I have the SS box, I'm going to switch to the utec or fcon IS. I was on 100 oct when I think it went.

I was at 12psi of boost then a puff of smoke came out of my exhaust and it's been smoking ever since but only when coming off boost.

I took off my turbo to have it inspected and found out that the seals were gone and my intercooler and piping had oil in them.

I replaced the turbo and cleaned out everything, but found that oil was pooled up on cyl 3 valves only. I cleaned that out put everything back together, but it was still smoking from the PVC filter.

I had a compression check done and had almost 0 compression in cyl 3.

The rep at Arias thinks it's a faulty injector or coil pack for it to detonate like that at 12psi in one cylinder only. I have the zeitronix gauge for monitoring.

 

That is the same cylinder that I have the issue with as well. Though, none of the heads of my pistons show anything abnormal at all.

 

just a coincidence? maybe you two have identified a "hotspot" due to overall cooling design?

by chance, did either of you have the pathfinder mod? did either of you run special coolant?

thx

 

also just for reference, it was on the middle cylinders on both banks that I could see where the headgaskets were being compromised as well.

I had stock cooling with 50/50 antifreeze mix and a bottle of waterwetter. Beyond the temps rising due to my headlift, the temps were never really an issue

 

my piston looked exactly the same...only I was running 150 shot on a stock block. Made it through 2-3 bottles. lol. Broken ring land and no tips on any of the spark plugs.

 

So, let me get this straight.... Beyond the fact that you overheated your car due to a compromised headgasket, you feel that engine and cylinder temperatured did not play a role in cracking that piston?Are you for real??

Thats right, overheat a car,crack a piston, them blame the piston as being weak..

 

if everyone's breaking piston 3, then that's hard to discount or attribute to the piston design per se. It could be that overall temps are not affected. We need a poll!

 

The bent ring landing looks like heat and/or detonation. The broken ring landing is prob detonation. I dont think its fair to call the standard Arias pistons weak. They are up to par with all the other forged pistons. The design with the progressively smaller ring landings is a "all or nothing" approach, like most forged pistons, they can take some small detonation a few times but the Arias standard are very unforgiving for large mistakes.

 

Please don't try to talk down to me. I am well informed about the situation with my car, much more than you are as you try to interpret or read into what I post.


edit: just curious where I posted that my car overheated???

 

I never mean to imply that it was the arias brand piston that was weak in comparison to any other brand. if I ran wiseco, je, cp, or whatever, I would still probably be in the same situation I am now

 

if #3 is becoming a common denominator maybe intake manifold design should be considered, it wouldnt be the first time one hole ran lean.im new here but has anyone flowed the mid/upper plenum?i would probably take a hard long look at my timing/fuel map anyway because the only thing worse than a blown engine is a second blown engine!!!

 

No I don't have the pathfinder mod. I used regular coolant nothing special.

How much and where can I get the pathfinder mod and what does it do?

I'm going to look into seeing if I have a faulty injector, coil pack, or both as recommended by Arias.

 

This is the pathfinder mod that Sharif and Doug posted a while back.

Here is the web page on Evans cooling that explains "nucleate boiling" and here is the recent thread on coolants that discussed different options in terms of coolant.

 

Thanks

 

Update - we are about 2 wks out on the build at this point. Here are the specs:

>GTM spec arias ED pistons 20 over 9:1 CR
>Eagle rods - mag'd good
>New OEM crankshaft - old one mag'd bad....machine shop thinks it was due to UR crank pulley !?!?!?!?
>New OEM rod and main bearings
>ARP main studs
>GTM FI Cams - Stage 1
>GTM spec ARP2000 head studs; 11mm
>JWT springs and shims
>HKS stopper headgasket
>HKS Fcon Vpro w/ AFR/knock amp feedback
>HKS EVC 5
>HKS DLII ignition
>Carbonetics twin disc -> jury is still out on this. Flywheel is showing hot spots, but I think it will be fine after talking to a few shops about it
>Forge Actuators; Red springs
>Defi 3 pillar pod gauge array - boost, fuel pressure, oil temp
>Pathfinder Cooling mod
>Rev-up Oil pump

I am sticking with my exhaust setup...3.5" test pipes into the 2.5" APS exhaust

The local shop where the motor is at has me feeling VERY good about the build. They are well informed about the setup and I am confident in their work. They are going to look over the heads a bit and advise their thoughts on any headwork they might see fit.

Thanks to all those that helped me out

 

holly **** UR crank pulley? i still have mine on.. are they sure about this? im scared

 

They seemed fairly certain. Said they had seen it many times before. Said I was lucky it didn't take out the oil pump.

 

Looks like a very nice build.

As for the pulley I don't think it is worth having one on with boost, the stock one is not that heavy as compared to other cars, 300ZX comes to mind, not worth the possible risks.

 

i thought you already had the fcon setup?

 

yes I currently have the Fcon, but just thought I would post it up to round out the specs.

I agree with you gus, the pulley found its way over from my N/A days and I really never thought about it again until now.