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Power steering pressure hose The SHO PS hose didn't fit in the Topaz rack so I had to make up a new hose. I cut the pump end off the SHO hose and the rack end off the Topaz hose. Then I had a local garage make me a joiner out of double braided steel hydralic hose. The metal ends slide into the joiner and then you tighten the locking nuts to hold them in place. It worked great!! |
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There's not enough room between the timing cover and the strut tower
for a hose so I had to re-route. The SHO hose has 2 nice 90 degree bends so
I cut them off and joined them together to make a 180 which goes back around
the strut tower and down to the pump. The return line also has to make a
sharp bend to avoid contacting the DIS module on the intake. As you can see,
the stock Topaz resevoir and coolant bottle were retained. |
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As I had figured, there's not enough room between the front exhaust
manifold and the rad for a fan. So I bought a 16" Tornado style fan from Summit
Racing. The fan is reversable so I am using it as a pusher fan on the front
of the rad. The fan just barely fits top to bottom and actually is in contact
with the hood latch. But it doesn't interfere with any moving parts so I
think it'll be OK. On the bottom right you can see the power steering cooler
swapped from the SHO. |
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The top rad hose is just a 15" flexible hose with 1.25" and 1.5" openings.
I wanted one about 13-14" long but this is all I could get. It's a bit too
long but works fine. You can see the yellow foam rubber around the rad. I
glued strips to all 4 sides to effectively seal the rad to the rad opening
in the frame. That way all the air entering the front of the car has to go
through the rad instead of around it. Hopefully this will help out with cooling
somewhat. |
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I had a local machinist make me new axles out of 4140 heat treated,
stress relieved steel, total cost $240CDN. They are 3" shorter(each) than
the original SHO axles because the Topaz has a narrower track than the Taurus.
I assembled them using the CV joints from my parts car with new boots, clamps
and grease. They fit perfectly! |
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This is the Lifetime Programming Module(LPM) I bought from Ted Breaux
for $200USD. It simply plugs into the diagnostic port on the back of the ECM
as shown above. It optimized the fuel and timing curve as well as tells the
ECM how to interperate the signal from the Lincoln Mark 8 80mm MAF sensor.
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A good shot of the right-side axle installed |
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Hopefully, this is where the engine will stay now! I've had many people look at it and they say it looks like something the factory would produce. Very neat and tidy. |