How many miles can you put on one of these? I`m looking at a car to drive to work, and it has 206,000 on it, and is still sounding good. Its a 93 lincoln.

70 Torino Cobra

These motors are long life if well cared for. If it doesn't smoke, the oil looks good, the coolant looks good, and it sounds quiet (no knocking or rattling)then the motor is fine. The transmission is the weak point in the 4.6 cars of that vintage. I have a 93' Mark VIII with 115K miles that has devoured it's 2nd 1993 tranny. I am putting a 1999 tranny in it now. This will not be as much of a problem if this is a town car or continental. If it is a Mark VIII, you WILL replace or rebuild that tranny at some point in the future. The Mark had the DOHC version of the motor making much more power than the SOHC of that year.

There are taxi cabs in my town that are ex-cop cars. Several have in excess of 300K with no overhaul and never a cam cover removed....As has been said, the cab company owner has STACKS of tranny cores, however.

They say they have never had a tranny problem, except every now and then it will drop down two shifts and pick it back up right away. It is a mark, thanks for the info. I will have to take a closer look at it now.

70 Torino Cobra

Only thing I know of that they have problems with is the chain tensioner/guide things for the timing chain. Buddy of mine had his let go & bend a bunch of valves in an engine that had less than 100 thousand miles on it. I imagine it was a fluke thing but I've heard stories of others who had the same problem.

The same engine had the heads reworked, had a little port-n-polish done, and things like big cams, headers, a different intake, injectors, CAI, MAF, and a twEECer R/T. I did the tuning on it & it's putting out some nice power & regularly gets spun up over 6 grand and gets an occasional 125 shot of nitrous. Bottom end of the motor has never been apart so I'd say they're pretty damn tough if properly cared for.

The one that bent the valves - was it a '95?? I bet it was. They had a bad run in '95 with that problem.

http://www.markviii.org/htdocs/dc/dcboard.php


The above website is very valuable for these cars.

With the mileage, you should be paying no more than $1500 for the car.

These cars are a blast to drive if they are right. I bought my '93 back in January. I paid $2000. Keep in mind that I had wanted one since I first saw them. She was asking $3200. I started categorizing what it would need. I offered the $2000 and she said she would think on it. She called back an hour later and said ok. I have done the following:
1 - The climate control buttons were thin and crack on this car. I replaced the climate control panel with one from a '95. The buttons are made better.
2 - The air suspension is wonderful when it is right. It can be expensive to work on. My front struts were siezed. The struts are integral with the bags up front. I replaced my whole air bag setup front and rear with a mMonroe conversion kit. The kit cost $500.00.
3 - As I said, you WILL replace that tranny. That slipping out of gear and back in is likely the MLPS sensor. That is a $30 replacement from Autozone. - Look under Neutral Safety Switch. The old type were not as watertight as they should have been. Corrosion gets in there and then the tranny will do weird stuff like that. If the tranny is ok otherwise, do the following as soon as possible after getting the car. Pull the tranny pan. Pull the valve body. Replace the 1-2 accumulator piston and springs. The old type break and lodge causing failure. Do what is called a J-Mod. (the 1-2 accumulator is part of this) It increases flow and reduces slip as the tranny transitions from one gear to another. Go to the MarkVIII site and search for J-mod. Install an Auxilary cooler. Flush all the old fluid from everything. Replace with Mercon V.
4 - The radio amplifiers tend to go bad on both the premium and the JBL sound systems. To put in an aftermarket radio, it is best to run new speaker wires and new speakers as well. The factory speakers are very high impedance. The wires going to them are VERY thin. It was a good factory setup, but you can put better in there now for often less than you can find a new factory amp.
5 - Cruise Control. Mine was disabled by the Ford dealer when I bought it. These are under a recall. There is a switch plumbed into the brake system. If the membrane between the electrical and hydraulic side of that switch goes bad, a fire can result - sometimes hours after the vehicle has been parked. Ford will look at the vehicle, replace the switch if needed, and put in a new harness that will disrupt electricity to the switch if it goes bad.

I have no regrets about mine. It is a comfortable car that also handles decently, brakes decently, and will get down the road with all haste.

The guys over at the Mark VIII site are good guys. You will get a lot of support. Just realize that a Mark VIII is not a buy it and run it and forget about it car. It will demand love from you. If you treat her right, you will be happy.

OK, Headlights are an issue as well. They fog up. New lenses can be bought for about $250.00 per side. Just polish them with the stuff you can get for the purpose. With them clouded up, low beam is useless, just run on high beam until you fix the problem.

The alarm system. - The switch under the hood on the passenger's side is twitchy. Unplug it and forget about it. (If you are getting nuisance alarms.)

The door switches - These tend to stick and then the car's message center complains about the doors being ajar when they are not. The switch is right there above the latch where the door strick goes. Spray WD40 up in there. Open and close the door repeatedly. SPray more wd40..repeat this until it frees up..and it will. (The switch will pit and corrode along it's shaft and stick. If you want to replace them, they are cheap, but you will have to take the door panel off. I got mine freed up and haven't had a problem since.)

Nope, the one that bent the valves is a 2000. Like I said, it was probably a fluke thing any ways.

Yes, that must have been a fluke. The 95's had a huge problem. I think that it was something with the cams or something actually shearing.

Thanks for all the info, it just may come in handy.

70 Torino Cobra

The cam shearing problem you're describing was associated with the Taurus SHO dohc, which was an entirely different motor than the 4.6.

This is from one of the other forums - The issue in the 95 mark 8s had to do with the tensioners and the valvetrain.

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Craig, we never did determine if your "old" motor was out of a 95, did we?

I still suspect cam/spring/rockers/valvtrain differences in 95 production.

But that's just based on the 12 I know of...all 95's.

My buddy Joe seems to think perhaps Ford tried to do something different with the chain tensioners in 95, and oil pressure issues. Chain slap = erratic cam timing, which can also cause odd valvetrain performance.

The scenarios we found ALL none of which had anything to do with "high rpm engine speed". All either let go at start-up, or rapid acceleration(like yours, with a throttle flash/rpm spike-but nothing above 5000 rpms), or long-time continuous RPM(cruising at freeway speeds). The most memorable was the guy who was going 70 mph, thought he ran over something because the car shuttered, and then began to run poorly. He pulled over, saw nothing, and re-fired the engine on 7 cylinders.

result...tossed rocker/broken valve spring #3 primary intake. 1995 Mark VIII, driven by a 60+ yr old, original owner, 155k miles.
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- David

Well i bought the car on sat,. and it runs like a raped ape. Its got a few problems, minor exhaust, and body defects, but i think its gonna be a good one. Thanks for your help with this.

70 Torino Cobra

Good deal, Tracy. My parents own two of em and I had a 93 that would bark the rear tires on the one two shift at anything over half throttle. Drove the ricers crazy...

Hey Cobratori,

Did you join up on the MarkVIII.org board??? Over there, I am efigalaxie. Welcome to the world of the Mark. It is one that you will find at turns to be frustrating and rewarding. Still one of the nicest cars Ford did in the 90's.

- David

Ya ,i joined up over there. Havny posted, but have been readin. Lots of info over there. Thanks agin

70 Torino Cobra