Turbo Taurus

I have a 97 Taurus with the 3.0 Litre SOHC V6. I was thinking while working on a BMW turbo project that the Taurus would be awesome to Turbocharge. I have seen quite a few supercharged Tauruses (Tauri?) but never thought of a Turbo'd Taurus. It got me thinking. It does have ridiculously low compression right? Its also a V6 so I could even go twin turbo. Plus its a 3 litre so with properly sized turbos I could have almost no lag. Plus if it can handle boost from a supercharger, then it could probaly handle a little turbo boost as well. Anyone have any insight into this.

Would think that you'll need a lot of $$ to play around with on this project. Then what are you going to end up with?

the vulcan definitely has the room, you'd have to swap in an AX4N though, because the AX4S trans that comes in most Vulcan Tauri would take a shit at the first sight of boost.

Also, there are no SOHC Tauri, they are either DOHC or OHV.

what?! *falls over dead and sad*
I drive an OHV car? And its not a corvette?1!1 Well that doesn't matter, do they make any manual trannies that work in my car or are they all autos? Do they make an LSD for a taurus or do I have to deal with constant one wheel wonders? And to answer Willyum's question, I would have one awesome Taurus, because its the only Turbo Taurus I've ever heard of.

The only manual transmissions you will find for a Taurus of any kind would be for the earlier Gen I's available with a 4 cyl. or the 89-95 SHOs, neither of which will bolt up to your engine. May I reccomend a Super Coupe if you're going the FI route? :D

I would but there are 2 factors.
1. I hate thunderbirds
2. The only reason I want a Turbo Taurus is for the nifty sleeper factor, not to be the all out greatest and fastest car ever, just the fastest (non-NASCAR, curse you NASCAR!) Taurus ever.
So I can deal with an auto, but I'm still looking at a Turbo solution for the Taurus.

Not sure if it would fit but would be a smarter move to install the V-8 and drive train out of a recent model Continental.

Ok, I'll explain it again. I do -not- want a Turbo Taurus to have a ridiculously fast car. If I wanted that I would go buy another S13. I want a Turbo Taurus, because I want a Turbo Taurus, not a stupid fast Taurus, but a Turbo Taurus, and I would be happy with fastest forced induction Taurus on the planet.

fastest forced induction taurus is a stripped down turbo SHO in florida that runs 12's.

Also, the MTX-3 from the Tempo/Topaz will bolt to your motor, you'd need a custom computer and custom half-shafts though and the shifter would just have to be coming up through the floor because there's no manual transmission consoles made for the gen 3

Crap, ok, so I can deal with having the only FI Taurus in my town. I'm not shooting for 12s yet. I can also just deal with an auto.

Alrighty here...let's try explaining things like this. Let's suppose you were to do the wiser thing and buy an SHO to boost. For 8,000 dollars after numerous Driveline modifications and whatnot, you'll still have a Taurus running low 12s. I don't even want to imagine the pain involved in doing that to an SLO Taurus. Point is there are many better sleepers for less money than what you would pay to make yourself a 12 sec. Taurus, with better reliability to boot. Face it, a FWD 4 door family sedan is a bad starting point for a performance vehicle.

Here's just a few excellent sleepers for you.
1. GMC Syclone/Typhoon
2. Buick Grand National
3. Ford Taurus SHO
4. Dodge Spirit R/T
5. Pontiac Grand Prix GTP
6. Pontiac Bonneville SSE-i

Lookie there, every one of those cars is boosted, with the exception of the SHO, with varying degrees in availability and price range. There are so many great sleepers out there, why go to all the trouble of starting out with such a poor performance platform compared to these cars, not a single one of these cars is slower than a 15 sec. car, and it's easy to pull a boosted car deep south of that for very little money.

This will be the third time I've said this. I just want to turbocharge the Taurus, for the sake of Turbocharging it, not to build some godly Taurus sleeper. Maybe one day I'll start it over with a SHO engine, but for now, a pair of tiny turbos from a couple of Saab's, and I'd be happy.

On an unrelated note, do the DOHC and SHO motors drop right in place of mine, or is there lots of fabrication involved. If I'm doing fabrication then its gonna be for Turbos, if I can just drop a SHO engine in, I'd be happy.

Which SHO motor? V6 or V8 (All SHO motors were DOHC)

V6 SHO motor would need custom mounts, you could easily run a manual with it too since you could buy an engine and manual trans together, the interior would just be ugly because of the no console that fits.

V8 SHO motor you'd need the mounts from a '96-'99 SHO and an AX4N Trans. The V8 SHO motor is probably as hard or harder to turbo than your vulcan.

Well if I had the V8 SHO motor I think I could deal with NA for a while. Did the V8 SHO ever come with a LSD or is it open diff forever for me?

open diff forever

curses! I hate one wheel wonders! Ohh well, I can deal. Now to start work on finding a SHO V8. Is there much of a difference between the SHO V6 and the 3.0 DOHC in your Taurus drdisque?

I love the kitty with the equilizer!!!!!!!!!!!!

the SHO V6 and the Duratec V6 are completely different design-wise but are quite similar performance wise, the Duratec makes a little less power up top though and has a bit fatter torque curve down low though. The duratec is also a bit easier to take care of because it isn't an interference motor.

My oh my how the misinformation on the SHO motors annoys me. I don't really know where to start. The V-8 SHO with the 3.4 liter is equipped with a LSD, the V-6 5 spd. SHO's are not, however Quaiffe manufactures a LSD for our cars. I'm not sure on the difficulties of swapping to a SHO motor in a 3rd gen, but I know that the difficulties involved with switching to a SHO motor in a Gen I or II is going to end up costing more than to just buy an SHO with far better features and suspension, swapping to an SHO involves switching subframes entirely. Also to go ahead and answer your questions on SHO V-6 and a standard V-6 on a gen I or II Taurus, they share nothing in common, other than oil filters, bore, and stroke. The SHO V-6 is fully Yamaha built.

The V-8 SHO's are 3.4 liter V-8's based off the 2.5 liter Duratec V-6, with Yamaha heads. The V-6 SHO's with 5 spd. manuals are faster than the V-8 models by nearly a second however in the 1/4. I'm kind of confused by what you want now, first you were all gung-ho about turbo'ing a stock Taurus, and now you seem to be into the idea of an SHO, so I'll keep my mouth shut for the moment, my best advice is if you want a SHO motor, you might as well take the car it comes with, it will be far cheaper, and you get more. It's easier to buy an SHO and slap some GL bumpers on it and remove any other markings. And just so you know, they make Superchargers for the SHO motor already.

if you want to turbocharge your Taurus thats cool I hate people who all try to do the same thing as everyone else, so it's cool that you are (finnaly) doing somthing different, as for a auto tranny, lots of shops can beef up the gears (I don't know what they do, but they make them stronger) and try Phantom Grip for an LSD I doubt it, but it's worth a try, you would also have to reduce the compression in your car before putting a turbo on it, this can be done many different ways, such as the rods, the vcrank, the pistons, and I've also herd getting a thicker head gasket will also achive this, but again, I think this a cool Idea and since you have a non SHO it would be one of the best sleepers ever!

and try Phantom Grip for an LSD

I'm going to have to disagree with this bit of advice, yes Phantom Grip does make an LSD for the SHO, but the Quaife has proven to be a much better built unit, the SHO Phantom Grip LSD calls for a removal of two spider gears, leaving the power to run through just two instead of the four, and taking corners quickly eats away at it.

never knew that, thanks for the info!

Yep, no problem. Better late than never. ;)

is the removal of the 2 spider gears required fpr all of the Phantom Grip Units? And do know how the Phantom grip works, or a URL that explains how they work?

I don't believe the other Phantom Grip Differentials work in relation, but I'm pretty sure that the Taurus SHO differential is modified from another car, which is fairly common for other companies as well. Phantom Grip seems to make good units from what I hear, but the SHO community has had many complaints and failures, mostly the auto crossers.

I am curious though, where you are finding supercharger kits for the tauruses.....

I'm not sure, I can look into it for you though no problem.

Alright, that didn't take too long :D This is a race prepped 89 SHO that went up for sale on Ebay not long ago, I believe it went for about 9k.
In the second picture you get a good shot of the S/C, it's a unit from Vortech.

http://www.imgmag.com/images/trezureseekrs/SHO/main.jpg
http://www.imgmag.com/images/trezureseekrs/SHO/ENGINE3.jpg
http://www.imgmag.com/images/trezureseekrs/SHO/steeringxwheel.jpg
http://pages.sbcglobal.net/pauline_enea/New%20Folder%202/SVI_0002.JPG
http://pages.sbcglobal.net/pauline_enea/New%20Folder%202/SVI_0004.JPG
http://pages.sbcglobal.net/pauline_enea/New%20Folder%202/SVI_0006.JPG

bump...Don't tell me you gave up already AErrorist, so what are you gonna do? Turbo for style points or dream for an SHO conversion?

sounds like like someone has too much time on there hands!

sounds like like someone has too much time on there hands!

Who? The S/C SHO or the kid that wanted to turbocharge his Taurus?

AErrorist -

OK, I too have an interest in investigating the possibility of turbocharging a Taurus. The Duratec 3.0L has been around since 1996. If 30% of the Tauri were delivered with the 3.0L Duratec over 10 years with an average of 200,000 per year, there might be about 600,000 out there. This does not include the Escapes with the 3.0L Duratec. How many of the 600,000 might be interested in a Turbocharger kit? 5% would be 3,000.

Still interested?

5% would be 30000 and I highly doubt 5% of taurus owners would be interested in spending $3000 on a car thats only worth $4000-$8000 and will soon be out of production. Most tauri, even duratecs, are owned by older people who aren't interested in performance. Also, the transmission problems will only be exacerbated by a turbo. I think that if you made a turbo kit, you'd have trouble selling 100 of them, and the ones you sold would be mostly to contour owners who have done 3.0 swaps.

Nice catch - just trying to see if anyone is paying attention :-) OK, bad math too many electro-shock treatments :-)

Yeah, maybe 5% is way too high. I am not so sure about how many folks would spend a substantial amount on an older Taurus, but that's what marketing studies are for - right? $3,000 might be a bit low, maybe $5,000 based on other kits on the market? Again, I think a marketing study is required to determine how many people at what ages own Tauri (Duratecs or Vulcans). Are the later transmissions any better? I have a 1996 manufactured in 1995 - yes the transmission had a problem. I see the axle ratio changed in 1997. The baby boomers (I fall in this categoty) have many sedans, are a thrifty bunch, and some might have a few extra greenbacks to spend.

This study (if I may call it that) might go no where, but I would like to be able to prove technical feasibility, get estimated costs, and consider a business plan. Technical feasibility is a side interest. I have an assignment to write a business plan (for a class)......this is interesting.

Cheers,

Burt
:wink:

OK, took a look under the hood to find a place to fit a turbocharger to the exhaust system. The Duratec exhaust has a "Y" pipe that snakes towards the passenger side. The area under the hood has very limited space. Perhaps moving the battery to the trunk would help, but the exhaust pipes run in the opposite direction. A quick look under the car reveals the Y pipe with hardly any room to squeeze in. I see this as a show stopper.


Cheers,

Burt
:wink:[/QUOTE]

all of the turbo duratec contours build a custom Y-pipe that combines in front of the engine and puts the turbo up there because there's actually a little room up there.

I have a 97 Taurus with the 3.0 Litre SOHC V6. I was thinking while working on a BMW turbo project that the Taurus would be awesome to Turbocharge. I have seen quite a few supercharged Tauruses (Tauri?) but never thought of a Turbo'd Taurus. It got me thinking. It does have ridiculously low compression right? Its also a V6 so I could even go twin turbo. Plus its a 3 litre so with properly sized turbos I could have almost no lag. Plus if it can handle boost from a supercharger, then it could probaly handle a little turbo boost as well. Anyone have any insight into this.
hey i was thinking that a thunderbird turbo would prob. fit but what you said about the twin turbo there is a new car that has just came out it britain called the noble they use ford 3.0 and they have a twin turbo on it im sure you could get that to work but you would have to cut the car up because you know there isnt much room in the engine bay

the noble engine is RWD and based on the Jaguar/Lincoln duratec not the Taurus/Mazda one. Therefore the manifolds wouldn't work. The brand of car that the turbo comes off of doesn't matter, you could build a turbo setup equally easily using a Garrett, Mitsubishi, or IHI turbo.