'97 V8 motor swap to a Gen II Taurus GL

[grailgolf]

I have a Taurus GL that has been on the forums for years - It has all sho upgrades including the shoscource coilovers - I have found a "97 sho motor and wondered if it would go into my GL - I have researched the archives for any Gen II to Gen III drivetrain upgrades and they did not answer my tranny questions - I know I will have to upgrade to the Gen III subframe but I need the forums knowledge of what challenges I might have being my car is still at it's electrical basis a Taurus GL.

~ I have a FPS AXODE - will it bolt up to the 1997 V8?
~ Will the harness have to be custom made since it come from two generations?

Most important am I going way wrong here and not simply upgrading to a stout '89-91 3.0 sho drivetrain that is forum documented to the point where it is not a huge problem to convert?

Thanks, Joseph

 

[LOUDSHO92]

Your tranny will not bolt up. You will need to do some custom wiring and make a custom dash. Also being in CA you would have to see about getting the car smog approved since the V8 was not for the same years.

The V8 has the cam issue and a lot of gaskets are obsolete so if you plan t do maintenance it can be hard.

Going with the V6 SHO would be better as more parts are available and if you plan for boost it has been done many times.

 

[SHOVNST]

The V8 would have a lot of 'wow' factor but the MUCH more sensible choice is the V6. Add a turbo and your Taurus will have more power than it will know what to do with.

 

[rubydist]

be aware that since the 97 is obd2 and the gen2 is odb1, the wiring conversion will be a royal pita. there are a lot of sensors on obd2 that are not on obd1 and you will need them to make the engine run right. you will also need the proper transmission to both bolt up and function.

I have just been through this on putting obd2 on a 1966 F100 - there are literally 100 wires that you must connect to the pcm/dash/engine/transmission properly to make it work. I have well over 100 hours just in the wiring part of my project.

 

[grailgolf]

I figured the tranny and wiring would make it pretty close to impossible - I was thinking only of the wow factor of opening the hood to see a V8 but I knew in my gut that it was probably not doable. Thanks for the posts.

 

[TimboSHO]

This has been done before, there is a member on here that put a SHO V8 in his Gen II SHO. I don't recall his forum name, but I'm sure you might be able to find you tube videos of it (it's a red Gen II).

 

[SHO Continental]

'naval-avi8or' is the forum name of the guy that did it. You'll need basically an entire gen3 from the firewall forward to have all the parts.

[youtube]rieeiE5sMHY[/youtube]


Smog isn't a big deal. You just have to keep all the emissions control stuff on the engine. Once it's all complete you take it to a Smog Referee station.

 

[grailgolf]

Thanks for the info - smog is not a problem, I don't live in California anymore - I moved back to Oregon. I still think I will do the wise thing and find a wrecked '89-91 sho with a 3.0 in it and build the motor with all the performance goodies - I was thinking of buying a stroked BOSS 3.0 from Morana Racing but tuning it creates a problem. Thanks for all the imput.

 

[SHO Continental]

The best swap would be a new 3.5 EcoBoost. Forget this old stuff...