Hopefully someone can help. I have a 1954 lincoln sport coupe. It has a 317 engine all stock except for an alternator instead of a generator. The transmition is original also. I've been running the car for 3 summers. I have had a lot of trouble with the carburator leaking. It has been rebuilt and upgrated now. The next was the distributor. It was hell to find a vacuum advance that worked. The first replacement I bought was faulty so it took a while to troubleshoot it since it worked a bit better than the original that came with the car. I now have a working vacuum advance, but the performance of the engine and trany are dissapointing. I removed the valve covers after hearing the odd tic and knock every now and then. I found 5 bent push rods.

I can't be sure of when they could have been bent. Most of the time I have driven the car was to troubleshoot one thing or another. I'm a better part changer than mechanic. It's all trial and error and read read read for me. Love the car love the hobby. Lost the wife. So now, more hobby. Sorry side track easy. I have had some spectacular back fires come out of the poor car. Vacuum leaks may have been the cause of most of those. I believe most of those are eliminated.

Here's the thing. I had been saving some cash to fix the headliner and some of the chrome. It seems foolish to do that when I need the thing running and dependable. Do I get the engine rebuilt and have some modifications done to upgrade performance and dependability. Maybe another transmition would help highway driving. Do I change the power plant completely? I kind of like the idea of keeping the original look of the engine with the giant cross over and all. though the power steering leaves a lot to be desired right now.

Does anyone have any suggestions?



Thanks for even reading Guys

It's gona drive me to drinking, if I can't keep driving that #$@*! Lincoln...