What would you do?

[1BadRat]

I "inherited" a 99 SHO V8, 98,000 miles, cams have been welded. I've never been a Ford fan but this car is one of a kind and fun to drive. It also seems to have it's own issues. Unfortunately the tranny is making a whining noise, puking fluid and the power steering is also whining all the time. Now I have a P1744 code which is a bad sign. What to do?

I can remove the trans and possibly rebuild it myself but don't really want to spend the time and $$$ to do so. I don't have a lot in the car because I picked it up really cheap from an elderly couple(I promise I did!) Anyway, just wanted to know what the majority might think they would do. Fix it or sell it as is?

 

[luigisho]

I would personally fix it. The motor with welded cams is good for 250-300k miles with occasional maintenance. The tranny is the weak spot but that is low miles for this car. If it was 170k miles I'd junk it, but it's young & a good daily driver platform. That's just one previous owners opinion. It comes down to it's your money...

 

[sperold]

Fix it.
If you sell it, you will not get much more than you have in it, so there is not a lot of room for profit.
Do some diagnosing while the car is still operable, and try to determine (yourself) what the whine is, and what the puking is all-about. Make sure the cooler in the rad is working and the lines are not pinched somewhere.
Take it around to some reputable places and see what the cost will be.
If you take it in and out yourself, the cost comes way down.
Repair the transmission you have, rather than swapping in another one.

 

[stephen newberg]

This kind of thing always depends on your fiscal situation. As it does for any older car. If you have the funds to get the TC fixed (sounds like TC to me from your other posting of a code) and you do the *** to keep the rest of the car up to *****, these machines run well and for a very long time. But its still a 15 year old car, and things are going to need doing all the time. The reward for doing them is a pretty solid machine that is something of a sleeper and was easily up to being the BMW 3 series fighter it was designed to be in its day. And, down the road into classic car time, it might actually be worth some real coin if it is kept up well and properly restored.

pax, smn