Ford to pay for cracking v-8 manifolds

sounds good but ford fixed mine twice without it costing me anything

unless i can get some cash for "pain and suffering"...

=)

At the time I said making plastic manifolds was a stupid idea. The look of them on Mustang engines sickened me. My concerns were dismissed by "knowledgible" people who extolled the virtues of plastic in engines. Plastics, first and formost are designed to CHEAPEN products, from car engines to cameras. They are NEVER used when critical applications are involved and for good reason. While there certainly ARE composites that can be used, they tend to be more costly than the metal alternatives, thus you rarely see them in mass-market applications. I hope this marks the END of such experiments by Ford.

lmfao how many other engines by ford and others use them lmfao one problem pretty good id say h u r c a s t

Really, there is nothing wrong with using plastic for the intake manifold. The plastic is easily capable of taking the heat from the engine, and the thermal properties of plastic are more favorable than metal. Which I suppose is the reason ford used them in the first place.

If the manifolds crack, then really it's not so much of the plastics fault, but more of just a simple structural design flaw. Todays engineering software allows for some awesome simulation, allowing you to create a 3D model of your components, put them together, and simulate anything from physical stresses, thermal, gas / liquid flow analysis, etc. I love playing w/ that stuff =) But, this software is only so good, and it is extremely difficult to really predict what forces truly occur, how, when, and where and set up the simulations accordingly. On top of that, it's relatively easily to simulate X amount of stress and see where things might break. But it's a lot harder to simulate the effects of the same stress over time...So despite all this technology, design flaws can, do, and will still happen.

And, I hope this does not mark the end of experiments because experiments, as much as they may suck if things go bad, are the only way to advance. And remember, they people that design this are humans too, just like everyone else, they make mistakes.

-- Stephan

Yeah, mine cracked a few years ago on a '97 GT convert. I had it towed to my mechanic. When he found the crack, I called the Ford dealer and they came and towed it to their dealership on a Fri. or Sat. afternoon (Can't remember which). They asked for my first towing bill and called before noon on Monday to say it was done - no charge. I think Ford reimbursed me for the first tow, but I might have been my insurance company.

All in all, one of the more pleasant experiences I've ever had with ANY dealership.

For those of you in Missouri, it was Machen Ford.

Just another data point.