Economy/Longevity mods?

[Lincoln SHO]

Hello,

I haven't ever been interested in upgrading the performance of my car, but now I'm wondering if there are any mods out there for the Taurus that could improve the reliability or fuel economy of the car. The ones that I'm looking at right now are the cold air intake and dual intake pipes. My monkey brain is currently thinking - colder car run longer.

I primarily do city driving with an occasional road trip and haven't ever been bothered by fuel economy - but if I can squeeze a few more miles out of every gallon, I might have a better time justifying any spending to my wife. And it just so happens the car goes faster, I'm not going to complain.

I've also been looking at a tune, but don't want to place any additional wear on the engine or powertrain if I don't have to.

 

[SM105K]

Best bang for your buck for the intake/dual pipes is a K&N drop in filter into the stock air box. That set up moves more air then the stock turbos are capable of using. The stock box has a ram air nozzle directly into it as well. Best thing for fuel economy is drive with a light foot. If you keep it out of boost your mileage will increase.

 

[Lincoln SHO]

Best thing for fuel economy is drive with a light foot. If you keep it out of boost your mileage will increase.

Ahh. So it's impossible then.

 

[luigisho]

I haven't seen many proven longevity mods except for behavior modification. Maintenance and mostly fluid replacements are the ones that come to mind. Your right foot and driving style can extend both gas mileage and longevity. Also correct tire inflation. Better to get some performance out of performance cars and better economy out of cars that integrate into the design.

 

[SHO_Off420]

Hello,

I haven't ever been interested in upgrading the performance of my car, but now I'm wondering if there are any mods out there for the Taurus that could improve the reliability or fuel economy of the car. The ones that I'm looking at right now are the cold air intake and dual intake pipes. My monkey brain is currently thinking - colder car run longer.

I primarily do city driving with an occasional road trip and haven't ever been bothered by fuel economy - but if I can squeeze a few more miles out of every gallon, I might have a better time justifying any spending to my wife. And it just so happens the car goes faster, I'm not going to complain.

I've also been looking at a tune, but don't want to place any additional wear on the engine or powertrain if I don't have to.

The car already has a cold air intake from the factory with a very large air filter on it. Any "claimed gains" from CAI is just those places fudging up the dyno results. If you run a dyno in the middle of the day when its 90 degrees you'll easily get 10-15hp less than if you did it at night when it as 60 degrees out.

Now the CAI WITH the dual intake pipes like your talking can help get you some gain but not going to help with reliability at all.

If you get a tune your fuel mileage can go up substantially without actually effecting longevity of the engine, i belive the tuners cancel put and change alot of settings that are only there for emissions purposes. You dont necessarily have to get a hp gain from your tune if you just explain what you want to the tuner.

A catch can such as the UPR most people se to like to use on these can make a pretty big difference. Stock your car recirculates crancase air back into your intake to avoid dumping oil and fuel mist into the atmosphere, so if you pull off your throttle body you'll see the backside caked in soot and oil as well as the entrance to your intake. All that gets baked onto the valves in these cars and that causes long term problems.

To make your PTU last its a general consensus to drain and fill it every 25k miles but those of us that drive very hard will do it every 10k miles.

To keep your engine good change your oil at the recommended intervals or earlier, earlier won't hurt anything your just removing more dirt from your engine, some people with 450 or more whp or that drive spirited will change it every 3k miles or so.

To keep your tranny good, do a 5 in 5 out every other oil change or so.

I recommend a coolant flush every other year to keep the fluid good.

Can't think of much else at the moment other than the RDU fluid some people like to change that out every 2 years or so

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

 

[High on Ethanol]

knowing what to watch for and correcting it before it goes wrong is one of the best tips I was ever given.

Watch tire wear patterns, monitor any leaks or vibrations, etc...

 

[SM105K]

The car already has a cold air intake from the factory with a very large air filter on it. Any "claimed gains" from CAI is just those places fudging up the dyno results. If you run a dyno in the middle of the day when its 90 degrees you'll easily get 10-15hp less than if you did it at night when it as 60 degrees out.

Now the CAI WITH the dual intake pipes like your talking can help get you some gain but not going to help with reliability at all.

If you get a tune your fuel mileage can go up substantially without actually effecting longevity of the engine, i belive the tuners cancel put and change alot of settings that are only there for emissions purposes. You dont necessarily have to get a hp gain from your tune if you just explain what you want to the tuner.

A catch can such as the UPR most people se to like to use on these can make a pretty big difference. Stock your car recirculates crancase air back into your intake to avoid dumping oil and fuel mist into the atmosphere, so if you pull off your throttle body you'll see the backside caked in soot and oil as well as the entrance to your intake. All that gets baked onto the valves in these cars and that causes long term problems.

To make your PTU last its a general consensus to drain and fill it every 25k miles but those of us that drive very hard will do it every 10k miles.

To keep your engine good change your oil at the recommended intervals or earlier, earlier won't hurt anything your just removing more dirt from your engine, some people with 450 or more whp or that drive spirited will change it every 3k miles or so.

To keep your tranny good, do a 5 in 5 out every other oil change or so.

I recommend a coolant flush every other year to keep the fluid good.

Can't think of much else at the moment other than the RDU fluid some people like to change that out every 2 years or so

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

Well said. Have you been lurking in the background for awhile?

 

[Lincoln SHO]

The car already has a cold air intake from the factory with a very large air filter on it. Any "claimed gains" from CAI is just those places fudging up the dyno results. If you run a dyno in the middle of the day when its 90 degrees you'll easily get 10-15hp less than if you did it at night when it as 60 degrees out.

Now the CAI WITH the dual intake pipes like your talking can help get you some gain but not going to help with reliability at all.

Got it. Intake mods moved to the bottom of the list. I might consider if my plans with the car ever change.

If you get a tune your fuel mileage can go up substantially without actually effecting longevity of the engine, i belive the tuners cancel put and change alot of settings that are only there for emissions purposes. You dont necessarily have to get a hp gain from your tune if you just explain what you want to the tuner.

I'll look into this option. That was more or less my understanding of tunes. What is the current consensus of the tuners out there right now? You know. Other than "LMS is tra$h, don't do it"

A catch can such as the UPR most people se to like to use on these can make a pretty big difference. Stock your car recirculates crancase air back into your intake to avoid dumping oil and fuel mist into the atmosphere, so if you pull off your throttle body you'll see the backside caked in soot and oil as well as the entrance to your intake. All that gets baked onto the valves in these cars and that causes long term problems.

UPR catch can should be here in the next week or two. I've discussed it briefly on the maintenance board, but my water pump started leaking last Friday night, so the car is at the dealership right now. I asked them to take pictures of the intake valves while they have the engine out. If they don't do it, I see that there's a package on my front porch right now with a borescope camera. If they're bad, I think I've found a shop willing to walnut blast them.

To make your PTU last its a general consensus to drain and fill it every 25k miles but those of us that drive very hard will do it every 10k miles.

Yeah. I'm building up the courage to drill a hole. I'm at 141k, and it's never been changed, so I'll probably do 5 or 10k for the remainder of my time with the car. I have a few quarts of redline in my garage right now.

To keep your engine good change your oil at the recommended intervals or earlier, earlier won't hurt anything your just removing more dirt from your engine, some people with 450 or more whp or that drive spirited will change it every 3k miles or so.

Planning to drop down to 5k oil changes. I don't drive it super hard, but if I start doing it myself, I can do it as often as I like.

To keep your tranny good, do a 5 in 5 out every other oil change or so.

I recommend a coolant flush every other year to keep the fluid good.

I'll probably do the transmission fluid every 20k

Can't think of much else at the moment other than the RDU fluid some people like to change that out every 2 years or so

RDU fluid was just done, though I'm thinking about redoing it with redline.

 

[SM105K]

This thread will answer alot of questions as well.

https://shoforum.com/index.php?threads/sm105ks-ownership-performance-maintenance-thread.138235/

 

[Lincoln SHO]

This thread will answer alot of questions as well.

I've read through a lot of that thread. Really good information. Our goals are ultimately different though, so thought I'd ask separately.

 

[SHO_Off420]

The three big tuners appear to be Gear Head who reportedly has the best shifting, Ortiz whom I work with that offer levels of service based on mods rather than just giving you one tune. And stage 3 i don't really know about.

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[SHO_Off420]

Yeah. I'm building up the courage to drill a hole.

You know you have to remove it in order to drill a hole for a drain right? If its at 140k you might look at just replacing it at that pint

 

[SHO_Off420]

Well said. Have you been lurking in the background for awhile?

Mostly on ecoboost

 

[GotGrip?]

For best fuel economy you're gonna want a xdi35, e30 tune w/meth, and definitely GH turbos. That is really the only way to get "better" fuel economy >.>

 

[SM105K]

The three big tuners appear to be Gear Head who reportedly has the best shifting, Ortiz whom I work with that offer levels of service based on mods rather than just giving you one tune. And stage 3 i don't really know about.

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The top three tuners here are AJPTurbo, GH, and Ortiz.

 

[SHO_Off420]

The top three tuners here are AJPTurbo, GH, and Ortiz.

Oops got AJP and stage 3 mixed up my bad

 

[High on Ethanol]

Id recommend talking with each tuner and see if they match what you want.

Brewcity boost is another tuner that I've encountered but haven't seen much in this forum.

 

[High on Ethanol]

Personally I've used ajpturbo, unleashed, gearhead, and have been attempting self tuning lately.

 

[GotGrip?]

All jokes aside, you could probably ask a tuner to make an eco tune. GH would probably be the best for something like that in my opinion, as the AO tune really make things easier for everyday driving.

 

[SM105K]

I've read through a lot of that thread. Really good information. Our goals are ultimately different though, so thought I'd ask separately.

I compiled that thread for the any SHO owners that needed guidance for the maintenance/questions first. The second post was a running record for my SHO and what I did to it chronologically. The third post was for modifications. I could see what happened with each mod and allow me to give real world numbers with my SHO.