Here is what a tuner told me


Job 1 GTs were delayed about 2 months approx 6500 cars from what I was told. These all had compromised ring installs or ring issues. Something about UAW union being pissed off. I don't know how true it is but Ford delayed delivery on many GTs because of it. If you post that I will deny saying it....... My speculation is we are seeing some of these motors come to the surface.

 

that makes sense, and again the evidence is there in the pics!

 

I would never believe that.
No one in their right mind (union, salary, non-union) - with their compensation & retirement tied to profit sharing - is going to sabotage their job - especially with the current unemployment malaise continuing...

 

I'm inclined to agree with that. Nobody purposely goes about doing a CLM just out of spite.

That's not to say that there weren't compromised ring installs. I've seen pistons come out of blocks that had sever tuning issues that caused failure. At least the piston pictured shows no sign of anything other than normal operation in that cylinder.

Now that's not to say it's not tune related either. To know the whole story you'd have to know what was going on with the engine at the moment of failure. Was it under load? at what rpm? etc. The only thing that can really be determined is that any detonation that might have been occurring in that cylinder was so small as to not be causing damage to the piston face in any way.

As far as why #8 gets hot, it's likely the same reason as the 4.6 cars. The coolant likely pools at the back of the driver's side head has it has nowhere left to go. Naturally that piston will run hotter. It's also the reason people do the head cooling mod on the old 4.6 cars.

This would certainly be a factory issue. But then it would show up on tuned cars more regularly as more power = more heat. It also stands to reason that people that modify their cars are the ones regularly taking them to high RPM's etc.

If I was the owner of that piston, I'd be having some metallurgy testing done on the ring lands.

 

The cooling of the 5.0 heads was specifically designed to avoid pooling issues. The heads have cross-flow cooling passages for this reason.

 

This is good information.

 

The back holes in a V8 are always hotter.

 

...N/A...

 

...N/M...

 

Maybe so but IIRC #8 is on the passenger side/front.

 

Bah... back to stock as of yesterday.

My tune from Bama falls somwehere around the date range where they said thay had monkeyed with the knock sensor paramaters. I feel that waiting for them to contact me is just too passive of an approach when my engine is at stake.

I only have about 500 miles on the Bama 91 octane performance tune (stock airbox, running 93 octane gas)...I assume that my motor is probably okay even if it had a screwed up tune.

I'll call them today and pass along any info that might be helpful to anybody who is in the same boat.

 

Always good to play it safe, just in case.
Hopefully you can get the updated tune in the next day or two.

 

Uh, no... #8 is the furthest back on the driver's side. The one you are referring to is #1.

 

"uh" thanks. I was basing my pax/front suggestion on multiple sources from this forum and allfordmustangs... but you may be right. I don't know for sure.

I don't have a shop manual for this engine but I assume you do.

 

I've seen the "shop manual" and all it has that I've found is a rudementary engine block diagram with an arrow. So if I assume correctly, arrow pointing forward, then #8 is in the back on driver side.

Here's the link, the diagram is about halfway down.
http://iihs.net/fsm/?dir=822&viewfil...IFICATIONS.pdf

 

Yup.

You might enjoy this site (of course a Ford manual is the best source because firing orders change - but #1 and #8 is consistent with Ford - and different from others):

http://craig.backfire.ca/pages/autos/v8-engines

 

Cool. Thanks for the link.

 

Quote from a reputable tuner

Don’t run a stupid aggressive tune and you’ll be fine

Let the KS work as needed

Run the a/f 12:1, traditionally rich for an NA car, but I have not seen 5.0s make any power power at 13:1 a/f

Don’t run stupid timing, this is a 11:1 CR motor with a factory premium fuel cal, the factory did a pretty good job, there is only 10-15rwhp peak to be gained safely (lots of other little ways you can make the car feel good). These guys claiming 30 probably can’t get the car to repeat and are probably doing stupid ****.

 

I agree on the timing part. No need to go nuts. My car is not a daily driver so I don't mind pushing it.... Go banana's if you can! LOL.

I am running the Steeda intake and tune with no problems running it very hard on "closed" roads, LOL!. When I went to the track I added Torco fuel accelerator to my car to keep the octane near 100. I ran a 12.38, not bad for a slow shifter (I'm practicing)

The Steeda gang always amazes....
11.88 @116, Steeda Induction Pack, Stock Motor, assuming basic bolt-ons, shifter and D/Rs (and they never mention this is with a very good driver)
http://www.steeda.com/store/steeda-p...d-mustang.html

 

Truer words have never been spoken. Tuners have slammed us before for running our tunes as rich as we did from day 1 and now people are waking up and taking notice. About time.

Although there is more power there than just 10 to 15hp and still keep safety. Thats the only thing I disagree with.