NO WAY!!!!
How could anyone possibly determine your failure? Material or design? There is no way of knowing with such little to go off. Better get used to not knowing because Ford will not say. Do not do the work yourself. Have it done under warranty, paper trail. Then if you are still not happy, sell the car.
I’d let them do it, the dealerships are slightly better at the replacement than they are splitter installs. Maybe you can get it bought back(after they fawk it up), because selling right now is tough ESPECIALLY with a motor replacement. You may have better luck with an R, but i’d venture to guess you’ll lose a few thousand on resale just due to the motor work.
I am not sure I agree 100%. The initial reliability of the S54 was really bad. They revised the rod bearings 3 times if I recall correctly. They also re-speced the oil pump. After all that I do not hear about a lot of problems. And they did all that part of different recalls so it was not out of pocket (for M3 owners that is, M coupe is a different story for a different day). I think after all the revisions the motor is pretty reliable up to more than 100,000 miles. Now, compare that with what Ford is currently doing with the voodoo (hint - not much short of replacing the motor). And if they are actually doing something meaningful to it they are not saying what it is. And I hope they are doing something because doing the same thing over and over and expecting different outcomes - we all know what that is called
Yeah, I see your point, and I could be wrong of course. I was going partly off of owners who have said after revisions the bearings are still prone to fail, just not nearly as often as prior to the recalls, and that buyers of the used ones should still factor in the possible need to replace them eventually. Years ago I remember reading a blog by a successful race team at the time running the S54 as a race engine talking about the narrow bearing design being the limiting factor in the engine builds, and how much work they had done to adapt the s50b32 bearings because they were bigger and more reliable. As mentioned before, for all we know some Voodoo engines could be getting replaced for things as simple as excessive valve seal blow by, without us knowing.I am not sure I agree 100%. The initial reliability of the S54 was really bad. They revised the rod bearings 3 times if I recall correctly. They also re-speced the oil pump. After all that I do not hear about a lot of problems. And they did all that part of different recalls so it was not out of pocket (for M3 owners that is, M coupe is a different story for a different day). I think after all the revisions the motor is pretty reliable up to more than 100,000 miles. Now, compare that with what Ford is currently doing with the voodoo (hint - not much short of replacing the motor). And if they are actually doing something meaningful to it they are not saying what is. And I hope they are doing something because doing the same thing over and over and expecting different outcomes - we all know that that is called
I remember about that blog too. Of course I might be wrong as well but the topic of S54s going kaboom has been relatively quiet after all that was done. To me in the end a sign of a good company that cares is being transparent when the proverbial matter hits the fan and trying to address the issue. I see neither in case of our engines.
Ford says 1qt per 500. He went 800+ but "clearly there's something wrong"? How so? Clearly something was wrong from the sounds and the results, but using a quart of oil in 800+ miles was not a/the problem. Unless I misunderstood your point. And I think we've all but determined the type of driving (track vs street) is irrelevant.
I wasn't referring to what the owners manual says. I was referring to what most have actually reported as real world experience. There's been no correlation from the track rats that track use increases oil consumption, at all.
You do bring up good point with Porsche. These engine issues are examples not exceptions. Some will fail some won't. Porsche had a big enough problem that they were sued. I'd bet Ford is not anywhere near the problem Porsche had with the M96/M97 engines. I am actually looking into a 991.1 GT3 which U.S. owners had some misfire concerns at high ROM. Albeit, it was happening with those not really tracking the cars. So I woulds say driving style more so than conditions play a role in certain engine. The only thing I believe Ford could do better is offer an extended warranty on the engine, like Porsche. All 991.1 GT3 engine now have a 120K mile warranty. But again, I don't think the problem is as big as many believe. Ford is actually replacing engines with little fuss minus availability issues. However, that should be expected with a hand built limited production engine. In fact! I know that Ford as paid for extended warranties for those who have had engine replacements and have longevity concerns. I'd say Ford is handling the concerns really well. I don't expect my engine to be trouble free because it is tracked and street driven occasionally.I expect the to need replacing at around 40k miles due to my use. And for that I also have a 7 year 75k mile extended warranty. Engines fail for all manufacturers. It happens.
