93 with indigestion

My 93tc has been in my possession fro 17 years and doesn't owe me a penny. It has 180K miles on it and it has run like a top until the last few months, with the exception of a quart of oil to a gas tank refill. It used to puff blue smoke, but that has ceased, and now when I pull out of the drive and try to accelerate, it coughs and gags, actually it has a bad case of flatulence. After approx. 5 backfires, it takes off and runs the rest of the day as normal. On occasion, it waits until I pull out in traffic about 1/4 of mile away from the house to start it's bogging down and backfiring. I usually stay in the turn lane until it makes up it's engine (mind) to run at posted speed.

Last week, I was on the freeway and it started to ping. At first, it sounded like something rattling in the ashtray. After turning off the radio and fan, it became apparent that it was the engine. I took the first exit, about another 3 miles down the road and when I came to the light, the car died. I was lucky enough to get it out of the intersection, I tried to start it again, it hesitated and the started, shortly followed by the pinging. I turned it off and called AAA.

After being towed home, the oil was checked and it was fine, something to cause suspicion in it's self. After sitting in the garage for a week, we started it up and it ran fine.

It is too cold and snowy in MI to walk and problems that go away by themselves usually return by themselves. Any suggestions? There was about 17 miles worth of gas in the tank and the plugs and wires are new in the last 12 months.

I love my Lincoln, is there any hope???

I once had a T-Bird that acted somewhat like that. Turned out to be the catalytic converters were plugged. I put on new converters and, voila! No more problem.

With my '95 TC I'm starting to have a little of the same problem along with some "rotten egg" smell. Makes me think I'm going to have to get converters on it. 182k on the clock.

Yes the cats could be cloged. I would replace the fuel filter, and check the air filter. Start easy and go from there.

Clean the horse power passages under the intake elbow. There should be a lot of posts about cleaning that. Over time a lot of carbon builds up under that elbow. lincolnsonline probally has info on that as well.

One more off the wall thing I just thought of is the crank sensor. If it's backfireing it could be slightly out of time, just keep that in mind as a possible to check item.:2cents: