Well, i am official done with ford and done with SVT. My car used to be an absolute JOY to own but somewhere in its life became a curse nightmare that haunts my dreams at night. Its a shame that I am about $65k into the project before realizing how much I hate the car now. If you know the history on the car you can skip to the last paragraph, if not you can read the entire novel.
For those that dont know, here is some back story on the car.... After a weird oiling issue in the stock motor that left me stranded (while driving along in 5th gear in traffic), that ford happily told me to get bent over, I decided to build a beast of a car. At the time the baddest thing out there was a billet shortblock. So, i built an 01 car that I wanted to make 700rwhp in. Back in 03-04 even the baddest terminators were barely making these numbers with the first turbo kits and spray. So, i built the baddest billet shortblock I could build to handle the big boost I was gonna throw at the car. I then proceded to drive the car for almost a year and 7k miles for a full breakin (not to mention I was now broke as hell). A year later I had the money saved up for a blower so I called procharger and put together a d1sc race kit to make 21 psi.
We so all the work on the car, get the car tuned and running perfect, but I decided to start off with alot larger pulley on the blower that intended. I ended up making 550rwhp on 12.5psi with only 17* total timing on 93 octane. The car felt great! and with that safe of a tune, i could probably drive the car unbelievable reliable for 100k miles! So, i decided to leave it there and not be greedy with power, i wanted a daily drivable 550rwhp car. We did a race tune as well with more timing and a little different fuel chart and made right at 600rwhp.
I drove the car in this setup for about 2 years until one day riding down the road in traffic it started making noise. I thought for sure it was the clutch because it was faint and unnoticeable to everyone but me. After changing the clutch and troubleshooting the problem we find it has a spun bearing again. At this point I KNEW i hated the car and wanted to sell it. I parked the car for 15 months under a carport and didnt touch it. It saw rain sleet and snow, but I did not care. I had hopes and dreams that maybe someone with either steal it, or a tree would fall on it, however this didnt happen.
15 months after parking the nightmare I decided to get some money together and put it together to sell. I called up a friend who owns a shop and he came and got the car. While working on it, we find why the car gave away the second time. When Custom Performance built the car, they over honed the cylinders WAY to much. The cylinders were actually between 2 sizes of pistons. However regardless they stuck a stock piston in the whole and "let it ride". I decided at this point that I wouldnt let someone elses shi!tty work make me sell the car, I would build it better this time and keep it.
1 month after my buddy got the car he got it running again (with a terrible time getting parts lined up.) I got the car back, with the addition of some fueling mods and a trans swap, in hopes of making more power this time around. Well......
almost exactly 1000 miles after getting the car running again I decided to drive it to work yesterday. I am driving down the interstate in the SLOW lane in 5th gear at around 60-65 mph. As I approach the on ramp I start slowing down to let other traffic merge when I hear "marbles in a coffee can" then something fly down the bottom of the car. I push in the clutch to listen to the motor, and start watching gauges with no sign of anything wrong. I coast off the next off ramp which around 1/4 mile and into a gas station where I look under the hood and this is what I see.
we think a rocker broke and flew up into the timing chain. When it hit the chain it got enough velocity to bust out of the front of the motor. So...... now I have an 01 cobra who I am convinced is a punishment from god and no matter what I do to it (because I actually care) will break something again and again. The car will be sold, and will probably be beat to death by the new owner without a single problem, but I know if I keep this car, nothing good will come out of it. I am gonna sell it anyway I can, and keep my 88 coupe car for now. I will eventually sell my coupe car too and take a few years off from the performance side of things. After a little bit of a break, i will most likely snag up a c5 Z06 car as a toy and do nothing but exhaust and a cam and just drive it around on the weekend.
thanks for being a part of my life for years guys, it has been a crazy ride, but in the beginning there were only a few of us doing crazy builds on 01 cars, while everyone else was just buying terminators.
to all the new guys that I never got to fully meet, good day and good luck with your cars.
to all the old school guys like quad cammer, marek, and tons more, i bid you a due, Its been a long time in the making, but this guy is officially done.
Travis Washam
www.venomoussvt.com
For those that dont know, here is some back story on the car.... After a weird oiling issue in the stock motor that left me stranded (while driving along in 5th gear in traffic), that ford happily told me to get bent over, I decided to build a beast of a car. At the time the baddest thing out there was a billet shortblock. So, i built an 01 car that I wanted to make 700rwhp in. Back in 03-04 even the baddest terminators were barely making these numbers with the first turbo kits and spray. So, i built the baddest billet shortblock I could build to handle the big boost I was gonna throw at the car. I then proceded to drive the car for almost a year and 7k miles for a full breakin (not to mention I was now broke as hell). A year later I had the money saved up for a blower so I called procharger and put together a d1sc race kit to make 21 psi.
We so all the work on the car, get the car tuned and running perfect, but I decided to start off with alot larger pulley on the blower that intended. I ended up making 550rwhp on 12.5psi with only 17* total timing on 93 octane. The car felt great! and with that safe of a tune, i could probably drive the car unbelievable reliable for 100k miles! So, i decided to leave it there and not be greedy with power, i wanted a daily drivable 550rwhp car. We did a race tune as well with more timing and a little different fuel chart and made right at 600rwhp.
I drove the car in this setup for about 2 years until one day riding down the road in traffic it started making noise. I thought for sure it was the clutch because it was faint and unnoticeable to everyone but me. After changing the clutch and troubleshooting the problem we find it has a spun bearing again. At this point I KNEW i hated the car and wanted to sell it. I parked the car for 15 months under a carport and didnt touch it. It saw rain sleet and snow, but I did not care. I had hopes and dreams that maybe someone with either steal it, or a tree would fall on it, however this didnt happen.
15 months after parking the nightmare I decided to get some money together and put it together to sell. I called up a friend who owns a shop and he came and got the car. While working on it, we find why the car gave away the second time. When Custom Performance built the car, they over honed the cylinders WAY to much. The cylinders were actually between 2 sizes of pistons. However regardless they stuck a stock piston in the whole and "let it ride". I decided at this point that I wouldnt let someone elses shi!tty work make me sell the car, I would build it better this time and keep it.
1 month after my buddy got the car he got it running again (with a terrible time getting parts lined up.) I got the car back, with the addition of some fueling mods and a trans swap, in hopes of making more power this time around. Well......
almost exactly 1000 miles after getting the car running again I decided to drive it to work yesterday. I am driving down the interstate in the SLOW lane in 5th gear at around 60-65 mph. As I approach the on ramp I start slowing down to let other traffic merge when I hear "marbles in a coffee can" then something fly down the bottom of the car. I push in the clutch to listen to the motor, and start watching gauges with no sign of anything wrong. I coast off the next off ramp which around 1/4 mile and into a gas station where I look under the hood and this is what I see.
we think a rocker broke and flew up into the timing chain. When it hit the chain it got enough velocity to bust out of the front of the motor. So...... now I have an 01 cobra who I am convinced is a punishment from god and no matter what I do to it (because I actually care) will break something again and again. The car will be sold, and will probably be beat to death by the new owner without a single problem, but I know if I keep this car, nothing good will come out of it. I am gonna sell it anyway I can, and keep my 88 coupe car for now. I will eventually sell my coupe car too and take a few years off from the performance side of things. After a little bit of a break, i will most likely snag up a c5 Z06 car as a toy and do nothing but exhaust and a cam and just drive it around on the weekend.
thanks for being a part of my life for years guys, it has been a crazy ride, but in the beginning there were only a few of us doing crazy builds on 01 cars, while everyone else was just buying terminators.
to all the new guys that I never got to fully meet, good day and good luck with your cars.
to all the old school guys like quad cammer, marek, and tons more, i bid you a due, Its been a long time in the making, but this guy is officially done.
Travis Washam
www.venomoussvt.com
