Photo: Shawn Maggiore
We'll grant you, the 1979 Lincoln Continental's OEM engine choices were by no means small or fuel-efficient. But even the engine bay in this mighty land ship is only just large enough to accommodate the new engine this resto-modded example sports today.
Thanks to JeliBuilt Performance in Moyock, North Carolina, we get to see what happens when a four-decade-old luxury American barge does the fusion dance with a 7.3-liter turbodiesel V8 you'd normally find under the hoods of heavy-duty trucks, cargo vans, and school busses. This Carolina-based tuning shop built this engine for a very normal Instagram user and closet petrolhead called Shawn Maggiore.
Shawn's been building this hot rod Lincoln in his garage and documenting it nearly step by step since 2016. But seeing the state of this build since its last social media upload recently shows this man has exquisite tastes in his custom cars. With its custom dual-core radiator hidden under a custom blacked-out front grille, the most visually stimulating aspects of this restomod are found sticking right out from where the hood used to be.
Said hood was ditched sometime between 2016 and the present day. We think the added ventilation surely helps keep this leviathan of an engine cool for burnout after endless burnout. Goodies like oversized Rosewood 250/100 injectors and JetBuilt's custom high-performance ECU tune must help keep affairs in order as well. From intakes and fuel injections to nitrous kits, custom exhaust, and high-pressure oil pumps, every aspect of this engine is managed down to a science by the builder and shipped to the customer for installation.
Power is fed through a rebuilt Ford E4OD transmission sourced from an old F-350 truck. You may call it a transmission for cavemen. We call it practically bulletproof. Trinkets like an upgraded transmission controller from US Shift put any doubts about handling the torque of this beastly engine to bed. A Ford nine-inch rear axle meets an equally custom and shortened drive shaft at the rear wheels. As if the owner would be caught dead running any other rear-end configuration.
As for the suspension, this custom Lincoln sports eight-inch air bags in the rear with five-inch airbags in the rear for a smooth ride, the likes of which the original owner of this Continental could never fathom. Add in a lovely, late 70's vintage leather interior, and this is the kind of restomod you wouldn't mind gapping people at drag strip with all day long.
Shawn's been building this hot rod Lincoln in his garage and documenting it nearly step by step since 2016. But seeing the state of this build since its last social media upload recently shows this man has exquisite tastes in his custom cars. With its custom dual-core radiator hidden under a custom blacked-out front grille, the most visually stimulating aspects of this restomod are found sticking right out from where the hood used to be.
Said hood was ditched sometime between 2016 and the present day. We think the added ventilation surely helps keep this leviathan of an engine cool for burnout after endless burnout. Goodies like oversized Rosewood 250/100 injectors and JetBuilt's custom high-performance ECU tune must help keep affairs in order as well. From intakes and fuel injections to nitrous kits, custom exhaust, and high-pressure oil pumps, every aspect of this engine is managed down to a science by the builder and shipped to the customer for installation.
Power is fed through a rebuilt Ford E4OD transmission sourced from an old F-350 truck. You may call it a transmission for cavemen. We call it practically bulletproof. Trinkets like an upgraded transmission controller from US Shift put any doubts about handling the torque of this beastly engine to bed. A Ford nine-inch rear axle meets an equally custom and shortened drive shaft at the rear wheels. As if the owner would be caught dead running any other rear-end configuration.
As for the suspension, this custom Lincoln sports eight-inch air bags in the rear with five-inch airbags in the rear for a smooth ride, the likes of which the original owner of this Continental could never fathom. Add in a lovely, late 70's vintage leather interior, and this is the kind of restomod you wouldn't mind gapping people at drag strip with all day long.
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