Pinging is a sign of low octane fuel in the tank or the engine may have jumped time if the vehicle has high mileage, I believe the Lincoln has a timing chain rather then a timing belt, the chain is much stronger and lasts at least double to triple the amount of mileage a belt lasts. Have a shop run a timing strobe on the crank to see where your timing marks are in respect to the factory requirements, if the car is timed properly and there isn't anything wrong with the gas in the tank(try adding an octane booster to see if that helps allieviate the ping) then test the computer system for any possible codes, perhaps the 02 sensor is bad or the I.A.C.(Idle Air Control Motor) is defective causing the engine to run too lean and ping, a code stored in the computers memory will reveal this.
Answers & Comments
Pinging is a sign of low octane fuel in the tank or the engine may have jumped time if the vehicle has high mileage, I believe the Lincoln has a timing chain rather then a timing belt, the chain is much stronger and lasts at least double to triple the amount of mileage a belt lasts.
Have a shop run a timing strobe on the crank to see where your timing marks are in respect to the factory requirements, if the car is timed properly and there isn't anything wrong with the gas in the tank(try adding an octane booster to see if that helps allieviate the ping) then test the computer system for any possible codes, perhaps the 02 sensor is bad or the I.A.C.(Idle Air Control Motor) is defective causing the engine to run too lean and ping, a code stored in the computers memory will reveal this.