[Shotimes] LSD Conversion KIT for the SHO? Any comments?

[Donald Mallinson]

Mike,

No doubt there are cars with bad bearings at fairly low 
miles, but the vast majority of experience with the V6 SHO 
is that rod bearings usually show very little wear up to and 
well beyond 150,000 miles.  For goodness sakes, note that I 
said MOST, not ALL.

The fleet of SHO's is not 16+ years old.  Certainly we are 
going to see more and more failures. But I haven't seen an 
epidemic of rod bearing problems yet.

The differential problem has cropped up more often in my 
experience than any rod bearing problem with the V6.  Both 
manual and automatic transmissions have been destroyed, and 
quite a few of them, by the differential problem.  Again, 
Note that I didn't say ALL and in this case not even MOST 
differentials will fail, but enough are failing that it is a 
  problem to be considered for those of us that plan on 
keeping SHO's a long time.

It is very safe to say that MOSt sho differentials will 
probably never fail in the reasonable life of the car, same 
with rod bearings.  Experience so far is these cars can go 
200,000 and beyond on the original motor and many have.

Experience on this list is pretty vast, and most people that 
have examined their rod bearings up to and some beyond 
150,000 miles, have said they look fine.  Certainly for this 
kind of mileage, some failures are to be expected, and some 
have happened.

I usually advise people that plan on keeping a SHO beyond 
150,000 miles, to pull the pan and check the rod bearings. 
This is good advice for any motor.  But there is ZERO 
inspection or preventative maintenance for the differential 
problem.  Only the Quaife is a nearly fail-safe fix.

I just don't think we have an epidemic of rod bearing 
failures, and neither do we have an epidemic of differential 
failures.  Both are to be of concern and consideration in 
ANY car with the age, miles and probably "high sprited" 
driving that the SHO gets.

Don Mallinson

Mike Kopstain wrote:

>>Also, I am mystified by your comment about V6 rod bearings
>>and V8 Cam lobes.  the V6 rod bearings can fail, but usually
>>after 200,000 miles, and that is a good long life, and
>>better than most motors.  The rod bearings are not an area
>>of major concern for SHO V6 owners.
> 
> 
> I would have to agree with Carl here.  The differential pin problem, while
> it is the most common problem for the MTX, is not all that common.  The rod
> bearings on the other hand, are becoming an epidemic.  Who knows, maybe it's
> age.  I remember the first publicized case about 2.5 years ago about a kid
> that just bought a 93' ATX with IIRC 110,000 on it and it spun a bearing two
> weeks later.  I have cars documented as low as 85,000 miles spinning
> bearings.  My bet would be that if you take down a 100,000 mile motor right
> now the bearings would be showing copper.
> 
> Bruce Malachuk drove to the convention and home with a spun rod bearing.  I
> beleive his car has less than 100,000 miles.  I would place my bets on rod
> bearing failure over differential failure any day.
> 
> My .02
> 
> ~ Mike
> 
> Midwest SHO - For Everything SHO
> www.midwestsho.com
> Sales@Midwestsho.com
> 
> Advance Motorsports - For everything else
> www.advancemotor.com
> Support@advancemotor.com
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Donald Mallinson" <dmall@mwonline.net>
> To: <shotimes@autox.team.net>
> Sent: Friday, February 06, 2004 10:11 AM
> Subject: Re: [Shotimes] LSD Conversion KIT for the SHO? Any comments?
> 
> 
> 
>>Carl,
>>
>>Are you really unaware of the differential problems with the
>>SHO?  The problem is well known, and the Quaife totally
>>replaces the unit that fails.  There was, I think, one
>>exception in an all-out racing situation where a Quaife
>>failed, but other than that, the Quaife is proven to be
>>about as bulletproof as can be expected of any performance part.
>>
>>Since the differential problem became well known a few years
>>  ago, the Quaife has always been presented as not only a
>>performance enhancement, but preventing the failure that can
>>take out the tranny.
>>
>>Also, I am mystified by your comment about V6 rod bearings
>>and V8 Cam lobes.  the V6 rod bearings can fail, but usually
>>after 200,000 miles, and that is a good long life, and
>>better than most motors.  The rod bearings are not an area
>>of major concern for SHO V6 owners.
>>
>>The V8 Cam lobes also are NOT a problem, I suspect you just
>>confused them with the V8 cam sprocket problem that IS
>>taking out V8's at record rates.  About 15 in the last 45
>>days or so, and those are just the ones that manage to find
>>the SHOclub or the V8SHO group on the internet.  We can bet
>>that more than twice as many fail that we never find out
>>about since about half the country still isn't on the
>>internet (I researched that, it is pretty close to 50-60% of
>>the country has regular internet access, leaving about half
>>to 40% without).
>>
>>Let's keep those SHO's on the road!
>>
>>Don M.
>>
>>
>>
>>Carl Prochilo wrote:
>>
>>
>>>That's the first time I ever heard anyone say that a Quaife install
> 
> would
> 
>>>prolong (hey, remember that stuff?) the life of MTX-IV.
>>>
>>>BTW, I would say the rod bearings on the V6 are more comparable to the
> 
> cam
> 
>>>lobes on the V8 as lousy failure mechanisms that fry motors.
>>
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