Intake Manifold Problems on Lincoln Town Cars
Ford vehicles manufactured with the 4.6L engine (Crown Vic, Grand Marquis, Town Car, not the Mustang) come with a fully plastic intake manifold. Ford recognized this was a problem, and issued a recall on non-civillian vehicles only. If you have a Crown Vic Police Interceptor or a taxi or fleet vehicle, you qualify for the repair under the recall. Call your local dealer immediately and have them run your VIN and get this done.

The replacement manifold is mostly plastic again. The front section is made of metal and is redesigned to reduce the amount of strees on that section. You can tell visually if your manifold is the old one or the new one.

The upper radiator hose attaches to a metal piece on the engine on the new manifold. (pictured above)

The front piece of the manifold is silver-looking metal, while the rest is black plastic. (pictured above)

My intake manifold cracked at 101,000 miles, but I've heard of others cracking much earlier. I think accelerating quickly (read: flooring it) puts that extra stress on the manifold and then it eventually cracks. Symptoms include coolant spewing all over the engine, thus creating lots of smoke or steam. If it happens, pull over immediately and shut the car off. Open the hood and let the coolant burn off until the engine has cooled a little. Check your coolant level. If you have coolant, you can drive, at slow speeds, to a safer position. It's probably better to just have it towed if you can help it. Don't drive for extended periods with it cracked.

If you end up paying for the repair, it's about 5 hours labor and about $300 for the new manifold. The mechanic has to remove everything on the top of the engine to get the manifold off, so it's possible things will break in the process, inducing cost. My car wasn't that old (1996) so the plastics hadn't really become fragile.

One member points out a possible temporary repair solution: --- 8-23-2004

I have a 96 Town Car with a cracked intake manifold. While I am looking for a decent price on a replacement, I have found that a product called Marine-Tex (Grey) works really well to repair the crack. Remove the alternator, sand the area for better adhesion, clean the area well with alcohol or acetone (make sure no coolant is seeping from the crack) and apply a liberal amount of Marine-Tex. You may have to build up around the repaired area with tape to keep the epoxy from running from the face of the manifold. It is not a permanent repair, but it would let you use your car until you can find a manifold.

I tried J-B Weld, but this did not hold up after the first time I tested the car. Currently, I have about 400 miles on this repair. -Bruce

Good luck!