Questioning Gen 2 voodoo reliability

[GT350Keith]

I've seen Coyotes being worked on at my auto machine shop friends shop. Mainly head or valve problems. Came out of daily driver cars and trucks. Nothing is bullet proof. Buy what you can afford to fix.

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[Shanksfornothin]

All of these reply’s good and bad from owners are really helpful. Thanks everyone!

 

[Nfs1000f]

For Pete’s f$#king sake, not again.

 

[rocsteady]

If you look, for every horror story on the internet about Voodoo failures, you can talk to 10 or 20 owners in person and waaaaay more on the interwebs, who have had no issues, in my experience. I have owned and followed GT350s since early in 2017 in one form or another, having owned two different 2017s for short, less than 20,000 miles and now a 2019 that I've put 7K miles on since July. Never had an issue. I let them warm up properly and don't beat on them (read "clutch dumps" or parking lot burnouts) but I do get my fill of running it to redline onto and down highways, onramps and such on all three of them. Current one, the 2019, is getting some extra love to prepare for a few HPDEs and open track sessions this year. Putting the cylinder head oil balancing lines on before it sees the track this year. If I were to have an engine failure, would I consider putting the crossplane 5.2 back in it instead of the Voodoo?...Possibly, but if I get two or three track days a year and 50,000 miles before that happens, it'll be another Voodoo back between the fenders no doubt. Drove with the windows cracked for 75 miles to work yesterday morning at 4 am just to listen to that thing roar, rumble, crackle, pop, and purr. Last night back through the Battery Tunnel (actually the Hugh L Carey tunnel now) was absolutely glorious!!

 

[rocsteady]

For Pete’s f$#king sake, not again.

Money, sex, horsepower, and "is the Voodoo reliable?"...can never have enough of any of them.

 

[Nfs1000f]

Anyone who’s been a member of this forum for any amount of time, needs to stop responding to these frigging threads.

 

[Finally21]

If you’re asking the question the 350 is probably not for you. I bought my 2017 gen 1 with eyes wide open, willing to except whatever comes. To me it’s worth the risk to own such a special car.

 

[BlkMach10510]

If you’re asking the question the 350 is probably not for you. I bought my 2017 gen 1 with eyes wide open, willing to except whatever comes. To me it’s worth the risk to own such a special car.

I agree, getting a special purpose car to be used as a daily driver you have to be ready to pay.

 

[Shanksfornothin]

I agree, getting a special purpose car to be used as a daily driver you have to be ready to pay.

I agree with that statement to an extent, but I think needing to rebuild/buy an entire new engine shouldn’t be a concern every day. Like yeah it happens and can happen to any car for sure. Which is the point of the post. To say hey “it’s way overblown in the community that the car is a ticking timebomb even if it’s not tracked hard every day you’ll be fine chill out” vs. “that car can die at any minute of any day it shakes itself to death weather you push it hard all day every day or just got excited going down the on ramp to the interstate once in a while”

 

[CANTWN4LSN]

Nothing earth shaking but one more opinion for you.
Simple answer to your question is for non track use and if not beat on, a Gen 2 GT350 almost certainly long term reliable. No guarantees in life. Any car can be a lemon. To me purchasing extended warranties has more to do with what you can afford and I try to avoid them. But I would get at least a short term extended warranty since you would be buying used and out/nearly out of factory warranty so in case there is an issue it's covered on a $60k used car that someone might be dumping for a reason unknown to you. Quite different from spending only $20k on a used car and having more ability to come up with $2-5k for an issue. Jaded, as I have had both Gen1 engine and AC replaced on my extended warranty even though I bought new.
Disagree that it's only a time factor to account for Gen1 vs Gen2 failures as Gen1 problems were mostly attributed to piston rings and high oil consumption and according to my mechanic definitely changed in Gen2. Was told that was my cause of failure. No, I have no other first hand knowledge. Why many Gen1s didn't have those problems I can't answer. Ford obviously expected "high" oil consumption up to a quart/500 miles as normal but not seeing that reported in Gen2s.
Yes GT350 is a special car to drive, a fantastic driver's car for the open road. Opinions vary but it really is not an ideal daily driver, and I don't think it was designed or manufactured to be one. It's a high performance car after all. You have to always pay attention to getting temp up before pushing it on rpms, PITA to get in and out of, constant worry if enough clearance to not scuff splitter or hit an animal (owl) or object in road (hunk of firewood), maintenance costs on tires and oil changes and OEM windshield replacement (car is a magnet for rocks) are high, not ideal in inclement weather, etc. Yes many daily drive but I'd bet the majority do not unless they have longer distances on open road as part of that DD or can't afford a second more reasonable DD car/truck.
To own a high performance car you love once in your life that can be DD is not something you will regret if you can afford it, including the chance it will crap out on you. Still love driving mine after 7 years out on the highways, not so much around town although never tire of getting in and starting it up! If you buy it and find it doesn't suit you for daily use sell it after you've fed the emotion of needing to have one, especially with its bang for the buck affordability. Obviously many have done so. Or keep it and add a second vehicle to DD in the future.

 

[RJ787]

As many have said: if you're buying the GT350, get an extended warranty for peace of mind on the engine. When that expires, it's just like any other vehicle that's out-of-warranty: a gamble.

If you can afford a GT350, but not an extended warranty, buy something else. Either pay up, or shut up.

 

[Shanksfornothin]

“Pay up or shut up” I love it

 

[BlkMach10510]

“Pay up or shut up” I love it

The thing is that we can tell you about this for 1,000.000 pages but in the end it is up to whether you are going to decide to buy or not.

 

[dnstommy]

The entire issue is a mess from a number of inputs and outputs.

First, the only people that have real access to un-clouded data is Ford. And obviously they're not going to reveal one way or another (for a number of reasons, most of which has to do with potential suits).

There's ego involved. Anyone who's bought a newer version of something has to convince themselves it's better than the old version (regardless of whether that's true). They run around parroting the idea and even delude themselves.

Second is internet myth. How many internet myths persist, not just about the voodoo but mustangs in general. "The flat plane crank doesn't do well with boost."

Here's some perspective on the matter. If you built a lawnmower and sold the same exact model for 5 years, which year would you expect to have the most defects? The first year. Why? Those have been in service and use for the longest. Which would you expect to have the least amount? The last year. Simply because they've been in service and use the least. Nothing is different, but if you called the first 2 years "gen1" and the last 3 years "gen2" you'd have people running around convinced the gen2 is more reliable, even though they're identical.

I've had my car long enough to remember when Ford moved the goal posts. When the GT350 was new to everyone (including stealerships) you could get your motor replaced at the drop of a hat. Gradually, Ford started tightening the requirements and what was previously a replacement became "normal consumption."

In all fairness and honesty, it's IMPOSSIBLE to verify one way or the other if the Gen2's are more reliable or resistant to replacement failure. Again, only Ford has all the necessary data we'd need to do a deep and meaningful analysis.

People who've had issues go online and post about it. The thousands upon thousands who haven't aren't motivated each day to weigh in and post how great it is they haven't had issues.

Ford should have never fielded a 12:1 compression motor on pump fuel. To that end, my PERSONAL OPINION is that gen1 or gen2, the voodoo is a ticking time bomb because you roll the dice every time you fuel up. 93 isn't infallible or consistent.

Ford added safety with the Gen3 Coyote with direct injection (which we don't get).

If it were me, I probably would NOT choose to buy a voodoo that's not on E85. The 93 is just too crappy sometimes. OR, I'd run octane booster with each fill up. The other thing you could do is get a custom tune and have it neutered a bit for safety.

As far as oil consumption, there's TONS of theories, but I can give you some advice.

Always warm the motor fully before increasing the RPMs. It isn't a mini van. The pistons aren't hypereutectic. They need time to warm and expand fully. Warm to at least 180F cylinder head temps. Then drive.

Give the car the FULL SAUCE every once in awhile. The rings need to mate properly to the cylinder bore. This means a full load flogging (i.e. like a full on 4th gear rip to redline).

Run a catch can, at least on the passenger side.

At the end of the day, everything is a mechanical risk. Choose accordingly. It's not controversial to say that the Gen3 coyote has less replacement risk.

I had not thought about the direct port injection stuff and the 350. Honestly I thought it already had it. But its crazy to do 12:1 without it. I guess they are just compensating with timing.

 

[Angrey]

I had not thought about the direct port injection stuff and the 350. Honestly I thought it already had it. But its crazy to do 12:1 without it. I guess they are just compensating with timing.

It was just timing. The Gen3's didn't start hitting the market until 3 years after the GT350 program had started selling models. Assuming even similar design development, that would mean the Gen3 development was start right around the same time the 350's were hitting dealerships.

Ford may have been eyeing direct injection for some time, but it's speculation to think that the DI was a natural incremental development to upping their previous gen 2 output. Part of that came from the 350 development (slightly more displacement, larger valves, etc, increased compression). It's not a stretch to think that the DI was a lesson learned or feedback from the 350 development with 12:1 and what they were seeing.

In any case, DI helps provide another layer of management against knock and bad fuel. In some ways I wish we had it, but it's also more complexity as well.

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