Replaced Voodoo Engine

[greengoblin31]

i hope my motor doesn't break.. this is alot of people reporting feedback. it's always made ticking noises when cold but i dont think that's a problem at all..!

 

[MrCincinnati]

I think we should be differentiating between “blown motor” and heavy oil consumption. Bottom hole on the dipstick after 2000mi isn’t the same as blown motor to me.. given you can burn through 1qt every 500mi depending on your driving habits.

I’d be willing to bet some of these replacements are due to owners neglecting to check the oil more frequently than other vehicles they have owned and/or not allowing the heavy weight oil to sufficiently warm up on cooler days. Some guys are also overfilling.

 

[MulhollandMonster]

i hope my motor doesn't break.. this is alot of people reporting feedback. it's always made ticking noises when cold but i dont think that's a problem at all..!

I doubt this bleeds into the cross plane crank Ford offerings.

 

[MulhollandMonster]

Ford is taking a bath on this engine. I'm just in the process of having a heart-to-heart with my dealership GM about the blown engine, which cost me two track days, the blown rear CV, the paint flaws, and the time they have had it in the shop v the time I have actually had the car...not to mention the chassis to engine number matching is non-existent...I requested he kindly ease my hemorrhaging in some way.

 

[Kurac]

His thread just made me go check my oil level

 

[DrumReaper]

I smell a little chicken little...

 

[S550VIN54]

I think we should be differentiating between “blown motor” and heavy oil consumption. Bottom hole on the dipstick after 2000mi isn’t the same as blown motor to me.. given you can burn through 1qt every 500mi depending on your driving habits.

I’d be willing to bet some of these replacements are due to owners neglecting to check the oil more frequently than other vehicles they have owned and/or not allowing the heavy weight oil to sufficiently warm up on cooler days. Some guys are also overfilling.

Nor was it intended to be. I was just saying as a reference to mileage. And yes I keep a check just like the manuals suggest every time I fill up with gas and more often than I should but that because I am OCD. I owned a 2012 Boss and it used pretty much the same amount of oil but never had the piston slap issue I get on initial startup.

 

[MrCincinnati]

Nor was it intended to be. I was just saying as a reference to mileage. And yes I keep a check just like the manuals suggest every time I fill up with gas and more often than I should but that because I am OCD. I owned a 2012 Boss and it used pretty much the same amount of oil but never had the piston slap issue I get on initial startup.

Your post and my reference to it was an example only. You noticed you were at bottom after 2k mi. Think of how many new Mustang owners this car attracted (myself included) and imagine they probably, like most of us, fell in love with the exhaust note, spent a lot of time at higher revs (4-6k) and low load.. engine braking, riding the crackle etc.. then oh hell no I’m 4 quarts low after 3-4k Miles.

Just a hypothesis.

Piston slap when cold, on the other hand, makes sense to me since the piston expands. The guys that get it all the time, though.. that’s a bit weird.

 

[Next Phase]

I had 2200 miles on my track pack before I sold it. It had some oil consumption.
Otherwise no issues. Almost 900 miles on the R, so far no issues. My brother uses his R as a track car, it’s starting to consume some oil, but still holding together. This is the first I’m hearing of multiple people with replaced motors.

The oil consumption is what I would consider normal with how hard and often the car gets tracked. The dipstick on these cars is just horrible...so hard to tell where the level is. As long as It's above the bottom hole on the dipstick...I don't worry about it.

I don't know if I have two of the greatest mustangs ever built or ticking time bombs.

I can relate, the Gen 5 Vipers have been letting go at an alarming rate as well. Unofficially, there have been reports of 20% on the earlier Gen 5 cars. Non-numbers matching threads galore on the Viper forum and FB pages. One of the engine / tuner shops is offering a bearing fix so you can keep your numbers matching car. I'm not worrying about either motor as long as I'm under warranty.

I did read that a R owner toasted his motor and was getting a replacement. Later finding out that the new motor was for a base GT350. From the information that I've been told (unofficially through some insiders / engineers) is that there are 3 differences in the R motor.

"I think there were a few , 1, the cam cover 2 vct,3 lash adjusters . That was it ."

His thread just made me go check my oil level

I took the Viper to work and checked the oil today while @ the pump... Since they are also ticking time bombs if you read about all the engine failures (bearing issue).

 

[Hack]

I know we've had this disagreement before - but IME, cam chains do not make noise...at least not the noise we are referring to as piston slap - and so far, every 350 I've heard has this characteristic.

As a rule, anything metallic that is moving makes noise, so I would tend to disagree with your statement that cam chains don't make noise. I've had engines with piston slap before and I haven't heard that noise from the Voodoo or the Coyotes I've owned - even after cold start up when ambient temperatures are double digits below zero. I think when you have an aluminum block with only a thin coating of hard material in the bores there is less relative CTE growth difference between pistons and bores.

Anyhoo, even if there is a noise coming from the pistons I wouldn't associate it with a life or performance concern.

 

[S550VIN54]

Your post and my reference to it was an example only. You noticed you were at bottom after 2k mi. Think of how many new Mustang owners this car attracted (myself included) and imagine they probably, like most of us, fell in love with the exhaust note, spent a lot of time at higher revs (4-6k) and low load.. engine braking, riding the crackle etc.. then oh hell no I’m 4 quarts low after 3-4k Miles.

Just a hypothesis.

Piston slap when cold, on the other hand, makes sense to me since the piston expands. The guys that get it all the time, though.. that’s a bit weird.

Understand. It would definitely be interesting to see as far as engine failures go what is the root cause but I seriously doubt that information will be available in great numbers.

 

[MulhollandMonster]

As they are keeping the data close to their chest, they are also not improving the engines (or so it seems). So, unless I have any reason to believe otherwise, whatever engine replacements are going to be no different in design or engineering.

What I want to hear from Ford is "we fixed that shit. If we replace your engine, it won't happen again."

 

[Trackaholic]

I have 30,000 miles and just got my oil changed.

My car does eat oil - roughly 1 quart every 1500 miles.

My car has an annoying engine vibration @ ~1800 RPM, that causes the car to shudder as you pass through that RPM window. It's not terribly noticeable in gears 1-3 because you pass through that zone pretty quickly, but in 4-6 (especially 6) you feel it enough to avoid passing through that zone.

I also get the "piston slap" noise in the 2000-3000 RPM range, under light load. Combined with the vibration @ 1800, I'm almost always in a zone where the car is making some strange sound.

Lots of ticking from the valve area as well.

Still, the engine seems to be holding together. I just check the oil every month or so and add as needed. Drive it pretty hard in the hopes of catching any latent issues. Have done several track days, with no issues so far. Hopefully with 30,000 miles on the clock I'm in a safe zone for another 100,000 at least.

As far as numbers matching goes, if the reliability is questionable enough, it may actually be an advantage to have a replacement motor! Not sure what I'd do if anything happened to mine. Might look to the aftermarket for a solution or ideas.

-T

 

[17RubyShelbyGT350]

Well, no doubt some failures have been caused by failure to heed directions to very frequently check oil levels and or running the engine hard before warming up the oil. That said, I am feeling a little of the deja vue all over again syndrome. My first Ford, but not my first rodeo. Look at the Corvette Forum C6 forum threads dedicated to LS7 valve drops. The C7 Z06s were advertised as track ready yet it is common knowledge that these cars were woefully under-engineered with massive overheating problems. Viper motor problems.

I check my oil level on the Shelby after every spirited drive over 20 minutes duration. I am down about a quart after 1500 miles which included about 40 max dyno pulls including pre tuning pulls, lengthy dyno tuning session of about 5 hours, post testing pulls and some visits to 8200 on my own, so I am ok with this...for now.

But I am paying attention to what is being posted and I am going to be a bit “OCD Vigilent.” And frankly, I am getting a bit weary of American performance cars which offer so much innovative performance engineering on paper, then fall on their ass because of cost cutting and/or lack of attention to keeping an acceptable level of production quality.

I have an Audi SQ5 which is pretty damn quick for what it is and has a high level of quality in every aspect from body seams, interior materials and engineering of the supercharged engine. Basically paid same price as for the Shelby. Engine never uses oil between 6000 mile oil changes, and I do not coddle it.

I really like the Shelby in spite of the poor body panel fit and low rent interior. But if this engine blows, I am done with American performance.

Stepping off soap box now.

 

[MulhollandMonster]

You know that flat plane crank scaled replica they give you as a cool gift? It is the engine number of the engine that blew...lol