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Josh's 2003 Ford Taurus SHO 3.4L V8

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#1 · (Edited)
So this weekend I did a thing, and brought home the elusive "Doug Lewis Swap". A 2003 Ford Taurus (originally a Flex Fuel Vulcan SES) that was professionally swapped with a 3.4L SHO V8, among a bunch of other goodies.

Engine: 3.4L 32V DOHC SHO V8 - Cams Welded - Engine Mileage: 60,000
Transmission: Built AX4N Automatic - Transmission Mileage: 32,000
Brakes: Ceramic Pads & Rotors Gen 4 Front Disc - SHO V8 Rear Disc Conversion
Wheels/Tires: 16" Gen 3 SHO Painties & Uniroyal Tigerpaw Touring 225/55/16
Tune: SCT X-Calibrator-2 87/89/91 Octane Tune
Body Mileage: 195,000
Exterior Color: Dark Shadow Grey Metallic
Interior Color: Gray Cloth (6 Passenger Column Shift)

The drivetrain swap was professionally done at Ford Performance Specialists in Georgia in 2007. The total price before tax on the invoice was just a hair under $12,000. The transmission was built by AAMCO in 2012 and new ball joints, motor mounts, cv joints, etc, were done at the same time, the invoice on that was $4,500. A tune up was performed a couple years ago to the tune of $1200. The guy who had it built (his name is Jamie) is a mutal friend of my father's coworker, so we were able to talk to him before I bought it and ask him a bunch of questions about the car.

List of Modifications:
- 03 Black Leather Seats, Carpet, & Parcel Shelf
- 03 Black Center Console
- Leather Wrapped Steering Wheel
- MACH Premium Audio
- 35% Tinted Windows
- Heated Side Mirrors
- LED Interior Illumination
- 03 Dark Shadow Gray SES Sport Front Grill
- 03 Dark Shadow Gray SES Sport Trunk Trim
- Rear Spoiler
- 04-07 Taillights, LED Brake/Signal Bulb Conversion
- 03 Centennial Edition Headlights, LED Signal Bulb Conversion
- 96 Ebony Satin Metallic SHO Trunklid Emblem
- Gen 4 Front Brakes w/ Ceramic Pads & Rotors
- SHO V8 Rear Disc Conversion w/Ceramic Pads & Rotors
- Gen 3 SHO 16" Painties on Uniroyal Tigerpaw Touring 225/55/16 Tires.

And now, for the pictures!!!

One of the pictures from the ad:


The piece de resistance:


Wheels/Tires/Brakes:


Interior:



Current Exterior Pic:

 
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#2 · (Edited)
So far I've:

- Completely detailed the interior and exterior
- Removed the purpled and hazed window tint
- Installed my TAURUS license plate frame
- Replaced the wiper blades with a set of Rain-X Latitudes
- Replaced the dim and burnt out cluster bulbs with LEDs
- Replaced the dim license plate lights with LEDs
- Made a list of parts I will be needing for the project







LED bulbs:


 
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#5 ·
^Thank you both! It needed a good home, I saved it from being torn apart and parted out! It'll be a good daily driver to keep miles off of Barney when I'm done with the major stuff. Benefits of also having Barney is that if something major needs repair I can simply drive Barney and repair the '03 at my leisure! :)

Today I was able to get to vehicle licensing to get the car titled in my name. I also found the right rear tire about 10 psi low, so I pulled it off to check for any leaks. No leaks were found, but I did notice that it was difficult to get it aligned and centered right to reinstall on the car, I believed this was mostly due to the aftermarket non hubcentric spacer that's glued to the rear rotor on each side. I'm wondering if this was the cause of the vibration, because with some help I was able to get it aligned perfectly, and when I drove it afterwards there was little to no vibration from the wheels whatsoever. The rest could be solved with a simple front brake resurfacing (vibration and wheel wobble when braking) and wheel rebalancing (slight vibration and wheel wobble when moving)

The car also feels way less bogged down than it did when I first got it. Since the last owner (middle man between Jamie (guy that had it built) and I) did not drive it much more than 3000 miles in 2 years, I assume it needed to be driven and 'woken up', haha.

I will be contacting Doug Lewis in the next few days to see if he would be able to write me a new tune that will hopefully make it pass emissions testing (required in WA state to register it), Eric Lehmann says he can, so I'll give it a shot. If everything works out for me I should be able to drive it to work and such within the next week or two.
 
#7 · (Edited)
Just something I noticed... it won't pass emissions, but doesn't appear to have the MIL on? What's WA's emissions process? Is it measured at the tailpipe or something?

Edit: Just reread... if the monitors are "not ready," you'd think it would just need a drive cycle and then pass or continue to fail out with a MIL, correct?
 
#9 ·
Ummm. Not so easy in this case. Car is flashed with a X Cal 2 program. Certain features are quite possibly disabled.
Josh needs to contact the original programmer and I have already given him the contact info he needs.
 
#10 · (Edited)
@ice445 Ryan I washed the car using LA's totally awesome cleaner/degreaser to remove any left over wax and tree residue from the car, then while it was still wet I applied Adam's Polishes H20 Gloss & Guard to paint/trim/glass, let the car dry and then used Adam's Waterless Wash to remove the residue from the Gloss & Guard. After that I waxed with Adam's Buttery Wax for shine.

@thefranchise713 @zenriddles Eric is correct, I'm 90% sure the tune has disabled a lot of the emissions system because Jamie lived in Thurston County where he didn't have emissions testing. If Jamie had lived in an area that required emissions, I'm sure Doug would've tuned the car so that it could still pass. Which is what I will have Doug Lewis do.

Eric, I'm going to call Doug tomorrow as I'm off work. I also have a junkyard trip planned as well to get some necessary parts.
 
#17 · (Edited)
Today I went to the junkyard and hauled off a new fender liner for the driver's front wheel well (1/2 of it was missing), a new mirror adjustment switch (broken), a new blower motor resistor (inop, now have all fan speeds back!), a new DIN clip for my ICP, and an autodimming rear view mirror!*

After installing all of those (the mirror will be wired in at a later date) I decided to wire in my Gen 4.5 taillights (the reverse socket is different) that I bought from Paul and had laying around, I'll convert to amber signals sometime in the future. And what are nice new taillights without some Sylvania ZEVO LED bulbs? So a pair of those went in with a LED flasher relay. After that I swapped the plastidipped*grille from the SEL as temporary until I obtain some SES Sport front and rear spears.

Also got a 3 day trip permit and will be driving it to work and back for the next couple of days to work out any bugs, and to attempt to cycle the readiness monitors. If the car fails emissions again Doug Lewis will most likely be writing me another tune. :)

Picture time!*

 
#18 ·
You all amaze me as to the amount of talent that is on this forum. Great job Josh this is the exact same color as my 96 Taurus GL but yours looks nice. I would love to swap out my interior seats for cream white leather with some metallic gray inseam but not sure I want go that far with this car. Trying to put some wood trim on the dash board and interior doors at this time. Good luck
 
#20 · (Edited)
Today I was on my way to the emissions retest and a coolant line (from the water pump to the oil cooler) blew and started spitting coolant over the manifold so it was steaming badly, I popped a quick uturn and headed home (only 5 miles) very quickly and got to work. Replaced both of the small coolant lines in that area and since it was greasy as hell and I made a mess of the upper end of the engine bay replacing the hoses. I decided to degrease the entire engine bay and pressure wash all the years of grease and grime away. Bagged off both the fuse box, battery, and cone filter, as well as the PCM wiring on the firewall.

It will look much better when I get a stock V8 airbox back in there, as a K&N new cone filter will cost me $80 and I can get a stock airbox shipped for way less than that.

Anndddd now I have a presentable underhood!!!!

 
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#21 ·
Today was a very interesting day! First thing this morning I went to emissions testing expecting the car to fail again, and to my EXTREME SURPRISE the car PASSED emissions testing! I went and bought*plates and registration for the car shortly after that!*

New Plates, they're much less agressive sounding than "ATR6430". Points for sleeper status lol


Then I made yet another JY run and obtained:
- Lumbar Handle
- Driver's Side Door Reflectors
- Set of Gen 3 Tweeters and housings (no emblems)
- Blower Motor
- Set of Washer Nozzles
- Set of Gen 3 Door Handle Filler Plates (behind the door grab on Gen 3's)
-*Set of Medium Graphite Rear Floor Mats

-*Then I got home and dug out the blower motor, old one was completely dead so I lubed up the new one good and let it soak for half an hour before installing it, quiet as hell and blows WAY faster than the old one did when it worked! Now I just have to re-lubricate it with something longer lasting than WD40,*because it started squeaking again on the two lowest speeds shortly after the fact.
- Installed my tweeters, one of which had a broken wire, so after resoldering of that they went in. Currently waiting on Lance to send me his old Mach RCU. Once I get my new door clips in the mail I'll wire the tweeters in.*
- Degreased and Pressure Washed all of my Taurus floor mats. They all look**brand new*after spraying them with LA's totally awesome cleaner/degreaser (full strength), and using my pressure washer to remove the dirt.*
- Installed my new Washer Nozzles and Lumbar Handle.*







Car runs FANTASTIC and I have zero complaints at the moment. *knock on wood*
 
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#23 ·
Today was a LONG day and I'm spent.

A few days ago I noticed that there was a coolant leak. Come to find out it's the Y fitting down in the valley near the accessories side of the engine. FFW to this morning, I pulled the runners and lower manifold and fuel rail and injectors and removed the hoses and Y fitting that was leaking.

I ended up breaking down and ordering all of these parts for the car because I have the car apart and don't feel like tearing it all out again to do this in a couple months.
- 2x Brass 3/8" Y fittings (to remedy the coolant leak, ordered an extra for Barney down the line)
- 1x Air filter (for the new airbox I have on order from my friend in Arkansas)
- 1x Cabin Air Filter (old one is probably original and needs to be replaced anyways)
- 8x Motorcraft Platinum Spark Plugs (even though they were done not too long ago, I want fresh ones in the car)
- 8x New Replacement Coil Packs (with a 10 year warranty)
- 1x Fuel Filter
- 1x PCV Valve

When all the parts come in, I'll be able to put the car all back together and hopefully it'll run better than it ever has before!

Then the next step is wheels/tires and front brakes. my cars better love me to death for all the money I spend on them LOL.
 
#24 ·
Everything but my coil packs has come in! Just waiting on the coil packs to get delivered tomorrow or wednesday and I'll be able to finish this project! and hear her roar again!
 
#26 ·
Late post but last Friday I put the car all back together. When I got done and deemed it reliable enough to go for a drive I went out into the cascade foothills just to put some more miles on it. I decided to take it to work today and it had no issues both to and from work on the 92* day we had that day. The car turned 193,000 on the body too. Yesterday I also changed the oil in it for the first time during my ownership. Usually I'll change it right away but the guy I bought it from just had it done so I wasn't going to waste good oil and filter like that.





 
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#28 ·
Regarding the previous post:

I ended up breaking down and ordering all of these parts for the car because I have the car apart and don't feel like tearing it all out again to do this in a couple months.
- 2x Brass 3/8" Y fittings (to remedy the coolant leak, ordered an extra for Barney down the line)

Is there a "ready to use out of the box" part that replaces the plastic "Y" that fails made out of brass or did you buy fittings that you weld together yourself? The reason why I ask is JohntheSHOguy told me this is a part which will fail and will cause a mysterious hard-to-trace coolant leak which will bedevil the most experienced troubleshooter. I was hoping to find a replacement, but have not been able to source this part. Being made of brass is a BIG plus (vs. made of plastic).
 
#30 ·
@QshipLover The brass Y fittings that I ordered came pre-made ready to install. I actually ended up not using those, and using the brass T fitting that I bought at home depot for like $2.99. Also had to special order in some 3/8" heater hose since nobody has that in stock. Installed and re-routed the hoses and used new clamps and works like a charm!
@mctmatt Thank you!
 
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