I only run 94 octane and only 76 degrees at the time.

 

Thanks Brian, I'd had the oil changed by a local shop. The exact amount of oil that Peter/APS and our shop instructed. I watched as the change was done. I'm really not sure what to do.

 

Real sorry to hear about this... That story also hits home since I recall us guys installing our kits at about the same time last year. I have more than double your mileage on the kit, but I'll be starting to look for a secnd engine.... Best of luck on the rebuild. Let us know how it goes...

 

same amount of miles i made it.. weird! twice.. one stock block one built block.. welcome to the club.. GO APS!

 

Had you check the oil level recently?

Your motor may have just been a week one from the factory. If you were tuned, running the proper octane, didn't hear detonation, you may have just been running too much power. Simple as that. or it could have been a number of other things.

for 500-550 you could do this on just a short block. GRD could build you a motor - they did mine along with zippycar's.

For 500+
- built short block
- larger injectors -
- maybe a full return style fuel system
- upgraded actuators for the turbos
- new EMS that allows injector scaling - utec is probably the cheapest and most recommended at this point

 

Tuning Factory! (Godspeed + Autowerks)
248 477 0700

Ask for Jeff or Dan... Both are owners of the shop and GREAT guys

TF has about hum... 6 or 7 FI Z's that I know of personally... BUT they do it well! Right now there is Yancy and D350z + Mine coming outta that shop...

Yancy has a build w/ sleeves... Greddy TT... gonna be pushing 500whp+
D350z has lower build... TN ST... same 500whp+
Me... Lower build... Greddy TT... Same...
Yancy and I dont wanna go really over 500whp by too much... Dil is well nuts and wants too... either way you can see they have high HP Z's... and Yancy's car has been 430+whp for over two years!!! and nothing ever blew up...

They have a HUGE ****ING SHOP... lots of bays... tons of lifts... they have AWD dyno... and normal dyno... great tuners! and will really help ya out! plus if you do it with them... you can hang out with all the michigan crew ha!

 

i agree. if you have ever seen how the APS kits give you a POS regular vacuum hose to run all the way to your gas tank for the mini fuel return systems regulator, and then that POS unichip MAP sensor with a weak little plastic nipple on it that is barely a decent fit with the hose they give you to use... and your supposed to zip tie this hardware store quality hose on there. The MAP sensor already looks like its going to fall apart, and if you try and tug on the vacuum line to test it, it will just slide right off... any extremely vital hoses that are going to travel that far thru wierd spots where you would not expect a vacuum line need to be a protected PTFE hose with JIC fittings... if there was one thing about their kits that made me feel unsafe it is how they choose to do this. I know, it works, yes it does... buts its still junk and leaves a lot of room for someone to accidently damage or crimp the engine tuning vital hose when working on their interior or if a stereo shop didnt know about it, etc.

 

sorry to hear brian... good luck and good credit don't last!

 

Damn that sucks, Kinda has me worried I have just a little over 4K on my APS TT its my daily and I beat the living **** out of it...

Good luck on the build.

 

Sorry for your misfortune I know how you feel.I will make a point though.VQ even perfectly tuned for 400 hp 400 tq can snap at any time with any kit.Some people get lucky and some dont.High comp with cast rods dont mix well with boost and tq.

Build it better, stronger, faster.

 

Thanks. I've got to keep reminding myself it's just a car and it's only money, well a lot of money.

 

everyone I wasn't trying to turn this into a bash APS thread, I was just trying to make a point that a motor can blow with any kit. It just seems as if a motor blows with an APS kit the blame is put on other things. It is just the opposite with the other kits. If a motor is blown with the other kits the blame is point on the kit and the manufacturer. Any TT, ST, or SC can blow a motor. Hell Brian wasn't even running the car hard and it blew!


Brian,

I know you must be horrified with what has just happened to your motor, but believe me once you get your car back with the built motor you will be happy that you blew your stock motor. The members of the blown motor club are here for ya!

 

Thanks for the suggestion Ziv, I'm seriously considering GRD. To be honest, I haven't checked it since my last oil change, a couple months ago. Not good I know, but I hadn't driven much at all since it was done, around 500 miles or so.

 

Thanks so much for the kind encouragement Jorge! Yes, what a crappy night. I coudn't sleep thinking of all the money this will take.

 

That's EXACTLY why I think it's so weird. Motors don't just catastrophically fail at partial throttle. It could have been a lot of different things. The turbo kit with the extra power definitely didn't help matters though. I know that no FI kit is exempt from blowing up a motor. I never intended my post to come out like that.

Lets just wait and see what the teardown tells us (if anything) before we start pointing fingers.

 

dig up some of the old greddy tt blown motor threads. a lot of the greddy guys blew their motors during normal driving and not boosting or beating the car.

 

The stock VQ has forged rods. They aren't the most fantastic things ever, but the vast majority of people run day in a day out over 400whp without a hitch. Besides...the most stressful part of the combustion cycle for the rod itself is NOT the power stroke, it's the exhaust stroke when the piston is travelling away from the crank with nothing slowing it down besides the rod. Revs, detonation or seizure due to oil starvation will break a rod FAR before the pressure from the power stroke in the motor will.

I don't believe for a second that the occasional blown motor reported here is just a case of a motor that is too weak for what we are throwing at it. If it was you'd see A LOT more blown motors and the majority of them would be with the higher hp level guys (450+whp).

 

I know it's happened before, I just think it's weird since every motor damage situtation that I've ever seen in person with other cars than the 350Z(including other cars with VQs) happened during WOT and it was immediately apparant that something was wrong when the throttle was lifted. Hell, I blew my VQ30 from my Maxima with a 100-shot a couple years back when an injector locked up and it still ran, It just ran like crap. When I pulled the plugs..the plug from the cylinder than had the injector lock up was absolutely destroyed, but it didn't throw a rod or make the car undrivable.

I'm NOT saying that this failure had nothing to do with the turbo kit, I'm just saying I think they way it failed is weird.

 

Bro Im really sorry to hear this. I saw your post and was like aw no not him! Hope you get it back on the road soon. Listen to Gman about keeping your HP goals in the 500 range. More hp = more problems.

 

Best of luck with the rebuild Brian. Are they any good shops in your local area, that could do an engine swap for you? If there anything I can do, just let me know.