1997 SHO Cam Weld

[Groove44]

Hi all, long time viewer, first time poster. I bought a 1997 SHO for a grand with 187k. I wanted to check to see if the previous owner had the cams welded. I'm glad I did. I got some before and after pictures of the welds. I had a good friend of mine's dad weld them for me. He has been a welder with Ford for 30+ years so he got all the metalurgy specs on the cam and sprocket and got some wire he felt had the best ***********, tinsel strength, etc. I also removed the butterflies from the lower intake (not pictured). Put all 8 new accel coil packs and motorcraft plugs in it. cleaned the surge tank and all the EGR Ports. It only took me 2 days to do it all. It seems a lot more intimidating of a chore than it really was, I actually enjoyed pulling it apart. Hope you all enjoy the pics.

 

[Johnlemon]

thanks for posting these great pics, I wish I had the time and courage to pull a valve cover off to check, 168K and counting

 

[newshofan]

thanks for posting these great pics, I wish I had the time and courage to pull a valve cover off to check, 168K and counting

Just pull the front one takes all of ten minutes...well worth it. I'm on my third day of driving mine after the rebuild And it doesn't seem the same. I'm sure something is a miss though.

 

[Ishodu]

You guys should have protected the rest of the area around the weld so you wouldn't have got spatter everywhere. Make sure you clean that all up and change the oil not long after.

 

[St Louis SHO]

Jesus. was that a flux core wire, and a blind guy welding?

 

[stephen newberg]

I have to say I agree, that is some pretty ugly stuff there. I watched them do mine, and it never looked anything like that, and ended up as just 3 attachment points between each sprocket and the cam, about 120 degrees apart.

pax, smn

 

[Groove44]

Yes it was flux core wire, all we had to work with was a 110 unit in the driveway in a michigan february lol. But all is holding, I let it get to temperature with an oil filter magnet, changed the oil with Mobil 1 5W-30. drove it 100 miles with the oil filter magnet on and changed it again. I have just under 1k on the weld job as of today and I used a matco video scope to get under the valve cover to see if they were still there and everything looks great. Oh, and we did clean up all the welds before I ran it, there was a lot of powder around the welds, but he reassured me that the tinsel strength of the wire would hold anything I could throw at it. I'm happy with it, the thing runs amazing, I actually stomped an olds aurora on I-75 south yesterday with it.

 

[intimdatr]

Flux core wire is some nasty stuff to weld with, but if its all you have it works. The welds them self look pretty good for a 110 unit with flux core wire, Glad another 3rd gen has been saved.

 

[fitefanSHO]

There is only one person in the whole world I would ever trust to do that cam welding work on my SHO and his name is Kirk, I think he's fairly well known in the SHO community! Oh, hi Kirk! :wave:

 

[stephen newberg]

We now return to our regularly scheduled program after our commercial break.

pax, smn

 

[auto.guru]

You guys should have protected the rest of the area around the weld so you wouldn't have got spatter everywhere. Make sure you clean that all up and change the oil not long after.

changing the oil and filter wont protect anything after what they did there.
all that splatter goes down into the pan, through the pickup screen, through the main bearings, rod bearings, connecting rods, and then to the oil filter.

should have took the cams out in the first place.

 

[stephen newberg]

It is my impression that a vast majority of the cam sprocket welds done have been accomplished without difficulty with the cams still in the engine. This certainly requires forethought and care, but removing the cams, from the weight of evidence and experience, is generally not required.

pax, smn

 

[auto.guru]

This certainly requires forethought and care

this was not demonstrated here

 

[stephen newberg]

Apparently not.

pax, smn

 

[auto.guru]

I learned the destructive power of heat and a welder when slag got sparked out of got stuck underneath my watch. The power welded itself to the bottom and the heat continued to melt into my skin....

Imagine all the delicate parts in an engine bay