'19 GT350 engine replacement

[HoldenSSVandGT350]

New member here, 2nd post. Been going through the engine failure threads for, well, reasons, and came upon this one. Brings back good memories of the piston slap threads back in the late '90s on ls1.com and ls1tech.com. Same dynamic here.

Since I'm here to learn/research I'll be reading every post I can pertaining to the issue. Thanks to all who share the information.

-Brian

 

[Rev Happy]

As far as I can remember, that head cooling mod has been around since the 4.6 Cobra days. The 03/04 Cobras seemed to suffer the most from this issue when modded and ran hard. On a stock street driven GT350 that sees the track every now and then, I wouldn't think it's needed either.

 

[honeybadger]

I do not believe it's necessary for normal street use. It adds another point of failure and more importantly another pathway for Ford to not honor their engine warranty. Not saying this would not be beneficial or that Ford would do so but why take the chance. @honeybadger would probably have better insight to your question though.

I have a set installed, but I don't think they're necessary for a street-driven car. I have yet to see evidence of this problem on this motor. I did mine out of caution, but keep in mind I am far past a warranty. With a warrantied car, I'd stay stock.

Regarding the head cooling mod, I've them installed but am debating pulling them back out. There's been zero conclusive evidence of them being needed on the Coyote Gen 2/3 platform from what I've seen. A couple gents at TMO have installed them without any appreciable changes. One even had his race motor lose #8 20 hours earlier than the first build with the only change being the cooling mod. While anecdotal evidence at best, it's still not positive.

Unless I can find a way to conclusively test it, I plan to remove mine.

 

[Krman68]

That is correct.

So many people have such high expectations that they don't want to acknowledge that the engine does have some issues. A lot of the folks that cant stand this kind of talk are the HEP crowd, you know the ones that think they bought an investor grade car..... God forbid if their numbers matching engine might require a swap out because it blew.....

So there I was discussing the elephant in the room, or should I say engine on the floor, with my tech who just got done swapping out my other half shaft in my CFTP. We talked for about an hour.... which model years that were less prone, more prone, and the usual reasons. I saw someone comment that the 16 MY was a good year for the voodoo. I agree. I had a 16 track pack that never burned a drop of oil. I have had 2 17 Rs that consumed some oil, but nothing near what would require an engine swap. The 18 base R I have has not consumed any oil so far, but it is not driven much so as to keep the miles off it. I take it out on a nice day and enjoy how the car is different from the others.

Back to engine swaps, I don't see what the big deal is. You should be buying these cars to enjoy. If an engine blew, it will be covered by Ford as long as you didn't do anything to cause its failure. I had a long talk with Jim Owens about warranty and how Ford will stand behind materials and workmanship, even for track use. It is the opinion of Jim and Ford that the car should be driven as it was designed to..... to include track use.

So all you folks who got yourself an investor HEP and are scared to death of the engine letting go, don't worry about it. If you are, then either sell your car or tuck it away and never use it. I do strongly suggest getting an 8 year extended warranty.

I have a text into my tech waiting for some of those answers. I did ask him if I could buy the engine, but I don't think that is going to happen.

Well said Tom.
I have an ‘18 that is getting a new engine as we speak (Under warranty). I am not at all concerned about having a non-nimbers matching 350. I have it to enjoy it now

And just a point of fact, Ford made too many of these cars to actually be considered rare. Their values will drop over time and some 30-40 years from now when most will have seen the crusher, the values will climb. Not until then. I own a 68 KR and I’ve seen the value roller coaster

IMHO, drive the car enjoy the hell out of it and don’t look back.

 

[lenFeb]

Well said Tom.
I have an ‘18 that is getting a new engine as we speak (Under warranty). I am not at all concerned about having a non-nimbers matching 350. I have it to enjoy it now

And just a point of fact, Ford made too many of these cars to actually be considered rare. Their values will drop over time and some 30-40 years from now when most will have seen the crusher, the values will climb. Not until then. I own a 68 KR and I’ve seen the value roller coaster

IMHO, drive the car enjoy the hell out of it and don’t look back.

Around 25K GT350 produced is not rare by any stretch of imagination. Saving GT350 and not driving it, is like having cake and not eating it.

 

[Lorne34]

Around 25K GT350 produced is not rare by any stretch of imagination. Saving GT350 and not driving it, is like having cake and not eating it.

Agreed, although not rare, I wouldn't say it's a mass produced vehicle like a honda civic or toyota camry which are in the 6 figures in production.... I still feel like it's a unique one of a kind vehicle.
As long as I take good care of it and avoid accidents I plan on having it for a very long time.

 

[Dominant1]

Big difference between a gen2 Coyotes and a voodoo engines. Voodoo engines have had known issues since their inception. Its why Ford replaces them no questions asked. Gen2 Coyotes didn’t.

 

[Wildcardfox]

Around 25K GT350 produced is not rare by any stretch of imagination. Saving GT350 and not driving it, is like having cake and not eating it.

2015	100	37
2016	6168	526
2017	6173	942
2018	3745	633
2019	2789	806
Total:	18975	2944

(Left out 2020 since we don’t have the official numbers yet.)

Yes one is not rare at 20,000+ cars, but the other at only approximately 3600~ cars, I would call that rare.

 

[Lorne34]

2015	100	37
2016	6168	526
2017	6173	942
2018	3745	633
2019	2789	806
Total:	18975	2944

(Left out 2020 since we don’t have the official numbers yet.)

Yes one is not rare at 20,000+ cars, but the other at only approximately 3600~ cars, I would call that rare.

Actually my 2019 is pretty rare.. only 2789 produced... I have the performance blue with black stripes, which reduces the numbers even more... Plus I probably have one of the few 2019's out there with a 2015-2018 style track pack wing and wheel/Tire setup... I'm lovin my shelby more and more every day.. LOL
It's parked in the third stall of our new garage; last winter I had it sitting in an offsite storage facility. Now I get to see it every single day. It's rare for a day to go by that I don't walk past it, stare at it and verbally say...... "dang, that's nice".....
.

 

[Hangman77]

drive your car and enjoy it. Every time I see a thread where someone collects all the data about engine failures I just shake my head. Typical forum talk with a bunch of guys who make wild assumptions out of nothing. Engines break people. Most of the people that complain and worry most likely don’t drive their car. Or even own one. They spend more time talking about what wax to use and what towels to dry their car with than actually experiencing their car.

I'm not experience in this and it's probably sound naïve and silly. But in today internet media ability to communicate perhaps we all or people with broken/replaced engines can officially write to Ford and ask them to be more transparent about voodoo failures. I'm little concern of the future of my GT350.

the manufacturer is not going to report engine failures like that to the public.

you are being naive and silly about the concern for the future of your car. If your that worried about it. Sell it.

 

[svttim]

Big difference between a gen2 Coyotes and a voodoo engines. Voodoo engines have had known issues since their inception. Its why Ford replaces them no questions asked. Gen2 Coyotes didn’t.

Please share those statistics

 

[sk47]

Hello; Been following this and other threads for a while. At first I was hoping to find out how common engine failures are. I now know that sort of information is unlikely to find. A question occurred to me. If a person found them selves with a good chassis and a blown Voodoo, Coyote or ecoboost engine, what might be a good replacement engine?
I guess there will have to be some conditions. First would be no factory or other warranty to fall back on.
Second would have to be money is a factor sort of situation. Where a person cannot afford to or is not willing to put back the same type of engine which had just failed. Maybe because they no longer trust the engine or the cost of an exact replacement is high.

In the old days finding a different replacement engine was not a problem. My firs car was a 57 Chevy four door with a straight six. When the six went bad I found a small block V8 and stuck it in. No problems. For example there is currently a thread running about an eccoboost engine failure in a Mustang, but the same sort of question applies to a late model Mustang with a Coyote or Voodoo V8. Is there an aftermarket or crate engine which can be used in place of the factory original?
I am thinking in some ways of the engine management systems as well as the possible better reliability of the replacement engines. May be the case that the computer management system built into a chassis will not allow a substitute.

I get that some swaps would be more desirable than others. Replacing an eccoboost four or a V6 with a V8 might be thought of as a step up. While replacing a Coyote or a Voodoo with a different V8 might be considered a step down. This is not exactly the question I am asking, although I do get as to how replacing a Voodoo with a Voodoo might be the preference, there may be other factors in play. let me make up an imaginary situation. Say a fellow has a decent V8 engine sitting in a shop out of a totaled wreck and a clean Mustang chassis and with a blown Coyote or Voodoo. Can the swap work without a lot of trouble or are things today such that a swap like that is not workable or maybe not even legal?

Is this is a dumb question?

 

[Davesvt2000]

The GT350’s while not “rare”, will always be more “desirable” than other base mustang models.

 

[JT1]

Damn, I guess I should have bought the ESP for my 2017 before my warranty was up. I thought once they got past a certain number of miles they were "good to go" or as reliable as any other engine at that point. Sad to see the 29,000 mile failure.

What's going to happen once these cars haven't been in production for awhile?

 

[HEP#15]

My hope with the S550 GT350 is that the push to go all electric - for example, California's mandate to sell all alternatively fueled vehicles by 2035 - will make these cars more desirable over time given that it is most likely the last NA, big V8 Shelby Mustang ever produced.......and folks like us will yearn for the days where a sports car sounded and drove like a sports car. Interesting how the linked article start out "Last week, California Governor Gavin Newson leaned over the hood of a Ford Mustang Mach-E and signed an executive order saying that all new passenger cars and trucks sold in the state must be emission-free by 2035." https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/03/cars/california-2035-zev-mandate/index.html