Build Thread. 2001 Ford Taurus. Too many Mods!

[Plush1992]

Hi there long time lurker here! This is my first thread so I apologize if this is in the wrong part of the forum.

I own a 2001 Ford Taurus (war pig) with the 3.0 ohv Vulcan v6 motor with its slushbox 4 speed auto. Final drive ratio of 3.77 (hwy gears) newer models came with 3.99 or something like that. Stock 20city/28hwy although I estimate more like 30 mpg hwy along with many others.

First thing I do is use octane 89 instead of 87. My uncle has the same car and makes many long road trips and swears 89 gets better mpg and I feel the same thing. (carbon build up?)



Next is my Air dam (4inch). Makes the car look better too imo


Partial grill block. The left and right openings are blocked with painted black lexan


The front grill is blocked with painted cardboard with steel as back support and black zip ties holding it together. Its pretty sturdy.

[Plush1992]

After research I decided my original rear wing was causing nothing but drag, I highly doubt it helps to keep flow attached.
In the picture you can see where the wind resistance has removed all the clearcoat off the front part of the wing and has even Sanded Down part of the center section! Thats alot of wind drag resistance over the years to cause the wing to literally get sanded down in some areas.



Ill take a picture of my trunk and what I did to seal up the holes later. Ford Taurus actually came with trunks without rear wings too.

[Plush1992]

I made a rear belly pan. It covers up everything all the way up to the rear lower control arms, then tucks up nicely so the wind wont catch on it. Hours of work went into this.

I first jacked up and took off the rear wheels, then did my best to trace a outline then cut the two black boards to size doing one board at a time. Trimming through out the process is a given, so dont cut off too much in one go! I used screws and bolts along the edges and in a few places I had to use big zip ties.




See how it tucks up nicely.

Had to drill through the trunk.

[Plush1992]

I plan on making hood vents on my vehicle by cutting out the areas in red (pic 1) and using wire mesh to cover them up and should hopefully look like the 2nd pic. The goal is to be able to keep my grill block in the summer months.

Ive tried researching this but theres not much information about if hood vents help make a car more aerodynamic or decrease Drag Coefficient. Any of you guys have an opinion on this, id like to know?

"Edit: Great link on hood vent aerodynamics" http://www.autospeed.com/cms/article...art-3&A=113178

[Xist]

Both my Civic HX and Dad's Focus XFE came with spoilers and each was specifically designed to get better fuel economy than their respective mere mortal counterparts, but neither of us believed the spoiler did anything but look nice.

Are you familiar with the Template?



The black outline shows the ideal taper for aerodynamics. That car does not have a spoiler, but your would be far under the line, so the air goes right over it. Has paint worn off elsewhere? I would not expect air at freeway speeds to be able to do that, although enough dust in the air could.

I forgot what else I was going to add; all of this took too long!

Welcome to the site, though! I hope that you enjoy yourself here!

[Xist]

Originally Posted by Plush1992

Ive tried researching this but theres not much information about if hood vents help make a car more aerodynamic or decrease Drag Coefficient.

No? Look around here: AutoSpeed - Analysing Road Car Drag

They had an article where they created a hood vent and measured the difference. They have some good stuff and discuss various modifications they have attempted, including on a Gen1 Insight!

[Plush1992]

Thank you for that outline I appreciate it, gives me a better understanding of my car now and for the link, I was having a very hard time finding info on induced lift drag. Answering your question, paint has only wore off on the top part, no where else, not even the underside.

Thank you for your time and yes I have most definitely have been enjoying myself

[Plush1992]

Intake silencer removal! Check out this big ol restriction on the intake!



I decided to remove the intake silencer for a big trip to Seattle and Oregon from Spokane because we had lots of weight and baggage in the vehicle and I wanted to make sure the car wouldn't struggle along the big hills on the freeways like it was on I-90's big hilly freeway past Cda. After removing the silencer, in very hot weather with a warmed up motor the car definitely had a bit more get up and go from stops, just seemed to breath better. Many people on the Taurus forum do this for more hp/torque.

Needing to press the throttle down further and further to keep and maintain speed will make any motor work harder and thus use more fuel, so this mod seems to make the motor more happy at higher loads and RPM's.

[Daox]

So, what kind of mpg are you getting with the Taurus? Going to start a fuel log?

[Plush1992]

Just put smooth wheel covers on all 4 of my rims, using 16 inch pizza pans. I used some junk yard wheel bolts to weld nuts onto for mounting points. I forgot to take a pic of the pans on the wheels, il do it tomorrow.

FYI I do not recommend mounting pizza pans this way! It was Very difficult to get the holes I drilled on the pans to line up with the nuts on the wheels!

Heres how I mounted them