I'm glad your not biased............. however, the point remains that you are trying to tie together a ticking issue with a '03/04 4-valve head to a rumor about the '05 3-valve heads. I never said the Cobra tick was due to a parts problem, as '04 Mustangs have not been built now for a few months. Just, that any delays in Mustang GT 3-valve head production has been due to a parts shortage.

BTW, my understanding is that Mustang orders are running about 60% higher than Ford was predicting. This would most certainly cause parts shortages.

PS, Ford has been VERY careful with all of their new launches since the debacles of the '00 Focus, and '01 Escape. They ramp up slowly, and go over the completed vehicles with a fine tooth comb to try to find ANY parts problems (no matter how minor). I would rather see the car come out good........... than come out fast.

 

I guess my question is, where (design, manufacturing, assembly) do you think the problem on the 03/04 Cobra 4-valve head lies? I am just curious, thats all. And yea, I would rather see the Mustang come out right than fast as well. I'm just anxious to see what the car can do.

 

So is this thread true or false, or too early to be determined?

 

The problem is in the casting. When the head reaches a certain temp, the valve guide expands causing contact and "the tick".
To my knowledge, there have been no engine failures due to "the tick", nor does it adversely effect performance. It's a noise that is an irritant, like LS1 piston slap.
Just curious...surely you don't claim that the car in this link went 10.5's?
S.

 

FALSE!!!!

What's really screwed up about this, if the story about the dealer saying this is true, is that this dealer raised questions about the quality of the car he's selling by concocting this story.

 

Yes, Snorman, thats the car. That was my baby, first car when I was 15 years old. That website was made when I first put the crate motor in with a Comp Cam and some roller rockers. The engine was rebuilt a while later with forged internals, nitrous cam, AFR heads and a 150shot. Went 10.53@131 street legal on drag radials and oh yea, a Ford 9inch! It runs through a race built TH400 and I keep in constant contact with the guy I sold it to. It is getting a complete frame off resto now, new cage, and a new engine setup. The goal is 8's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Man I loved that car.

It ran 13.6@103 with the setup in the link after some tunning, that was on street tires.

 

So you were selling it with the Vortec heads and little cam and no spray (according to that link), and then decided to keep it and went 10.5's and then sold it? I'm assuming this was just last year because if you bought it at 15 1/2, had it for 3 1/2 years (again...according to the link) and your profile states you are 20 years old you must have done this recently.
What tranny and converter were you running?
S.

 

Even if it is true about the new GT's having this temporary problem...IMHO it will make little difference since the new Mustang overall is clearly a home run for Ford. It's just a matter of when thay start making money on them, not if.

 

The tranny is a TH400 built by a race shop. I dont recall what converter, its a pretty big one. I think around 3500. Yea, this was all recently as I am almost 21! The 60' on that run was only a 1.6 I believe and it has cut 1.4x before. It also has been having some serious problems in the high rpm, breaking up real bad. And he just told me he threw a rod dynoing NA, so its gonna get an even beefier rebuild to shoot for those 8's he wants. All of this during the frame-off resto. I keep in constant contact with the guy and still consider it my car, hehhe. As it was my first car and I WILL own it again (for good) when he decides to sell it. Let this be a lesson to yall, never sell your first car, you will ALWAYS regret it.

 

I was recently told there are 230K orders for the 05 Mustang.

 

That would be incorrect!