Ford Vulcan V6 Manual
Go to: and search for a manual transmission for your car. It will show transmissions from other cars/years that are the same and will also fit. Don't forget that you will need a flywheel, pressure plate, clutch disk and possibly the following parts: an intermediate axle shaft, different starter, axles and transmission mount. The easiest way to check to see if you can reuse your starter, axles etc. Is to go somewhere like autozone.com and look up these parts and see if there is a different part number for the auto vs. Manual trans.
You will also need a clutch pedal assembly/clutch master cylinder, clutch line and slave cylinder. I just did an auto to manual tranny swap on a 94 Accord. I was able to get everything at a 'you-pull' type salvage yard for about $150 and 6 hours of work there. One of my first cars was a 57 Chevy 210 Post, it came with a Saganaw 3 speed on a Hurst shifter. With no synchro in 1st, it was a bear to drive, I swapped out a Turbo 400 auto 3 speed, 68 Cadillac drive shaft, to a 58 Pontiac positration rear end.
It ran great. Now on the Taurus, just like the Pontiac Grand Am and Grand Prix, they made millions of these cars in America, I dont ever remember seeing one with a stick shift, I have heard of a Canadian option though.
I know Taurus had 2 transmissions, the AX4S and the SES. The AX4S from what I have been told is a trans that takes off in 2nd gear and can only be dropped into 1st gear after you stomp on the gas pedal. The SES is a trans that can be manually shifted into 1st. Ford had 2 suppliers and as cars were assembled, whatever trans came in that day got installed into your car. Like most transmissions, the only way to tell which is which is by crawling under your car and counting the number of bolts and shape of the pan. I got this information from carsurvey.org.
The Ford Taurus was a super successful design, starting out in the 80's. Vw golf fsi 2018 owners manual. It took Toyota and Nissan and forced them to make the Camry and Maxima, to compete in the family sedan market. The Taurus always had either the 3.0 or 3.8 V6 under the hood and many people I have talked to said they could get 30 mpg out of them on highway cruise. I always wished Ford would have made the Taurus with the 2.3 Ford 4 cylinder, the great Pinto engine, but I dont ever recall hearing of that option. One option that may give you a glimmer of hope is Ford's S.H.O. There was a period in the 90's that Ford made a performance sedan out of the Taurus and called it the S.H.O. I dont know if it had a 5 speed option or adaptable parts.
The other 5 speed out there and this is a long shot may be the Mercury Cougar V6/Ford Probe V6, their made by Mazda and I dont know if the 5 speeds will matt up to Ford's V6. Also if you have the engine and trans out of the car, spend the money and install new head gaskets on the engine.
It's one of Ford's greatest failures, the head gaskets blow after 140k sometimes earlier. And if you've had the luck I had, my Ford Aerostar and my Explorer let go their head gaskets on the highway, blew the tank off the radiator and hydrolocked a cylinder breaking a connecting rod, pretty much the engine was a throw away. So happy hunting, the joy of cobbling together a car out of the junkyard is fun. Also if you find a 5 speed, the CPU may need to be changed to a manual CPU. I remember The RoadWarrior.To understand who he was, you have to go back to another time.the world was powered by the black fuel & the desert sprouted great cities.Gone now, swept away.two mighty warrior tribes went to war & touched off a blaze which engulfed them all.
Without fuel, they were nothing.thundering machines sputtered & stopped.Only those mobile enough to scavenge, brutal enough to pillage would survive. The gangs took over the highways, ready to wage war for a tank of juice. I remember The RoadWarrior.To understand who he was, you have to go back to another time.the world was powered by the black fuel & the desert sprouted great cities.Gone now, swept away.two mighty warrior tribes went to war & touched off a blaze which engulfed them all. Without fuel, they were nothing.thundering machines sputtered & stopped.Only those mobile enough to scavenge, brutal enough to pillage would survive.
The gangs took over the highways, ready to wage war for a tank of juice. I remember The RoadWarrior.To understand who he was, you have to go back to another time.the world was powered by the black fuel & the desert sprouted great cities.Gone now, swept away.two mighty warrior tribes went to war & touched off a blaze which engulfed them all. Without fuel, they were nothing.thundering machines sputtered & stopped.Only those mobile enough to scavenge, brutal enough to pillage would survive. The gangs took over the highways, ready to wage war for a tank of juice.
Brand new here so I hesitate to post such a negative first post. But you need to know what you are getting into with this swap. Go over to the web site.
The Contour used the 2.5L Duratec. Those guys have been sucessfully swapping 3.0L long blocks into their cars for several years now. But it is no easy task. In the forums, search out the discussions concerning swapping a 3.0 Duratec into a Contour/Mystic/Mondeo. Read everything you can find on the subject. The MTX75 5-speed will bolt up to the 3.0 with some minor mods.
Ford Vulcan V6 Manual Transmission
But you have to consider a lot of things besides the physical connection between the block and transaxle. There was never a Duratec/manual transmission setup for the Taurus from the factory. You will have to source everything from a donor Contour. There will be no pilot bearing hole machined into your crankshaft. The flywheel must fall exactly on the same plane relative to the transaxle as it would on a 2.5L engine. That will mean exacting measurements and shims.
You will need to get a machinist involved. You will have to fit the pedal and shifter assemblies from the donor car into your Taurus. That is no small task in itself. Many happy hours of measuring, fabricating, and test fitting await. You may end up designing and fabricating a chassis mount for the MTX75; I don't know the pick-up points in the Taurus but I am guessing they are not present for the manual transmission.
The wiring harness will need to be modified. Which opens another can of worms. The ECU will not be happy with a manual transmission. I don't know exactly what the ECU will do about the loss of transmission signals.
Maybe it will just set a check engine light and ignore the PCM. Maybe it will be forced into a default lookup table. I just don't know. I am sure the vehicle speed sensor signal will be wrong and that will definitely set a default safe mode. You will have to solve that riddle along the way.
If it won't run properly without those transmission feedback signals, are you prepared to change out the fuel injection to SDS or MegaSquirt or??? If you are contemplating this change to improve MPG, it may well do that. But study long and hard before you get into this swap. It won't be easy. More importantly, it won't be cheap. It will never pay for itself. As an exercise in problem solving it will be interesting.
If hotrodders have taught us anything it is this: any drivetrain can be coupled to any engine in any chassis. How much time, effort, and money do you want to spend?
Regards, - Mr. Shannon DeWolfe - I've taken to using mister because my name misleads folks on the WWW.
I am a 53 year old fat man.;-).
Ford Vulcan V6
The 3.0 Vulcan is, in my opinion, the most reliable, durable, bulletproof, indestructable V6 engine ever seen on the American road. They never break, save for instances of severe neglect or abuse, and are easy and cheap to maintain. Nothing ever goes wrong with them. My wife drives a Mercury Sable, with the Duratec. It’s got dual overhead camshafts driven by ridiculously long timing chains and a myriad of coolant hoses. Personally I’d always take a Duratec over a Vulcan because they’re so much peppier and therefore fun to drive.
Most reliable, indestructiblethems are some pretty strong words. Not being a Ford man, I would not have a clue. But that does leap frog some other really deserving motors. The old 4.3 L GM is still found in Marine use where the environment is about as bad as you can get. The 4.0 L 6 by Toyota is arguably one of the best 6 cylinder truck motors. Unfortunately, in this day and age, economy in operation often sacrifices a little longevity. And just about any old straight six from GM gets my nod.
They just couldn’t fit in place in fwd and the inherrant advantages took a back seat. But, I agree that old push rods tend to be fairly reliable and a big reason they are still used in industrial applications. Still, the older we are the better we were and life expectancies of 130 k for a push rod pails o a 200k Honda which is just getting broken in. They may have seemed reliable in a old Taurus as they were the last thing to break. And lest I forget my bros old diesel MB with more then a quarter million miles of trouble free motor operation.
So the most reliale motor being a Ford Vulcan? Just have to buy an old Taurus for my next car then.
If the motor still runs while the rest of the car falls apart, is it an illusion that the motor is really that good simply because it’s the last component standing at only 150 k? IMHO, the sign of a decent motor is how many times it keeps showing up in other uses. The 4.3 from GM, spent a lot of time in vans, trucks, busses and boats. So, is it more reliable then a Vulcan. If you try to use it in a truck it certainly is. In that respect, best motors are really misleading.
That 3.0 six may have been a decent motor in a Taurus, but it would be gutless in many other situations. The 4.3 has shown itself to be much more versatile than that Ford motor and deserves higher praise. The Vulcan is very reliable, if unexciting, chances are it will outlast the car. The Duratec is more modern, it’s more complex, and his has more power, it doesn’t have any chronic issues that I’m aware of. The 3.0L Vulcan also saw duty in the Ranger, and has had an industrial use variant since 1995.
The GM 4.3L is a great engine, but some versions like the 1992-1995 CPI version had a weird poor-man’s pseudo multi-port fuel injection setup, that wasn’t as reliable as the earlier TBI or later MPFI variants. The Vulcan was pretty much bulletproof throughout it’s production run. Of course the Ford motor was a very good motor and this Ford motor like many push rod motors found their way into the industrial world. My point is, many motors used within their capabilities were quite good. The Vulcan was and probably is, a decent motor when used in lower demand applications.
But, I can cite a gazillion motors with equal to or greater number of backers, not only with greater power output for the same size, but greater life expectancy. Most of these motors in car use had their own backers. If you’re a Ford man, you will be impressed by this motor, if you are a Honda man, you might be impressed by some of their v6 or the superb Yamaha found in the Ford SHO of 3 l as well. The Vulcan would never survive the turbo charging which would be needed if used in this application. But saying it’s the “most reliable, indestructible etc.
V6 motor ever seen on the American road,” is like using superlative phrases like 'he gives 110%'and all of these highly exagerated expressions need perspective as it’s just one segments opinion. When used in a bus, or towing a boat with the 4.3, I doubt it I have my own Opinion, and it’s just a valid and the Vulcan isn’t the greatest v6 motor ever to grace the roads of America, and neither is the GM 4.3. They are impressive to owners of them. The best motors are yet to be built. And as impressive as the pedigree is, there are many more with equal or greater performance histories with as vehement supporters. Bet you can name a few your self Btw, in the Ranger, it had poor motor performance compared to it’s competition.
That it was used, does not mean it was used successfully. They were cheaper to build tooa hallmark of the Rangerand the Taurus. And to put things in perspective, the Vulcan can easily outlast the rest of a Taurus, inluding the transmission which is easier then outlasting the rest of an Accord or even an earlier Crown Vic. I doubt it could outlast the transmission and body of a lot of other cars whose motors routinely outlasted the Vulcan motors in miles driven.
Bottom line, it is rare for a Taurus to get 200k miles without major repairs. It is not for an Accord, Camry, and other makes of cars, both foreign and domestic.