New 2020 GT350 HEP engine failure

[olaosunt]

https://www.v8sho.com/SHO/96shohome.html
This link is particularly troublesome, because it shows how they did whatever they could to weasel out of replacing the VERY costly long blocks. They cost about the same as a GT350 long block back then due to the advanced tech for the time.
https://www.v8sho.com/SHO/WorthlessWarranty&DisturbingTrends.htm

Tons of info on there. It's not organized very well, but they did what they could with the tools available to them back then. Most of this hasn't really been updated since the mid 2000's. They catalogued over 1500 engine failures during the process of the class action lawsuit that was filed against Ford, which unsurprisingly Ford won based on a technicality. All cars that aren't welded will fail eventually. There's less than 1500 left out of the 21,000 car production run by this point.

shoot .... and I almost bought one recently as it was so cheap .... now I know why .
lol

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[Cobra Jet]

What I cant understand is the replacement engines appear to not have issues. They are built by the same people with the same parts as the original engines. No one seems to ever say the new engines are blowing. Which tells me the engines that blew with low miles must have had a bad batch of parts. It should be easy to determine the build date of the original motors verses the replacement engines to figure out the window of opportunity on possible parts issues. The new engine is essentially the same as the engine that blew (all Gen2) so quickly but they are apparently not blowing?? I find it so puzzling. The only other reason would be factory engine builder issues but I would assume this is a premium job in the plant with very qualified people. Its so puzzling to me the dynamic of why the replacement engines are apparently better than the originals in terms of not blowing but... they are inherently the same design. It had to be a bad batch of parts and Ford should easily on a $30,000 motor be able to pull build dates and correct the issues as they cant keep eating $30,000 motors . The parts vendors also cant eat that cost long so they also would be studying parts shipments and stopping the cost impact. At some point if it was parts that were removed from the build table anyone at Ford with basic math skills should be able to determine the "issue timeline.

No offense, but if anyone is following closely to these issues - the above is not a true statement. In one of these blown GT350 engine threads on this site, there has been responses that some had gone through TWO engines - the original and replacement.

Someone should start a database logging on here for the blown GT350 and GT500 engines. Correct way of doing it would be to gather the year/make/model along with the Engine Builder tag, B-pillar VCL build Mo/Yr and the last 8 of the VIN. Nothing else is needed, other than “cause of failure”.

That will track through enough data points to determine if it was truly “batch” related to a specific point in time. If the documented failures are sporadic throughout the years, then it would fall back on possibly inferior supplier parts or just plain old human error when “hand building” the engine.

I mean just searching “engine failure” on here will net a boatload of threads ...

 

[Fatman1966]

I was not stating for sure replacement engines were not for sure blowing. What my point was is from the owners of of cars with Gen1 to Gen2 or Gen2 to Gen 2 replacement engines there appears to be no future issues with replacement motors. On the 2020 versions the issues seem to be top end issues or timing issues and with it being less than 1000 miles on the cars it appears to be a breakage issue that falls within a specific build range. I’m not sure if it’s October 2019 to July 2020 builds or not specific at all. There are new cars for sale today with engine builds stickers showing builts as late as October 2020. I just wonder just because if it’s a parts issue and if Ford has corrected it. I want to purchase a 2020 is why I’m so concerned and this issue is preventing me from doing so

I have owned SVT cars for many years and not one of them have issues so it puzzles me how a car like this with 250 to 1000 miles just drops a valve or timing chains break. I beat on my 5.8 2013 and it just begs for more. I beat on my Terminator motor with no issues. I see people track and beat of the Voodoo motor without issues so it’s Amauri me that these are blowing basically days after delivery. Several of the ones I’ve read about didn't even make it from the dealer to home without a rollback. There are more than this site shows. I know of three more 2020 under 500 miles that broke but are not members on this site. Again my struggle is I want to buy one of these cars but.....

 

[mroad]

Before I bought my car, I googled "GT350 reliability". The first article that came up is the Car and Driver's long term test with 40K miles on it. That was a 2017 model. The only major issue reported is eager consumption of oil. I should've googled instead "2020 GT350 engine failure". If I'd read these stories, I would not have bought the car. I'd rather live with a car that consumes extra oil but stays reliable for a long time than a ticking time bomb with high incidence of infant mortality.

Some people here would argue that I'm inflating the situation. My be I am, or may be not. All I have to go with is my own experience and the experience of those posted online who had almost identical failure circumstances to what I had.

There is a GT350R HEP sitting at the dealer service center since I brought my car in, i.e. it's been sitting there for two weeks, obviously not drivable. Must be waiting for a "part" to make it go again. If I have to bet, it's waiting for an engine, just like mine.

We don't know the full picture yet, especially because the driver demographic of this car normally puts low mileage on it.

 

[Jago768]

Before I bought my car, I googled "GT350 reliability". The first article that came up is the Car and Driver's long term test with 40K miles on it. That was a 2017 model. The only major issue reported is eager consumption of oil. I should've googled instead "2020 GT350 engine failure". If I'd read these stories, I would not have bought the car. I'd rather live with a car that consumes extra oil but stays reliable for a long time than a ticking time bomb with high incidence of infant mortality.

Some people here would argue that I'm inflating the situation. My be I am, or may be not. All I have to go with is my own experience and the experience of those posted online who had almost identical failure circumstances to what I had.

There is a GT350R HEP sitting at the dealer service center since I brought my car in, i.e. it's been sitting there for two weeks, obviously not drivable. Must be waiting for a "part" to make it go again. If I have to bet, it's waiting for an engine, just like mine.

We don't know the full picture yet, especially because the driver demographic of this car normally puts low mileage on it.

Do you think there would be anyway you could speak with the owner of the other HEP car? I would love to hear their story and have their VIN, Miliage, and build date. As many members have posted.... somewhere... somehow we need to track and sort these failures. I go from this is a small sample ...... to I've got a time bomb lol.

 

[stanglife]

No offense, but if anyone is following closely to these issues - the above is not a true statement. In one of these blown GT350 engine threads on this site, there has been responses that some had gone through TWO engines - the original and replacement.

Someone should start a database logging on here for the blown GT350 and GT500 engines. Correct way of doing it would be to gather the year/make/model along with the Engine Builder tag, B-pillar VCL build Mo/Yr and the last 8 of the VIN. Nothing else is needed, other than “cause of failure”.

That will track through enough data points to determine if it was truly “batch” related to a specific point in time. If the documented failures are sporadic throughout the years, then it would fall back on possibly inferior supplier parts or just plain old human error when “hand building” the engine.

I mean just searching “engine failure” on here will net a boatload of threads ...

Still many variables to consider. To techs replace the engine oil coolers with the 2nd engine? I certainly wouldn't use the same cooler and would flush all of the lines. Also consider other install errors......AND the possibility that the owner didn't want the car any more and "helped" the second engine fail....this is totally something that could happen.

 

[mroad]

Do you think there would be anyway you could speak with the owner of the other HEP car? I would love to hear their story and have their VIN, Miliage, and build date. As many members have posted.... somewhere... somehow we need to track and sort these failures. I go from this is a small sample ...... to I've got a time bomb lol.

Here it is. You can see my car in the second from last service bay in the structure on the left. I don't think the mechanic would give me any info why the car is here or who the owner is. It's a privacy issue. But it's been there since I dropped my car off.

 

[stanglife]

Before I bought my car, I googled "GT350 reliability". The first article that came up is the Car and Driver's long term test with 40K miles on it. That was a 2017 model. The only major issue reported is eager consumption of oil. I should've googled instead "2020 GT350 engine failure". If I'd read these stories, I would not have bought the car. I'd rather live with a car that consumes extra oil but stays reliable for a long time than a ticking time bomb with high incidence of infant mortality.

Some people here would argue that I'm inflating the situation. My be I am, or may be not. All I have to go with is my own experience and the experience of those posted online who had almost identical failure circumstances to what I had.

There is a GT350R HEP sitting at the dealer service center since I brought my car in, i.e. it's been sitting there for two weeks, obviously not drivable. Must be waiting for a "part" to make it go again. If I have to bet, it's waiting for an engine, just like mine.

We don't know the full picture yet, especially because the driver demographic of this car normally puts low mileage on it.

That's how Google works - it returns what you're searching for, lol.

So you googled and only read the first article?

You continue to paint this the the most negative brush possible. There have been so many failed engine threads here for all years - just look - and in almost all cases, there were even less detailed pictures than we have seen lately, so there is no way of knowing if those failures were similar. Go google 20xx engine failure for each year and read up about how horrible all of these cars are! :0

 

[ice445]

Do you know what happened to the people that had their engines fail when there no more replacement engines?

By the time that happened ESP warranty was all that was left on those cars, so Ford would just say "your car is worth less than a new engine so we don't have to help you". And that was the end of it. I also read about a few cases where the dealer waited for Ford to send an engine that never came. Not sure what the end result of that was..

 

[lenFeb]

So, next you know BMW owners come to this forum and start posting bad things about GT350s. Admin can you stop this madness.

 

[RPDBlueMoon]

By the time that happened ESP warranty was all that was left on those cars, so Ford would just say "your car is worth less than a new engine so we don't have to help you". And that was the end of it. I also read about a few cases where the dealer waited for Ford to send an engine that never came. Not sure what the end result of that was..

Interesting, I have a bad habit of buying cars that become discontinued lol, happened to all of the cars I've bought. Hopefully that won't happen to me lol.

 

[WildHorse]

There have been so many failed engine threads here for all years -

And the vast vast majority of those failures was user error I'm betting.

 

[Rubyred17]

By the time that happened ESP warranty was all that was left on those cars, so Ford would just say "your car is worth less than a new engine so we don't have to help you". And that was the end of it. I also read about a few cases where the dealer waited for Ford to send an engine that never came. Not sure what the end result of that was..

Good gosh this is getting depressing- can e just enjoy what we have right now. If your car is healthy then drive it and enjoy it. If its not, give the dealer a chance to fix it and then drive it.

 

[stanglife]

And the vast vast majority of those failures was user error I'm betting.

To be fair - I cant say that for sure. Probably some at first due to oil consumption and people not checking but some have just broken. Hard to say if it's more or less than typical models though, considering how much of a spotlight are on these cars...we hear of any issue that exists, lol.

 

[WildHorse]

To be fair - I cant say that for sure. Probably some at first due to oil consumption and people not checking but some have just broken.

Hence why I said 'vast majority' haha.

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