hard decision on my s197

[esworld05]

Hello fellow forum friends. As some of you may have read about my valvetrain troubles already, I wanted to ask a question about what you all think. I've installed lockouts with no luck of eliminating my clunking sound. I have pulled out the cams and checked the followers and the lash adjusters and they all seem fine. My cam lobes have no scratches or dings or anything.

Now I still owe about 18k for my car. Its a 2007 mustang gt, ofcourse, with 50k miles on it.
Should I spend more than 1k on parts trying to figure out what the issue is, buying all new lash adjusters, follwers, and springs, or should I just sell all my parts and part way with my car?

I have an on3 kit with the maf flange, pmas, 39lb injectors, ht0 sparkplugs, aem wideband and electronic boost controller, double pillar pod, kb boost a pump, all the vacum lines and everything needed for a complete" install of the turbo, hurst short throw shifter, an extra spectre cold air intake, comp cams nsr stage 2, frpp 4.10 gears, 2 month old front and rear kenwood speakers, pioneer avh dvd/navigation double din stereo, and probably a few other things I could sell off my car.

I'm kind of tired of chasing the problem, and I only have like max 1 hr to work on it daily. This is my dd btw so my wife and I are sharing a car right now.
There is a lot of f bodies for sale for like 5k, I know don't bash me, but my last f body didn't give me 1 problem, and I want to go worry free for a bit.

So should I sell all my parts and hopefully get 5k for another car for the meantime?
Or should I keep going at it and keep spending money until I fix the issue?

Sorry about the long thread, I'm just tired of this getting nowhere and I don't have money to be throwing away and repairs and parts that don't fix the issue.
Thanks

 

[BLKBULLITT]

Have you taken it to a shop?

Why dont you take it to ford or some performance shop around your area to give it a look? If you dont know where to look or dont know whats causing it fork out the money to a professional and have him take a look at it/fix it.

 

[FlyByNight]

Could be tranny related, keep chasing....

 

[Big50]

This is a personal decision imo. At the end of the day cars aren't really that important and you have to look at what's best for you. There's a lot of things to consider especially even if you get this figured out. There is a chance down the road you could blow your motor with FI. Depends a lot on tune and how much boost you push but it's a possibility. I would ask my self under worst case scenario would I want to proceed. I would go with that as my guide.

 

[stang06gt]

just drive it? I have heard a few modular motors with clunking valvetrain noise mainly my cousin's Thunderbird but idk hes been driving it for a while like that with no problems

 

[FlyByNight]

Fuck that, could be carrying through the chassis, roll cage is a must.

 

[esworld05]

My tuner and I are both puzzled as to what it may be. There is probably one shop that I trust down here, but they mainly deal with gm cars. The owner has a kb gt500, but he doesn't really know a lot about these cars. If I do blow my motor maybe 5 6 months down the road, it wouldn't be that much of a problem, because I know what exactly I need to replace. I guess I'm just pissed that the noise doesn't add up to anything. And hell no I won't drive it like that lol. I got a pretty good deal on some 09 heads, but the owner is going to make sure they r good. If they are I guess ill be trying to see if I can get those heads done good by some shop out there like livernoise or something. Has anyone don anything like replace heads or port and polished or. Something that has eliminated the problem permanently?

 

[esworld05]

I might take it to ford see what they say, too bad my 60000 mile bumper to bumper warranty got canceled out at 6k miles lol.

 

[06Mach1]

Is it a manual? My friend's 07 started a clacking noise after he installed cams. But we think it's coming from the clutch area. I'd say keep chasing it, probably an easy fix in the transmission.

 

[esworld05]

Yea it's a manual. The noise is coming from the valvecovers, I'm more than sure. I called a shop that build my friends car, he is a member here, romanghr, he said that if the chain jumps a tooth, that it sounds like a diesel. I asked him if it would throw a code if it did that, and he said a lot of times it won't throw a code.
Does anyone know if this is true? Could the timing chain jump a tooth without throwing a code?

 

[19COBRA93]

It should throw a code if the chain is off a tooth.

And don't fool yourself into thinking a $5k F body will be any more reliable than your mustang. Just because you had one that didn't give you any problem doesn't mean they're all perfect. Just as, there are countless mustangs on the road that haven't had a wink of a problem. I'd focus on figuring out the problem you have first. If your guy can't figure it out, take it somewhere else.

 

[esworld05]

Well I guess you have a point about the fbody, but atleast I wouldn't have a 475 dollar payment lol. Bad281 offered a hand and he's local so maybe we could meet up.

Have you guys heard of lockouts not fixing the issue, but replacing the phasers fixing it?
Do you guys think I should try some new phasers?

Also how do you find out how a bad phaser looks like? When I took mine apart it looked good, no cracs or anything.

 

[ayabrego]

Dont sell it! I bet you will miss the boost!

 

[VTXFrank]

This is just me personally. I'm stubborn. If I have an issue with a car, I hunt that sucker down and fix the damned thing. I just will not give up and try something else, especially a used car.

I would much rather own and drive a car with known issues that I'm trying to figure out than drop my car for another used car that will have issues I know nothing about.

 

[esworld05]

Yea well my wife almost kicked my ass when I told her I wanted to strip the car and sell it. She told m to do whatever I need to get it fixed. So tonight off it goes to the shop, I'm just hoping it doesn't cost m more than 1k to fix. Does anyone know if aftermarket heads are cheaper than 1.5k? I might look into it.

 

[Rene06GT]

u know what check the valves, maybe one is slightly bent.... i have heard of them bending.

 

[esworld05]

Well the car just got dropped off at the shop. The mechanic told me for sure there is something wrong on the drivers side only. He said it sounds like the chain jumped a couple of teeth and the cam is out of timing. He also said it sounds like there is a problem with a cylinder. Tomorrow he will do a leak down and compression test to figure out if it has to do with the valves or cylinders. He also said that it might be a bent valve. But we won't know till after the tests. Good thing is that he said if the valves or valve is bent, and if it scrapped the cylinder, that all he has to do is sand it and make sure that they all line up. So far he said hopefully its just the timing. But we will see. I'll keep updating.

 

[tagle281]

Sounds like a bad phaser. Mine does the same thing and the noise is on the diver side. If you close the hood it sounds like its in the wheel well. Ford has fixed it once under warranty. The second time the noise came back they claimed it's normal.

 

[Rene06GT]

Sounds like a bad phaser. Mine does the same thing and the noise is on the diver side. If you close the hood it sounds like its in the wheel well. Ford has fixed it once under warranty. The second time the noise came back they claimed it's normal.

u should have said then why did u idiots replace it the first time?

 

[tagle281]

It was another dealership and they could careless about what the other dealer did. I believe at that time so many people were complaining that they just chose to say it was normal vs.recalling.