Highest mileage non-welded/pinned V8....

[96gts]

What's the highest you've guys have seen a non-welded V8 go, and what's the highest mileage welded SHO engine??

Also, have any fixed SHO's had a cam failure, even though they had it fixed specifically for that reason?

Thanks for the input in advance guys. I'm trying to tell my wife we need to get it done, and she agrees. I just have to see if I will get my bonus check. If I do, I can have it done sooner, if not, it will have to wait until I can afford it. frown

 

[snake396]

mine had 99k on it when the cams were welded last weekend. talk about luck.

<small>[ February 18, 2003, 10:29 AM: Message edited by: snake396 ]</small>

 

[Tacmedic]

115,000 and planning a trip to GA. the first week in March. I get nervous every time I start the damn thing. eek!

 

[96gts]

Tacmedic:
115,000 and planning a trip to GA. the first week in March. I get nervous every time I start the damn thing. eek!

So your's have not been fixed yet?? 115K isn't bad, have you had any problems??

Hey guys, I just got off the phone with the wife, and she said that we will do it asap. It's going to take some out of my house fund, but I want to be able to drive this car over 200K, and not have to worry about the cams going south.

Who's the quickest I can take this to, to get it done very soon??

<small>[ February 18, 2003, 11:20 AM: Message edited by: 96gts ]</small>

 

[f150fan]

There was a guy on the v8sho list who sold his 96 Green SHO with 186,000 miles with not one motor problem... however he was on his second tranny. There was also a red 96 with around 280,000 miles on ebay that just sold a couple weeks ago that did not mention any problems with cams. These are very very good motors with the cam problem set aside!!!

 

[Brendan Osborne]

I currently have 122,500 miles and will be getting the cams welded come spring time. I have never had any engine or tranny problems since I bought the car when it was new.

 

[96gts]

Brendan Osborne:
I currently have 122,500 miles and will be getting the cams welded come spring time. I have never had any engine or tranny problems since I bought the car when it was new.

Wow, so there are some higher mileage SHO's with no cam problems. And not that this is peice-o-mind for me, rather just some positive feedback.

I'll get them welded as soon as funds permit, thanks guys.

 

[ZexySho]

Had FPS weld my cams on 11/01 at 81k miles. Now have 30k miles (and 10 bottles of laughing gas)since the welding was done. This past fall had the IMR's off for cleaning so I took the opportunity to inspect the welds and dial indicate the shafts to see if any warpage had occured. None was found as some "pin-heads" have foretold as inevitable. Get it done and sleep better.

 

[John Hamilton]

Ouch!

 

[E1]

ZexySho:
I took the opportunity to inspect the welds and dial indicate the shafts to see if any warpage had occured. None was found as some "pin-heads" have foretold as inevitable.

I think there is some misinterpretation going on here regarding welding and warpage.
In my opinion, the pinning folks are not saying that a welded cam will miraculously begin to warp after being driven for a while. I think what they are getting at is the fact that minor damage(Warping) MAY occur at the time of the welding, but will not become apparent (through bearing surface damage) for several thousand miles.
So (In theory)a perfectly operating welded car will fail down the road due to excessive bearing surface wear that would not necessarily occur in a pinned car.
THAT'S what I thought they meant as I got out my welder.....

 

[MilTownSHO]

The thing is while you may wait and be ok...its a pure guessing game. My mom really doesn't have the money right now, so I'm just paying to get it done after I get my tax returns because waiting till she has the money could be to late! oh_my Gotta make sure I make it to the 03 Convention! boink It also benefits me in the long run because I'll get it in a few years and I want it still to run.

<small>[ February 18, 2003, 09:55 PM: Message edited by: MilTownSHO ]</small>

 

[stephen newberg]

I think I am at just over 97K with no cam work or transmission worn needed as yet. The car does get driven fairly hard in decent weather an I am on my 3rd or 4th set of sway bar end links. I will get the cams done in a year or so as I get closer to the end of the ESP warranty.

pax, smn

 

[sholando]

156,000 on my wife's 97 SHO - no obvious cam problems yet. Had the transmission rebuilt 8,000 miles ago. My 96 had 116,000 on it, when I spun the cam bearing. I have another 97 SHO that I just picked up, it has 168,000 and the cams are still fine.
I'm awaiting the arrival of Kirk in April to weld my cams.

Rob

 

[96gts]

sholando:
156,000 on my wife's 97 SHO - no obvious cam problems yet. Had the transmission rebuilt 8,000 miles ago. My 96 had 116,000 on it, when I spun the cam bearing. I have another 97 SHO that I just picked up, it has 168,000 and the cams are still fine.
I'm awaiting the arrival of Kirk in April to weld my cams.

Rob

Too bad about the '96 man, but looks like you've had decent luck with your other SHO's. thumbs_u

I'm actually surprised that I haven't heard more about the tranny's going out. Maybe Ford got it a little closer to right on these newer Taurus's?? shrug

 

[SHOZ123]

Isn't this a lot like asking who is the oldest 3 pack-a-day smoker?

 

[96gts]

SHOZ123:
Isn't this a lot like asking who is the oldest 3 pack-a-day smoker?

See this is what I don't understand. You guys are saying that no matter what, somewhere down the road the cam sprocket is going to fugg up, right?? Well, what if I never have the cams welded/pinned, and make it well into the 200K+ range?? Then what, I got lucky??

You guys act like since it's happened to what like 300+ cars out of almost 20K, then it's going to happen to all of them?? Eventually, something mechanical will break, if it never did, then Ford would be the best automaker on the planet. Things break, but I do see your point here, peice-o-mind. And I will eventually have the cams welded, or I will just do it myself.

<small>[ February 19, 2003, 12:06 PM: Message edited by: 96gts ]</small>

 

[Ian Macoomb]

96gts:

SHOZ123:
Isn't this a lot like asking who is the oldest 3 pack-a-day smoker?

See this is what I don't understand. You guys are saying that no matter what, somewhere down the road the cam sprocket is going to fugg up, right?? Well, what if I never have the cams welded/pinned, and make it well into the 200K+ range?? Then what, I got lucky??

You guys act like since it's happened to what like 300+ cars out of almost 20K, then it's going to happen to all of them?? Eventually, something mechanical will break, if it never did, then Ford would be the best automaker on the planet. Things break, but I do see your point here, peice-o-mind. And I will eventually have the cams welded, or I will just do it myself.

If you think that it can't happen to your car you're dead wrong. It's a design flaw not just cams built on Friday afternoon.

Every year has experienced cam failures. Low mileage cars have experienced cams failures. There's no pattern.

There's probably 10 failures that have occured for every one that has been reported. How many people have you run into who have never heard of V8sho.com let alone the cam failures? Every time I see a V8 SHO owner I follow them and talk to them when they stop. Out of about 20 owners, not one of them had heard of the website or the failures.

 

[MilTownSHO]

Ian Macoomb:
Every time I see a V8 SHO owner I follow them and talk to them when they stop. Out of about 20 owners, not one of them had heard of the website or the failures.

I am starting to do the same thing when I can catch them. Parked ones I'll put paper under the windshield with v8sho.com or such. I just don't want someone to have to go through something that coulda been avoided!

 

[stephen newberg]

"If you think that it can't happen to your car you're dead wrong."

But he did not say that, Ian. Nor has anyone on this board, that I know of. Rather, they are questioning if the known problem will happen within a time frame that matters to them. And no one really knows. Some cars it seems to happen to at low mileage and others are at very high mileages with no problems.

"There's no pattern."

Or none that we can see, anyway. Probably because we have only a 1% documented failure rate. If the rate were higher, a pattern might appear.

"There's probably 10 failures that have occured for every one that has been reported."

There might be, but saying there are 'probably' that many is total supposition at this point in time.

"Out of about 20 owners, not one of them had heard of the website or the failures."

And this is actually a statistical arguement directly opposed to the idea that there are tons of failures out there we do not know about. You run across 20 owners and zero have had problems. Well, I suppose you could argue that all of the ones that have had problems have just junked their cars. Or, you could argue that people tend to find out about V8SHO.com after they have the problem and are looking around to see what happened, so in fact the site is actually already listing a very major portion of the cams that have died of this problem. This is the difficulty with very small amounts of data, it can be viewed in exactly opposite ways and a case made either way.

pax, smn

 

[Ian Macoomb]

stephen newberg:

"Out of about 20 owners, not one of them had heard of the website or the failures."

And this is actually a statistical arguement directly opposed to the idea that there are tons of failures out there we do not know about. You run across 20 owners and zero have had problems. Well, I suppose you could argue that all of the ones that have had problems have just junked their cars. Or, you could argue that people tend to find out about V8SHO.com after they have the problem and are looking around to see what happened, so in fact the site is actually already listing a very major portion of the cams that have died of this problem. This is the difficulty with very small amounts of data, it can be viewed in exactly opposite ways and a case made either way.

pax, smn

I'm just saying that nobody that I've run into has heard of the website so it's unlikely they'd report it if a cam failure did occur. Most of the people I run into a rich older people that would simply trade the car in as is and buy another car and think nothing of it.

Another thing to ponder is how many cars have been spared by cam welding?

And thinking your grasping for something that isn't there. It's a design flaw. Given time I believe almost every cam will fail.