For those of you that don't know, I had my motor damaged on the dyno. At first my shop was thinking because I had the rev limiter raised to 7100 rpms that my valves or spring were damaged. I sent the motor to SGP and this is what they found. Below is the email I received from Klye to give me the wonderful news. I should get my block back in 4 weeks as a SGP ultimate short block....I can't wait.

Jorge,

You have a bent rod from running lean and detonating. I attached pictures for you to see. Your heads look fine and do not have any damage that we can see.

Kyle

 

that is about the luckiest almost failure i have seen!!!! i did once detonate though and got lucky too with just busting some ring lands, didn't even score the cylinder wall.

 

just out of curiousity... what symptoms did the car have after this happened?

 

Motor was completely locked up and would not turn

I had another motor that came in running with a knock and we found 2 slightly bent rods.

 

WOW, I would love to be a fly on the wall when you tell Frank. Good luck I know it must be torture waiting so long.

 

Damn, how come the rod did not snap in this case? Or was it on the virge of breaking? I always figured the tensile forces within the motor would cause instant snapping rather than a gradual one.

ravi

 

HOw much boost were u running?

 

6.5psi...I think. The car was being tuned.

 

So u didnt eve get a chance to drive it? Basically the install was finished and were in the process of tuning it? Man this sucks.

 

yep, never got to drive it.

 

Did you have the full fuel return set up when this happened?

 

yes I had the fuel return installed. I also had the ignition harness, map sensor harness, everything to make it safe and complete except the shielded CAS wire. The only thing left to blame is the tuner. The dyno was reading 360rwhp when it bent. Prior to the tt install I was running a vortech at 360rwhp and beating the chit out of the car everyday with no problems.

My shop is going to work with me on the labor cost so everything is going to work out for the better. I had plans on building my motor anyway, it just happened sooner than later. At least now I won't worry every time I step on it.

 

Fred..

 

I've seen bent rods on a 150 shot of nitrous, but that's a whole other issue. This just sounds strange. I have my profec set to 5.6 and on occasion will spike at high 6s, using the stock Greddy map and no timing. I beat the hell out of it and haven't had any issues for 6k miles. I can't say I feel "safe," but if it happens, luckily, I have a 2nd vehicle. Now if I could just save up some cash for an engine build . . .

G

 

At least ur gonna get some labor cost help. THis should save u a big chunk of money. I think it was the tuner at fault. Kyle did state that it was running lean so the tuner wasnt tuning it right. Not anyone can tune a Z.

 

Comparing equivalent Hp levels between TT and S/C is not a valid comparison . The early and significant Tq build-up in TT results in a greater force on the rod's.. Combined with bad timing and or fuel ratio = failure..

 

Gman, sorry to hear this. Do you have some pictures of the piston tops? Any idea how lean it was running on the dyno? I will say you are incredible lucky that the rod didnt let go...that is the bright side of the story.

 

Hey jorge can we see the piston tops/skirts. Its really odd to say that the car was running lean when the a/f was 11.2-1, all the spark plugs were checked none were damaged or melted. Maybe poss detonation but the car was only at 6 psi of boost. If it truly was lean the tops of the pistons will show it. also it should have broke piston lands.

 

Do you have the shielded Crank wire installed? Detonation and leanness usually shows in the piston tops, as they will be a golden hue, instead of blackish in color. Typically, detonation results in cracked ring lands, rod bearing failure. But bent rods are not out of the question though.

I am curious if possibly one cylinder was running lean, either due to airflow issues, or injector failure.

 

I had all the safety items (fuel return, ignition harness, pressure sensor harness) except the shielded wire. Klye has my has long block. I will see if he can post some pictures.

I have the crawford cast plenum so my air flow is better than stock. Whether it helped or not is another question.....