Ford SHO V8 engine

The Ford Super High Output (SHO) V8 engine was designed and built by Ford Motor Company in conjunction with Yamaha Motor Corporation for the 1996 Ford Taurus SHO. It is a 3.4 litre 60 degree V8, based on the Ford Duratec engine and not on the earlier SHO V6 that Yamaha developed for the 1989 Taurus SHO. It keeps traits of the V6, such as aluminium cylinder heads and a four-valve DOHC design, but uses an aluminium block, chain-driven camshafts and no variable length intake manifold, and its split port intake opens secondary valves at 3400 rpm. Power is 235 hp and 230 lb-ft, with bore and stroke of 82.4 by 79.5 mm like the Duratec 25. Because a 60 degree V8 is not ideally balanced, a counter-rotating balance shaft is used. Ford cast the blocks at Windsor, Ontario, Yamaha finished the engines in Japan and they were installed at the Atlanta Taurus plant. Cam sprocket failures gave it a poor reputation, and it was retired in 1999 when third-generation Taurus SHO production ended.