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New 5/15/05
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11/04/05
Failure #538 & 542 - Resurrected.
I put in what I thought was a low bid on an E-Bay auction and won my SHO for less than $700.00. I purchased my SHO from a dealer about 1 ˝ hours away from my home. He had sold it to a deadbeat bidder on an earlier auction for twice what I had paid. I brought it home on May 25, 2005, not really knowing much about the cam problems.
I searched the web and found v8sho.com. It became clear that this site would be accessed a lot. I am not a mechanic nor do I have a good supply of tools. I also must work outside on a crushed stone driveway.
The dealer had taken most of the intake off and placed it in the trunk. It did not take long to find that one of the shims had slipped out of position and damaged the rear head. The engine would not turn over so I hoped that would be the only damage. Wrong!! After removing the front cover, timing chains, cam shafts and both heads, the engine was still seized up. By now I knew my chances of saving this engine were slim at best. Next I removed the oil pan and found the problem. The engine had spun a rod bearing and had damaged the crank shaft.
My 15 year old son, Michael and I were able to lift the bare engine block from the car. (I did not own an engine crane) So now I had to start the search for a donor engine, and from the information gained from the web site it did not look like it would be easy. I called all the local salvage yards, no SHO engine could be found. I decided to use www.car-part.com to search the net. After calling well over 20 different companies, I located an engine at Kelly’s Auto Salvage in Fairbault, Minnesota (www.kellysautosalvage.com) I purchased the engine and had it shipped to my home. I paid an extra amount to have a truck with a lift deliver it, as I had no way to remove it from the truck bed myself.
The engine arrived in a few days and was off loaded with ease. It looked to be in great shape, the VIN number of the donor car is 1FALP54N2VA202874 . We moved the engine to my basement where I had planned to disassemble it down to the cam shafts. I removed all four cam shafts, they were all in great shape, and the gears were still mounted solid. I am lucky to have an uncle who is a certified pressure vessel welder. Uncle Mike was able to take my cams to his place of employment and use their equipment for my welds. I also gave him the damaged cam from the old engine to test weld. He welded the cams in three spots spaced evenly around each shaft.
I re-installed the cam shafts and aligned the timing chain black links to the dot on the cam gears. By now I had purchased the Ford service CD, so I was able to re-assemble the engine with the proper torque values.
Now comes the hard part, I do not have the equipment to install the engine from the bottom of the car. I read somewhere in the v8sho web site that it was possible to install the engine from the top. So I decided to pursue that option. I measured all the angles and it looked like it was possible. I pulled the two knock sensors and used their mounting holes to install a M12 X 1.50 bolt that was fitted to a short piece of chain. This set up provided a level lift of the engine assembly. The alternator bracket and the left engine mount remained attached. I removed both struts, most of the front, except for the radiator / condenser assembly. I gained all the room I needed by lowering the radiator support a few inches. I moved the engine into place on my new engine crane and lowered it until it cleared the strut towers. I then attached the alternator loosely in place. I was able to lower the engine a few more inches and align the fly wheel and torque converter bolts. At the same time I attached the right engine mount just to the engine. I installed all of the engine to transmission bolts, installed the torque converter nuts and aligned and tightened the right engine mount. From this point on the rest of the installation was routine for a SHO engine.
I replaced seals, hubs, tie rods, links, ball joints, half shafts, spark plugs, and just about any other wear item you can think of. I had to rebuild the IMRC control and the oil cooler. I used a cheep garden sprayer (new) to charge the oil through the oil pressure sender port.
After many hot hours of work, on August 26, 2005, I started it up for the first time. It fired right up and ran smooth. (Purred like a kitten) This was not an easy project and I do not recommend that anyone try to install the engine from the top. Some parts of the SHO are VERY hard to reach. There were a few evenings that I was only able to install three bolts in about three hours. So if you are able to install it from the top, just do it.
My SHO is my daily driver and I have put over 2000 miles on it in two months. It is my first “sports” car, even if it is a stealthy Taurus. R-U Welded, if not do it soon.
Brad Fairchild
Lafayette, In
blfairchild@juno.com
Tim,
Thanks for adding me to the owners list. I fat fingered in my coment at the end, it should read, My 96 is failure #538 & 542, resurrected.
I would not have been able to get my SHO back on the road with out the help of the v8sho web site. I have been a very active lurker.
I have attached the story of my SHO project, feel free to use it.
Thanks,
Brad Fairchild
#532 & 542 Resurrected
