Eric's Suspected Cam Failure #869

Date 10/14/07

So. Today's camweld victim is a 1998 SF. Guy bought it last night and
brought it to me last night. Points given for good judgment. He
didn't want to drive it an inch further than he had to before it was
welded.

The engine bay is choked with wrong bolts in the wrong places. The
engine # is impossibly LOW for a 98. It is clearly a 97 motor, IMNSHO.

Gee, I WONDER what happened here? Good news is the engine is MUCH
lower miles than the car it went into.

--
Eric Lehmann

It's a 98 with a 14,000 SN engine in it. Not possible. ~5600 96's, 11,000 97's - do the math. Not to mention ~25 bolts were wrong and half the rear bank emissions stuff was just hanging in mid air.

Car is 255310 FWIW.

All 4 cams are #'s matched for the engine. The Engine is NOT a camfailure engine. The car and the engine do NOT match was the only point I was making. Draw your own conclusions from here.

I sure know what "I" suspect...

Really? I understand how without the original motor for diagnosis we're sure that it couldn't have been a rod bearing failure, or an issue like Carter's #5 consistently burning up; definitely not the owner never changing the oil or abusing otherwise. Must have been a cam failure, you're right.

Ryan

I agree on this one Ryan. No body = no proof.

It's not like when I open a motor and one cam is "15,000 numbers off" and shiny.

VIN is 1FAFP54N3WA255310 for the record.

I'm pretty SURE it's a camfailure, because that is what these cars DO, but I couldn't look you in the eye and say with 100% certainty that this is the only reason that this car may have a junkyard motor in it.

That said, I wouldn't bet AGAINST that, either.

Eric

Can't prove conclusively, but we could say there is maybe a 95% chance that the cams failed. Without outside assists such as nitrous or boost there just doesn't seem to be that many other areas of catastrophic failures with these engines.

Title amended to "Suspected" Cam Failure; thanks for the VIN

See disclaimer, we collect reports, some more verified, a few less. It is up to Ford to meet their responsibilities and positively verify one way or another.. - Buford 10/15/07

Contact Information