Dennis Reinhart
08-23-2004, 06:04 PM
Over the past few days we have seen several posts about warranty issues, I would like to take the time and let the club know what I have seen on my own, first of all Ford cannot void your warranty with out proof that the chip caused the failure in question, by now most of us know the weakest point on the Marauder engine is the rods and the pistons, the rods are cracked cap with stretch to yield bolts, the pistons are hypertectic with very thin ring lands, these rods are 2 V rods just like in a 2 V GT the engine also has the marginal oil pump gears, since the oil pump gears are driven directly off the crank shaft, if this engine is driven with detonation, that will be directly transferred to the crank and then to the oil pump gears, the cure for that is determine why you are getting this detonation and fixing it right away it is possible the gears are defective will Ford ever admit this no. If the engine is to be rebuilt I would use Billet oil pump gears and trigger wheel, because the hypertectic pistons have such thin ring lands if the car is driven with detonation the it will just break the ring lands and there goes the piston, so if you hear spark knock get out of the throttle, if you want a good build go with good rods I like Manley then Diamond racing pistons I would have those pistons and the engine bearings coated, the use billet oil pump gears and trigger wheel and put the bottom end together with ARP fasteners and the Cobra steel crank, I would also use ARP head studs.
I had a customer email me and call about Ford trying to void the warranty over a chip for a bad valve on the drivers head, he has a A model I know and most of us are aware there were head issues on the earlier Marauders Mach 1 and Cobra engines so if this man stands his ground he will win, the drivers head casting has been replaced there is a TSB over this I have put him in contact with the appropriate people at Ford.
Now I will tell you about a Marauder we just had here that drove us nuts, the car ran like it had a restricted exhaust or fuel system after verifying fuel pressure and dropping the exhaust the car still ran very bad no power at all, the owner had bough the car from a dealer and it did have one of our chips in it and the dealer removed it so this new owner tried another brand and the car ran worse, the dealer changed the fuel pump and ECM and still no better so it came to me, and we found out to day the cause, the owner had some one else install UDP over a year ago, and in that kit it comes with a bolt that is marked for install only, the reason why is its longer than the OEM bolt to ease the install of the smaller dampener, well, what you are supposed to do is use the long bolt to pull the dampener on, then remove it and install the OEM bolt. Well, they never did that they left the long one in there it bottomed out in the crank and over a year the dampener backed off allowing the key way on the trigger wheel to waller out, http://web.iwebcenters.com/reinhartautomotive/images/session/00-00-1093441399-DSC00467.JPG
This caused the engine timing to be way off, I am glad this was caught it could have cause an engine loss. The few cars that I have known that have had oil pump gear failures all had UDP Installed improperly so I would be aware and possibly verify that the OEM bolt was installed as per the instructions.
If any one has any questions call me thats what I am here for, I will help any way I can.
I had a customer email me and call about Ford trying to void the warranty over a chip for a bad valve on the drivers head, he has a A model I know and most of us are aware there were head issues on the earlier Marauders Mach 1 and Cobra engines so if this man stands his ground he will win, the drivers head casting has been replaced there is a TSB over this I have put him in contact with the appropriate people at Ford.
Now I will tell you about a Marauder we just had here that drove us nuts, the car ran like it had a restricted exhaust or fuel system after verifying fuel pressure and dropping the exhaust the car still ran very bad no power at all, the owner had bough the car from a dealer and it did have one of our chips in it and the dealer removed it so this new owner tried another brand and the car ran worse, the dealer changed the fuel pump and ECM and still no better so it came to me, and we found out to day the cause, the owner had some one else install UDP over a year ago, and in that kit it comes with a bolt that is marked for install only, the reason why is its longer than the OEM bolt to ease the install of the smaller dampener, well, what you are supposed to do is use the long bolt to pull the dampener on, then remove it and install the OEM bolt. Well, they never did that they left the long one in there it bottomed out in the crank and over a year the dampener backed off allowing the key way on the trigger wheel to waller out, http://web.iwebcenters.com/reinhartautomotive/images/session/00-00-1093441399-DSC00467.JPG
This caused the engine timing to be way off, I am glad this was caught it could have cause an engine loss. The few cars that I have known that have had oil pump gear failures all had UDP Installed improperly so I would be aware and possibly verify that the OEM bolt was installed as per the instructions.
If any one has any questions call me thats what I am here for, I will help any way I can.