As you have noticed by now, Ford has put a lot of engineering into your Lincoln. Unfortunately, the factory headers are designed for ease of installation, not power. A set of tubular headers will help engine breathing greatly. You will need the following tools/supplies: can of Liquid-Wrench, Fel-Pro exhaust manifold gaskets (or better), header bolts (they are smaller than stock), socket set w/ deep wells and at least a 12 inch extension (a universal joint is handy too), good wrench set, patience, patience, PATIENCE.

This job will not be done in an hour. Plan a good day around this. It took me 9 hours, but that was after LOTS of trial and error. I hope to help you trim that time down quite a bit. Start the night before by hosing all the header bolts with the Liquid-Wrench. Don't forget the collector bolts under the car. You will thank yourself the next day when all the bolts come right out. Let the car sit overnight to let the Liquid-Wrench penetrate fully. Put the front end up on jack stands (not bricks, not ramps, not boards, not a jack.....trust me on this) as high as you feel comfortable working. I recommend jacking up the engine a little for added working room. Place a board on the arm of a floor jack. Pick up the engine under the oil pan using the jack. Only lift it about 1/2 inch or so. The extra room will be helpful. Now you are ready for start yanking parts.

You may not believe it, but both headers are going to come out of the top WITHOUT having to yank the intake. The battery isn't even moved. I recommend starting on the driver's side, since there is more room to work. Work your way from the front of the engine back, loosening bolts. The bolt that holds the dipstick tube may prove troublesome. I had to hold the bolt with one wrench while turning the bolt with another so I could release the tube. Remove the dipstick tube by pulling up on it. Go ahead and remove all the header bolts. You will notice some of them are studs. Don't worry about them, the engine chain brackets that attached to them will no longer fit over the new headers anyway. Also remove all of the spark plugs. Make sure to mark the wires as to their correct cylinder (masking tape works great). It's time to climb under the car now.

The collector nuts are next. Do the driver's side first, you won't want to ever look at another collecter nut after you do the passenger's side. Here is where the foot long socket extension comes in. Using a deep well socket, remove the nuts holding the collector to the H-pipe. This side is fairly straight forward. Now on to the passenger side. The bottom nut is pretty easy, nice straight shot. The top nut is another story. There is a O2 sensor in the way. Unless you can unscrew it (mine was frozen solid), you will have to work around it. After much cursing, I found just a shallow socket and a ratchet are the only way to get to the top nut. There is just enough room to slip the ratchet/socket behind the sensors and loosen it. I recommend loosening the nut until it can be turned by hand. If you back it off too much with the ratchet, the ratchet will be caught behind the sensor. It's tight, but I got my big meat hooks in there, so you can too. Now you can go back up top and pull the headers out.

It will take some positioning, but the headers WILL come out the top. Slide the headers towards the battary and they will come out. Be patience and don't force them. Mine slid out with careful positioning. Once the headers is out, peel the old exhaust manifold gasket off the head. Make sure to get it all. Now for the passenger's side.

You will have to remove the intake tube first. Then remove the A.I.R. tubing. It is a mess of tubes located just above the header. You should be able to remove the 2 large rubber hoses from the metal tubes near the firewall. There is a small plastic tube running from the wiring harness to the A.I.R. tubes. Remove it and tuck the whole harness out of the away. You can not fold the whole A.I.R. tubing mess forward and out of the way. Remove the header bolts and spark plugs just like the driver's side. Since you already removed the collector bolts, the header should come right up and out. Peel off the old exhaust manifold gasket from the head. Now take a break, the next part is gonna be fun.

I purchased my headers used. If you buy new headers, they should come with headers bolts. You can use the stock bolts, but I sure don't recommend it. I did and that accounted for at least 2 hours of my 9. Header bolts are smaller than stock bolts. This allows for the larger diameter header tubes. I also had to enlarge the bolt holes in the headers so the bolts would line up on the heads. I used a drill bit the same size as the holes in the stock headers. Don't use anything much bigger or you will weaken the header flanges. Test fit your headers before doing any drilling, mine may have just been bent. It does not matter which side you start on first. Slip the header down, being careful to match up the collector with the H-pipe. Thread in the first and last bolt into the header and head. You can now hang the gasket in place and begin inserting bolts. Look at the headers and think of which bolt looks like it will be the hardest in install. Thread it in first. Move on to the next hardest bolt and work to the easiest. Don't worry about torquing them down yet, just get all the bolts in. Once all the bolts are in, start tightening them from the center of the header out. Get used to tightening the bolts, you will be doing it a lot from now on. Make all the bolts good and snug. Put back all the A.I.R. tubing, the intake tube, spark plugs, wires, and anything else you took loose. Your now done with the passenger's side. Now to the driver's side.

Go ahead and slip the header down and into place. Align the collector to the H-pipe and insert the end header bolts into the head. Slip in your gasket and insert the bolts in the same manner as the passenger's side, from hardest to easiest. Don't tighten the bolts down yet, just get them started. Slide the dipstick tube back into place. You may have to crawl under the car to guide it into the hole. There is a hole in the top of the oil pan where the tube slides in. You will have to grind off a little of the bracket that holds the dipstick tube. The bracket will no longer fit next to the header pipe. Grind down one side until the bracket fits. You can now tighten the bolts in the same way you did the other side, from the center out. You can now put the spark plugs and wires back in. Next are the collector bolts.

You may want to take another brake before tightening the collector bolts. Start with the driver's side. The collector will have a flange on it. Slide the flange up and onto the header collector studs. Hopefully they should fit. Mine took a little "persuasion" (read: big &^%& hammer) to slide on. Using your nice long socket extension, thread the nuts onto the header studs. Go ahead and crank the nuts down tight. Now for the passenger's side. Getting the flange up onto the header studs is tough. I recommend using the socket extenstion to help push it up and onto the studs. Once it is on, hurry up and thread on the bottom collector nut. Don't tighten the nut yet, just get it started. Now for the fun part. You will have to thread the top collector nut on by hand. I recommend a little grease on the header stud to help the nut turn by hand. You will have to contort yourself, but you can reach up to the bolt. Once it is started, you must thread it as far as possible by hand. You will only be able to use the ratchet for the final tightening due to the tight space. Once the nut is hand tight and you can get the ratchet onto the nut, tighten the bottom bolt. Now crank down on the upper bolt. Tighten the bottom bolt one last time and you are done.

Now for the moment of truth. Fire up the car and listen. Does it sound like a popcorn popper? If it does, shut it off immediatly and tighten the header bolts again. Lather, rinse and repeat until no more exhaust leaks are heard. Now you can go drive your car around for a while. Let it warm up and cool off a few times. You are trying to get a few heat cycles on the headers so that they begin to seat. I drove my car for a day before I went to the next step. Let the car cool down (overnight if you want) and then retighten the bolts again. This tightening should last a while. Unfortunately, most headers will leak, it is some unwritten law of the universe. Most racers just accept it. Just retighten the bolts every time you have a chance or hear a leak. That's it. Enjoy!