Ford's other 4 door performance sedan

[Buford]

Hi,

I am a new guy, don’t own a Marauder. I am webmaster at www.v8sho.com, which is a web site for Ford Taurus SHO 96-99. I did not come to argue or flame. If we both own 4 door performance Fords it is not a very large group of owners. Ford made about 19,730 V8 SHOs during those 4 years, less than 1% of total Taurus production

I came to share a little of our experience. Target market for the V8 SHO was 55 years old and it takes a little experience to choose it out from the general Taurus crowd so one of the big attractions is it’s stealth. We often get a fair amount of neglect from law enforcement, for which we are very grateful. In some ways the Marauder blends in, it other ways less so. I guess I am interested in learning your thoughts on stealth vs distinctive appearance.

Now that many of our cars have 80k we are experiencing transmission failures but I expect your experience to be much better with a proven RWD transmission. Our cars have a ZF rack and pinion and PS pump and fluid sampling has indicated expected life for PS fluid is only 20-25k. Since FOMOCO does not have a scheduled PM for PS fluid as your cars get about that old you may choose to flush and sample.

Maybe the biggest concern we have is premature cam failure. Our 3.4L DOHC is Vulcan based but the method of slaving the two cams together is similar but not identical to the method used in your cars. In our case the slave sprockets are shrink fit and often slip at about 70k bending valves and damaging pistons and breaking hearts.

Since a new Ford crate motor costs $13,000 and they don’t have them any more it is an issue because the failure rate is about 20%. A gasket set cost $700 and you just can’t buy engine parts like pistons and valves, so you end up buying a used motor because parts are so hard to come buy.

My information is that LM changed the sprocket design on future Marauder engines after the first year production based on premature failures of our engines. I could be wrong, you may want to check on that for your self. I would like to know my self.

You guys are way ahead of us on mods. It took years for us to develop blowers, NOS and transmissions that survive.

My questions would be, what is Marauder production by year?

What is curb weight on a stock Marauder?

Stock what kind of ET’s do you run?

Not that I would admit it but the chip in a V8 SHO cuts out at an indicated 144 ~ or an actual 140. (so they say ;-) ), What kind of top end charge do you guys have?

It has taken till recently to find a chip that works well for our cars. Best ET, with external mods only, no NOS no blower is 14.609 which may not be fast but the car is geared very tall and we only have 3.4L to work with. We don’t have much torque off the line.

I hope this is well received, and I am not intruding. I would be particularly interested if any of you guys are V8 SHO owners or former owners. I would be grateful for a comparison, especially, if it is long thoughtful and I can put it on V8 SHO. As our cars age I know many owners have take more than a passing look at the Marauder.

Thank-you for your hospitality.

Timothy Wright
Webmaster@v8sho.com

[piglet]

Mr Wright,

Welcome, this board is awesome and everyone gets along well. I would think your email will be well received. I have been a fan of the SHO for many years, however my friends who had one (non-V-8) often talked about short life for either the engine or tranny.

Look forward to more of your posts. One of the sites smart guys will give you all the numbers you requested.

[Buford]

The V6 SHO is a beast, one owner Ranson Holbrook has the ECTA record for the flying mile. Something like 169 mph in a measured 5000'. In my estimation it is a great car, a ground-breaker for it’s day but a little long in the tooth now. They did use up clutches until better parts were developed. Like any 10 year old car, fixes have been developed for all the know issues. Of course Ranson has a blower, his class is 3.01L to 4.25L and he has only 3.2L so he has the record even giving away 1.05 L.

The v8 is auto only, which disappointed many V6 owners. Because it is an even firing 60-degree V8 with off-set journals and a balance shaft it builds crank speed slower than the v6 and is less suited to a 5 speed.

I love my V8, seats are outstanding. Never been in a finer car for 10 hour drives. It is a little bigger than a truly nimble car, but can hang with the Miata club on a tight track when driven well. Yet it has a long enough wheelbase to get into a comfortable gait on the super slab, I will not discuss specific speeds but one might “do the blue ridge” at night, at about 3 times the speed limit.

One can have a very bad day, get in to a SHO, any year and soon all is fine with the world.

When I was looking for a new car in 97 I came across www.shotimes.com and purchased the car mostly because the other owners were everything you might hope for in a car club. Not too snobby, not too ricey, helpful with a great sense of humor. I would expect much the same with Marauder owners. Too old to be kids who thrash cars, responsible ect…

[Murader03]

Buford: I take exception to your statement - "Too old to be kids who thrash cars, responsible ect…" :D
The Marauder isn't your "grandpa's Mercury." I just got rid of my '99 Cobra as I needed a bigger car. I have 3 teenage grand kids, of which the oldest is now 17. Gives you some kinda idea how old I am. Responsible, yes, thrash the car, your darn tootin'. Too old to be kids, God I hope not! :(
I moved into an '02 CrownVic Sport as I thought the Marauder was overpriced when it appeared. Now that the dealers and Ford are moving a little on invoice and rebates, I leaped on the car. Should have gotten it to start, but I'm gald I waited. Anyway, my wife asked me if I was every going to grow up, and I told her H**L no. When I ordered and installed my bumper inserts, I got the same question. I'll probably get the same look and question when I install the spoiler, and a few performance goodies. I just don't ever want to grow up no matter how "OLD" I get.
Welcome to the board!

:D

[JamesHecker]

Welcome to the Marauder site Buford. I think pretty much everyone on this board respects an interesting exchange of information and has a broad range of auto interests. I've never owned a SHO, but I sho did like em when I saw em.

[Buford]

Dear Robert,

I never meant to imply you either don’t enjoy your car or do not know how to drive. You should know ANY track use is considered abuse by service writers and admitting it voids warranty coverage.

Having said that most every nation convention SHO Club rents a ¼ mile track one day and a road racing track for another. We never abuse our cars either, We just sit in the pits and say to one another “ Gee if we were both out on the track I’d be whooping your behind right now.” Year after year we just sit in the pits and bench race. ;-)

In the last 4 convention we rented Road Atlanta, Halette, and Summit Point. Trust me you don’t know your car until you do a few dozen fast laps on a twisty track. It helped us find pads that work very well at all speeds, and taught us to flush brake fluid very often.

Back to service writers, 98 SHO have an unusual problem. The PCM cut the ignition out at 140 mph but at any thing over 115 the speedo drops to zero and Ford official solution was “Hey, don’t drive that fast.” & “How would know you speed does not work above 115 mph unless you trash your car and void your warranty?”

I have no doubt you drive with in the limits of your skills and equipment.

[Buford]

Thanks James,

I learnd a lot from the V6 crew, wonderful folks. I hope a little of what we learned may be helpful or of interest.

SHO folks LUV quick sedans, for us the MM was long awaited. You guys remind us of when we we young & innocent and our car were all under warranty. ;-)

[Moparzz]

Originally posted by Buford
Hi,

I am a new guy, don’t own a Marauder. I am webmaster at www.v8sho.com, which is a web site for Ford Taurus SHO 96-99.

My questions would be, what is Marauder production by year?

What is curb weight on a stock Marauder?

Stock what kind of ET’s do you run?

Not that I would admit it but the chip in a V8 SHO cuts out at an indicated 144 ~ or an actual 140. (so they say ;-) ), What kind of top end charge do you guys have?


Thank-you for your hospitality.

Timothy Wright
Webmaster@v8sho.com

Tim,

I'm no expert, but I will answer your questions to the best of my ability.

The 2003 Marauder was scheduled for production of 18,000 units.

Feedback on stock ET's for the 1/4 have been low 15's high 14's.

Curb weight is approx. 4,200 lbs.

The stock chip speed limits the car to 116 mph because of the driveshaft.

I have always been intrigued by the SHO, but I'm a RWD guy at heart.

[03 Merc]

Buford,

Welcome and I'll try to answer a couple of your questions.

This is the first year for the MM. Expected production is around 15K units. I personally doubt it will see that as Panther platform(Grand Marquis/ Crown Victoria/ Lincoln Town Car) sales are slow and Mercury Marketing is not doing worth a flip in advertising the MM. BTW the MM is a option package on the GM.

As far as the motor in the MM it is basically the 01 Cobra motor according to most accounts I have read. That has its roots in the InTech family which has been used successfully in Lincolns prior to becoming a "performance motor" in the 99 Cobra. If I recall correctly the motor in the SHO was a joint Yamaha / Ford venture wasn't it?

Curb weight is around 4200 pounds I believe. Options are not a factor as the early MMs only had two: a 6 pack CD changer in the trunk, and a trunk organizer.

As far as mods the fairly rapidly availablity for the MM that comes from that Cobra and Lincoln heritage...the aftermarket only needed to tweak existing parts to the Panther...

Like Murader03 I also "take exception to your statement" ;) and came from a Cobra ...I had a 01 convertible that to put it diplomatically was a shade to small for its owner.. :rolleyes: ..Plus it had some mechanical issues as well..

The factory has a 117 mph or 123mph limiter, depending on which article you read, built in the ECM. BTW your comment about the speedo cut out reminds me of when I complained my Cobra vibrated at 90MPH. The service manager told me not to drive it that fast...when I told him it cleared up at about 120MPH he was even less happy...:cool:

As far as ET's I believe the MM is probably a low 15, maybe high 14, car stock. If you do a search on the board you will find what is being seen by owners who have been to the track.. The mod motor is not a low end torquer, add having 3.55's in a 4000 pound car, and this isn't the optimum setup for drag racing to say the least...Get rid of the 3.55s for some 4.10's, add a chip and it should get a lot better...several folks here have done that as well...

Hope this answered some of your questions...

[Macon Marauder]

Welcome!

The SHO was an awesome car. My Dad had the V-6 version, my brother had a V-8. Sadly, reports of the cam sprocket problem and some other problems he was having convinced him to sell it. He ended up practically giving it away.

Like some others on this board, I've always been a RWD man myself. But I really miss flogging my brothers SHO on the twisty Georgia back roads. It handled like it was on rails.

I also think you SHO owners are getting a raw deal from Ford on the cam sprockets, but that's a different discussion...

[MAD-3R]

As for the stealth issue, I get mestaken for cop all the time, and though it stands out a bit more then the SHO's, it's a "double take" kind of car. If your gone before they get there head back around, they missed you, while your is "oh, its a taurus." Yours is more sliding under the radar, while ares are a "what the hell was that?" kind of thing.

[Buford]

Nice, I wake up and have 3 responses to my letters. On warranty issues. Say you put on a blower or do engine work. You void your warranty.

Now the seams in your interior leather seats or the head unit in your stereo fails. Don’t act surprised when they deny warranty on the leather seats or stereo because you did engine work. It is as if any change taints the whole car. Not my rules but it has been our experience with most dealerships.

A V8 SHO cam failure is preventable, you must weld the sprockets to the cam which voids warranty and costs ~ $500. It is delicate job as the weld must be done without putting too much heat into the hollow cam. I recommend folks get the car the treatment and enjoy the car, given the resale cost is all ready taking possible engine failure into account.

I suspect MM will be quicker once they get a few miles even without mods as they loosen up, but given the weight and engine I suspected rumors of sub 14 ET from the factory were optimistic.

I have followed a pair of police CV across MD on I68 at well over 100 for almost an hour and they gave me all I wanted, but they knew the road well and was a little leery of corner after blind corner at those speeds and no heavy braking was required. I gained a lot of respect for their car and driving skills that day. On a tight track that much weight works against you, If you ever do rent a track for a convention I would like to watch. ;-)

On top end, I run a laptop on a desk, (I am not a cop) and use a GPS so 117 or 123 you can pin that down if you choose to. It takes much less road to find 120 mph than 140. That last 20 mph, well it requires room and chones.

The SHO 2-3 shifts at 75 mph WOT, you can hold 3rd till 130 before it redlines. So RE heavy car, tall gearing, and too few CID. I understand.

You guys have almost as many first year as we have all years combined, but hey we have many more colors, so when we park together at least we can find our own. ;-)

[MAD-3R]

From my driving,
WOT
1-2 at about 34 MPH
2-3 at about 90 MPH
Detectors are illegal in the Great Commonwealth of Virginia (but only Texas executes more people :) ) So 110 is the fastest I have ever gotten it.

And my sig has my times for my first time at the track. An this is bone stock with 3200 miles, and no ice to cool it. Also, I didn't break stand the launch. I do delieve the High 14 times. It is there, I just could find it.

[macoombi]

Howdy folks, I'm another V8 SHO guy just visiting with a couple of comments to add.

I imagine that once you get a few miles on your engines and get them broken in they'll start running better times. The car mags tested the V8 SHO and got times of 15.7, 15.9 and even a 16.1! My first time at the track I ran a 15.7. I stripped the seats out and ran in cooler weather and got a 14.9 timeslip to boot. It seems that the cold air has a big effect on the performance. I was running 15.5's in warmer weather this year and 15.0s and 15.1s in the sub 50 degree weather.

Has anyone found the same with the Marauder?

Also, there was talk of the engine being handicapped by the computer during the break-in period thus explaining the slow times reported by some mags. Maybe this is the case with the MM?

Anyway, I expect to see some more stock 14 second runs. And take care of those cars, some of SHO guys will no doubt be buying them off you when we need replacements.

[Buford]

A few rambling notes on this rambling thread, I Never let the recommendations of the VA legislature modify my radar detector behavior. I have an old wireless passport which still works well on X & K band. I would put it directly in front of my head to shield it from rear view and could be tossed under the seat if I got pulled over when I lived in NoVA

When I ordered my SHO new my Valentine had just arrived. It has been a Godsend. I put it high on the glass tucked tight in front of the visor and when directly it front of me it is also not visible from behind.

Speed is relative, to where you live. When I lived East Coast I had much the same perceptions as other folks from MD, VA, PA & WV. Now that I live in the Prairie State and traffic is very light and roads are as level and straight, one could tach it up a touch to velocities that would be irresponsible elsewhere.

With the SHO we found the intake path in front of the MAF had ½ the capacity of the MAF or engine. But at least we never perturbed anyone with our drive by ambient noise levels. Of course we always strive to be PC with our intake roar.

Our 2.25” mufflers had a crimp before and aft down to 1.625”. They were made of wonderful SS that lasts forever but the chassis dyno showed a 10 HP loss over most replacement muffs. Bad news is every after-market muff had only an 18 month life. Walk behind my car with old muffs on when it was on the chassis dyno and the shot pattern could make your calves bleed all over. Moral is don’t tail gate a SHO when they are over 6k rpm if they have replacement muffs.

We tried more radical exhaust mods, removed the 3rd cat (just for research now) and it did help peak HP but cost TQ from low to mid range and hurt ET’s.

I am sure you guys have done UDP and other such bolt on’s so I have nothing to add on that subject.

Don’t discount the stealth thing, there is a car looks a lot like mine that got clocked at well over a 100 on the way to “Bloomington Ford Days”. I tried to tell the nice officer that he should look for another car that looks just like mine but he was “on the job”. (honest off’cer, he went data a way - )

Well we got a copy of the police radio and to shorten the story on the radio the officer could not identify the car so I walked. Which is good, because I know who ever that was, was on the plus side of 130.

At the car show I told the judge I deserved pity points because of my ticket that morning, He thought I was bluffing and said if I showed him the ticket he would give me under-hood points which I needed.

2nd place in class, and if I ever meet the other guy (wuznt me ;-) ) , I’ll buy him a cold one.

[MAD-3R]

I got pulled over in my first Festiva by a VA state trooper, wrote me up for 78 in a 55. I know he changed the speed, because it was pegged past 85 when I passed him. :D

As for straight roads, we got them, just the traffic here makes SoCal look tame.

And the president of the Mustang Club I cruise with is a county cop, so no detector for me.

Unless Logan can get us a review of that stealth systm he's working on... :D

[tetsu]

Hi Bufurd,

Welcome to the site. I think the MM and the SHO people probably have more in common than not.

My timeslips will attest to 15.1 (my very first run in which I may have let up on the throttle not knowing where the 1/4 ended), 14.9 x 2 and 14.8 x 3. On one 14.8 was on a two footed launch where i actually got out of the throttle for a moment. I think there was at least a 14.7 hiding in that run that I blew. I need to figure out how to do a two footed launch on this beast.

Johnny