Tedly's Sable

[tedly]

This time I'm throwing my hat in the ring with an oddball. I inherited a 2000 Mercury Sable with the 3.0 DOHC Duratec and AX4N transaxle. It's in really good shape inside and out, but Kelly Blue Book only lists it as being worth $1882. I'll call it $1900 just to make things easy to start. It is my daily driver and I already have a toy to lavish time and money on, so this is going to be a pure budget build. Couple that with virtually no aftermarket support or pre-made bolt on stuff, this is going to take much more creativity and ingenuity than most.

Since the car is in such good shape, there is going to be very little that I need to spend money on outside routine maintenance. This leaves about $3100 for tweeks.

Quarter mile time is listed as 16.6 stock. I might be able to shave a little off that by the time I get to the track next spring. One of the easiest ways to tweak these is the brakes, though, so that is probably going to be the area I start in. I can bump up the size of the front discs and the only other thing I'll need is the caliper brackets. I have rear drums, but apparently the swap to rear discs is very simple, even with the ABS system. There's some Taurus SHO goodies from the previous generation that are fairly easy to do, also, so they are on the list. Maybe some interior tweaks here and there...

Anyway, here's pics of my new baby. This should be interesting.

[nesabo]

nice looking Sable. the brakes on my '03 were ok, always thought about the SHO conversion, but since it was the wifes DD i figured i would leave it alone. I also wondered if you could add the "dual" exhaust from a SHO or the Continental.

[pats91]

Tedly,

I think Tauruses (Taruii?) and Sables from around 1996 to 1999 had dual outlet systems on the 3.0. I don't know how compatible those systems are with the 2000+ cars though.

If the self service yards there are like the ones here, you'll have plenty of Taurus and Sable to look at.

[tedly]

Apparently true duals don't really add any horsepower with these. most dual exhausts are 2 into 1 then back into 2. Exhaust work is definitely high on the list, but the stock system is in good shape for now so it's not a priority.

[tedly]

There is very little info out there about tweaking these engines, even the Taurus guys don't really do it. Noble/Roison does use them in their supercars, though, so I was right about the potential in these engines. Since I'm only looking for around 50hp for now, you'd think it wouldn't be too much trouble.

Yeah right.

Here are some of the resources I've found so far:

Taurus Car Club of America has a ton of info on all generations of Taurus/Sable, and a lot of info on maintaining the 3.0 DOHC.

http://www.taurusclub.com/forum/

The 3.0 Duratec is a common upgrade for the SVT Contours, their engines are the 2.5's. FordContour.org has a whole board dedicated to this, there is some very valuable info in here.

http://www.fordcontour.org/forum/77-duratec-30l-conversion/

One particularly interesting nugget: You can gain over 20 hp just by having a freer flowing intake tract and exhaust, and tweaking the CPU tune.

http://www.fordcontour.org/topic/13063-st220-parts-myths-topic/

Cat Cams is one of the only manufacturers - if not THE only one - that has cams for the Duratec. Mine is non-variable valve so I have no idea what is available for the later engines unfortunately.

http://www.catcams.com/engines/camshaft-setup.aspx#

Nautilus Performance has some very cool stuff, up to a stroker 3.5 short block assembly.

http://nautilusperformance.com/

SHO Source has a lot of all around stuff for the Taurus in general, and they even have some specific parts for the Duratecs.

http://www.shosource.com/catalog/

[fast Ed]

The 2000 would have the older style 10.9" front brakes, the later cars were 11.6" with larger but still single piston calipers, an easy swap. Next step up would be to use the PBR dual piston calipers from a 94-98 Mustang Cobra, they can be used with the matching 13" rotors if you step up to 17" wheels. The caliper anchors for those PBRs can also be modded to move the caliper down relative to the rotor, allowing them to work with the 11.6" Taurus rotor, or even a 12" Crown Vic rotor (Mustang and Crown Vic rotors needed to be drilled for the 5 x 108 wheel stud pattern. I had the 13" Cobra brakes on my 95 SHO, they did a great job of slowing that one down.


cheers
Ed

[tedly]

Didn't know about the Cobra brakes sweet!

[fast Ed]

Yup, 94-04 Mustang, 93-97 T-Bird / Cougar, 93-98 Linc Mark VIII and 93-07 Taurus / Sable shared the same mounting dimensions to the spindle for the caliper anchors, so lots of stuff can be swapped around. Only thing with the FWD cars, you have to swap them side to side because of the caliper mounting ahead of the rotor rather than behind. With the PBR calipers, you end up hearing a slight clunk out of them at times because the sliding pin arrangement doesn't like being put upside down.




cheers
Ed

[tedly]

I knew it worked on the TBirds and have that planned for when mine goes back together,didn't know it would work with the Sable though. The full on 13 inch swap isn't do-able unless I get a screaming deal on wheels and tires. The PBR pistons on the 11.6 rotors is very interesting though, you got any more info on it? Between that and swapping discs onto the rear I think I can really step up the brakes for very little outlay.

[fast Ed]

SHO Source has a 12" kit that fits under 16" wheels, I was thinking they did 11.6" as well.

http://www.shosource.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=61_23_19&products_id=11

You could piece it together yourself with 03-up Crown Vic rotors drilled for 5 on 108 pattern, they are almost identical in dimensions to the 94-04 Cobra rotors except for being 12" diameter rather than 13". 94-98 Cobra calipers with the anchor mount holes drilled 1/2" higher to move the caliper closer, there is lots of material on the anchors to do that.

I'll see what else I can find. Tried logging in to the shoforum.com site, haven't been there for a while and they've changed the version of it ... none of my subscribed threads were saved.


cheers
Ed

[tedly]

SHO Source is going to be getting most of my budget apparently. $775 is a big chunk of my budget, might be worth it though. I'll have to plan it out a bit more. Meantime I'll look into how much it will run me to piece together the 11.6 and PBR calipers. Never thought of re-drilling hubs from a Crown Vic. That should work with the TBird too...

[tedly]

94-98 Cobra calipers with the anchor mount holes drilled 1/2" higher to move the caliper closer, there is lots of material on the anchors to do that

Wait, so you elongate the mounting bracket holes???

[tedly]

Now to start budgeting things so I know what I can do. Sway bars are a must for me, I want to be able to handle curves well.

To swap the front sway bar you have to drop the sub-frame, and there are aluminum bushings available for $115. I'll have to think on those.

I definitely want to upgrade the braking power, and tat includes swapping the rear drums to discs. I haven't looked into what all is involved in that yet, but I know at minimum it will be discs, calipers, lines, knuckles, and bearings. The front brackets have to be re-drilled .700 up from where the holes are now, so I may have to take it to a machine shop. Having trouble finding out the parts I need for the swap to discs on the rear...

I'm going to want to free up the exhaust at some point, but I haven't looked into it too much at this point.

24mm front sway bar - $ 85
26mm rear sway bar - $ 85
Aluminum subframe bushings - $115
98 Cobra calipers and brackets - $110 (for both)
01 front rotors - $112 (for both)
Machining caliper brackets - $???
Front pads - $ 90
Rear knuckles and back plates - $150 (for both)
____
$747

So I'm up to $747 so far, and I don't know what other pieces I'll need. I'll say roughly $1200 after the rear calipers, discs, lines, and whatever miscellaneous stuff comes into play for the brakes and sway bars.

[tedly]

We finally got a chance to do some stuff to the Sable. Bill had the EGR sensor and crank sensor before Mom got sick, but neither of us had the opportunity to do it until now. He got on those, while I went over everything and got an idea of what I'm going to need to do. Having problems uploading pictures right now, but I'll try to put some up later.

http://i644.photobucket.com/albums/uu165/tedlyb/100_1605.jpg

Took out the air silencer box from the inner front fender while I was looking things over, shouldn't be any performance gains from it but it will sound a little better.



Definitely going to have to drop the subframe to swap the front sway bar. Pretty sure the clunk I'm hearing is coming from the rack, so it will have to be changed at some point in the future. Sounds like a good time to knock out the rack, sway bar, and bushings all at once.

Going to have to do the PCV valve soon, there was some oil backing into the air box. The throttle body was fairly scuzzy on the back side. Cleaned it and the MAF and got all the oil traces cleaned up.




Had a nice surprise when I looked underneath, there was an oil leak dripping away. Tracing it back, it was being pushed out the top of the trans dipstick tube. Checked the trans vent, it still moved up and down easily, so unless it's clogged from the inside, the problem lies elsewhere. Going to have to keep an eye on this and figure out what the hell is going on.




The sway bar end links are friggin plastic!!! The rubber covering the joints has ripped on them so they will need to be replaced in the near future. The rest of the boots, mounts, and such seem to be in OK shape. The belt and hoses will need to be replaced soon, but they are in good shape for now. Other than the trans fluid coming out the dipstick, there did not seem to be any other leaks, so gaskets are in good shape. Tires are pretty much brand new, so no problems there.

Rust is there, it's a Wisconsin car after al, but nothing that can't be addressed.

All in all, the old girl is in pretty good shape! Means more money for playing with it! I've got a better idea of what I'm up against now, and what parts I'm going to need to do what I want.

We're trying to teach Sally to fetch wrenches, but no go so far. She can't tell metric from standard.

[tedly]

Updated and also added underdrive pulley, belt, and trans cooler.

24mm front sway bar - $ 85
26mm rear sway bar - $ 85
Front sway end links - $ 47 (for both)
Front sway bar bushings - $ 20
Front sway bar brackets - $ 20
Aluminum subframe bushings - $115
98 Cobra calipers and brackets - $110 (for both)
01 front rotors - $112 (for both)
Machining caliper brackets - $???
Front pads - $ 90
Stainless brake lines - $145
Rear knuckles and back plates - $150 (for both)
Underdrive pulley - $300
Belt - $35
Trans cooler - $47
-----------------------------------------------------------
$1361