jasons03gt

Is have an 03 gt pushing the 240k mile mark. It does have some oil burning issues, nothing major just a puff of smoke from idling in traffic etc. Not even a quart in 3k miles.

I wanted to have the heads redone. New valve guides seals etc but I'm familiar with the mod motors and I don't like the fact the heads don't have replaceable cam bearings in them. My question is would it be worth to have the money put in these for a freshen up and risk running out the oil clearance over time due to wear in the journals? Or is that something that isn't a big issue with these heads? Thank you

08'MustangDude

http://www.enginebuildermag.com/2001...d-3-8l-engine/

jasons03gt

thanks but I have the 4.6 not the 3.8

WhiteFoxGT

A lot of reman'd heads have cam bearings machined in to them. Whether or not your heads would need that is obviously unknown until torn apart. If you are looking to freshen up the motor it would also be a good time to possibly upgrade to a ported casting and maybe even better rotating assembly. really depends on plans with the car or budget constraints.

08'MustangDude

Copied the wrong link, sorry....

https://www.americanmuscle.com/upgra...der-heads.html

Like was said, it's not that there are no bearings, they're machined into the head.
They're still there, just not replaceable. Lots of car MFRs do that now...

You can get something like, TrickFlow heads, if available for your year, they're
supposed to add a lot more HP to the motor.

jasons03gt

yeah they make the trickflow heads for mine, pretty damn pricey but holy crap they are certainly better than the factory heads. I like how they reversed the Intake and exhaust valves for running bigger cams with out ptv issues and how they have replaceable cam bearings

WhiteFoxGT

while nice, to properly run those TF heads you should spec cams specifically for them, as well as the intake manifold and proper exhaust system, which is all very pricey to slap on a worn motor

99GTvert

How about a junkyard shortblock from another Mustang or a crown vic or F150? Just something with lower miles to put under the TF heads/cams without buying a new rotating assembly and having that sh*t installed. I'm not sure if the shortblock is the same on all the mod motors but I've heard the nonPI engines have a higher compression ratio than PI motors.

jasons03gt

I have the motor from my old 98gt sitting in my garage torn down to the block. It had almost 400k miles on it. I was thinking about having that machined down and rebuilding that block while I drive this. From the things I have done it doesn't look like it would need much. For instance I mic'ed the bores with a ring installed and the check out within specs, I checked for out of round conditions. Hell you can still see the crosshatching patterns in the cylinder walls.

So I don't know what to do. I replaced the head gasket on this 03 months back due to it leaking oil out of the back and I took the head to a machine shop and had them install valve seals in it and he told me the valve guides were getting a lil sloppy. Hence the oil burning I'm getting. Truth be told this motor can probably go another 100k miles or more I just have to deal with the puffs of smoke in traffic

jasons03gt

Well the heads are at the machine shop they showed me the guides and wow I'm not to impressed with the powdered guides they are going to install bronze ones. The camshaft oil clearance is in a shape though but he told me if they were to wear out the heads basically just get thrown away. I have researched this on Google and it has truth to it!! What gives??