Questioning Gen 2 voodoo reliability

[Shanksfornothin]

Previous 2019 owner here…. I sold my car at a profit immediately after getting my engine replaced under warranty. I dropped a valve on track at 9,200 miles (approximately 5k miles were track miles).

I personally know of 4 people with 2019-2020 cars who have also blown engines, along with 2 who have blown engines on a 2016 and 2017 car.

This has been discussed ad nauseam, but I think you’ll find that a small amount of “gen 1” engines burned an excessive amount of oil. I haven’t read of a single case of 2019-2020 burning oil. 2019+ engines did have some differences, but it’s unclear if it made the engine any better…. Likely not unless you planned on feeding it 10+ psi boost. Late 2019’s and early 2020’s seemed to drop valves at a much higher rate IMO due to a bad batch of valves with material defects. It seems like many happened relatively early in their lives.

Most of these engines will live normal healthy lives…. But the more time you spend at or near redline, you’re drastically reducing the life of your engine. All but one of the engine failures I know of happened to cars that were tracked by drivers regularly in the advanced class. These are guys that are pushing 9 or 10/10’s and spend a decent amount of time near redline. I have it on very good authority that EVERY SINGLE track attack car, some with as little as 23,000 miles, have received at least 1 new engine. Some had two engines replaced and fewer still had 3 new engines. Heck, even the ford racing team ditched the voodoo engine for reliability issues as soon as they were contractually able to.

If you’re really worried about having to rebuild the engine (which you can do much cheaper than $30k for new) and it would break the bank, then buy the Mach 1 as the coyote is known to be bullet proof (as you mentioned.) Personally I don’t like the styling as much in the Mach 1, but it performs similarly to the gt350 on track and has a super reliable engine.

Best of luck on your decision.

Thank you for your response this was helpful, perhaps the 350 just isn’t for me in my situation. It is without a doubt the best car I’ve ever driven. it’s a shame. I’d always hoped to drive a Shelby.

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[SL8888]

Sounds like you would be best to purchase a Mach 1 with a manual and enjoy that car.
72 months worth of car payments, with insurance & normal maintenance sounds like you might be stretching it.
I purchased my GT-350 in December of 2019 with 4.1 miles on it. It now has 18,550 miles with 30 HPDE days at Mid-Ohio on the clock. At 65 years old I can tell you its the best money that I have ever spent on a car, no regrets or concerns with driving it at all. No engine problems what so ever.
Does seem to go to the gas station a lot, must be a small fuel tank.
And needs new Cup2s every year....Don't know what might be the problem there either,
alignment issues ???

 

[DrivenHeritageEdition]

My experience: I purchased my 2020 GT350 Heritage Edition 02/22 with 3,126 miles and have since driven it from eastern MA to Las Vegas to get up-fitted by Shelby American with their signature edition package, and have driven it to Mustang Fest/Week twice with no issues. I also pretty much daily it April-December. Being in MA, I winterize the car, but have driven it on unsalted roads when it has been around 35 degrees numerous times and have had zero oil issues. I am NOT NICE to this car. The goal, as my username implies, is to drive the hell out of this car, and I have put almost 30k miles on it in two years. You can see more documentation of my peaks and valleys with this car on my instagrams @DrivenHeritageEdition under the “GT350 problems” highlight.

Only mechanical issue I have had has been the passenger size exhaust manifold being replaced under warranty for going back at around 22k miles. That was after taking her out of winter storage last year.

A key part of owning these cars is having a good, bullshit free dealership, which I did not have initially. I am now thankful to have that luxury. I’m sure there are some cases of Gen II’s having issues, but out of the hundred of Gen II owners I have met and talk to frequently, it’s a tremendously durable motor.

 

[Inthehighdesert]

Most of what Pilot wrote was/is correct. The exception is why the new endurance teams didn’t use a 5.2. Part of the Gt3 a d Gt4 rules is production based power. The 5.2 is no longer in production and the coyote is. The other thing is aimed at track use. Warranty or not, several thousand miles on a track/race motor is a big ask, regardless of manufacturer. If you buy a new predator for example its recommended to be gone through at 40hrs. Sprint motors we went through every other race at a minimum. But all of that applies to any motor that’s run on tilt. It’s just part of the price of admission.

Previous 2019 owner here…. I sold my car at a profit immediately after getting my engine replaced under warranty. I dropped a valve on track at 9,200 miles (approximately 5k miles were track miles).

I personally know of 4 people with 2019-2020 cars who have also blown engines, along with 2 who have blown engines on a 2016 and 2017 car.

This has been discussed ad nauseam, but I think you’ll find that a small amount of “gen 1” engines burned an excessive amount of oil. I haven’t read of a single case of 2019-2020 burning oil. 2019+ engines did have some differences, but it’s unclear if it made the engine any better…. Likely not unless you planned on feeding it 10+ psi boost. Late 2019’s and early 2020’s seemed to drop valves at a much higher rate IMO due to a bad batch of valves with material defects. It seems like many happened relatively early in their lives.

Most of these engines will live normal healthy lives…. But the more time you spend at or near redline, you’re drastically reducing the life of your engine. All but one of the engine failures I know of happened to cars that were tracked by drivers regularly in the advanced class. These are guys that are pushing 9 or 10/10’s and spend a decent amount of time near redline. I have it on very good authority that EVERY SINGLE track attack car, some with as little as 23,000 miles, have received at least 1 new engine. Some had two engines replaced and fewer still had 3 new engines. Heck, even the ford racing team ditched the voodoo engine for reliability issues as soon as they were contractually able to.

If you’re really worried about having to rebuild the engine (which you can do much cheaper than $30k for new) and it would break the bank, then buy the Mach 1 as the coyote is known to be bullet proof (as you mentioned.) Personally I don’t like the styling as much in the Mach 1, but it performs similarly to the gt350 on track and has a super reliable engine.

Best of luck on your decision.

 

[pilotgore]

Most of what Pilot wrote was/is correct. The exception is why the new endurance teams didn’t use a 5.2. Part of the Gt3 a d Gt4 rules is production based power. The 5.2 is no longer in production and the coyote is. The other thing is aimed at track use. Warranty or not, several thousand miles on a track/race motor is a big ask, regardless of manufacturer. If you buy a new predator for example its recommended to be gone through at 40hrs. Sprint motors we went through every other race at a minimum. But all of that applies to any motor that’s run on tilt. It’s just part of the price of admission.

According to a friend (who I won’t name but is well known on this forum) who has deep connections to ford racing and their engineers, said they ditched the flat plane crank in the racing program as soon as they were contractually able to due to reliability issues. The first year of CPC 5.2 was the 2017 season. Apparently they were having to rebuild the voodoo after every single race which wasn’t normal. At the time, other teams were only rebuilding every 4-5 races. They said the engine was shaking itself apart….

https://www.allfordmustangs.com/thr...ith-5-2l-v8-flat-plane-crank-missing.1090035/

 

[wingnutt]

yea, what they all said!

definitely don’t daily a 350, if nothing else, it ain’t cheap…$200 oil changes 3 or 4 times a year, $2500 in tires at LEAST once a year, hit a small mammal with your splitter just outside Gallup N.M. and there’s another $1500, oh the humanity!

add in the random Asian mom that comes running out of a Loves truck stop just outside of Tuscaloosa, to take selfies in front of the red badge…and anyone that would daily a 350 is two snowflakes short of a blizzard

 

[Shanksfornothin]

According to a friend (who I won’t name but is well known on this forum) who has deep connections to ford racing and their engineers, said they ditched the flat plane crank in the racing program as soon as they were contractually able to due to reliability issues. The first year of CPC 5.2 was the 2017 season. Apparently they were having to rebuild the voodoo after every single race which wasn’t normal. At the time, other teams were only rebuilding every 4-5 races. They said the engine was shaking itself apart….

https://www.allfordmustangs.com/thr...ith-5-2l-v8-flat-plane-crank-missing.1090035/

Wow that’s eye opening, thank you

 

[GTthree50]

Asian guy here that must be two snowballls short of a damn blizzard!!! I bought my car new and just rolled past 38,000 miles. Mine is a daily driven car and the downsides others have spoken about are their opinions and while valid for those individualsI it is not for everyone. I am not the only owner who uses the car daily without issues. Haven’t had any mechanical problems. Have taken the car on long trips without drama and maintenance is not an issue. The Shelby does not have high maintenance requirements. It does take a large amount of oil but that’s not that big of a deal and it isn’t the only car on the road with a 10qt sump. Basically beyond the poor gas mileage I have no regrets or problems using my car daily. I am not trying to convince you to buy a GT350 over a Mach1 but hope to offer a perspective on one owners gen 1 ownership/usage experience that is in contrast to other posts in this thread.

 

[WItoTX]

No offense. But this has been gone over at nauseum. Me personally, I wouldn’t deive a 350 daily, but it’s not because of mechanical worries. I would however drive a Mach1 daily. I boosted one at 1100 miles without a hesitation. The 30k motor gets thrown around quite a bit, but the reality is if there is an internal issue that comes up(highly unlikely in stock trim) going through the long block won’t be any where near that 30k number. As for track use. Track use is unforgiving, unless you’re driving Ms. daisy. It just is what it is. If you accept that there’s additional maintenance and the chance you’ll be replacing parts, its all good. I’m going to leave alone the ticking time bomb bs. That’s internet garbage.

This.

Eventually motors stop being made. Then what? I mean FFS, eventually it will die, as all cars do, then what? Rebuild it or move on. People act like every bit of a car will last forever.

There is no money to be made on cars, much less a non-R 350 IMO. OP is just all over the place in his thought process, what process there is, and asked an off the cuff question instead of spending 5 minutes on Google. I mean search high mileage GT350 and the VERY first article that pops up is a link to a thread on this site on high mileage VooDoo's.

 

[Crew4991]

The reliability of a gen 2 voodoo is somewhere in between say a Toyota and a Fiat.

 

[KENS550TX]

Ok that last Q/A was a good point, but eventually the warranty runs out, I can’t have it on one forever.
I feel like my ultimate question still isn’t really getting answered. From Gen 2 owners, is this a car I can count on. Or is it the ticking timebomb some say it is?
anyone out there with 60-100k miles on it ?

Shank I have approximately 45,000 currently on my “19 purchased when dealers got scared of Covid in March of ‘20. I drove it daily for 3 1/2 years until I purchased a Ranger. No track or strip time never even dumped the clutch. The car is amazing no issues besides the AC. No oil issues I have it changed every 5k now every 6 months with it not being a daily. From reading your replies don’t second guess it and go with a low mileage 350. I take it out every weekend and appreciate it even more now. It also helps that it was my wife’s idea to buy it!!! Good luck!! You will not regret it !!!!

 

[UpACurb]

Im at almost 15K miles on my 19 R - just did a road trip from Southern CA to Barrett Jackson (have a good buddy that lives in Scottsdale) between car shows - drives exc- I put almost 1000 miles on it in one weekend - on the Cup 2s no less ...

Hit up a few car shows in Scottsdale as well....

Im guilty of getting caught up on everything you read online as well- but at the end of the day.... unless you are going to track it and spend hours at a time at 8K RPM - these things are reliable if you treat them well

If you beat on them- like any car...they will break....I have tons of friends into classics as well- built small blocks and built big blocks- nothing too crazy - think 500hp range- but when they beat on them constantly....they break too -

With the A/C- I always turn off the A/C before I beat on the car... make sure its warmed up

Ill leave you with this....my VooDoo burns no oil....but the Coyote in my Roush F150 does lol

 

[JiggyFly999]

Jumping in here

I purchased a 2018 GT350 last year to be my daily driver - and I have zero regrets. I was the second owner and it only had 4300 miles. It now has 9000 in about 6 months. I live in the Seattle area. I use the stock tires for summer and have a set of Michelin 4S for the winter. Rain no problem. I love it. Its fun and easy to drive.

I had a brand new 2017 GT and the GT350 is just as easy to drive. Yes there is less low end torque - just get used to more RPMs. The 2017 I had was also fun and easy - but that 5.0 was a problem, I ended up lemoning the car out at 6000 miles.

They do feel different and have different personalities. I would defiantly say drive the GT350 first.

I would also say that not getting the extended warranty is a big mistake. It isn't only the engine that can fail. One AC or heater core failure and that that extended warranty just paid for itself. If you are going to keep it for ever - then why would you NOT get one? $5000 for 6 years and 60K additional miles. Small investment over the life of the car. The engine is the least of my worries.

And other than the lemon 2017, I keep my cars forever. Look at the picture of the 88GT I have owned since new

GT or GT350 - both fun - but I'll take the GT350!

 

[pilotgore]

Im at almost 15K miles on my 19 R - just did a road trip from Southern CA to Barrett Jackson (have a good buddy that lives in Scottsdale) between car shows - drives exc- I put almost 1000 miles on it in one weekend - on the Cup 2s no less ...

Hit up a few car shows in Scottsdale as well....

Im guilty of getting caught up on everything you read online as well- but at the end of the day.... unless you are going to track it and spend hours at a time at 8K RPM - these things are reliable if you treat them well

If you beat on them- like any car...they will break....I have tons of friends into classics as well- built small blocks and built big blocks- nothing too crazy - think 500hp range- but when they beat on them constantly....they break too -

With the A/C- I always turn off the A/C before I beat on the car... make sure its warmed up

Ill leave you with this....my VooDoo burns no oil....but the Coyote in my Roush F150 does lol

In fairness, that’s because Roush touched it ;)

 

[JiggyFly999]

Shank I have approximately 45,000 currently on my “19 purchased when dealers got scared of Covid in March of ‘20. I drove it daily for 3 1/2 years until I purchased a Ranger. No track or strip time never even dumped the clutch. The car is amazing no issues besides the AC. No oil issues I have it changed every 5k now every 6 months with it not being a daily. From reading your replies don’t second guess it and go with a low mileage 350. I take it out every weekend and appreciate it even more now. It also helps that it was my wife’s idea to buy it!!! Good luck!! You will not regret it !!!!

My wife was the instigator on my GT350 also!

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