Hello everyone,

So I was drifting my practically stock 2004 350Z over the weekend. I has a welded diff, plenum spacer, intake, testpipes & catback, along with an oversized rad and uprev tune. The car was performing very well all weekend until the last 10 minutes of the event. As I was straightening out from a corner with out warning my DE threw a rod. From my understanding the bottom end should have been good for close to 400whp which my NA slug was not even close to touching.

That being said the car has no oil consumption, just under 160K, and had fresh fluids all around before the event. I may have been revving a little high but at my power levels I didn't think it would cause enough strain to blow the bottom end.

Has anyone else felt like their bottom ends were made from glass, or did i just get super unlucky?

 

Seems like this

 

What were you revving to?

 

i meani tried to keep it between 4-6k but a couple times I had to power through it i may have bumped limiter a couple times but never held it at redline

 

Oh, I though you were going over stock limit (6600 I think?)
No, that isn't the issue.
People usually bring the stock DE to 7000-7100 without issues (I have and I'm at 300whp and 340tq)

Something was wrong, but you'd pretty much need a autopsy to figure it out.

The DE motors don't blow from driving hard around stock power levels.

 

Welded diff is going to put alot of stress on everything

 

True but it was also a stock clutch so that should take most of the shock

 

At 160K, your VQ has seen a lot of action. Adding a welded diff (even with a standard clutch) and drifting all weekend is sure to put considerable stress on your powertrain. Count me as one who is not surprised a rod or main bearing got nicked and seized.

 

Welded diff has nothing to do with the rod going.

 

160k, riding the car hard all afternoon, lightly modded seems pretty open close to me. Buy a new engine swap mods over and you are ready to roll again

 

Could be an oil starve situation, could be an oil pump failure or could be many other issues that caused it

 

They aren't made of glass. You are just stressing your car.

People don't get the amount of stress and abuse drifting, burn outs and hard launches do on a drivetrain. But no it's not because of the VQ, my friend threw a rod on his 1.6 Miata and I've seen guys kill KA 240's all the time.

Again drifting and "hooning" is hard on any car. But like others have said, you probably lost some oil pressure, already did damage with the 150k+ miles or just got a weak rod or bearing by chance.

But this would, could and does happen to any kind of car/engine. You're VQ has probably just seen better days.

 

Doesn't the regular DE have weaker con rod bolts? Could that be the issue and it finally let go?

 

Weaker is a subjective word.

Weaker compared to what? These engines are very stout. People just give these engines a hard time, when in reality they are quite good. Hardly any stock engines can accept and hold the amount of HP/TQ DE's can.

But yes the rods, bolts and sometimes bearing are usually the first things to let go in these engines. But again they take and produce decent numbers for stock engines. But as is normal with most engines, those being the weakest points of most factory motors.

 

why not a complete re-built with some drift specs from DE drifters? I would just copy and paste a tested built.

 

I found another DE from a G35 that Im going to check out and compression test. I understand drifting puts a lot of stress on the motor but I didnt expect a rod to throw that easily. There are a few other DE guys that drift and two of them are over the 200k mark. So thats why i feel something really must have buckled to die

Im wondering if some ARP rod bolts would help solve my issue? Im planning on throwing in another DE and testing my luck again

 

Only if you do a teardown and know that it was a hardware failure that led to the blow engine. Look for root causes and not symptoms.

 

I will be tearing it open when i have the time. The car got towed to my house but Im away at school right now. Just trying to wrap my head around it and see what other VQ owners think so i can prepare myself.

 

Weaker in respect to the Revup VQ35DE. I know that was one of the improvements they made to the motor. I wonder if there was a need for stronger bolts back when the engine was being devoloped or if it was precautionary due to the higher redline of the Revup. If its the first, that may suggest that regular DE rod bolts could be the suspect.

The best thing to do is tear the motor apart and go from there.

 

What was the oil temperature? Heat kills parts. Everything is fragile once it's hot enough. Do you run an oil cooler? What were ambient temps?