort.

If you own a Lincoln with a Tripminder computer, one minor wiring issue has to be addressed outside of the EEC-IV wiring:

To make the Tripminder work with the new wiring, you will need to swap the "fuel flow" wiring from pin #15 (light blue wire with pink hash marks) on EEC-III computer harness and splice it onto Pin #34 (light blue wire with pink hash marks) of the EEC-IV computer harness.
NOTE: this information pertains to the 1983 Continental Tripminder, other cars will vary.

Lastly, if I am wrong and CFI cars do indeed have a vehicle speed sensor (VSS), please read this:

Unlike EEC-IV vehicles, your car does not have a VSS on the transmission. You have this part located inside your speedometer cluster. It is imperative that you connect the speedometer cluster to the EEC-IV processor for proper functionality. Ford gave you a wire on the cluster that feeds speed information to the Tripminder. This wire needs to be spliced and connected to the EEC-IV wiring.
The wire in question comes from pin #10 (red wire) on the cluster and goes to pin #3 (VSS positive) on the EEC-IV processor. Pin #6 is also used as a VSS negative connection, which may or may not be needed. If Pin #6 is needed for proper operation, you will need to install the VSS onto your car, which probably means you will need a new transmission.
NOTE: this information pertains to the 1983 Continental Speedometer Cluster, other cars will vary.

Conclusion

Hopefully the complexity of this information does not make you want to throw your Lincoln in the scrap heap. Thousands of people have already done that because of EEC-III failures! But if you wish to, you now have ample reason to do just that.

If it has not, please contribute to this article with anything you learned after doing the conversion!

Best of luck!


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