'93 SHO $650 SC

http://greenville.craigslist.org/cto/4350943976.html

God, it's so ugly.

Paging Yamaha.

Inner beauty.

There's a first gen sitting at an abandoned house on the west side of town. Maybe I should find out who owns that house...

You should.

I know where you can find an engine for that. Local too!

How would one go about finding the owner of an abandoned house that looks like the last tenants who made a living selling cans to the scrapper in the back of an old taurus SHO?

County GIS records are a good place to start.

++1^^^^^^^^

In reply to chrispy:

Wow. Actually found the owner in about 30 seconds on a list of property tax liens. It's just a name though. Is this too stalky?

Nah, not stalky unless you try to run them down on Facebook or something. Tax dept should have a last know address - I'd send a letter there.

Well, the shell looks in great shape, but its a sunroof car which means I wouldn't pay more than treefiddy for it.

Engine wise, its non-interference....so it could be a broken timing belt but it could also be "Crank Cancer" which is where the woodruff keyway on the crank wears out and it just doesn't move and wears the crank out of tolerance(if this has happened, the crank is toast) If I were closer I'd offer treefiddy and toss my spare engine in it and use it as a winter beater.

How beefy are the transmissions in them? Any upgraded transmission that can by easily added?

In reply to justjuiceit:

The transmissions normally die due to neglegence(improper care, driving style, burnouts) Quaife and WaveTrac ATB's solve the burnouts issue normally, but they aren't easy to find nor cheap(they were all done in group buy batches) The general consensus is that 3rd gear can shred in boosted sho's if trying to make lugging pulls in it.

IDK that I'd call it an upgrade, but a Mazda H-type from a first gen mx6/probe gt turbo will bolt to this engine with a bellhousing from a 3.0L probe trans of the same era. It may or may not handle the power better.

So I guess they're pretty tough when not abused. I don't do burnouts with my sho's, change fluid regularly, and the '91 is the most powerful one I've owned making around to 250whp. Oh, clutchless shifts will kill them quicker than anything, or at least thats what the kid in GA discovered on his successful quest to get an n/a one into the mid 13's.

FWIW, for the asking price, you could part this car out and at least get your money back.

looks like a good "fix" for a rusty but running northern car.

How hard is the timing belt change on them? Any special tools required?

This, along with a Contour SVT, Focus FVT and a few Mustangs is on my bucket list. I like the body style too!

In reply to justjuiceit:

No special tools that I can think of, the timing belt only ventures from the crank to the intake cams. The exhaust cams are driven by chain off the intake cams on the other side of the engine. Timing belt is a front 60k maintenance item along with the water pump. There's also a top & bottom 60k which includes rod bearings, intake gaskets, and valve measurement/adjustment. These things are maintenance whores.

Wow, rod bearings at 60K? Never heard of that before!