Front 60K Restores Long Lost Power

[ckinart]

Hey all,

I had the front 60K work done on my '94 MTX about two weeks ago while I was away on my honeymoon. Replaced timing belt, accessory belts, crank sensor, cam sensor and water pump. My mechanic noted that when he was lining up the timing marks on the cam sprockets, he noticed that the rear bank sprocket "tick mark" was out of alignment by one tooth (apparently done during a past timing belt change). Well, with everything freshened up (and properly aligned), I have to say there's quite a noticeable increase in power. I thought my SHO was relatively healthy before, but she's even stronger now. Prior to having this work done, I didn't notice a slight bog and hesitation when dipping deep into the throttle, but now there's nothing but instant, smooth and definitive acceleration. Even startups are smoother than before. And the best part is, I've been putting up with a pinging at moderate throttle under 3000 RPM since I bought the car over three years ago. I had changed the knock sensor when I did the upper 60K last year to no avail, and was getting ready to start trying the IAT and BAP sensors. Well, after the front 60K work, there is no longer any discernable pinging, which is great. The weather hasn't been particularly warm lately, so I can't say for sure that the pinging is gone for good (always seemed to be worse in warmer weather), but I'm pretty confident that things are vastly improved with this relatively simple maintenance.

Just thought I'd share my experience!

 

[SHOfun 93]

Isn't amazing how simple maintenance rather than mods can give you more performance gains? Are you listening new sho owners?!

 

[Rockledge]

My SHO felt a little stronger after I did a front 60K, too. I think it probably has to do with getting the timing back to factory spec, with the new timing belt, CPS, etc.

 

[NotSoSlowSHO]

its really amaizing how much the timing belt actually stretches

When I changed my timing belt, the performance difference was like night and day!

 

[BangSHO]

You said you had your mechanic do it for you. Just out of curiosity how much did it end up costing when is was all said and done. I have mine scheduled to get front in about two weeks, just wondering about how much it'll cost me. Thanks for any info on this, and thanks for posting this. I was starting to think about pushing it off for a little longer, but knowing this ill get it done for sure.

 

[ckinart]

It was done for about 7 hours labour. That may be a little high, but this mechanic does a very thorough job. He found my lower timing belt cover cracked, and took the cover home over the weekend and epoxied it. If I had taken the car to Ford to have all this work done, they would've just replaced the timing belt cover with a new one and added the cost to the bill. It was worth it for the peace of mind that it was done carefully and correctly.

Corey