Ill be there.

 

Im just now seeing this thread =( Sorry to her it Chris. At least 2 good things are coming out of tihs thread.

I am now going to buy an oil cooler.

and

I'm still in your sig.

=)~

Good luck with the car!

 

A shop that is EXCELLENT at RACE MOTORS doesnt neccessarily mean they have a great recipe for a STREET motor.

This type of thing has happened with other well known race shops as well.

I didnt know you had tried all those diff bearings. Remind me but did you re-machine the block after the failure(s) or did you start from scratch every time?

 

Started with fresh cores on motors 2, 3, and 4. I have 3 cores now that are only good for 100mm overbores and sleeves. I am trolling for another core now.

 

If only you had the shrink ray from honey I shrunk the kids. You could shrink them down and make cool keychains out of them.

 

Jeffie, you really need to share the mushrooms bro

 

Dave has a few I believe. But honestly at this point Chris....Im going to tell you to go LS swap. Easy to source, easy to fix, easy to work on, lots of available knowledge, relatively cheap parts that are plentiful, and can easily meet your power goals and take abuse of a street or track car.

Im of the opinion that overloading the motor on an aftermarket FI car is one of the primary reasons for failures like this. I've seen it happen (Nowell did it back in the day on a stock block)and it's either a rod or bearing that goes. On a stock block the rods first typically. Going up a hill at 30-40mph in 6th gear for example(or even 5th if its a 3.3 in a 6spd) and pushing the pedal to the floor (building boost) to accelerate WILL break or possibly do damage to something internally and that's what overloading it is. Im NOT saying this is the cause it's just an observation and opinion based off what I've seen around.

 

Theres a fine line between pussification, and a car that runs. I remember when my $h!t was down for a year, I was envious of bone stock Z's that ran and started up fine every morning.

Chris' build is in the territory that few have yet to explore. Anyone can say anything happened because we hardly see these kinds of builds in the community, ...period. Though I do say that an oil cooler will help, but we def can't say that's the cause.

 

Interesting thought Robbie, I'm not sure if my driving style would cause overloading or not. With the 3.3 rear I would be doing a min of 70+mph to be in 6th gear otherwise the drone from the exhaust was overpowering.

If anything, I would usually drive higher in the range just because the car seemed to like being between 3K and 5K rpm.

 

It's just an observation Chris. I've honestly never seen you drive it any significant period of time or hard so Im just basing it off other people I've seen do it. It can be someone just not paying attention or just being lazy really and can have nothing to do with the persons "style". I do the same with 6th and about 70mph as I have the 3.3 as well. The overload mainly occurs most commonly when people are just cruising, usually chatting or have something else going on while going up a fairly steep incline and not downshifting. Instead they just push the gas harder building more boost as the motor is pushing back trying to build rpm...and thats when stuff starts to give.

 

This is def less common knowledge. I am glad frank told me about this before I started driving my car boosted otherwise I would have never had an idea about the damage it could cause.

 

Does engine braking fall into this category? Just wondering if its similar or just the stress of boost under a slow accel that is the issue.

 

Didn't know either until Frank told me when I picked my car up. Makes sense though.

 

No. Engine braking is opposite as you're creating vacuum vs. boost.

It's not a slow accel that's the issue it's the load that's created when under lower rpm and forcing more air in on top of it multiplying the forces exerted on the pistons, rods, and bearings exponentially.

Maybe something like this should be added to a sticky thread like FI for noobs or something b/c I've found even some of the more knowledgeable people don't know this.

 

Ya doin hwy pulls from 5th to 6th is a good way to test your rods. In conclusion, eagle rods are pieces of s.h.i.t.

 

^^^Thank you for the wonderful input.........

 

Thanks Robbie. Just to be clear, the rods aren't the issue, I just keep losing the bearings. This is also only the first one that I have lost with me having the car to drive under boost.

 

No problem Chris. Please let me know if there is anything I can help you with. I can't describe the pain I feel for you on this.

 

lol.... yah...ok but he is actually right to put things back in perspective though... i already saw cass trying to wonder about his driving style, and i think that the LAST thing he should look at considering he has had plenty of advice for driving, and he is just getting familiar with how to push his car and coming off 3 engien fails, in some cases he didnt even really get to drive it, and when cruising you are mot likely on vaccum...i doubt he should be focusing on his driving skills that much for a culprit... thats not one of the "variables" i am trying to say he should change going forward....not saying its not possible that his driving didnt play a part, but this isnt the 1st engine that has failed....and for having some what a common problem on each fail.... i doubt driving skills woudl always break down the same component....

from most of the issues i have seen, try a controlled "fail" it on a simple turbo build... you will get the stock block to fail and it doesnt necesarly have to be the weak rods always.

No pun in my comments to you btw , i know you trying to help cass, but you are kind of "grasping at straws".
"load that's created when under lower rpm and forcing more air in on top of it multiplying the forces exerted on the pistons, rods, and bearings exponentially. ".......well yeah... thats why u should note about the load at jsut 450whp from an engine that started being designed and run for 230whp...but to use that for essentially pussification isnt right......and i am sure the boost levels of this last failure werent that outrageous....

 

The thing is quick.....when someone is "scared" or "learning" is when it's most likely to happen...they prefer to keep the rpm lower and just push the gas in more thinking they're being less "hard" on the car and in reality putting more strain on it. It can also just be a laps in judgement. I've seen it often times when guys are told to "break in" their motors and to keep the rpm's lower. They tend not to downshift so they don't take the rpm's up. This is one reason why I'm a huge fan of breaking in a motor on a dyno and seating everything before driving it on the road in every day conditions.

Example: Just chillin in 6th gear going the speedlimit (we'll say 70) with the girl going through the mountains....get stuck behind a truck going slow (say 45mph) uphill...go to pass in an open zone (but not in a hurry you're just out for a little cruise) and know you have 650whp....so you don't downshift and just push the gas...that's a perfect recipe for catastrophic engine failure. A perfect place to do damage and not know it for Z guys...the Dragon.

Doing 5th and 6th highway pulls puts quite a bit more strain and wear and tear for sure but shouldn't break stuff on level ground honestly.

Once again...Im NOT saying this is what happened. I have no idea honestly. I know no more about what happened than anyone else observing this thread. It was merely an observation that I brought up from seeing it happen to other people. Im not here to point fingers. Im sure some people from other threads going "I blew up" are thinking about this though.