What can you tell me about the Ford 3.0 DOHC (Duratec)?

[tedly]

I've been driving my '00 Sable for a few weeks now, and I am fairly impressed with this little engine. Down low it's a slug, but once it gets to about 3500 rpm's it wakes the hell up and pulls strong all the way to 6000. I've been looking around for performance parts for it, and there are virtually none. This is surprising as I think it wouldn't take much to step it up.

Are these engines known for problems or weaknesses I am not aware of right now, or is there just not enough demand to make performance parts?

[nesabo]

I had over 140K on our 03 Sable with the DOHC 3.0. it ran fine till it was t-boned. biggest issue i had was changing the sparkplugs, the rear bank was not easy but not swearing throwing wrenches hard. I did use synthetic oil every 4k and changed the coolant every 40-50k.

[Matt Cramer]

Supposedly SVT Contour heads and cams bolt on and are a bit of an upgrade, if you can find a set.

[chevybuytroy]

The transmissions they used on any fwd ford were pretty horrible. I'm guessing it has a AX4N/S in it. To much updating and you'll be having tranny problems. I don't know the reason for it either. I think maybe torque converter related. I don't sell many hard parts for one but alot of rebuild kits though. The new 6 speeds seem to be holding up good Ford has now in the FWDs. 6F50N

[Huskinhano]

The 02 Escape my brother gave to my daughter has about 150K miles and it runs great. It pulls the Escape real well. Years ago the hot set up on the SVO Contour was to replace the 2.5 shortblock with the 3.0 shortblock.

I would think a bigger, better flowing exhaust would do wonders.

[hauen]

Jaguar X-types used the 3.0 (mechanically the car was basically a style-struck Ford Mondeo), Jaguar S-types and Lincoln LS used that engine also, 03+ ones had VVT and 235HP. Fun fact: The Aston-Martin V12 is based off this engine. You could probably find hop up parts in England, but here in the US you're probably going to be limited to stock type stuff. You could always add a turbo though!

[CTX-SLPR]

My 2003 LS was a bit rattly at low revs and the dual level intake valves in the back of the intake were bad about leaking oil past the O-rings. Two O-ring replacements later I just used blue RTV to finally get them to seal. Valve cover gaskets are a pain to keep from leaking, did mine twice. I also had a lot of oil in the intake on mine for whatever reason, going to 10W-30 helped some (originally rated for 5W-20 like most Fords). Was a lot of fun mid to high revs. I'm pretty sure the difference in the power output between the non-VVT LS/S-Type and X-type engines is all in the tune as they ran on 91+ vs. the rest ran on Reg.

[tedly]

The transmissions they used on any fwd ford were pretty horrible. I'm guessing it has a AX4N/S in it. To much updating and you'll be having tranny problems. I don't know the reason for it either. I think maybe torque converter related. I don't sell many hard parts for one but alot of rebuild kits though. The new 6 speeds seem to be holding up good Ford has now in the FWDs. 6F50N

Yep, it's got the AX4N. From what I've been able to gather you can make them into a decent trans, but stock they aren't going to hold up to much. I was hoping to swap in a stick at some point, but this platform never had a manual as far as I have been able to find out. I was secretly hoping for an AWD swap, but that doesn't look like it's going to happen either.

One of the first things anyone does to this generation of Taurus/Sable is put in a trans cooler, so that tells me something.

[tedly]

I had over 140K on our 03 Sable with the DOHC 3.0. it ran fine till it was t-boned. biggest issue i had was changing the sparkplugs, the rear bank was not easy but not swearing throwing wrenches hard. I did use synthetic oil every 4k and changed the coolant every 40-50k.

Yeah, you gotta take off the upper intake manifold to get at the rear bank, apparently. No biggie, just means it won't be as quick as it normally would be. Can't be harder than changing out the plugs on a Navigator (I think that's what it was).

[tedly]

Supposedly SVT Contour heads and cams bolt on and are a bit of an upgrade, if you can find a set.

I've heard rumblings of this, but haven't found much on it so far. Only started investigating the Contour connection yesterday, but I'm glad to get confirmation on this.

[tedly]

The 02 Escape my brother gave to my daughter has about 150K miles and it runs great. It pulls the Escape real well. Years ago the hot set up on the SVO Contour was to replace the 2.5 shortblock with the 3.0 shortblock.

I would think a bigger, better flowing exhaust would do wonders.

Exhaust is definitely going to be done. Supposedly going to a true dual doesn't really do much for these cars, but I'm going to be crawling under it to check out the room and possible routing anyway. Going to start looking into headers too.

[tedly]

Jaguar X-types used the 3.0 (mechanically the car was basically a style-struck Ford Mondeo), Jaguar S-types and Lincoln LS used that engine also, 03+ ones had VVT and 235HP. Fun fact: The Aston-Martin V12 is based off this engine. You could probably find hop up parts in England, but here in the US you're probably going to be limited to stock type stuff. You could always add a turbo though!

Hadn't thought about the Jag connection... Interesting.

Turbos are a definite possibility, gotta find out more about the internals and the trans before I start making definite plans. I know it's got 10.0:1 compression, so that's a little high for turbo's, but I have no idea whether the pistons are hypereutectic or forged, how strong the valve springs are, etc...

[tedly]

My 2003 LS was a bit rattly at low revs and the dual level intake valves in the back of the intake were bad about leaking oil past the O-rings. Two O-ring replacements later I just used blue RTV to finally get them to seal. Valve cover gaskets are a pain to keep from leaking, did mine twice. I also had a lot of oil in the intake on mine for whatever reason, going to 10W-30 helped some (originally rated for 5W-20 like most Fords). Was a lot of fun mid to high revs. I'm pretty sure the difference in the power output between the non-VVT LS/S-Type and X-type engines is all in the tune as they ran on 91+ vs. the rest ran on Reg.

Mom got the Sable with only about 30,000 miles on it. It's got 135,000 miles on it now, but it has been expertly maintained by my brother. Nothing but synthetic oil, all problems addressed as soon as humanly possible, etc... It is in excellent shape.

As soon as I find out more about tuning the computer, that will be one of the first things done.

[CTX-SLPR]

Mom got the Sable with only about 30,000 miles on it. It's got 135,000 miles on it now, but it has been expertly maintained by my brother. Nothing but synthetic oil, all problems addressed as soon as humanly possible, etc... It is in excellent shape.

As soon as I find out more about tuning the computer, that will be one of the first things done.

I bought 2003 LS with 31.5K miles as a dealer maintained lease trade in and it was a bit rattly even then. Traded it in this July with 124K miles on it.