bbaron

I need advise as far as which route I should go.. I have a 2005 Ford Mustang GT (V8) with just over 60K miles (manual trans). A couple weeks ago, I started to hear a clanking sound in my engine. I brought it in for immediate expection. The mechanic opened up the top left side of the engine and discovered one of the bearings was grinded down (cam-shaft/lifter/rocker arm damaged) and recommended to replace the cam-shaft, all the rocker arms and all the lifters on both sides (both cam-shafts) to start fresh (rather than just one side of the engine.) He quoted me at $1900 for the job. He expressed that this is a rare problem to have for a car with low miles, and may have been do to the cam-shaft being lifted from racing or racing up the rpm's (I don't do either).

My questions:
1) What may have caused this?
2) Is this the right course of action for such a problem?
3) What are the chances of this happening again once fixed?
4) Would it be better to fix or swap for a used engine that never had this issue?
5) Is this worth fixing and keeping (I love this car), or is it wiser to trade it in at a dealership for a newer car ?
6) Has anyone had any similar issues?

Let me know...
Thank You,
Ben

Derf00

Where did you get the car from, used car dealer, salvage title, etc..? how long have you had it?

What did the shop say could have been the probable cause?

Oil starvation is my first thought on what caused it. If that is not checked and addressed if necessary, the likely hood of it happening again are pretty good.


The other thought is if you bought the car fairly recently is that it could have had aftermarket cams on it that were swapped back out before it was sold. If the installation of the OEM cams wasn't done correctly (proper torquing sequence etc) it would lead to a misalignment on the bearings that would then translate to a particular bearing being worn (grinding) down prematurely.

60K miles is not that much. What I would recommend instead of having the OEM cams reinstalled or replaced is put in some FRPP performance cams and tune. They are in there anyways, might as well get the mod done now!

bbaron

Thanks for the advise! Just curious, how'd you learn about cars? Mechanic or hobby?

Better than swapping for a new engine? Could the engine as a whole be defective?

Boss_Hotrod

Id be worried about problems with the head castings. The engine may have an oiling problem so a new/used one might be the best route.

Old Mustanger

Agreed^^
Plus, those ground up parts had to go somewhere. They probably went through your pan and into your oil pump before being trapped in your oil filter. There is no way to tell how much damage was done to the rest of the engine.
That kind of failure is not too common. There is no way to tell what part/parts failed first and caused the rest of the damage.

After that kind of failure, you will be best off replacing the engine with a good, low mileage used one. I wouldn't risk my hard-earned cash on repairing a potential boat anchor.

uberstang1

Moving this so s197 section

Derf00

Learned about cars starting in auto shop way back in high school, worked for many years at auto parts stores and shops, then picked it up as a hobby working on my own cars, familys cars, friends cars, and neighbors cars since I found a career outside of cars.

One thing i've learned is that everyone will have an opinion and it is just that, an opinion. Unless there are facts to back it up or your personal experience tells you otherwise.

With regard to your question about swapping a new engine in, it's hard to say if thats the best way to go since the reason for the failure has not been found. It could be something as simple as dirt (sludge) plugging an oil galley in the cam bearing and starving that bearing for oil, or it could be as severe as the casting of the head but I find it difficult to believe it would take 60K miles for a failure related to a head casting to show up.

If you think about how many RPM's and and the speed at which those are made over the course 60K miles, you'll see my point.

Here's a link to a great resource on interpreting engine bearing failures.

http://www.studebaker-info.org/tech/...CL77-3-402.pdf

Regardless, the heads at least should be torn down and rebuilt at which point you will need to check the piston walls for scoring (from metal shavings) and also the oil pan and oil pump screen for shavings. If they are found throughout the oil system, then a complete engine rebuild is in order (or engine replacement).

moosestang

The only problem with swapping in a used engine is you know nothing about how it was treated.

Derf00

+1 that. My unedited post had all these cautionaries about buying a used engine but I deleted that. I tend to lean more towards rebuilding an existing engine.

Old Mustanger

I have trouble-shot and rebuilt a lot of engines over the years, and I am an Engineer by trade. I rebuilt my first engine when I was 14 y.o. Learning mostly from popular car magazines at that time.
That was 4 decades ago. Iv'e successfully built many circle-track engines and many, many more street engines. I am very good at de-bugging engine failures.

If I could not figure out EXACTLY WHY an engine failed, I would not consider it for rebuild. Iv'e seen lots of engines blow (not mine) shortly after rebuild due to hidden issues that were not considered/discovered. That gets incredibly expensive rather quickly.

Usually, when an OHC cam brg fails, it is due to lack of lubrication. The Cam Brg is the farthest point away from the oil pump. This can be caused by poor oil quality (cheap or too thin), poor oil shear/film strength, poor oil flow for the revs seen (over revving), failing oil pump, etc. The exact cause can usually not be determined unless the engine is majored.

I would not consider the OP's engine rebuild-able unless the block was hot tanked & all the oil galleries flushed properly. The potential for hidden damage is too great.
This kind of engine build can get quite expensive and I doubt that the car is worth the investment, but only the OP can say if it is worth it to him.

In most cases like this, the best scenario is to buy a used engine or buy a rebuilt long block so the OP is not risking another engine failure soon. This is absolutely NOT a guess, it comes from 40 years of hands-on experience.