Member and New England Chapter President of Lincolns of Distinction

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This is my 1994 Lincoln Mark VIII, purchased from a Lincoln dealership in 2001. It currently has 80,000 miles on it. It's exterior paint is a relatively rare factory color called Portofino Blue and has a dark blue leather interior of the same name. It comes with a 280 horsepower 4.6L (281ci) 32 valve DOHC V8 and an 4-speed automatic (AODE) transmission.

It's first ever award was won at the 2004 All-Ford Nationals by taking First Place in its class: (All Years) Mark VIII Highly Modified.

Current modifications include:

SCT 4 program switch chip w/ custom tune
LMS 900cfm Megameter Mass Air Kit w/ K&N air filter
LMS cold air box and removed air intake resonator
LMS 2 1/2 inch XX-pipe true dual exhaust system w/ Magnaflow mufflers
Kooks 3/4 Length ceramic coated headers w/ high flow cats
Ford Motorsport 8.8 inch posi rear w/ 3.73 gears
Carrier bushing kit
Precision Industries 3000rpm stall converter
LMS fuel pressure regulator
24 lb/hr Bosch fuel injectors
Screamin' Demon Coil Packs
LiveWire spark plug wires w/ NGK TR6 plugs gapped at .035
1-2 accumulator spring replacement
Baumann Engineering shift kit
Ford Powerstroke Diesel transmission cooler
Walboro 255 fuel pump
Hypertech 160 degree thermostat
Addco 1 1/4 inch rear anti-sway bar
10.9" KVR cross drilled rotors w/ dual piston PBR Calipers on the front brakes
12" KVR cross drilled rotors on the rear brakes
Team Loco 143 18" anthracite painted wheels
235/50/ZR18 Dunlop SP Sport 9000 Max Performance tires (Y-rated up to 186mph) for the summer
245/50/WR16 Sumitomo HTR+ Ultra High Performance All-Season tires for the stock rims in the winter
245/50/R16 Nitto NT 555R Drag Radials for the track
Mirror tinted windows (not telling the percent)
Remote starter
Zex dry nitrous kit w/ bottle opener and heater

Results of Dyno Tuning:

Naturally aspirated: 238hp and 243ft-lbs at the rear wheels

125 shot of nitrous: 333hp and 373ft-lbs at the rear wheels

Bang for your buck:

For anyone not familiar with modifying the Mark VIII, I'll give some additional detail on the more important mods and what my experiences with them have been so you know where to start. Usually, the first 3 which give the most gain are the chip, exhaust and posi (Ford calls it Traction Lok) rear end with a numerically higher gear ratio. These gave me the most noticeable improvements in performance for my money.

A Chip for the car's computer, which several vendors sell, firms up shifting, adjusts air/fuel ratios for more horsepower, and even can improve fuel economy. Mine has certainly been worth it's price and is the easiest modification to do.
Converting the restrictive fake dual exhaust to real 2.5" dual exhaust is another way to reclaim power and enjoy the sound of the V8. Don't listen if a muffler shops says it can't be done, just find a better shop. At least one X-pipe will be needed to equalize backpressure and reduce drone and I believe two help even more. When choosing a muffler, try to find sound clips of different ones to compare before buying. The louder they are the more drone they will have. With the stock exhaust manifolds I was very satisfied with my Flowmasters since I wanted the car as loud as possible at wide open throttle and have a nice burble at idle, but there will be mild drone at about 1600rpm. However they were just too much with the recent addition of the headers, so I have switched to straight-through Magnaflows. I have found it is worth paying extra money for stainless steel tips since they will show and chrome rusts away very quickly in New England winters.
For the rear end, getting rid of the open differential is a big help on launches and changing the gear ratio from stock (3.07s on base models, 3.27s on LSCs) to 3.73s or more, improves acceleration. The Ford Motorsport center section sold for the Mustang Cobra 8.8" rear end is the easiest and cheapest way to accomplish both these things at once since the gears are already installed and the new 'pumpkin' can just bolt up to the car in place of the stock one. 4.10 gears also work well for this car, but don't come already inside a center section and may not be a good choice if the car does a substantial amount of highway driving, because at about 75mph the engine is already revving up to 3000rpm. This was the reason that the 3.73s were the best choice for my car.

From my experience, gains in the 1/4 mile ET for the chip and exhaust are about 2 tenths of a second each and the rear end with 3.73s about 3 tenths.

My next favorite mod was the Addco 1 1/4" solid rear sway bar to replace the tiny hollow stock one. While it doesn't help track time it greatly improves cornering stiffness and body roll in a car that needs all it can get with its floaty air bag suspension. If I had to do it again I might have gone with the the even stiffer 1 3/8" bars front and back and I still may.

For small but still important gains at the track, changing the plugs and wires can help and good sticky tires are vital. 245 mm wide tires are about as big as you can comfortably fit and still have all four the same size for tire rotation. My Sumitomos have been surprisingly good tires in any weather as well as gripping at the track while still being by far the most inexpensive I could get in an Ultra High Performance rating of that size.

For those more serious about racing and 1/4 mile time slips, the 3000 stall torque converter easily is worth 3 tenths of a second; however, it isn't cheap and I wouldn't recommend it for everybody. It definitely improves acceleration, but at the cost of some drivability. With a stall speed much higher than stock, in my car almost no torque is sent to the rear wheels before the engine reaches 2500rpm so it feels like the engine revs for nothing below that level. I consider it a very minor annoyance and I like my converter, but others may not feel the gain is worth the price. Also, with either the torque converter, the shift kit, or both, a transmission cooler is absolutely necessary.

The other mods I have listed will help performance but are very difficult to measure in terms of 1/4 mile ET gains. My last piece of advice is if you want to install any kind of pulley set, do it at your own risk. Some have been shown to burn out stock alternators.

Pictures:

Just my car