I have had a woman asking me some questions via email about her Taurus SHO. It has the V8 Yamaha motor and there is some kind of an issue with ALL of them regarding the camshaft.

This from wikipedia: "Separation of the camshaft from its sprocket has been implicated in a growing number of engine failures, at around the 50,000 mile (80,000 km) mark.[11] The standard warranty on this model was 36,000 miles (58,000 km). This problem can be rectified by having the camshafts welded."

Anyway, she sent me an email asking for help and I thought I would post it here and see if anyone can offer any help or direction.

--------------------

Hey, didn't expect to need advise so soon, sorry. I called Friendly Ford this afternoon to see who the refer their customers to for the welding issue and talked to the shop forman who said that they have had a few SHO's brought in and yes they did need cam welded too but they have no one locally who is willing to do it and refered me to the V8SHO website I have already spent weeks on. The closest place I told them was in Okla. and my car is alreaady making that regretful noise that says "do something and soon". I explained to him a trip of that distance was out of the question and he replied that if not I basically have a $8,000.00 yard ornament. Oh, my my I am normally a calm person. I called Yarbourough Machine shop and am suppose to check with the owner tomarrow to see if they would be willing to do it, if not, I downloaded some pics of what it should look like after it is welded (MIG) and have attached those. Question- do you know of ANYONE who might be willing to tackle this? No guarentees involved, and I understand that. Online this price for welding runs $500.00-$600.00 and pinning is $1,800.00 or more because the cam has to be removed to pin and not to be welded. I am more than willing to pay the price to have it done before my engine is toast. If you have any suggestions I would be more than grateful for the assist.

It sounds like it just needs a couple of tack welds to hold it on. You might check with a few local manufactoring shops like custom stainless and polish near division and 65 or greg at eagle machine in buffalo. 417-345-8532. Or if all else fails try tydo over at blake's shop.

The harmonics wouldnt let a tack weld hold. With the different kinds of metals a MIG weld really wouldnt make me feel safe. Different tempered metals need to be preheated to different temps to get a good effective weld on them. Then again, MIG might have held ok for the masses so she might be ok. I would look to TIG though, and someone who is good with it. If she could have it tore down, tell her to find someone to TIG it. Otherwise, just about anyone could MIG It.

Tell her to sell it.

I remember that there is a shop in st loius that deals with SHO performance and they did cam welding. I think the name is called ST loius SHO in fenton dont remember the phone number. I remeber it because one of my Army buddies stayed with me for a few days while he had his wellded I think it cost him 800 dollars. will try to find out more hope it helps

Appreciate all the help, guys. If someone comes up with a local person that can do the work, that would be great.

junkman306 wrote:
Tell her to sell it.

This is not useful information.

hey I know st loius is not real close but it is possible to trailer it there as it is only trwo hours away or less I think it is on this side of st loius. and take about 2 days. I left mssg for my friend to try and get more info.

I got this email today:

-------------------

Well started trying to solve my cam issue bright and early this am. Called Yarbourough, he said they have never done anything like that before but would be willing to look at pictures and see if it was something they could do if no one else would. Called Custom Stainless and was told that they have welded on vehicles before but never cams and not with good luck, seems that if the ground is not in right place there is a possibly a problem with electrical and computer chips. Called Greg at Eagle Machine, he is a hoot, told me it would be cheaper to trailer it to St. Louis now than to have to do it later to fix what they would screw up, well at least he was honest about it up front. Not sure who the Tydo is your friends mentioned. It is starting to look like a trailer and I will be taking a short road trip to St. Louis before school starts the 25th. If "draykas" gets anymore info on shop in St. Louis please forward asap. Thanks again for your help

By grounding what he means it that if you ground the welder in such a way that if the current has to run through a bearing you are screwed. It will arc across the bearing to the cam and creat burrs. Not that hard, either ground it straight to hte sprocket, or find a way to put a bolt in the cam and ground though that. I would suggest taking it to the people who are doing it in st louis.

I was reading up on this. The problem is that Ford (Or Yamaha, or the zombie gorillas that Ford seem to employ in their management/engineering departments) decided to just jam the camshaft into the cam sprocket... and that's all. The only thing holding the two pieces together is friction.

Brilliant.

So over time the cam sprocket expands a little, the camshaft slips, and the next thing you know you have valves smashing into pistons. "Quality is Job One!"

From the pictures I have seen it really doesn't look like much more than a tack weld that people are adding to these to keep the motors alive. I am sure it is more precise than that since there is rotational mass to consider. It is something that should NEVER have had to be done, though.

Just got this email:

--------------------

Leaving Springfield on Sept 4th and driving truck, trailer and car to Lombard, Ill. (just outside Chicago) to see Eric Lehmann, he is welding cams on Sept 5th and I should arrive back in Springfield on early am September 6th. He is charging $550.00 and is doing a bunch of extras for me, plus giving me a warrentee for his work. He has a list of satisfied customers on the web sight www.v8sho.com/SHO/EricLehmannCamWeldExperience.htm I think he will take good care of her. Hope the rest of the modifications and work will not be nearly as much of a PIA. Thanks for your time and trouble.

Sorry I just saw this. I could hav done it. We weld crank journals and reluctor wheels to cranks all of the time. On of our sister companies is SRC Automotive who does the majority of GM's stuff and another is Heavy Duty which does a ton of diesel engines for International and Case IH. BTW It is very simple to do. A small power pack tig is all you need to weld the gear to the cam. The trick is laying out the welds evenly around the the cam.

As far as I know it hasn't happened yet, so I will pass this along.