2002-06-19 - 12:41 p.m.
This is the 3.0L V6 Yamahammer engine. Stock it generates 220hp mine on the other hand is pushing 325hp.
This is my SHO...I figured yall were tired of hearing about, so here is a picture to look at instead.
Same SHO diffrent view. Now yall will understand what I am talking about.
So for all you motor heads out there�did you ever wonder WTF SVT stands for, and why Ford has put that on their High performance Mustang (Cobra), F-150 Lightning, Contour, and the Focus? I know that I have, and I have also wondered why the Taurus SHO is not an SVT car. So after a fair amount of research this is what I have�
SVT (which stands for Special Vehicle Team) builds "performance-augmented vehicles" by taking currently-available common Ford engines and building them up. They may add forced induction (turbos and superchargers) better flowing heads, suspension tweaks, etc, ...you get the idea. The SHO, on the other hand, is a completely different motor that is found in no other Ford Vehicle, even in the regular Taurus (at least from the dealer). The motor was designed and built in it's entirety after Yamaha's heads destroyed too many 3.0L Vulcan blocks during testing. The 3.0L Vulcan being the engine that was stock in the Taurus. Ford wanted to do an SVT-like maneuver (as we see SVT today), but SVT was into racing only at the time and SVO (Special Vehicle Operations) was in the transition from modifying production vehicles to racing only. There were no "Special Vehicle Programs" available at the time for production cars. This was late 1986 or late 1987 from what I have been able to find out. Don't quote my dates. Ford filled the gap by having Yamaha provide the heads, and later the bottom-end as well, because the Yamaha heads were too much for the Vulcan, thus infamous "Yamahammer" was born. The block, heads, crank, oil pump, and other various parts are all Yamaha design and build. If you look at the bolts, washers, etc on the Generation 1-2
*Insert Tangent Here*
(Generation 1 SHO�s, were built from 1989-1991and are like mine. Generation 2 SHO�s were built from 1992-1995, and are the most commonly seen SHO. And lastly is the Generation 3 SHO which was in production from 1996-1999. The cars are listed Gen1,2,3 because of major body/mechanical design changes. For example when Ford went to the Gen 2 there was a major body style change and the addition of an automatic transmission. Because of the addition of the ATX Tranny, the engine displacement was increased to 3.2L to compensate for the loss of power. Gen 3 Ford�s not only changed body styles again, but replaced the 3.0L/3.2 v6 with a 3.4 L v8. An engine many SHO owners consider inferior to the V6.)
*End tangent*
V6 SHO motors, you will find these same parts on some Yamaha motorcycles. Most notable are the head cover cap-bolts and valve shims (maybe even the tappets?). Other things are obviously Ford design and build, like accessories, MAF (mass air flow sensor) T/B, etc. The Taurus SHO was not part of a special vehicle program, and it did not share the block or heads with anything else. The 3.0L V6 was an engine unto itself. Definitely superior to the Vulcan series, and even the Duratec IMO. The SHO is something we have not seen from Ford (Or Yamaha via Ford) since. And yes, it does rate the title "Super High Output". No production motors in 1989 were pushing anything close to 220hp out of 3.0L. Not that it couldn't be done, but no one else had put this much power into a production model engine smaller than the 5.0L. So If you ask me, these Tauri deserve the title SHO, while at the same time being kept separate from the new kids on the block who sport the title SVT.
So�aside from learning more about the SHO than you probably cared to�What else have you learned today?
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