Is the S550 Reliable Enough?

[Scat550]

With the straight line performance on the most recent version of the Camaro SS and the Challenger RT scat pack I've had the urge to mod my GT performance pack. I ordered the Ford performance pack 2 only to find it was out of stock and cancel my order. Over all is the S550 Reliable Enough to forgo the warranty all together in the name of power (mostly torque is what I'm after)? I've got the GT plus w/pp so a lot of bells and whistles to concern myself with. Thanks for the replies.

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[Timm]

Upgrading a little bit is a long and dark road. You start out meaning to just do the cold air intake, convince yourself borla exhausts will do it and in the end end up staring and a totally modded car. I understand wanting to be competitive, and wanting to at least be in the race as it were. If you bought any car to be the fastest on the block you will be disappointed soon enough regardless of which you purchased.

Can you mod and still have a reliable daily driver, yes. Is it worth the warrranty, only you can ultimately decide that. With extra torque though will eventually come the need for halfshafts, upgraded transmission, etc. But it will run super, if something breaks you pay for it. Personally I have held off the urge to mod, buy looking at the guys that did and broke xyz in the process untill my warranty is out. Then who knows I may travel the same roads.

 

[BmacIL]

It depends. If you go forced induction, you'll pretty much have everything in the driveline under the knife to keep it reliable, as well as a few things in the engine too. If you stick to NA and don't go full bolt ons it can very reliable. Catback, intake and tune won't cause you to start munching stuff and is all you need to be competitive with the anything else NA like the SS.

I would personally also wait till you have a good amount of miles on the engine before doing much. I didn't tune till 44k, which many would consider excessive, but I know that the chances of anything failing between now and 60K is extremely unlikely. Any infantile failures will pop up before 10-15k miles.

 

[Detector]

I started the same way and soon found myself crossing the upgrades line.

I did fine against the average SRT8 & SS but I wanted to give myself just a little more just in case, but not so much as to need to start upgrading drive line shafts, clutch etc. I added long tube headers, electric exhaust cutouts, cold air intake and a tune. All was fine until I added the performance tune. Exploded my clutch on the 4th run. I could feel the clutch slipping when I shifted gears.

I dyno'd after adding everything but the tune and was putting just over 400 RWHP. I should have stopped there. Not sure what my tune added, can't dyno till my new clutch is in, but I think it took me over that line.

 

[Scat550]

I appreciate the advice gents. I've already done Roush axle backs and love the sound. Guess I'll be enjoying the car as is until I creep up on my warranty expiration.

 

[moubayed]

Is there a difference between the reliability of automatics Vs manuals?

 

[racered_ppGT]

ive never met a ford dealer around me that wouldnt warranty something if you just have a basic bolt on (intake, tune, exhaust). Just find a mod friendly dealer, shouldnt be that hard as a lot of dealers now a days sell performance parts.

Hell, when i bought my 2016 GTI my VW dealer had was stage 1 tuned BEFORE i bought it brand new, i bought it with 10 miles on it with lowering springs, wheels, and a tune already on it, they were a authorized Unironic dealer and as long as they did the tune, they still warrantied it.

 

[zxd9]

While not necessarily 'the best' in terms of performance, many Ford dealers will install and warranty Ford Performance parts and some will do Roush installs too. It's an option.

 

[Kevin08]

Is there a difference between the reliability of automatics Vs manuals?

A manual should pretty much always be more reliable. Fewer points of failure, if anything.

 

[Hashbrownn]

YES

 

[cbrookre]

I thought so, but now I am starting to wonder. My car, with all that I love it, has has four issues in the past year that have required warranty work. First was only a seat stitching issue, but then water pump and AC compressor in the same visit, PVC valve that was dumping oil on the exhaust manifold, and now has a driveline vibration at 65+MPH (is in at the dealer now for that issue). Has me considering an extended warranty...

 

[My_Coyote]

The auto trans is good up to 1000 HP, so its safe to assume the Ford GT
is in the safe zone up to 750 HP

 

[accel]

I thought so, but now I am starting to wonder. My car, with all that I love it, has has four issues in the past year that have required warranty work. First was only a seat stitching issue, but then water pump and AC compressor in the same visit, PVC valve that was dumping oil on the exhaust manifold, and now has a driveline vibration at 65+MPH (is in at the dealer now for that issue). Has me considering an extended warranty...

What's happening with waterpumps on GTs?

 

[Chad11491]

I think so, yes. Look at most coyotes between 11-current. Almost all the failures are FI cars in the predictable and known areas. Simple Boltons like headers, CAI, tune I haven't seen any engine failures. And if so it might be people revving to over 7500+ RPM all the time. The coyote is a very stout and reliable engine. I think any time you go FI or are revving out over a thousand rpm over the stock redline regularly you're taking your chances. The chances are pretty good you'll be fine, but you always have a chance of failure.

 

[Muff Muff]

As the saying goes... build, race, break, repeat.

As long as the necessary supporting mods accompany any kind of power increase, you more than likely won't break anything by any other means than driver error. You will have to live with decreased driveability, though.

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