Craigslist Suspected Cam Failure #967

Notice: Engine is seized up.
The car doesn't start but other then that it is in good cosmetic condition. It has leather interior, moon roof, no body damage and a clean title. We need to sell this car as soon as possible so please email me with any questions you may have. We are unable to part out the vehicle and are looking to sell it as a whole.
Please send me an email if you are going to flag/delete this post. I have tried to list this car several times and each time it was deleted. I have posted in forums and done research to find out why and have not got a straight forward answer. Please let me know if you are going to flag this post and why so I can fix the problem right away. Thank you

Location: chandler, AZ
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

Is it possible that this engine has something wrong with it unrelated to the cams? Yes.

To begin with, look at the numbers. How many of these engines fail from something unrelated to the cams? Probably very few, I'd guess less than 10%, probably much less. How many fail due to the cams? In theory, very close to 100%, disregarding those that have been welded.

Furthermore, the ad doesn't mention any of the circumstances that led to the engine failure. Did it ingest water? Did it overheat? Was it run without oil accidentally? You'd expect other failures with all of these, but without that information, I just don't think it's likely.

How did your engine break a rod? Was it normal highway driving with no unusual circumstances?

Consider this: I would imagine that most people, upon having the cams fail, would have the car towed to their local mechanic, and have him come back in a day or two telling them either a) "the engine is seized up" (layman's translation of what happened), or b) "the timing sprockets on one (or more) of the cams let loose and allowed the pistons to contact the blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, ruining the engine". I can see either of these two explanations resulting in the ad below.

However, I agree that it should not be listed as such until it has been confirmed with the seller. Simple enough to do.

> I vote no on this one. While fairly uncommon, I have an engine right
> now that has a broken rod and wouldn't rotate forward anymore. Other
> mechanisms for engine failure are out there. "Seized up" is pretty
> finite, for a cam failure I would look for something more vague than
> that. Other opinions?

> The circumstances surrounding the failure of the engine I have, as I know
> them:
>
> Coolant full
> Oil full and clean
> 113,000 miles
> Welded Cams
> Owner indicated nothing unusual prior to rod knock but he had some teenage
> tendencies to run the car to limiter.
> No external signs of loss of oil pressure.
>
> I warned him about bouncing the limiter, especially on the replacement
> motor. I told him 2000 miles before it can see 6k rpms, I wanted to be well
> clear of this motor when it pops this time. You can catch him in action on
> youtube, he's already back at it :)
>
> We'll see what happens when I take the old one apart, I haven't had time
> yet. I'm hopeful that some of the parts are still salvageable, if not the
> whole block.

David, huh. Shame on him for that.

No. I know this motor too, then. It's NOT a cam failure - it is a
bottom end thing.

You'll get good heads and cams, probably one bad rod and a screwed up
crank. Can't fix these cranks easily, I'm told. Might be a good
candidate for a offset grind stroker crank.

Swap the rods and make the first 4.0? - Eric

Craigslist Suspected Cam Failure #967

1996 Ford Taurus SHO V8 $1000 OBO - $1000 (chandler, AZ)