The only mechanic you need is reading this post right now, yourself. My dad and I did the same exact thing, timing belt and water pump, to my SHO when I got it a year and a half ago. We went into this completely blind. Neither of us had ever changed a timing belt before, and never worked on anything front wheel drive. You can save yourself $300 and do the work yourself. All you need is a little common sense. A few hints:
Remove the battery and tray, move the PS resivoir out of the way. The engine damper (looks like a mini shock) and bracket also have to come off.
The belt tensioners have to have the nuts (17mm I believe) loosened before you can move the allen screws (5mm) counterclockwise on both for loosening. I think only the A/C and Alt. tensioner has to come off, but I removed them both.
Take each bolt out of the timing cover one at a time and lay them on a flat surface in the exact place they came out of. If I remember correctly the top cover comes off first, then the bottom and finally the middle.
Line up the cam timing marks at 12:00 (crank mark should be at approx. 5:00) with the marks on the back plate before loosening the timing belt tension. The tensioner is spring loaded and will set the correct tension, but make sure the yellow mark on the harmonic balancer is pointing at the 0. This puts you at 60 degrees BTDC and puts the greatest tension on the front of the belt.
Get yourself about 3' of 1 or 1 1/4" steel pipe to break the crank bolt loose. It also helps to have the car in gear with both front weels on the ground and the e-brake on and wheels blocked for this.
The only tools you need are patience, a good set of metric sockets (like Craftsman with the lifetime warranty, since I broke 2 and bent my 1/2 inch rachet on the crank bolt.), a harmonic balancer puller, and perseverance. Don't give up, that's most important.
Allot yourself several days to get into this project and if you get frustrated walk away and come back later. If you run into any problems, the forum is always here to help answer your questions. Remember the SHO is a non-interference engine, unlike most other cars today. If the timing belt slips or happens to break, you only have to go through the frustration of putting on a new one. This is most comforting to me still today as I used to fret all the time about the damned belt breaking and f-ing my engine.
A list of the parts you'll need and some you may want to consider:
www.rockauto.com
Cardone Water Pump $36.95 ($10.00 core extra)
Gates Timing Belt $34.77
AutoZone
Water Pump Gasket Set $5.09
Wells Crankshaft Position Sensor $42.99
Front Main Seal approx. $10.00
Valve Cover Gaskets VS50378R $71.99
www.fordpartsnetwork.com
Spark Plug Wires $83.99
AGSP32PP Spark Plugs $3.99/ea.
Valve Adjustment Kit (shonut, shoshop, cincysho)
The essentials for your current plans are the t-belt, wp, and wp gaskets. I know all this sounds like a lot of money. This is coming from a poor 17 year old SHO owner himself. But, you will thank yourself knowing that your SHO has had the major services performed, and you won't have to worry about anything for 60K miles. You know what your car needs, the other things are just mere suggestions since I do not know the car's service history, but the chances are pretty good that it's never had a complete 60K.
All this points to is that anyone with mechanical knowledge and a little patience can do this service. And for the price you'd pay a mechanic for 2 of the items, you can have a complete 60K. I wish you the best.
David
P.S. I'm sure that you've heard this before, but the Motorcraft plugs and wires are to be the only ones ever used on the SHO to use anything else will sacrifice performance and they'll just have to be replaced sooner.
