diff --git a/packages/ember-htmlbars/lib/node-managers/component-node-manager.js b/packages/ember-htmlbars/lib/node-managers/component-node-manager.js
index 0bcb011be41..1cbec43cc79 100644
--- a/packages/ember-htmlbars/lib/node-managers/component-node-manager.js
+++ b/packages/ember-htmlbars/lib/node-managers/component-node-manager.js
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ import { get } from 'ember-metal/property_get';
 import { set } from 'ember-metal/property_set';
 import setProperties from 'ember-metal/set_properties';
 import { MUTABLE_CELL } from 'ember-views/compat/attrs-proxy';
+import { HAS_BLOCK } from 'ember-views/system/link-to';
 import { instrument } from 'ember-htmlbars/system/instrumentation-support';
 import LegacyEmberComponent from 'ember-views/components/component';
 import GlimmerComponent from 'ember-htmlbars/glimmer-component';
@@ -45,7 +46,10 @@ ComponentNodeManager.create = function(renderNode, env, options) {
 
   component = component || (isAngleBracket ? GlimmerComponent : LegacyEmberComponent);
 
-  let createOptions = { parentView };
+  let createOptions = {
+    parentView,
+    [HAS_BLOCK]: !!templates.default
+  };
 
   configureTagName(attrs, tagName, component, isAngleBracket, createOptions);
 
@@ -65,8 +69,8 @@ ComponentNodeManager.create = function(renderNode, env, options) {
   // Instantiate the component
   component = createComponent(component, isAngleBracket, createOptions, renderNode, env, attrs);
 
-  // If the component specifies its template via the `layout properties
-  // instead of using the template looked up in the container, get them
+  // If the component specifies its layout via the `layout` property
+  // instead of using the template looked up in the container, get it
   // now that we have the component instance.
   layout = get(component, 'layout') || layout;
 
diff --git a/packages/ember-routing-htmlbars/lib/keywords/link-to.js b/packages/ember-routing-htmlbars/lib/keywords/link-to.js
index 8ee162ce0a2..26097642f2a 100644
--- a/packages/ember-routing-htmlbars/lib/keywords/link-to.js
+++ b/packages/ember-routing-htmlbars/lib/keywords/link-to.js
@@ -3,9 +3,8 @@
 @submodule ember-routing-htmlbars
 */
 
-import { readArray } from 'ember-metal/streams/utils';
 import Ember from 'ember-metal/core'; // assert
-import merge from 'ember-metal/merge';
+import { RELATED_VIEW } from 'ember-views/system/link-to';
 
 /**
   The `{{link-to}}` helper renders a link to the supplied
@@ -315,19 +314,13 @@ export default {
   },
 
   render(morph, env, scope, params, hash, template, inverse, visitor) {
-    var attrs = merge({}, hash);
-
-    // TODO: Rewrite link-to to use arbitrary length positional params.
-    attrs.params = readArray(params);
-
-    // Used for deprecations (to tell the user what view the deprecated syntax
-    // was used in).
-    attrs.view = env.view;
-
-    // TODO: Remove once `hasBlock` is working again
-    attrs.hasBlock = !!template;
+    Ember.runInDebug(() => {
+      // Used for deprecations (to tell the user what view the deprecated syntax was used in).
+      // Until: 3.0.0
+      hash[RELATED_VIEW] = env.view;
+    });
 
-    env.hooks.component(morph, env, scope, '-link-to', params, attrs, { default: template }, visitor);
+    env.hooks.component(morph, env, scope, '-link-to', params, hash, { default: template }, visitor);
   },
 
   rerender(morph, env, scope, params, hash, template, inverse, visitor) {
diff --git a/packages/ember-routing-htmlbars/tests/helpers/link-to_test.js b/packages/ember-routing-htmlbars/tests/helpers/link-to_test.js
index 89c3dd294d1..c9e83b5dca4 100644
--- a/packages/ember-routing-htmlbars/tests/helpers/link-to_test.js
+++ b/packages/ember-routing-htmlbars/tests/helpers/link-to_test.js
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ registry.register('service:-routing', EmberObject.extend({
 
 registry.register('component-lookup:main', ComponentLookup);
 registry.register('component:-link-to', LinkComponent);
+registry.register('component:custom-link-to', LinkComponent.extend());
 
 QUnit.module('ember-routing-htmlbars: link-to helper', {
   setup() {
@@ -145,3 +146,15 @@ QUnit.test('unwraps controllers', function() {
 
   equal(view.$().text(), 'Text');
 });
+
+QUnit.test('able to safely extend the built-in component and use the normal path', function() {
+  view = EmberView.create({
+    title: 'my custom link-to component',
+    template: compile('{{custom-link-to view.title}}'),
+    container: container
+  });
+
+  runAppend(view);
+
+  equal(view.$().text(), 'my custom link-to component', 'rendered a custom-link-to component');
+});
diff --git a/packages/ember-routing-views/lib/views/link.js b/packages/ember-routing-views/lib/views/link.js
index 83b8cff1b73..05d4e3416e6 100644
--- a/packages/ember-routing-views/lib/views/link.js
+++ b/packages/ember-routing-views/lib/views/link.js
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ import EmberComponent from 'ember-views/components/component';
 import inject from 'ember-runtime/inject';
 import 'ember-runtime/system/service'; // creates inject.service
 import ControllerMixin from 'ember-runtime/mixins/controller';
+import { HAS_BLOCK, RELATED_VIEW } from 'ember-views/system/link-to';
 
 import linkToTemplate from 'ember-htmlbars/templates/link-to';
 linkToTemplate.meta.revision = 'Ember@VERSION_STRING_PLACEHOLDER';
@@ -365,7 +366,7 @@ var LinkComponent = EmberComponent.extend({
     if (lastParam && lastParam.isQueryParams) {
       params.pop();
     }
-    let onlyQueryParamsSupplied = (this.attrs.hasBlock ? params.length === 0 : params.length === 1);
+    let onlyQueryParamsSupplied = (this[HAS_BLOCK] ? params.length === 0 : params.length === 1);
     if (onlyQueryParamsSupplied) {
       var appController = this.container.lookup('controller:application');
       if (appController) {
@@ -416,8 +417,7 @@ var LinkComponent = EmberComponent.extend({
       this.set('disabled', attrs.disabledWhen);
     }
 
-    // TODO: Change to built-in hasBlock once it's available
-    if (!attrs.hasBlock) {
+    if (!this[HAS_BLOCK]) {
       this.set('linkTitle', params.shift());
     }
 
@@ -431,7 +431,7 @@ var LinkComponent = EmberComponent.extend({
       while (ControllerMixin.detect(value)) {
         Ember.deprecate(
           'Providing `{{link-to}}` with a param that is wrapped in a controller is deprecated. ' +
-            'Please update `' + attrs.view + '` to use `{{link-to "post" someController.model}}` instead.',
+            (attrs[RELATED_VIEW] ? 'Please update `' + attrs[RELATED_VIEW] + '` to use `{{link-to "post" someController.model}}` instead.' : ''),
           false,
           { id: 'ember-routing-views.controller-wrapped-param', until: '3.0.0' }
         );
@@ -503,4 +503,8 @@ function getResolvedQueryParams(queryParamsObject, targetRouteName) {
   return resolvedQueryParams;
 }
 
+LinkComponent.reopenClass({
+  positionalParams: 'params'
+});
+
 export default LinkComponent;
diff --git a/packages/ember-views/lib/system/link-to.js b/packages/ember-views/lib/system/link-to.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..d12ab6e8ebf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/ember-views/lib/system/link-to.js
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+import { symbol } from 'ember-metal/utils';
+
+// These symbols will be used to limit link-to's public API surface area.
+export let HAS_BLOCK = symbol('HAS_BLOCK');
+export let RELATED_VIEW = symbol('RELATED_VIEW');