Bluezones build

[Bluezone]

Hi everyone. I thought I'd start a new post on what I've been doing with my MKSho and consider what I'm doing in the future.
First thing my car is a relatively low mileage 2010 mks. It started out as completely stock with Continental extreme contacts.
What I have done so far is the WhiteLine 25 mm rear sway bar (set to strongest setting). I have installed the 2013 and up big brake upgrade plus the master cylinder and booster out of a 2013 Ford Explorer.
I'm presently using my 2010 Taurus SHO parts car for suspension pieces. So far have upgraded to the rear springs and shocks. The car feels much more planted and tends to squeal the tires when pushed in a turn now. As opposed to just slide and make no noise. I'm debating whether or not to upgrade to the sho front springs and struts.
Just a heads up for anyone who's looking for better traction for the drag cars. The MKS rear shocks have much more low speed compression damping. So if you want to decrease the rear end drop they might be a good upgrade for you. I prefer the SHO rear shocks because they have better (firmer) low speed rebound or extension damping. This is better for slowing down weight transfer to the front. I was having serious problems with weight transfer on heavy braking and going into corners, how should I put it, entertaining oversteer at times. LOL
I've contacted fiveleeter918 about getting the catted down pipes. Still have to order them from him it's a good deal.

To be continued... Have to go participate in family game night.
Cheers everyone.

 

[Bluezone]

Okay to continue.

The main reason for me to change suspension components around was because adding the big disc brake package was causing too much nose dive. Not enough slow speed compression/bump control on the front struts and not enough rebound extension slow speed control in the rear shocks.

Which brings me to a question. Since RockAuto lists aftermarket rear shocks as being compatible between 2010 to 19 Taurus. Are the Performance Pack springs for the rear compatible between early and late models?
I found listings for the parts numbers for the 2013 up PP springs and shocks, but nothing for the parts numbers for 2010 to 12 performance pack, shocks and springs. Also what suspension code are the 2010-12 PP springs and struts? I'm guessing it's likely DD BB.

From what I've been reading there's not much to be gained from doing a third cat and resonator delete. Does it help much with the tune doing that? I'd like to keep things on the stealthy side considering this is a Lincoln.

One of the things for improving spooling performance in turbochargers is having a wastegate divider or a divorced downpipe for the wastegate exhaust flow. Has anyone experimented with adding a divider dam in their Turbo, so as to prevent the wastegate flow from interfering with the turbine exhaust flow?

From what a gleaned from Reading there's no way to add the various performance pack traction and stability modes to a non-performance pack car other than going to the "tuner who shall not be named".
I also take it that there is no way to add paddle shifter control to the drive mode in the early cars? Or the sports mode?

As for PCM programming I take it the early cars cannot be set up to be amenable to both low and high octane fuel? So I'm guessing I would have to have a track tune and a fuel economy to for separate purposes? I'm not interested in getting into methanol/ethanol fueling.

Back to what other mods I've completed. I've had an auxiliary transmission cooler behind the grill. I've added air ducting from the scoops to blow air across the transfer case. If a way can be figured out I'm going to try adding cooling fins to the case. That's a long shot not sure if it's even possible. Another possibility is using the drain plug hole that I've installed in the transfer case and the fill plug as a semi passive system, for cooling transfer case fluid. Utilizing some sort of passive heavy gear oil catch system and drip feeding the heavy gear oil through a cooler draining back into the bottom drain hole in the transfer case. Not sure if this is practical or not. If nothing else this would add extra oil volume.

On the to-do list:

Re-painted the 20-in sho rims to be mounted on the Lincoln.
Get everything ready to install adjustable brake and gas pedal plus the aluminum pedal faces.
Research the differences in steering rack mounting between the early and late models two solid mount the rack for better steering feel.

This is going to be mainly a daily driver with occasional track use. So shift quality and performance are likely to weigh in my choosing of who's going to be contacted for a tune. From what you guys are saying, I take it, Gear Heads my best shot. Also what recommendations do you have for hand programmers, what are the pluses and minuses of the different programmer units?
No experience in this. Back when I was doing this sort of stuff we just found ways to lie to the PCM to get what we need. Bigger MAF and MAS sensors and injectors. ETC.

 

[yaycandy]

I have some detailed info on some of your topics within the first 5 paragraphs. I have paddleshifting canceling in sport mode and wastegate mods and pcm mods. Along with a full advance track disabling, on my car now. I'll send you my info and finding as they are not public and never will be...
When I went to Cobb tuning they were able to do so many things that are impossible for other tuners to do somehow.

 

[Bluezone]

Sounds cool. I'd be very interested to see what you got.

Side note - useless fact number 625:
I was looking at the grill in my parts car and realized it's the same bottom and side contour is the MKS grill. Now wouldn't that mess someone up if I fitted that into the grill space. Lol

 

[Bluezone]

I got bored after bringing the girlfriend home from chemo late this afternoon.
So I decided to section the grill and test fit on the front of the car.
As they say idle hands. LOL

 

[802SHO]

Interesting

 

[Bluezone]

Interesting

I got the rims switched over from the sho. They are gunmetal gray, although they look rather silver in these pictures.
The 20 inch Taurus rims as a bonus weigh 2 lb a rimless so I saved eight pounds. Lol

 

[802SHO]

I got the rims switched over from the sho. They are gunmetal gray, although they look rather silver in these pictures.
The 20 inch Taurus rims as a bonus weigh 2 lb a rimless so I saved eight pounds. Lol

Looks good

 

[limited02]

Wheels look great! Get some tint on the windows!

 

[Bluezone]

A few pictures of the sho parts car I bought before it heads off for recycling.
Since I removed the grill I had to figure out a way to attach the nose back on the car. Kind of squinty. LOL
Intake ports after almost a quarter million miles.

 

[Bluezone]

I found a video of a BMW 335i turbocharger setup. I took a screenshot showing the wastegate divider that's Incorporated in the BMW turbos.

Purpose of the wastegate divider is to improve exhaust flow velocity and improve the wastegate control function.

 

[Bluezone]

Ok PPE downpipes with black ceramic coating have been ordered.
Waiting to hear back from gearhead.
The s h o shocks and springs are in the back and I'm running MKS struts and springs in front. Rides pretty firm.

 

[Bluezone]

Okay gearhead doesn't deliver to canada. They say you need a third party to send a package to and then have it forwarded to me. Unfortunately, while my grandparents were Americans, I don't know anyone in the US. So likely no handheld programmer or gearhead intercooler for me.
Apparently I have a bit of a wait on the downpipes, because there's the material shortage.
I installed the adjustable pedal set out of the sho in my mks. It works as I hoped it wouldn't put the pedals just a little bit further away so I can sit a tad closer to the wheel. I'm a bit of a long legged SOB.
To anyone else thinking about installing the adjustable pedal set don't. What a PITA.
I don't know if it's the different pedal angle or if the SHO gas pedal has a more aggressive resistance taper, but the throttle is definitely touchier and comes in stronger. Not sure if I'm imagining this or not.
The brake pedals also alot firmer at the top, but there's less feedback feel in the stroke.

 

[Bluezone]

Okay today I added the SHO wireless key fobs to my MKS. So now I have four active key fobs.
Procedure was easy.
First have two programmed key fobs in the car. Insert the new key fob into the holder. In the Taurus it's in the bin under the armrest and for the MKS it's behind the glove box door. Press the door unlocked button three times. hit the brake once. Press the door lock button three times, hit the brake. The start stop button will begin to flash. Then within a few seconds push the start button without touching the brake. The display will will flash how many active key fobs when it's done programming. Easy peasy.
The keys in the new fobs don't match the MKS. But the fobs are active and the keys are only for emergency anyhow.
You can have up to four active key fobs Max.
Cheers.

 

[Bluezone]

Okay yesterday I completed installing the SHO front struts on the mks.
It might be low mileage but lots of rust to deal with. Ended up doing lots of filing and wire brushing to get the nuts off. Wish I had the 2013 up steering knuckles. The clamp to hold the strut system is a real pain in the ass. LOL
The car rides a lot smoother with everything loosened up from disassembly. That and the front strut valving isn't fighting the rear shock valving. Much smoother. MKS front struts have a lot of low speed front compression. While the SHO struts have a lot of low speed rebound.

 

[FiveLeeter918]

Okay gearhead doesn't deliver to canada. They say you need a third party to send a package to and then have it forwarded to me. Unfortunately, while my grandparents were Americans, I don't know anyone in the US. So likely no handheld programmer or gearhead intercooler for me.
Apparently I have a bit of a wait on the downpipes, because there's the material shortage.
I installed the adjustable pedal set out of the sho in my mks. It works as I hoped it wouldn't put the pedals just a little bit further away so I can sit a tad closer to the wheel. I'm a bit of a long legged SOB.
To anyone else thinking about installing the adjustable pedal set don't. What a PITA.
I don't know if it's the different pedal angle or if the SHO gas pedal has a more aggressive resistance taper, but the throttle is definitely touchier and comes in stronger. Not sure if I'm imagining this or not.
The brake pedals also alot firmer at the top, but there's less feedback feel in the stroke.

We ship to Canada almost daily

 

[Bluezone]

Okay I'm posting after a short hiatus.

With help from a second party I ordered a performance tune package from gearhead. Gearhead doesn't ship to Canada so I had to have a friend help me out by receiving the package and forward it to me. I'm leaving them out of it so that they won't get inundated by other people requesting help as well. So anonymous thank you thank you very much.
The tune and performance parts really wakened up the car. Love the shifts on the gear Head tune.
I know that the performance monitoring on the livewire TS plus isn't accurate, but I ran a quarter mile run with it and was pleasantly surprised with the results. My old best time at the track was a 14.1 at about 98 mph. According to the livewire the quarter mile run is now 13.62 at 104 mph. I know it's a little slow but not bad considering with everything in the car, including 175 lb of dead weight behind the steering wheel, I've got a combined weight of 4708 pounds. That's what the mostly stock car with a k&N drop and filter.
As a nice surprise the gas mileage seems a little better.
I've changed out all the oxygen sensors. Because I was a little suspicious of what logging had shown. That and I had started throwing Bank one sensor two errors. Replacing the sensors was a real PITA.
I decided that the sho struts I had were worn out. So I replaced them with brand new units. Didn't have a spring compressor but I managed with ingenuity to get the springs and struts together. Unfortunately well doing all this I managed to pull the britfield inner CV joint apart. So I had to remove the band seals on the inner CV joint and the reassemble the CV joint. So now I got a couple hose clamps holding the boot in place, on the half shaft.
I'm trying to order a new passenger side half shaft but I'm not sure which to order because, I seem to recall that some of the early models had all-wheel drive subframes and some had the two-wheel drive subframe and I'm not sure which my car has. Anyone know how to tell?
I found out that the outer half shaft on the turbo models is separate from the inner shaft on the passenger side. How the **** do you get the damn outer half shaft separated from the inner shaft? LOL.
Anyhow at this point I'm waiting for gearhead to get more intercoolers in and for my PPE downpipes to be made and shipped.
Cheers Brian

 

[802SHO]

The whole axle assembly is $150 ish isn’t it?

 

[Bluezone]

It's about $135 Canadian for a remanufactured.

 

[802SHO]

It's about $135 Canadian for a remanufactured.

Oh Tasca doesn’t ship to Canada either? New OEM on Tasca but shipping would be extra