Here is my story.
September 10, 2019Purchased 2014 Taurus SHO with 24K miles, completely stock, minus K&N Intake system from private party.
Car drives nice and in good shape, cash money paid in full.
I kind of already did my research and knew what I will doing doing with it, so I hit the ground running.
September 27, 2019Rear brake was making grinding noise and looked very low i-on the inside pad and front brakes rotors was completely worked, braking from 50mi/h was something else, I did my research and decided to go with PowerStop Z23 all 4 corners.
I knew what I was doing and get it all dome in half day all by myself.
Removing old rotors was challenge, I was beating them so hard I think whole neighborhood was wondering what I was doing in the garage, anyway, got it done and they look great.
READ THE BRAKE IN instructions, I did not at the beginning and when I took car for first drive, they were making all screeching and squeaking noises, I was like, what the heck, went back home, and after reading it, I got it broken in and they started working great, love them, look great, stop great, awesome package for the money.
The look of the back the hight of it was killing me, I just did not like the look, for about a month I was debating on the H&R Springs or just cutting rear springs. After some time I decided to just cut the back by 1.5" and wait on springs, it was not about money, It's my daily driver and I don't want to have rough ride and also don't like now H&R make your rims looks like they are inside the fender, seems like rims need ether spacer to bring them out flash with fenders or new rims.
Same week I ordered new tires, my front tires were messed up, like I sad before I don't know what this guy was doing, 24K miles, brakes gone, tires a mess, anyway, I got me CONTINENTAL Extreme Contact DWS06 and are they sweet or what.
Alignment was done and they roll too nice, brake too hard, love them all the way!
October 1, 2019Cut the back springs, it's very easy to do, ton of tutorial videos, I took it easy, did one inch first put it all together drove around for it to settle and cut another 1/2" off, looks great, love the look, and my alignment guy was able to get alignment in spec without camber bolts.
I just wish there is a way to drop front by 1/2" also without tracing springs, but ohh well, maybe some day H&R...
October 5, 2019Ordered GearHead tune, tuner, spark plugs, 170F thermostat and 3 bar map sensor.
Got parts few days later and got to work, only took me hour to get everything in place and on the road, WOW what a difference, love it, defiantly worth every$ spent, HP gain to $$$ unbeatable.
October 19, 2019Ordered GearHead intercooler, got it few day later and got to work that same Friday night.
Took me good 5 hours to do it by myself, got it done, it's not as bad as I was intercepting. just before swap I got updated tune from Gearhead, and that same night went for test drive. I can feel the difference, not huge but noticeable. Nice update, I am sure it will benefit more in the summer when its mid 90's and humid.
October 25, 2019All that PTU talk was making me nervous, by now I am 25K miles and it's time for engine oil change. Few days before oil change on Saturday I got very strong propane smell as I pull in to the house, very strong smell, I know it right away...
Got under the car, changed engine oil and got to the PTU fluid change, was able to pull 12oz of very nasty thick stinky fluid, I still have it in the garage in the water bottle as reminder, once in the while I open the cap and give it a smell, ohhh my...
Anyway few days later another PTU fluid change just to get all the crap out, this time I got 14oz out but with more silver metal shavings, this time I was covered in glitter.
Smell was there every time I was driving, less but still there, when I was under the car I noticed breather hose came off of the PTU and was dumping oil on top of the put and making that smell, I pulled breather hose and came to find out the top part has filter that was completely clogged and was not letting air in or out, I removed that filter material and ran just the house.
November 24, 2019Going to work, started car, pulled out of garage, driving down the road 5mi/h, all of a sudden I hear gear crashing noise, grind, I know it, PTU gave up, I turned around and slowly drove home, was only 1/2 mi away.
pulled back in to garage.
Called around, no shop in my area ether had experience with swapping PTU or too busy to do it. Called local ford dealer, they quoted me $1800 for the job, I had no choice, dropped the car same day, picked up 2 days later, they had to order the PTU...
I also asked them if they can crack my old PTU for me to check out the damage and take pictures for my record, they wanted to charge me hour of labor to do it, LOL, but they offered me to take it home at no charge, so I took it
Brought car back home on 27th, drove nice, no issues, dealer also had 2 year warranty on PTU they installed, unlimited milage.
First thing I did when I got home is opened my old PTU, what a mess, it was all gunned up, come on 26K on the car and it looked like $hit on inside and one bearing was completely destroyed, in phases all over the PTU, WOW. I still have the PTU, I will look little more in to it during summer.
Anyway, moving on.
December 3, 2019Got a box, long waited 2 months wait) PPE Catted downpipes, WOW, thats all I can say, what a quality parts. I never had anything too well build and I am glad I went with PPE, highly recommended!!!
Don't forget to order yourself pipe clamp, longer pipe is made from two leases and PPE don't provide clamp to clamp them together.
Also got me heather wrap to wrap cat part of the pipe to prevent heat from cooking my bran new PTU
Same time I ordered DiCunzolo GEN2 trans mounts to do it all at once.
December 14, 2019My friend lets me use his shop lift and tools to install pipes and trans mounts.
Got there, got straight to work, I did not spray turbo/downpipe bolts with oil, you would, so I started braking them bolts, front pipe came out ok, was hard to brake but nuts came out ok, back was problem on it's own, two of the studs came out of the turbo housings and got stripped thread on the way out, ohh boy, its no problem you want to face on Friday 9PM, LOL
on the PPE pipes install old studs did not want to go back in, we found same kind of studs size and they did not want to go in ether because of the screws up threads on turbo housing, well we ended up putting smaller bolts straight trough and locking them with nut on the back, that was only way to get this fixed at list at that time and place.
Pipes went in fine, mounts got swapped time to test.
TELL YOU what, when I started the car I did not know what was making too much noise pipes or mounts, I did read about mounts needing some brake in but ohh boy, it's like I had metal chair welded straight to the engine, I felt everything and it resonated trough out the car frame, anyway, I drove home and I was not able to even figure out of I gained anything power from the downpipes, that vibration and noise was way too overwhelming.
4 days later and 250 miles, mounts broke in a little and got allot better but still, worst part is driving 1500RPM on the freeway and they make this low level vibration noise.
Lets say this, they are not bad product, they are great for someone but it was not my cup of tee.
I got them out, took me 15 min to put stock mounts back and finally concentrate on downpipes gain.
Let me say this, I can feel turbo spool up faster, feels creeper throttle response, I can't say I gain lots of power but maybe because of the time of getting used of the mounts, I got used of the power, hard to say, But I am sure that they do benefit overall picture for sure, 100%
Holidays are over and it's time to look in to next step.
January 10, 2019E30 or Meth, that is the question on my mind. I been thinking about it for last month as my next step, and here is where I am coming from. We only have one station for E85 in my town, about 7 miles away, few more in nearby town, I am in PA in the corn land where amish are, we don't have all high-tech and electric car charges at any store, so if I go E30 and I run out of gas, chances of me finding E85 station are slim.
Next option is Meth, then I am not big fan of straying stuff in my engine and there is chance of fail and messing engine up, and still dealing with refilling and install and all this and that.
SO E30 sounds simpler to me, just fill and go VS install, chance of hardware issues...
I sent my logs to Matt at GearHead, for him to see if I am capable of E30 without upgrading pump, same time still deciding what rout to take, thats where I am at as of right now.
Once I get my next milestone, I will dyne and report back.
Will post pictures later.
Boy that was allot of typing, I need to go take a break, my wife was asking me if I am writing a book there, LOL
I will keep updating this and adding more tuff to it later.
