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Inappropriate & Unnecessary - Honor Roll

updated almost every day

Some folks have suggested I keep a list of cars that have welded or pinned cam sprockets. I did not want to because I have no way to verify if the work was done or the quality of the work. 

After the loctite TSB  I began to reconsider. Ford calling us "inappropriate & unnecessary" is a farce. Hey, our middle name isn't MOTOR, we did not make this engine we just keep them on the road. As of last fall I think about 1,000 folks had their cams welded or pinned. It may be twice that now. 

Keeping in mind our disclaimer,  If your cams are welded or pinned, if you think Ford's Loctite solution is "meadow muffins" and you choose to notify the world of your "inappropriate & unnecessary" actions feel free to drop Larry a note.

Soon the only V8SHOs left will be those that are welded or pinned. That is not "inappropriate & unnecessary", it is the only way to keep a V8SHO on the road. The only thing "inappropriate & unnecessary" is that FOMOCO has found honesty, quality and ethics all dispensable. -

 Buford

About a year ago we could account for at least 1,000 welded V8SHOs (all shops reporting), since then the pace has slowed and all shops together may weld 12 cars a week. The list below is not an accounting of all welded V8SHO but only those who self report to let others know what they think of Ford's position on this issue. - Buford

You may certainly add me to the list:

A master machinist welded all 4 brand new cams in my brand new crate motor when I was forced to replace the original motor back in October of 2001 because somebody in Dearborn felt it Unnecessary and Inappropriate to think through the decision to correctly design and build the camshafts on a NON-clearance motor.

Carter Fujibayashi

You may certainly add me to the list:

A master machinist welded all 4 brand new cams in my salvage yard motor when I was forced to replace the original motor back in December of 2002 because somebody in Dearborn felt it Unnecessary and Inappropriate to think through the decision to correctly design and build the camshafts on a NON-clearance motor.

Brad DeGroft
Pro-tech

Sorry Carter for stealing your lines but it says it all. I also lost a motor thanks to the folks at Dearborn who consider "Quality Number One"!!!! Oh ya now the line is "any way you want it" Gee I want mine to last past 50,000

I had my cams !WELDED! by FPS, one of the happiest days in my life, in a way. I guess, according to Ford, I was doing the WRONG thing. They had the funny idea to screw up, then screw us all over. They are inappropriate and unnecessary in my eyes. I wonder if old Henry Ford is rolling over in his grave seeing as his blood line is raping around 20,000 or so customers, that shelled out hard earned money for a time bomb if left unwelded or unpinned. Loctite it?, so the car will last until Fords Execs and Lawyers can figure out something to say to pacify the courts and nurture the SHO owner???? Hell no. My family and I are welded, and safe, well..... at least till the tranny gives out. We'll see.

Matt Hempfling
97 black/grey at Pope

I figure since Matt is serving his country, he has most assuredly earned the right to turn on the rant switch. - Larry

Hello Larry,

Please add me to the "inappropriate & unnecessary" honor roll.  My cams were welded by Performance Plus in Madison, WI.  It was a wonderful experience...and I relive it with every worry-free turn if the key.

Scott C. Van Lyssel

I came to this site to post my great experience with Brad at SE and just read the TSB.  Wow!   Who do they think they are?   Ford can kiss my butt.  Inappropriate and unnecessary modifications...!!

Anyway.  I just got my cams welded at SE and wanted to say that he did a fine job and his wife and new baby are just adorable!  I told Brad to make suggestions on whatever he thought needed to be done and he didn't gouge me for it.  In fact he fixed a few little things at no charge that he found on his own.  He's a straight shooter-I highly recommend him.

For just under $700 I have--apparently to Ford--inappropriate and unnecessary PEACE OF MIND.

Lisa Cloud

You may certainly add me to the list:

A master machinist welded all 4 cams in my motor in 5-2003 because somebody in Dearborn felt it Unnecessary and Inappropriate to think through the decision to correctly design and build the camshafts on a NON-clearance motor. Glad Kurt lives only 50 miles away. 

Mike Moses

Larry,

Add me to the list of those with welded cams. Last week I got my 96 back from Sun Devil Automotive in Gilbert, AZ. Rick Hamilton, the manager of the shop personally did the work. He also did the 100K tune up. The car is listed as cam failure #277 but it now runs great except for the A/C compressor clutch that keeps cutting out (not a good thing in AZ). Today he's buttoning up my 99 so there are now 2 more SHO's that have been saved from the scrap heap. I can't tell you what it cost because he gave me his best customer discount (with a 96, a 99 and a 90 Super coupe I'm in there quite a bit) but he does good work that is guaranteed. Before he did the work he reviewed everything I downloaded from the website and spent a bit of time talking with Kirk who gave him quite a bit of good information. I'm no welder but, in a previous life I was a Project Engineer in a Polyethylene Refinery and I can recognize good work. Rick did a good job!

Mike Durko

To the list:

I may be the most recent list member cured of cam anxiety.

I AM WELDED AND I MUST PREACH THIS TO THE SHO WIDE WORLD!!!!!!!!!

My adventure to get my cams welded is a long and funny story full of "incidences" which I will document in the next few days.

Suffice it to say, I am one happy camper and one relaxed one as well.

Thanks to Chris Kepus for setting up the weld, Chris Nedwick for the welding and cleaning of the IRC and Russ Murphy, Ford tech (and almost cop) for the teardown and tune-up.

Actually I also need to thank Chris N. for:

1) fixing my gashed gas tank.
2) getting me to his shop after being stranded 3 hours away!
3) thoroughly cleaning the IRC and other top end components, sometimes twice to get them nice and clean.
4) letting me sleep on his couch.
5) use his shower.
6) host some friends for the night at his house.
7) play his PS2.
8) buying me breakfast the next morning. (I had spent all my cash on my "incident")

I also need to thanks Russ for:

1) fixing my gashed gas tank.
2) coming to get me 3 hours away from Chris' shop in his wife's car (our rival, a black on charcoal GTP.)
3) his wife who brought us pizza for dinner.
4) protecting my rear wiring harness.
5) swapping my coils.
6) zip tying and siliconing various loose electrical connections.
7) taking off the valve covers again because he wanted to "make sure we got a perfect seal".
8) changing the spark plugs and other small tune-up type items.
8) attention to detail, attention to detail, and more attention to detail.

Anyone anywhere near Norcal that needs their cams welded need to contact these guys. Contact me or Chris Kepus.

~James L. Lyles III
99 TG, 67K Southern California

Larry, you can had me to the list also.. No way is it an inappropriate action.. After opening up the engine and doing it myself.. No way anyone should be driving one w/o having it done.

Clare Allenby

I wasn't really sure where I should send this, but I just got my cams welded. I was tired of worrying about them failing on me every time I started the car. I didn't really want to be on you failure list! I will have to get my VIN and stuff for you then...if this is the right email addy. I found Matt Michael of Hershy, Pa on your list of people who will do cam welds. I would recommend him. He was very polite and knew what he was talking about. He did a lot of extra stuff for me as well. He welded the cams, cleaned my intake runners, checked valve clearances, cleaned my throttle body, balanced my wheels, taped the rear wiring harness with high temp tape, put on my bypass flexpipe, put in new plugs, and took pictures. He even removed the rat's nest that was under my appearance cover. I think that is everything, let me know if you want to know more.
Thanks,
Ryan Hoover
Welded as of 9/21/03 

Hi, all! I was one of the welds performed by Prosuspension. Very little problems with the job, except as NOok noted. It was kind of cool - 3 TR's heading down I15 from Salt Lake City to American Fork. One of our group was already welded - Rich Larsen (OK camfest last year) - so he offered moral support.

We got started at about 8 a.m., and were pretty well done with the two 99's by about 4 (I got derailed on the reassembly, as I stopped to help my son put a front motor mount on his 90. Finally got all cleaned up and out of the shop by about 7:30 - long day, but rewarding.

I guess this qualifies me for the inappropriate and unnecessary honor roll - Larry, sign me up, as welded by Prosuspension.

Oh, yeah. Another thing done, per the recommendations, was the intake cleaning. I had done mine about a month ago (I tore into it because of a "weird noise" scare, and found everything still together), but we helped advise Jim Russell on his cleanup. I touched up mine (it's amazing how much can pile up in just 1000 miles!), and now all is clean and happy.

Brad Bender
99 TR/Tan 50k, welded and breathing easier

Please add me to the Inappropriate and Unnecessary Honor Roll. I bought my car last April and it pretty much sat for three weeks, scared to death to drive it at all until it made the trip to have the "inappropriate and unnecessary" cam welding done. I had done my research on v8sho.com before I had bought the car and knew the cams would need to be welded right away. I lined up Eric from Rickety Engineering and was very happy with his work. He is a great guy to deal with and I would recommend him any time.
Megan Reed

Larry,

You can add me to the list. Kirk welded my cams last Saturday, September 20, 2003. 

Sincerely,
Dan Carman
Philadelphia, PA

I performed the part of the teardown, cleaning of the intake + throttle, replacing the plugs, installing the bypass pipe and the reassembly of the engine. However the welds were done by my father who has 30+ years experience in welding. I do know how to weld, but he surpasses me in the quality. ( he has an MIG with argon gas set-up ) To clarify things for you MY OWN 97' SHO was the test platform, then my friend wanted his done, then the pics I took and sent you was from Ryan Hoovers SHO. Right now I have a SHO from Allentown Pa and two more that are waiting to get done in the next couple of weekends.

Matt Michaels

Yet one more SHO owner with welded cams. Matt Michael in Hershey, PA welded my cams, cleaned the intakes, changed oil with Mobil-1, replaced filter, put in premium Bosch spark plugs and heat-taped all of my wiring. The engine looks brand new and runs better than ever. There is a noticeable difference in the sound of the engine and the pickup. I dropped my car off on Thursday night and it was ready on Saturday afternoon. He e-mailed me quite a few pictures of the welded cams and the intakes (before and after). I would recommend him to anyone still waiting to have their cams welded. He's extremely knowledgeable and does great work. Best of all, he'll take you on a ride in his modified 97 SHO!! Hold onto your seat!

My only complaint is that he had a Pittsburgh Penguins shirt and hat on. BOOOO!!!
Thanks again,
Mike McLaughlin - 
97 SHO with 77,000 miles and I'm now confident that there's a lot more to go...

PS - Thanks for the invaluable service that your website has provided. I would have never known otherwise!

Add me to the list as I had my cams done on 10/15 at Protech Automotive in Gaithersburg, MD. Kevin and Morgan did an absolute first-class job which included cleaning the intake runners, new platinum plugs and a synthetic oil change. Also, since I was there, I had upgraded rotors and pads installed (what a difference!). They also went over the car to spot any potential problems areas, and hooked it up to the code reader, which showed that all was well. The 200 mile drive home went fast and smooth as I now have the confidence to put my foot through the floorboards ( the car ran a lot stronger!) and enjoy the reason I bought it in the first place.

JDWeidmann 
Medford, NJ '
96 TR 83K & welded

Larry,
I own a 1996 SHO and I love it. Thanks to your website I took it to Carlos Leon in Palm Bay, Fl. and he did a great job welding the cams. My car is TR with gray leather interior, it has 80,000 miles on it. 

I think the reason that it lasted so long is that it was owned by an older lady, I know that sounds funny but it's true.

 Dave Mitchell . 

I just had my cams welded by Eric Lehmann on 10/18/03. He was able to move me up a few weeks due to a cancellation. Eric does great work & really knows his stuff. I now have peace of mind that my cams will not fail. 

David Otto

  Hey Larry,

You can add me to the list. Had 'em welded about a year ago at Rickety in Canfield, OH. That was at about 75,000 miles, am at about 110,000 now.

Thanks,
Jim Shipley

  Hello Larry,

Please add me to the "inappropriate & unnecessary" honor roll. My cams were welded by Performance Plus in Madison, WI.I drove 1400 miles round trip but it was well worth it. I love my car again, as I don't have to worry anymore. The guys and galat PP were great and the car was out in about 5 hours. Great job!!!

Jim Rodewald
Winnipeg, Manitoba
96 SHO

I had my cams welded today by John Jones's welder, excellent job, excellent guys. I shot Jim an email a few months ago about wanting my cams welded, but wanting to do the disassembly and reassembly myself. I asked what he would charge to weld the cams if I had the car towed in with the valve covers and what not already removed. He informed me that he doesn't do the actually welding and that he would contact his welder about coming to my house. They showed up today and welded the cams for $150.

No let's step back and take a look at this. Here is a guy who is running a business doing cam welds amongst other repairs. He normally charges upward of $900 dollars for a cam weld in which he not only welds the cams but does a very thorough tune-up. This guy hooks me up with his welder cutting him out of the picture money wise and then shows up with the welder to oversee the welding!

Jim is passionate about these cars ( he owns more than one as does his welder) and he and his welder meticulous when it comes to the details. I could not more highly recommend a gentleman to weld your cams, or work on your SHO for that matter.

Jim Hawk

  Hi Larry,

I don't know if you are collecting this type of information, but I just had my 97 SHO cams welded by FPS in Douglasville last week. My experience with this shop was very satisfying. It is apparent that Doug runs a very professional, customer friendly shop.

I bought the car new in March, 87. Although it currently has 33500  miles on it (I use it as my "fun" car rather than a commuter car), I feel a lot more comfortable with this potential problem behind me.

regards,
Richard McDonald
Starkville, MS

Larry, 
Please add me to the "Inappropriate & Unnecessary" honor roll. I had my cams welded by Glen and Tommy at Auto Mart in Dallas on 12/08/2003. The car has 50k. The guys at the shop picked up the car from the seller in Ft Worth, and did the job in short order. I extend my gratitude to the guys at Auto Mart. I am now free of inappropriate and unnecessary cam failure worry.

Joe Hernando 
99 Black Clearcoat 

  Hi Larry,
I cherish my '96 SHO had the cams welded at FPS and all is well, she shines and runs like a dream, so not that I'm putting her in storage but I use her on weekends. I change the oil every 3 months ( a dealer throw in) but she sits for a week, of course the oil drains down and I'm fearful at start up. She starts right up on the first crank with a high rev, of course I wonder how this affects the engine since she sits for a week and there's no oil at the top of the engine. So I looked into additives, Tufoil has PTFE (teflon) particles that range .5 to.05 microns they say they pass thru the oil filter and coat the engine to help in metal to metal contact. Is this a good thing to do or will I end up clogging up some oil thru ways in the engine? Hey Techs get your heads together and see if you can help me make this decision to use it or not. The treatment is 8oz first oil change then 4oz each other time. Check out www.Tufstuff.com  and www.Tufoil.com  Please let me know.

 Thanks, Norman
P.S. Still enjoying the SHO and what she was made for!
P.P.S. I'm also considering using Tufoil in my Suzuki 800 Volusia which sees weekly service. Any thoughts on this one? 

I own a 96 SHO. In September or October I pulled my SHO to Billy James Garage in Iowa Park, TX. They welded the cams and so far the car runs and sounds great. I quit driving the car early this year after I had read a lot of the different reports about the cam failures.
Before I had the cams welded the engine sounded like a worn out sewing machine. The total cost was around $700-$800. Thanks!
James L Hanson
Pine Bluff, AR

  Hey Larry,

I just got back from a short road trip out to Hershey, PA to see Matt Michael of Good's Auto, starting from Pittsburgh. (Sat, Dec 27th.) There is nothing I can say to describe how great of an experience this was. First off, Matt is one of the coolest guys around and was great to deal with. Gave me excellent directions too. 

I'm not going to go into too many details, but I will tell you what all he did, and everything he did, he did perfectly, just like it was his own. His father welded the cams because he has 30+ years experience welding, he changed the plugs with the best around, replaced all the necessary gaskets, cleaned up pretty much everything, rotated my tires, changed the oil/filter, fuel filter, and was willing to do anything else I needed done. Took pics of the whole process for me, and then he took us on a little drive through town to test drive the car. 

If ANYONE that is within driving distance of his shop out in Hershey I  HIGHLY recommend they go see Matt and have him work on their SHO. I cant thank him enough for the job, and man does my car run better than ever now. 

Thanks,

Andy Dietrich
97 Black SHO
76k miles
Cams welded by Matt at Goods Auto, Hershey PA

To all those "Unwelded" SHO owners; 

I just got my cams welded on 1-02-04 on my '99 SHO with 49,900 miles on it. I traded in my unwelded '98 Black SHO which had 68,000 on it for this silver one which was in much better shape (like new). So, I decided since I wanted to keep the '99 for a while I better get the cams welded.  I am in Northern/central California. I found Chris Kepus a while back through a reply on the V8SHO web site and contacted him again to arrange for the cams to be welded. Chris is a super guy (and SHO owner) and arranged the meeting with Russ Murphy the Ford dealer Mechanic who did the wrenching, and super welder Chris Nedwick, both of Placerville, Ca. Russ knows exactly what he is doing and arrived with a small tool box of exactly the correct tools and specialty tools required to do the job. We worked out of Chris Nedwick's work shop which is set up to do what ever he wants. He has three welding rigs large enough and small enough for anything. My car was number 11 for the pair so, by now they have this routine down pat.  When completed, the car started right up with no problems at and I drove the 110 miles home at a comfortable 75-100 MPH, without the fear of mechanical interference! It's so nice now to not worry about putting the pedal to the floor and holding it there, or stabbing it repeatedly in the mountain curves! 

Being a mechanical engineer and looking at the way this cam is assembled it sure makes me wonder what Yamaha was thinking when they designed this thing. Everyone is downing Ford for the issues, but knowing how the Japanese think and what may have gone on during the design acceptance of the engine by Ford, Ford was probably presented with data that proved the design was sound and Ford may have accepted this information without their own tests (purely speculation from my own experience with the Japanese). The cam shaft is a hollow smooth pipe where all other components are "slip" pressed onto it. The "splines" are actually machined into the holes in the cam lobes (a two part assy where the hardened lobes are pressed onto a splined smaller round intermediate piece, and then pressed onto the cam shaft as an assy), and the drive sprockets. Amazingly this is all that holds the sprockets in place on the hollow shafts. I was stunned to see this and now know why it is so important to get your cams welded! The piece of mind is well worth the expense and time. Next time you think about buying some wheels or modifying exhaust or something else, you should spend it on getting your cams welded instead. After seeing how they are built, it makes me wonder how they last up to 1,000 miles let alone 50,000. 

Bruce 

Just finished getting my cams wielded by BNH Frame and suspension in 
American Fork, Utah for $600 bucks including new spark plugs.

So count me as one of the inappropriate and unnecessary folks!

Nile Easton

I had my cams welded by Auto Mart (Glen Gagas) in Dallas. They did an excellent job and I now have the reassurance that the car will have a longer lifetime with me.
Kimberly Mack,
Cabot, AR
98 SHO White

Spent last weekend dismantling my '98 SHO (45K miles) and having a certified welder (Terry) TIG weld my cams and sprockets. All sprockets solid to their cams before welding...but now, no more hesitancy to drive my car!

Rod Stafford
Cochrane, Alberta, Canada

You can add me to the list. I am a machinist and welder and did mine my self. That was last year at 110,000 miles.

Kevin Hunt 
Crown Point, Indiana
 

3/13/2004

You can put us down for our 96 SHO. I tore it down and found the cam welding procedure to be simpler than I thought. I also cleaned all the intake manifold, ports, secondaries, and throttle plates as well as replacing the spark plugs. The entire intake has to be removed to replace the rear sparkplugs and I figured this would be a good time to replace them. It had what very much looked like warranty numbers engraved on the cams on the front head only-makes me wonder if this engine has had some work done on it for this problem previously. Our 97 that we recently acquired will be welded shortly. I use to work for a Ford dealership and some their recommendations for problem fixes were quite interesting, some of them even seemed redundant. Running the pre-delivery program for almost 4 years, I was also surprised the quality control issues as well as misbuilt vehicles we had come in.

Arthur and Cynthia Beard

Murray, Utah

Larry

On March 8, 2004, Donnie Kirkbride and I had a mini or should I say “tiny” camfest (Central Ohio Valley Generation III SHO Owners HA! HA! All two of us are important un-sponsored club members) at my house in Waverly, WV. Three SHO were prepared for the life enhancing camshaft welding upgrade. Two 97 SHOs (Pacific Green 163,875 a Ripley’s Believe It or Not contender – unwelded and Toreador Red 104,326 – both 100% stock except for now welded camshaft and wire wrap) and one 99 SHO (Toreador Red 75,120 – K&N filter and P255/50/VR16 meat cleavers).

This was the first time Donnie and I had taken our SHOs down. I took about 1 ½ to take them a part, 2 hours to clean the parts, 10 minutes to weld, 20 minutes to wrap wires, and 1 ½ hours to put if back together (per car). The cams on all three were welded by Brian Brum, a local automotive machinist, Parkersburg, WV; all gaskets and sparkplugs were replaced. The intake manifold runner and intake system (throttle body, tubes, and surge tank) were thoroughly cleaned and the wireway wrapped in header wrap.

V8SHO.com has been very instrumental in completing the camshafts upgrades. If it wasn’t for this website, I might be selling a couple of SHOs that needed engines, but instead I hope to be driving them past the 200,000 mile plateau.

Tom Guertin

HardCore Ford

“(2) that‘s right – (2) 97 SHOs Up and In; not Down and Out”

Waverly, WV 26184

 

4/15/2004

Group,

At 1:30am last night I lowered our '97 off the jack stands and turned the key. Started fine and drove out perfect. What a relief.

To say the least this was quite a project that nearly turned into an ordeal because of a stray M5 nut.

Vital stats:
'97 SHO; 66K miles
2nd owner
Motor SN: KOC 016158
Cam shaft numbers: 7219005, 7207114, 7225026, 7305138.
It appeared to me that the sprocket / shaft joints were still solid.

Time spent:
Teardown and port cleaning: 7 hours
Welding: 4 hours.
Searching for stray M5 nut: 7 hours (wish I was kidding - but I'm not)
Reassembly with improvements: 9 hours.

Me thinks I'll keep my day job.

Tasks completed:
Cam sprockets welded (stainless 308, MIG).
New plugs.
Coil swap front to rear.
Rear main wiring harness insulated.
Checked valve clearance.
Cleaned secondaries, surge tank and intake runners.
Soaked the injectors. (Not sure if this did any good - didn't disassemble from fuel supply rail).
Fresh oil and filter.
New "hood-closed" sensor button.

What worked:
Billy sent me a complete step-by-step write-up. Very helpful. Thanks Billy.
Kirk's hand motor cranking technique worked well for me.
Special tool for removing fuel lines from regulator.
Lots of digital images of tear-down for reference upon reassembly.
Turkey roasting pan and Berrymans B-12 for parts cleaning.
Borascope for determining with certainty that the nut I fumbled was not in any one of the cylinders.

Thanks for all the help with this project. It would be difficult to overstate how helpfulnees of the website and the list members.

Brent
'97 welded and back on the road.
'94 MTX

4/19/2004

Hay all!

Got the car back. The shop I had the work done, thanks to Clay for referring me, was gracious about keeping it inside during the heavy snow we had over the last couple of days. A little leery about driving in that stuff with KDW’s. I was going to park the car and drive the winter around today thinking the roads were still going to be so-so. They weren’t so I went driving in my SHO. Whoo Hoo!!!

The Flowmasters sound awesome. Grin factor has multiplied to the nth degree! ☺

After a few hiccups I guess with the car adjusting to the clean secondaries…used three cans of cleaner to get them clean, the car ran great.

I do recommend this shop to be put on our approved welders list. They use the MIG method but are very good about protecting the motor. They actually washed down the heads with an oil bath and changed the oil after the procedure. They are Xtreme Engines:

Xtreme Machine Performance Motorsports Ltd.
15935A - 118th Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Tel : 1-780-484-1113 / Fax : 1-780-444-9441

www.xtremeengines.com

Cost on the cam weld was $850.00 including the welds, coil swap, IMRC cleaning, harness wrap, and an oil change.

They also did the Flowmaster install for a lot less than I was quoted by Midas last year.

Good people and great to deal with.

Thank you all on the list. You have greatly facilitated my enjoyment of this car as well as provide me with some great information and the occasional great laugh. I am very happy and relieved that I will be able to wind the car out like I enjoy doing and also not worry about having a catastrophic engine failure on the highway with my family on board.

I look forward to more fun!

Phil E.

97 ES

WELDED!

 

4/19/2004

I will second Phils recommendation about the shop even though I went through a few more hiccups as my car was the first that they had ever done. My car still has to go back in next week to have the rear wiring harness done. The shop is a good source for Western Canada and US SHO owners who live close to the border.(Don't forget the favorable exchage rate) They are not some fly by night shop but a performance Engine Builder who take great care in doing the job right.


Clay
97PG

May 23, 2004

Hi Larry,

My name is Dave Eamon. I live in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. My car is a '98, PG on Prairie Tan, all stock, 54,000 kms, or about 32,000 miles. You can add me to the Owners Directory if you like, but please don't post my e-mail address (concerns about it being found by spammers). However, feel free to write back if you need to.

You can also add me to the Inappropriate and Unnecessary list. My cams were welded by Rod Stafford in Cochrane and his welder Terry yesterday. Now I don't have to worry anymore about the cam sprocket issue that I only found out about a couple of months ago. Now I can simply go back to enjoying the car. V8SHO has been such a valuable resource! Thank you.

I'll write and send you a Cam Weld Experience in the next couple of days.

Regards,

Dave

06/21/2004

Hi Larry,

Just sold my '90 535i and bought a 1996 SHO, dark green. Had the cams welded by Eric at Rickety Enterprises, and just installed a Pro-M 80mm MAF with the cone filter. Love the car. If you want to add me to the owners list here's the data.

Bill Zimmerman

07/23/2004

Hi Larry, I have owned my white 97 Sho since 98 and have 75,000 mile on her. I just had the cams welded at S&S in New York which I found on this site. They are a second generation speed shop and owned and operated by three brothers. They are the most pleasant to deal with and by the look of the work that they do a very reliable major engine rebuilding both for track and street. I found out about the cam problem after doing a search for transmission problems. the first one went with 55,000 miles but luckily was under extended warrantee. I had to have amco rebuild /replace the second one at 75,000 with only twenty thousand miles on it at a cost of $2,300. as I broke down away from home. I never abused the power of this car by spinning tires or fast starts. Well I want to thank you and the guys that host this web site. So enter me in your list of Sho owners and cam welded and keep me up dated.

Thanks Again,

Tom Lynch

7/26/2004

I just had my cams welded on my 97 V8SHO . I noticed that the engine was getting noisy. Now it is smooth as silk again.

If you are in Northern New Mexico and want this done contact Ari Gordon at Master Tech Auto Repair; 505-471-1121.

He is an excellent FORD specialist. He should be listed on the website as a resource for others. Santa Fe is about 5 hr drive south of Denver on I-25 and about 1 hr north of Albuquerque.

FYI, he called the FORD representative in this area and was told to secure the cams with LOCTITE. We discussed this and decided LOCTITE was not the right solution so we welded them.

Master Tech Auto Repair, FORD Specialist
2875 Trades West Rd.
Santa Fe, NM 87507

Tel: 505-471-1121

Contact: Ari Gordon, owner

George M. Henke

07/29/2004

Hey Larry! Glad you did the lawyer thang.. You were kind enough to give me some info months ago re my '97 SHO..

I had the cams welded by PERFORMANCE PLUS..now have 89K..lookin' pretty good ..garage kept..BLACK..gots to find the VIN number..will send it in..

Mike Deane
 

8/0/04

I just wanted to thank you for your web site. I just got my cams done at Ray's repair shop.( nice fella). My SHO was making noise which I mistakenly thought was from a loose Cam. It turned out to be the alternator. I had Ray do all the work. Cams and alternator cost me 950.00. Which I am happily paying to get my SHO back in Aces. You are doing a great service, keep up the good work!

David Vincent

8/10/04

My name is Jim Weathers, Salem, Arkansas, and the color of the SHO is red.

The person who welded the cams says he never wants to do another one at any price. It was too much of a job for him and his shop was just too small for all the parts to b spread out. However he did an excellent job. He just does not want his name published.

Thanks very much and if anything comes up let me know.

Jim Weathers

8/10/04

I do not think I have sent you notice before, but I got mine welded at my Ford dealership about a year or so ago, maybe two by now. They brought in a very skilled welder, who did an excellent job, did all the normal clean up and such, changed the plugs, insulated the rear wiring, etc., all at once. Total was about $850 Canadian, IIRC, which at the time was something like $500 US or so.

pax,
Stephen Newberg 1998,
 now with about 128,000 km.

8/20/04

You can add me to the list. I had my cams welded on 3/20/04 at Performance Plus in Madison, WI. The car (1997 SHO) had approximately 110k on the clock when it was welded.

Skye Giebink

10/20/2004

He does however have over 20 years experience in welding, has gone to school for it, taught it at a school in Pennsylvania for three years and then spent fifteen years traveling around the world welding muti million dollar mining equipment before settling down here in N.C. He tig welded my cams using the 3,6,9,12 method and X-ray quality wire. He doesn't run a shop as he now welds for Hatters Yachts. They build custom yachts from 50' to 100' in length. I hope this is what you needed. If not just let me know

Jason Barker

11/19/2004

"inappropriate & unnecessary" ???
I'm not an engineer or mechanic, But I know a defect when I see one.
Having seen how our Cam Sprockets were pressed on , makes me
wonder, What were the Engineers at Ford thinking?
Thank You FPS, My 97 SHO will go another 100K.
Welded 10/14/2004 Appropriate and Necessary, because I love this
car.
Steve Mann
Kingsport TN
97 Silver Frost

11/30/2004
Larry:
Count me in as an inappropriate & unnecessary type.
Eric welded my '96 TR on March 27, 2004.
I couldn't have learned more about the vehicle in the time that Eric worked
on the SHO.
Tracy Reineking
Green Bay, WI

01/27/2005

My name is Ken Langmuir and I have a 99 sho. I live in South jersey and as soon as I bought my sho a couple of months ago I immediately went out and got the cam welded. I got them welded at Brunswick pro auto in New Brunswick New Jersey. I was very please with their work they even took the time to show me a sho that didn't not have the cams welded on a car they were fixing, they also told me what they were going to do to mine. They have a website www.Brunswickproauto.com   I hope you get this and put it on the v8 site thank you

Ken
 

01/28/2005

Had my cams welded by Billy James Garage in Iowa Park TX (350 miles from home) on March 6, 2003 with about 71K on it.

Changed plugs, checked the valve lash (all within specs), oil change, power steering flush & fill, cabin filter, new valve cover gaskets. $946.45 drive-out price.

Big time cleaning job was needed on the plenum. They charged me for 3 cans of B-12!

Cleaning the plenum and checking the valve settings was $125 flat, included in the above figure.

Billy lent me his Lincoln to drive to Dallas while he worked on the car. Sure was glad to get back into the SHO.

Nice job, Billy!

Sleeping much, much better since then.

Dave Brewer, Houston

new 02/04/2005

Brunswick Automotive , Brunswick N.J.

02/17/2005

Mike Hillringhouse, ebony satin with tan leather interior and stock chromed wheels, about 124k miles when they were welded, done by Doug at Performance Plus, who said only my exhaust cam on the rear bank was starting to slip, but it was taken care of.

02/25/2005

Donna had her cams welded yesterday at Kirk's. Can you list her in the owners directory?

Or - do you need more info?

Donna Spinelli

03/11/2005

I own 1996 SHO Ford red car. I had a cam failure in 1998 and it took 18 months at the Ford dealer. to have it repaired under my extended warranty. After several attempts to repair the original engine including taking the heads to the shop in Douglasville, Ga. I found an engine out of a 1999 wreck in Texas. The local dealership bought it for $4500.00 and had them ship motor shipped to the Georgia shop who installed it. This included welding the cams. After the cam problem the SHO runs great.

Bill C. Sutton
1996 red
Canton, N.C. 28716
**The shop Bill is referring to of course is FPS****

7/27/05

Guys,

Just got back from a tiring weekend in LA, the great news is that the CAMs are now welded. Yes the traveling SHO (East Coast, UK, France, Ireland, South West and West Coast USA) is welded. I got a tranny cooler installed too as well as the shims checked, power steering flushed and a new set of tires on new rims.

Can't tell you what a relief it is to have the CAMs done. There is still a judder/hesitation and a clunk in the back when going over dips or bumps in the road, but at least the CAMs are done.

Thanks go to John Stoessel who did the CAMs (please look for the up coming review), Tim for bugging me about it, Chuck who offered to do them while he is in AZ on his holidays and of course EVERYONE on the list.

Relieved,

Rav.

-----Original Message----- 
From: Chris <abqnut@excite.com> 
To: Larry@v8sho.com 
Sent: Thu, 28 Apr 2005 00:10:34 -0400 (EDT) 
Subject: Welded last week.

Larry: The experience was excellent. I was made to feel comfortable and appreciated. There was no preaching or condescending. Chris and Kirk are true pros and deserve highest respects from this community. I like to lurk and occasionally might post if I have something to contribute, but prefer a low key (major 7th = b-flat over C-E-G, THAT I understood but none of the other comments). Point being I sent this offline to avoid glorifying myself but I do wish to be added to the "unnecessary honor roll" if it is still being updated.

Thank you

Chris Paul

99 TR 48k, 
Welded by Kirk in Tulsa 04/21/2005.

9/25/06

I drove 380 miles to get the cams welded on my beloved SHO and I can't tell you how much better I feel. I have been blessed all these years that nothing happened as there have been many who's V8SHO cams failed loooong before they reached 87K. If there are any left out there that have not, please please please git 'er done! Ford ain't gonna help ya!

Estella Sublett

10/7/06

I had Kirk weld a '96 with 171k, a '97 with 141k, a '99 with 124k, my daily driver '99 at 48k, and will hopefully be getting to my newly acquired '97 with 116k very soon.

Rick Glass

'99 SF 102k Flowmasters Kirk'd
'97 SF 116k...parked until Kirk'd

See Folks Who Will Weld Your Cams for contact Information

HONOR ROLL