Ford dealer parts counter, guy was on his normal system, popped up a DOS box & dialed out to check on availability of the cam part number. It showed a green box saying these parts are not available, that if he needed to place an order, it suggested placing an "emergency" order for them. It did show 520 cams waiting to be filled for current backorders - Kirk D. & I saw the numbers on the screen. This was all done online, at the Ford parts counter, and he didn't pick up a phone & call anyone.
I saw this same software show another guy that the MTX t-belt tensioners were out of stock (basically everywhere), but that 70 were "due to arrive" at a NY warehouse shortly, so I know it's giving more info that the usual "unavailable". I promptly told the guy to put me down for two, BTW, as these tensioners have supposedly been unavailable for quite a while.
I agree that the info would be useful to the lawsuit, and that's why I posted it here. I understood Kirk posted the same info on the V8 list the night before I posted here. Should be pretty easy to have the attorney duplicate what we did at the parts counter, for all 4 cams (97 numbers anyway), and get the info themselves firsthand. Personally, I'd get the info as a walk-in customer myself, if I were the attorney, then go after the "official" documentation. If there's a discrepancy, you've got Ford on a big cover-up then. 500 cams / 19,700 cars = a little over 2% affected. If it's 500x4 cams (or more), then you're talking closer to 10% affected, and THAT's serious. If the 300+ engines expected / estimated to have been "crate" engines were also used toward the bad cam situation, then you're talking $3.6 mil (@$12k per engine x 300 engines), plus an estimated $2 mil on cams only (at 2000 cams x 1000 list), plus labor for those swaps & repairs. That's almost $6 MILLION dollars (or more - labor) in repairs IF these numbers pan out.
Those are out my butt numbers too. I don't know what Ford is charging for cam replacement, head rebuilding to fix the valves, etc., nor do I know what they charge for a full engine swap.
Again, I was just trying to pass along what I saw in front of me the other night. You V8 guys want to run with it, go for it. Me - I'll deal with crank sensors on my V6's, thanks.
Next time I'm at the dealer, I'll get the software & version used, etc.
As far as naming names of the parts counter guy, nope, I promised the guy his name would be left out, and that "we didn't know him". Just in case.
Good luck guys.
