new 8/14/03,4/10/2004,4/19/2004
Buford, When I first read about the cam problem about a year and a half ago I had 52,000 miles on my 97 SHO. I noticed all of the cam welders were back east. Finally John Jones showed up on your website and he lived only about 2 miles from me. I immediately called him and had him weld the cams. John is very thorough and furnished me with a CD of the step by step process & an affidavit of the weld. I highly recommend him to anybody. He charged me $900.00 which is a little high but it included changing the plugs, filters, and had the secondaries decarboned. John has more SHO's than the law should allow so is quite knowledgeable on the cars.
Pete J.Wareing 97 RED SHO
Prices vary from area to area but $900 for everything on the cam weld to-do list is about par I think. - Tim
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Hi Larry,
I have a '97 SHO with 78k that I bought new in SoCal. And short of a blown
tranny at 44k, it's been a wonderful car. When my extended warranty expired in
March, I decided to get the cams welded. Upon seeing John Jones' offer on the
web site to do the job for $500, I drove in from San Diego to his home in
Glendale AZ. He's a huge enthusiast of the SHO, and he owns like 6 of them, so I
felt pretty comfortable going in. I wasn't disappointed. He and Cameron, his
son-in-law who's a professional welder, handled the job extremely well. They
were extremely careful and considerate of the vehicle. They unhooked the PCM and
the battery, applied ground during the weld, disengaged fuel flow, used wet rags
on the exposed cams, etc. And they're quite pleasant blokes as well. John's
English, you see, with a great personality. I hung around through the entire
process which only took about 7 hours, and that includes the overhead of all the
chatter that occurred between us. It was rather enjoyable actually. The only
anxious moment was starting the car and having it run rough until, as John
pointed out, the PCM gets it's inputs. After about 10 minutes, it smoothed out
good as new, and after a quick test ride, I was heading back to San Diego.
I must say it's fortunate one can weld with the cams in place. Obviously it must
be handled properly but it's really not too difficult a job. Now if one had to
remove the cams, account for the timing, etc., that would be a different story.
The onboard cam weld fix appears low risk compared to the potential consequences
of not doing it. In my case, John indicated there was no apparent slippage yet
in the sprockets. I'll never know whether it would have eventually failed, but
it seems to be relatively inexpensive insurance to get the cams welded.
Jeff Knez
San Diego, CA
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I just welded the cams for this young man. He has no regular Internet
connection but wanted to join the action and asked if I could forward the
request.
VIN # 1FLAP54N5VA105295
Nick Burger
Phoenix, AZ 85029
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4/19/2004
I have a 96 Black SHO with 116K on the clock. I was unsure of the history of
the car and was directed to John Jones here in Phoenix, AZ. The car now has cam
welded and runs like a top. I recommend John to anyone in the southwest who
needs this done to their car. His contact info in on the website. Thanks,
arnoldarias@yahoo.com (96 welded)