My cam journals and cams are ruined....come see the freak show.

slackinoff

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Hey guys, well....the car started cranking over a hair slower about a week ago....like the battery was getting weak. Ran fine though in all regards (idle, normal driving, WOT) . I drive this car hard quite often, but never abusive....lets say I know how the car drives at WOT like the back of my hand. ( I love this car )

Two days ago, VCT codes 0012, 0022, and 0345....along with sudden random rough idling. I thought I got a bad tank of gas as I had just filled up. But WOT power was still fine and normal driving just fine. Then yesterday the issue was happening at every stop light.

So last night I popped the valve covers off expecting clogged VCTs..... inspection revealed great looking VCT solenoids. But after reading a TON of threads on the subject this fine morning.....many folks said go to the basics and check your oil pressure at idle @ op temp (remember the VCT work off oil pressure) . Also, they say, pop a cam cap off just for giggles.....well giggle I did not. This 3v is fucked sideways.

Guess I don't need to check the oil pressure.
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My question is......what should I do? New heads? Longblock? The car has 185k miles on it and was running STRONG. Very strong for a CMDP, off road dp, and a VMP tune.
 
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Badd GT

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change the oil more frequently and run it till it dies, build a motor on the side in the meantime.
Wish you lived around Raleigh, I have a complete 100,000 motor in my garage I,d love to get rid of
 
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slackinoff

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change the oil more frequently and run it till it dies, build a motor on the side in the meantime.
Wish you lived around Raleigh, I have a complete 100,000 motor in my garage I,d love to get rid of
That crossed my mind...but you are saying....get new heads or slap it back together? I need to get whatever is causing the VCT to stick retarded....think it is the solenoids? That would be an easy fix and cheap and get me at least running decent.
 
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slackinoff

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Also, the last test I did, I unplugged the VCTs. It ran great untill in got the rpm up/throttle up and then it was like the cams got stuck in retard and was running bad again did not think that was possible with the VCT unplugged..... Shutting the engine down for a few min would solve the problem VCT unplugged or not.......with this info, what suggestions do you have for me?


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Badd GT

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all depends your financials and if you need the car for a daily driver. I would be hard pressed to rebuild the top end only with those miles and obviously dirty oil damage.
 

slackinoff

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Yea. In a weird spot. I am probably going to pick up a daily and take my time with the mustang. If I did that. I would pull the motor and go through the bottom end.

I was having a blast with my mods I guess, 300hp to the tire....I might rebuild the engine for N/A since that's just more my style and shoot for 375 to the tire. We will just have to see how it goes. Cams, Compression, good heads, long tubes and a good tune. I think that is doable. I like winding out N/A engines for all they have. It's fun.

Good news- I just talked to my uncle- He sells cars for a big dealership and they let the salesmen buy a couple of the trade-ins a year. He said he has a nice civic they got on a trade and would sell to me for what they got it for! (Thus using one of his allotted buys....that would be very nice of him, as I could make money reselling it)

See, If I slapped it back together with new heads....I could potentially damage the bottom end over time and that could take out the heads again! I'm am not that in a hurry to get the mustang on the road.

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slackinoff

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all depends your financials and if you need the car for a daily driver. I would be hard pressed to rebuild the top end only with those miles and obviously dirty oil damage.
Yes that's a great point. It could cause the bottom end to start contaminating the oil and then I trash another set of heads.

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slackinoff

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Anyone want to take a stab at what caused this? Both banks exact same damage.

You think just lots of miles combined with me beating on it? I loved winding the engine out on country back roads. My private road course. It was probably shifted at red line at least once a drive since I have owned it. Then about once a month I would take it to a winding road where it literaly was my private road course. When I was done the brakes were mush and smoking. That kind of driving. Like a road course.

I guess that's not a good idea on a high mileage motor.

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retfr8flyr

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That's some major damage and it's hard to believe there isn't damage to the bottom also. I can't really think of something that could cause that kind of damage, it almost looks like someone put something in your oil.
 

01yellerCobra

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What was your maintenance routine? You can drive a car hard as long as you keep an eye on things. Mine sees boost pretty much every time I take it out. But I also give it a once over before and after I drive it. If you're driving it as hard as you say you are you need to be on top of things. Especially the oil level.

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Dino Dino Bambino

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Especially the oil level.

I think you've hit the nail on the head. The engine damage looks like it's due to oil starvation and there can only be two possible causes: low oil level, or worn oil pump. At 185k miles and driven hard, the engine might have slowly been burning oil and if you didn't check the oil level often enough, it might have run critically low.
Whichever way you look at it, that engine's f***ed.
 

slackinoff

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I think you've hit the nail on the head. The engine damage looks like it's due to oil starvation and there can only be two possible causes: low oil level, or worn oil pump. At 185k miles and driven hard, the engine might have slowly been burning oil and if you didn't check the oil level often enough, it might have run critically low.
Whichever way you look at it, that engine's f***ed.
Tire pressure and oil always checked before going on a spirited drive. Oil level is perfect. 1500 miles on Penz platinum 5-20. Changed every 3000 miles. Ford filter.

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Basically I was checking the oil and tire pressures twice a month. I rarely ever had to add oil. Never more than half a quart. 90% of the time the oil level was perfect. I bet I only added oil 3 or 4 times out of the 2.5 years I have had the car.

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Whichever way you look at it, that engine's f***ed.

The heads are for certain. They are scrap. Short block should be good. Rods were not knocking so it should just be just a crank polish and new bearings.

There is hope. I just need some good head.



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slackinoff

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Horney Toad. Neet

I think everyone needs to get to know me better. I don't know why I am choosing this edit to say this, but whatever.

I just got a big raise because we had someone quit at the office and I am doing the work of two people now. But this is still financially a struggle. I am trying to save money for retirement and then this happens....I am 28 going on 29 so I have time. But I want do fix this right. I foresee after its all said and done about 6k to fix this the way I want to.

I want to keep my aluminum block. Don't want an iron block as I really prefer road courses and twisties to 1\4 stuff. I already have shed a good bit a weight on this car and I don't want to gain to gain it back with a iron block.

I would love to buy a prebuilt Short block good for 600 or so, but they are all iron blocks. So it looks like In am going to have to find a trustworthy machine shop. Would prefer someone in Tx or La for machine work that specializes in mod motors. Suggestions?

The plan for now is N/A build. I was collecting parts for a DOB kit but that stuff will be going up for sale shortly (Eaton M122, gt500 heat exchanger, gt500 intake, gt500 throttle body.)

I want a 7k+ capable 3v that puts 400 to 420 to the tires.
 
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swflastang05

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Sorry to see this, any idea what the oil pressure is / was while driving and at idle? I'd be interested to see what the inside of the oil pump looks like, and also the bearing clearances on the SB.
 

slackinoff

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Sorry to see this, any idea what the oil pressure is / was while driving and at idle? I'd be interested to see what the inside of the oil pump looks like, and also the bearing clearances on the SB.
Thanks, it was pretty awefull to go from...."prolly just bad gas" to "lets pull a cam cap"......it's still sinking in that the engine is dead.

You can bet you buttocks I am going to have a real oil pressure gauge on the next motor. I never had a oil warning or low pressure warning. Oil level was regularly checked. I just don't know.....I mean every journal looks like that, it's weird. Everything else looked awesome. Could still see the paint on the valve springs. This engine was not neglected in its long life.

I will do an auto - autopsy on the shortblock once I get stabilized..... This could not have happened at a worse time....I am basically working two jobs since one of our employees quite ( days before we switched computer software systems). She had been with us 11 years, didn't see that coming. Now that this happened I am going to cancel my vacation to colorado two weekends from now because of this.....I don't have to but, I need the time and the money. Glad I bought the insurance that lets you cancel for any reason.

Sorry for the venting. I was stressed out before this happened and my one of my escapes from stress was driving this car.

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Wes06

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what oil psi are others running at hot idle?
 

slackinoff

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Sorry to see this, any idea what the oil pressure is / was while driving and at idle? I'd be interested to see what the inside of the oil pump looks like, and also the bearing clearances on the SB.
What do you think happened?

For this kind of damage you would think an oil pressure warning or light would have shown.

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what oil psi are others running at hot idle?
That's a great question.....it also depends on where you look. From what I read, if you use one of the ports on the back of the head it will show exactly half of the psi you would see where the actual sensor is. Hot oil @ idle @ at the back of the head should be above 15 psi.

I would love to hear anyone's experience in these matters.

Thanks my friends.


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