Hey all, as you can see I'm new to the forum. I currently have a Lincoln LS, which I thoroughly enjoy everything about except for its motor! The STR seems to be a great "gentleman's express" and I am hoping to have a few questions answered by those who have been there and done that!

First off, the biggest complaints I hear about the STR is the one wheel peel due to it not having a limited slip differential and the fact that the transmission shift logic causes it to shift short of the power peaks in lower gears. Is fixing the shift points as simple as getting a flash tuner for the car? Has someone on here replaced the rear end with an LSD? I'm curious as to how much it will cost to unlock this car's full potential. It has the heart, it just needs some minor tweaking. I've heard it handles like the LS, only better. I love tossing the LS around the back roads on the way to work so I can only imagine having an extra 150 hp on tap!

If it seems this car fits the bill, I plan on shopping for a black STR with fairly low mileage!

Thanks for any input!

-Matt

 

LSD was supposively done by a company in England. They wont release the details on how they got it to work but you can send them your rear end and they can do it and it will cost you. No one on the boards has done it YET. There are members toying with the idea and some may be talking with companies so it may be in the future. For your tune question. Once again no. LOL. Sorry but once again people are trying to find people to do these things buts its just a matter of finding them and that hasnt been done yet. There are companies that you can find that say they do ECU tunes but none of those companies have been able to supply a dyno or any other evidence to support their claims. They are really nice and in all honesty since I have never driven an STR with a LSD or a tune so I dont really know what I'm missing. So as the car sits stock is plenty nice. There are plenty of other things you can do while you wait. Mafioso intake, exhaust, pulley, port/polish blower, H&R springs, etc. When those things come along though I will definitly want to upgrade. Basically even without those things you wont be disappointed.

 

Matt, Yesterday I took my 03 STR out of its winter slumber. She sports a 1.5 pulley (3 lb. pulley goes on next week) full exhaust mod (check the exhaust mod threads for mine and others) Mafioso intake elbow, low temperature thermostat, and H & R Sport owering springs. The STR's stock suspension is set up nice for diggin-in launches, the H&R Sport springs just make this sweeter along with a sexy 1 1/4" lowered stance. I'm estimating 450 hp @ 460 lb/ft trq. (3 lb pulley should pop on close to an addditional 15 hp) Matt, LSD def. would be nice, but let me tell you dude...my STR friggin moves. She takes off very quickly. There's no doubt it will swipe many others man's metal. The low through top end is unforgiving...just a big flat power and torque band throughout the rpm scale. Get that STR! Vance, Mafioso, Jag79, ChrisSTR, me, and others are beginning to reap the opening up of STR performance mods. Go git her son, don't be left behind.

 

Thanks for the responses vance580 and bfsgross!

I am very surprised to hear that not even a tuner has been made for this car. SCT and I believe a few other companies made tunes for the LS and it has less potential than this supercharged beast! Once you guys replace pulleys and components like the intake and exhaust do you just have to rely on the stock computer to know what the boost is and modify fuel and timing to fit?

It is also unfortunate about the LSD and the fact is probably costs big bucks to get a" one off". If I get an STR i will have to mod it over time and it seems the LSD would take lots of saved up pennies haha. I seem to remember people putting LSD's in their Lincolns though, so are the rear ends the same between the cars? It is my understanding that there are a number of parts they share.

Bfsgross, do you have sticky tires on the rear to help the car just grip anyway? Also, do you mind if I ask what each of those upgrades cost? Thanks again guys!

-Matt

 

Have a read of posts by avos (he mentions tunes and LSD).

 

Matt, She sports new Michelin all seasons. I fitted a slightly wider tire in the rear though (285/35). These tires are wonderful. Excellent handling characteristics, quiet, and plenty of stick. Again, the suspension is adequate for nice launches. Someone hear in the states will develop an LSD. As jagv8 suggests, read the exhaust threads (too much info. to list). PM me for details.

 

I was actually doing some research on the LSD in the LS that the guys got to work. The bad thing was it was a different pumpkin which is the housing for the diff. The LS guys got it to work in the Gen 1 which I believe shares the same rear end with the 00-02 regular S type. In 03 they changed the pumkin in both the LS and the S type and noone over there has been able to do it in that housing which is the same as the R. The only difference between the LS 03+ and the STR 03+ is the gearing.
Yea try to find some of avos' post. The ECU is very adaptive to the mods that were listed above. You can tell this by how much it changes just from getting heat soak.
Mods just depends on where you get it from and which one. We will say ballpark.
Mafioso Intake depends on which one you get there is a thread in the Stickys that has the prices of the different ones.
Pulley maybe 250
Exhaust depends on what you build which is cheapest but could go up a few thousand if you get say a Milltek or a Blueflame
H&R's are a little over 300
Port/Polish depends on who does it
Hope this helps some.

 

Geeze, music and drugs again! Is that all that interests you?

 

A couple of points. By all means go read the post from Avos. That will cover the questions about the tranny tune, engine tune and Limited Slip Diff.

The engine in the STR is sharded with the XJR and XKR of the same vintage but even so I expect that the market potential for a re-tune isn't big enough and once you read the posts from Avos you'll see that it's not really necessary in his opinion.

I'd like to see a re-map of the transmission as well but if you use sport mode (always check as it drops out?) or use the J gate propely it makes up for the horrors of running a thoroughbred in economy mode. Someone posted on here about a paddle shifter mod but I understand it's expensive.

Bottom line, IMO the car needed one more performance tune to get everything right but that didn't happen till the XFR and new XJR. The improvement on those cars is not just in the 400->510 hp bump or even the 470hp bump. They really are very, very nice cars but muy expensivo!

You can enjoy this car a lot just not in the slippery winter and expect largish gas bills.

The other nuts on this thread have all tweaked their respective cars and ask BFGROSS all about that calculated HP bump. He spent a lot of money developing his ***-dyno so that he could keep track of his upgrades. LOL

I find mine just fine stock, with a factory warranty.

Gas gauge system sucks but it hones your mental guessing skills ...

 

Thank you everyone for your information and input! Jagv8, I am now searching for avos' posts now. I see that he designed a supercharger kit for the XKR but not yet for the STR.

Bfsgross, does the car still spin one tire on launch with traction control off? I've heard that the traction control system on these cars is similar to the LS and pretty much neuters the car with applying the brakes and cutting engine power (dammit that's the last thing you want the car to do in a stoplight race lol)

Vance 580 that is very informative on the rear end. I wonder how much modification it would take to fix a mustang cobra's independent rear suspension. Probably more than I want to do lol.

What is the advantage to the H&R springs? Do they just help handle better or am I missing something?

Staatsof, does the J-gate allow you to hold out every gear or does it shift itself if you were to hold it bouncing off of redline? Also, how quickly does the car shifting between the gears if you are rowing with the j gate?

Thanks again to all!

-Matt

 

Yes, that's avos
He posted very recently about an outfit that can tune the PCM, too. They're in The Netherlands. I don't see why others couldn't also do it except that the issues are picking the new magic numbers for the various maps.....

I think the LS & STR probably diverge around this issue but don't know (the LS isn't even sold over here). Does the LS even use the same Denso PCM (PanPAG with the 2005 or 2006MY)?

It's not the #1 issue, I think, because avos says the stock tune is pretty good for more power, if you can get more air in / exhaust out. Oh, and also adequately cool the air going in.

 

Where the heck is he anyway? Haven`t heard from him in a while....

 

Matt, as you're already aware; when not in "Sport" mode, she def. won't spin the wheels. The opposite is true in 'Sport". A caveat to this when adaptive learning is taught "Granny Driving". Hard re-sets of the ECU clear adaptive learning then you teach her your style (hint) in "Sport" mode.

 

He posted recently.
Was about PCM tuner in The Netherlands.

 

Sorry jagv8, I am not sure what PCM the LS uses. My car is an 01, but I haven't gotten it tuned so i'm not sure. Its good to hear that the stock computer is flexible though. From what i've seen so far, you will probably max out the stock blower before you really NEED a tune.

Bfsgross, I had seen the adaptive learning mentioned on here but wasn't sure what it was referencing to. Does that mean it will learn to hold shifts longer and to not up shift when lifting the throttle for a turn? :-) that would be trick!

What does a hard reset entail? Disconnecting the battery?

 

If you are in sport mode driving through some corners spiritedly it already holds the gear and wont upshift. May even do it in normal but I drive in sport everywhere except the highway which I rarely drive on.

 

Oh that is good news! The lincoln will occasionally hold shifts during spirited straight line driving but tends to up shift in corners.

Just out of curiosity, what's the expected gas mileage for the STR? Does it still pull down low 20's on the highway and high teens in mixed driving? Mixed driving with the LS (fairly spirited) nets me ~19.5 mpg

 

Oh that is good news! The lincoln will occasionally hold shifts during spirited straight line driving but tends to up shift in corners.

Just out of curiosity, what's the expected gas mileage for the STR? Does it still pull down low 20's on the highway and high teens in mixed driving? Mixed driving with the LS (fairly spirited) nets me ~19.5 mpg

 

You really don't want to burn outs or one wheel peels, in the STR, unless you like to see money go up in smoke.

The LS tires are pennys compared to the STR rear tires.
275/35/18's are not cheap.
Im running 295/30/18's which are 2 legs and a arm.
Its all in the throttle control learn to modulate your right foot

that's the next best thing to an LSD.

 

I see ~27 mpg on the highway with cruise @ 70mph. And that involves hills in and around Tennessee.

Around town it depends on how heavy your foot is. I am usually around 18mpg with easy driving (hard to do).