Battlesho build thread

[CCXVI]

So it's been suggested to me many times to put everything in one place, so here we go.



Started with a basic 2013 SHO. I made the mistake of using LMS for tuning, and pretty soon after I was having the shift issues they're famous for now. I pretty much spent a year untuned due to that.

I think one of the first mods I did was electric exhaust cutouts, but after a while I realized I ran it open more often than closed and decided to just make it loud all the time.



This is where it went next, I wish I'd stuck with an H pipe but otherwise this is way quieter in cab and still has a ton of turbo whistle.

Added some old camaro exhaust tips, which made it a bit deeper and looked a lot better. Around here is where I started going to car shows.






With moderate success



At some point I did brakes, deciding to try out the Duralast GT rotors and carbon fiber mix pads. They're great but noisy.

 

[CCXVI]

So for some context, my driveway is a bitch. It's torn up cars before.




So that's when I started thinking about the lift, but I knew it'd look silly on it's own, so I started doing some research.



Test fitting a 17" wheel. After adding a 5mm spacer it worked great.



And then we ended up here. 245/65R17 BFG A/T's. Just a hair taller than stock, so the speedo is happy. Turn in takes about a week now, but the ride is so damn smooth compared to the 20's and rubber bands.



And this was the last time it was ever clean.

 

[CCXVI]

Glamour shot. So now that I knew the tires were a go, it was time to figure out the lift. I thought about a few things, but ended up trying some rubber coil spacers from JEGS.





This worked, but time would tell how well it would hold up

SPOILER: IT DIDN'T

I also put 2" spacers in the rear. As soon as I saw the suspension setup I knew it would be bad, and it was. The springs are inboard about halfway on these things, so it lifted the back 3-4" or so. So I swapped them out with 1" spacers, which are currently still working.



Tested it out, and for the first time, no matter how I went up or down, NOTHING SCRAPED. This was a good day.

I then made the mistake of joining the FB groups, which reminds you constantly how much cool shit there is out there for these.



Like gauge pods! Shoutout to bpd for helping me wire up the tranny temp (it's super easy)



With some spaghetti. I'm an electrician, trust me.



The SSM torque mounts were a huge improvement, I'll always call this a day 1 mod.

So, tuning. This is something I've always had bad luck with. From BAMA garbage when I had my mustang, to the LMS woes here. I finally pulled the trigger on a gearhead tune and SCT, and that was underwhelming. The reason, as it turned out, was they sent me a bad tune. Once figured this out, it took them a while to make me a new one, and I got impatient and got an Ortiz tune. Now that I have both GH and Ortiz, there's no comparison. Ortiz wins hands down. I'm not running the ghost cam tune anymore, but the Ortiz pulls so much harder and runs better overall than GH by a noticable amount. It does not have the AO feature, so GH still has a place as a road trip tune for sure.

 

[CCXVI]

So now wer get serious with the lift. I tried explorer struts, they won't fit. I tried explorer springs, turns out they're the same as Taurus springs. Explorer struts would give 1.5" of lift with clearance for larger tires, but I think I'd need explorer control arms and such.



Now that it was lifted, and had the tires, I figured it was time to make it more aggressive. I don't like push bars on street cars, but I wanted to try it on this and it turned out way better than I'd ever expected.



I also got one of them nifty EPP intakes and painted it with Ford Gray pain, and did the engine cover to match.



This is the factory pipe from the intake to the turbos, replaced with independent aluminum tubes with mandrel bends. EPP is the only intake worth doing IMO.



So I was trying one of these, and I got run off by a rain storm. When I came back, the ground had eaten my jack stand (the bit of red under the door.) This is when I took a break for a bit, and was actually running two different front suspensions on each side.



So I got a quickjack. If you're looking at one, and get it, throw away the rubber blocks it comes with and get some 4x4's instead. Lay them down longways and put pinch weld blocks on those. It fell off 3 times in a row with the rubber ones, they just suck. With the wood it passed the shoulder slam test (which you should always do, if you don't trust it to stay then you shouldn't be under it!)



This picture shows how the front had started to sag. Also the horns and Rigid lights. I'm planning to hide the horns at some point.



So now we're here. This is with an explorer lift kit up front, which is 2" strut spacers and sway bar extensions. It mostly dropped in, took a bit of opening on the strut holes on the body but was otherwise simple. Ride is back to factory quality, and once I get an alignment it'll be all good.



Balanced stance, with no more rake. I think that's everything for now.

 

[BayAreaSHO]

Love this build man, absolutely savage, and so unique!

 

[SHOdded]

 

[luigisho]

If you just told me about doing this to a SHO I'd swear it's the worst idea I ever heard. Looking at it..It really holds your attention. Nice job!

 

[CCXVI]

Thanks, I'm happy with how its turned out so far.

 

[4sfed]

So I don't see you talk about the push bumper. Where did you find that?

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

 

[CCXVI]

This one is a Westin, but Go Rhino and Setina also make them. Just Google Taurus push bar and look at them all to see which one you like best. Someone makes an aluminium one, and there are full wraparound ones too.

 

[Aaron Marty]

Thats dope man. Now all u need is some front and rear locker's

 

[Shohobo]

So now wer get serious with the lift. I tried explorer struts, they won't fit. I tried explorer springs, turns out they're the same as Taurus springs. Explorer struts would give 1.5" of lift with clearance for larger tires, but I think I'd need explorer control arms and such.



Now that it was lifted, and had the tires, I figured it was time to make it more aggressive. I don't like push bars on street cars, but I wanted to try it on this and it turned out way better than I'd ever expected.



I also got one of them nifty EPP intakes and painted it with Ford Gray pain, and did the engine cover to match.



This is the factory pipe from the intake to the turbos, replaced with independent aluminum tubes with mandrel bends. EPP is the only intake worth doing IMO.



So I was trying one of these, and I got run off by a rain storm. When I came back, the ground had eaten my jack stand (the bit of red under the door.) This is when I took a break for a bit, and was actually running two different front suspensions on each side.



So I got a quickjack. If you're looking at one, and get it, throw away the rubber blocks it comes with and get some 4x4's instead. Lay them down longways and put pinch weld blocks on those. It fell off 3 times in a row with the rubber ones, they just suck. With the wood it passed the shoulder slam test (which you should always do, if you don't trust it to stay then you shouldn't be under it!)



This picture shows how the front had started to sag. Also the horns and Rigid lights. I'm planning to hide the horns at some point.



So now we're here. This is with an explorer lift kit up front, which is 2" strut spacers and sway bar extensions. It mostly dropped in, took a bit of opening on the strut holes on the body but was otherwise simple. Ride is back to factory quality, and once I get an alignment it'll be all good.



Balanced stance, with no more rake. I think that's everything for now.

 

[Shohobo]

This is an awesome build...been a lurkin' and watchin' @CCXVI.

Southern dudes are the best when it comes to cool creative builds like this...seen it first hand many a time. I am from WI and lived in GA for eight years from my early 20's on.....met and married a GA peach. Had the privilege of meeting and becoming good friends with many wild car/truck enthusiasts back then and Muddin' was the game. Will be following....she sounds awesome.

 

[fordfanstan]

Are you sure the strut spacers weren't indexed like the OEM struts? That may be why you had to open up the holes as you said. It will be interesting to see how all the corners align.
Definitely a cool build for your environment.

 

[CCXVI]

Are you sure the strut spacers weren't indexed like the OEM struts? That may be why you had to open up the holes as you said. It will be interesting to see how all the corners align.
Definitely a cool build for your environment.

Yeah, if you look at them they only go one way. They're offset slightly to push the strut a bit away from the body

 

[stripSHO]

Love love love this!

I finally pulled the trigger on a gearhead tune and SCT, and that was underwhelming. The reason, as it turned out, was they sent me a bad tune.

I just got my GH tune going last night and it felt the same aside from now chirping the tires going into 2nd. I have to get ahold of them and see what's up. My livewire clocked 14.1s @ 105 mph 1/4 mile on the stock tune, and 14.1s @ 102 mph with the GH. The 170° thermostat they shipped me is running 180°-185° so maybe that's part of it. I didn't log anything yet on the new tune but IIRC factory calibration had my octane adjustment at -.94 so I don't think gas is the issue.

 

[CCXVI]

Love love love this!



I just got my GH tune going last night and it felt the same aside from now chirping the tires going into 2nd. I have to get ahold of them and see what's up. My livewire clocked 14.1s @ 105 mph 1/4 mile on the stock tune, and 14.1s @ 102 mph with the GH. The 170° thermostat they shipped me is running 180°-185° so maybe that's part of it. I didn't log anything yet on the new tune but IIRC factory calibration had my octane adjustment at -.94 so I don't think gas is the issue.

Good luck! It's a solid tune, just not too powerful. And don't say that on FB, the owner will have a fit lol

 

[stripSHO]

Good luck! It's a solid tune, just not too powerful. And don't say that on FB, the owner will have a fit lol

So it turns out the tune starts it's life with an octane adjust ratio of 0.0. It took a very concentrated effort to get it down to -1 where it belongs, but the car seems to be much more alive now. It was raining so no sense trying to clock a 1/4 mile, but I can see 5 psi more boost and more timing than before so I'm sure I'll see a sizeable difference.

 

[CCXVI]

So it turns out the tune starts it's life with an octane adjust ratio of 0.0. It took a very concentrated effort to get it down to -1 where it belongs, but the car seems to be much more alive now. It was raining so no sense trying to clock a 1/4 mile, but I can see 5 psi more boost and more timing than before so I'm sure I'll see a sizeable difference.

.

Yeah I had it at -0.96 which is what Matt wanted. It also depends on fuel, mine gets there right away.

 

[CCXVI]

End of the line for the Taurus, stuck injector killed cylinder 1. Gonna look around for a used engine maybe but its not looking good for it.