01cobravortech
Banned
Good info fellas. Now that the problem is fixed it sure makes it a tough choice if the inevitable occurs. A complete motor with quick delivery can be awfully hard to resist.
Aluminator FAILURE
- Thread starter DoomsDay
- Start date
That was what made the decision. I had it to my door within 3 days of calling Steve @ Tousley Ford.
Guess we need some new testers. Brian Wolfe better come through. I'm sure he's heard about it by now. If not raise hell. We can't have a aluminator or for that matter a cobra jet taking a crap on the track cause of some assembly mistake.
01cobravortech
Banned
Holy cow thats fast as heck. Hopefully I won't have to make a decision like this for some time. But it is good knowing we finally have some really sound options when it comes to shoehorn a new motor.
am glad i had kotzur racing heads build me a long block i paid 4200 for a complete long block from oil pan to valvecovers and timing cover i used a 97 cobra engine with 03 cobra rods and je pistons and 03 heads ported and polished with crower retainers and springs and 5 angle valve job .
i really wanted the aluminator but wasnt feeling to good of paying that much sorry to hear what happened .
i really wanted the aluminator but wasnt feeling to good of paying that much sorry to hear what happened .
the crank is installed all the way at the back so when the harmonic balancer is intalled it is smashed up against the timing cover. When the main caps are loosened, the crank installed forward as it should be and new bolts put in and main cap torque sequenced completed the harmonic balancer will now clear and you can actually check the endplay since everything isnt frozen together.
here is a picture of the rear main cap where you can see the crank is jammed all the way back (notice the lack of space between the main cap and the crank)
here is a picture of the front showing the timing chains, oil pump, and front main cap. You can see in this picture the HUGE gap between the crank and front main cap. Having the crank set in this position will not allow you to check for endplay because everything is smashed together and cant go anywhere. You also cant turn the motor by hand because the harmonic balancer and timing cover are smashed together so tight. (this is how we figured out something was wrong and when we did some searching on here and another modular forum we found some threads that people started when their motor decided to eat a hole in itself and piss oil all over the floor).
also we noticed that every rod in the motor was almost touching the inside of each piston due to the crank being installed .4 to .5 too far back. Once we inspected the entire bottom end (bearings etc.), fixed the issue and installed all new arp hardware the rods were all dead center on the wrist pin like they should be.
Yeah they are that good. Rick at amazon has been friends with them for a long time and has nothing but the best to say about them as people and as a bussiness.
I wish I would have spoken with Rick before the aluminator nightmare. At the time I went aluminator to have a nice motor fast since my car at the time was my daily driver. If I would have known that the aluminator was going to be a month plus worht of horror stories I would have just taken that time and went the route that Jeff (hissman) is going.
Hmm there goes my plan of saving up for one next year.
FWIW I complained to FRPP that I was concerned about the longevity of my motor having put 1500 miles on it with the balancer slightly rubbing the timing cover, a new motor left their warehouse today and will be replacing the current motor. I know it's a pita to do an engine swap but better to do it now under warranty instead of later if/when it fails.
01cobravortech
Banned
Man that is pretty damn impressive that they did that without a big hassle.
Dave is stepping up to the plate after a dozen or so of us went through the big hassle with them first. I think they have realized now what a large scale problem they have and are doing alot better at making things right vs. looking at a class action with a couple dozen people and losing their a$$. Not something they are needing right now with the economy sucking.
yeah its pretty obvious looking at the pics that the crank is set too far back. I wish I would have snapped a pic of the rod sitting on the wrist pin before we completed the fix. It was pretty scary.
the sad part is they could have known something was wrong if they would have just spun the motor over by hand before sending it out the door. The FRPP help line guy called me a liar and said "you cant turn a motor over by hand" I told him I would video me turning the harmonic balancer on my old motor that was still hanging by a chain on the engine hoist and explained that if you pulled the plugs so there wasnt any compression that you could take one finger and do it but he didnt have much to say after that.
I've got the Aluminator longblock installed in June.
So far the engine runs great, but will check for aluminium dust.
I do only have 1k mls on it so far.
Isn't it possible to hear if you have this rubbing problem?
So far the engine runs great, but will check for aluminium dust.
I do only have 1k mls on it so far.
Isn't it possible to hear if you have this rubbing problem?
the aluminator is still a cool idea, i love how ford is helping us mod
once the problems are ironed out it will be neat
once the problems are ironed out it will be neat
01cobravortech
Banned
Hey when's your next high speed run? :beer: Glad to see she is holding up, but put some more miles on her. :rockon:
01cobravortech
Banned
Hopefully guys that have these Aluminators will start putting on some serious miles so we can get an idea of how these motors will hold up in the long run.
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