My Engine Popped
07-11-2006, 12:26 PM
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My Engine Popped
Just thought I would let everyone know that I have been off the boards for a couple of weeks because I was doing the AKA Rally (Vegas - D.C).
While driving the car out to start the race my engine popped in Wyoming. This was day 3 of a multi-day cross country drive and in those 1,500 miles we spent a lot of time racing and at speeds well in excess of 100+ MPH. While going 110+ up the Rockies it finally gave out. BIG clouds of white smoke were billowing from the exhaust and finally the engine just dies and would not restart. I got the car transported to GT Motorsports in LA. They did a compression test and I have no pressure in 2 cylinders. The head gasket is definitely gone and the engine would need to be taken out to fix the problem.
Until we can get the engine out we have no proof of the cause of the problem nor can know the extent of the damage to the engine. GT Motorsports believes the pistons might be damaged due to loss of compression and contact with the heads. We will have to wait until I can get the car transported back to AAM and they take the engine out for analysis.
The guess is that my tune was done in Maryland near sea level and on 93 octane gas. Unfortunately crossing through Nebraska and Wyoming the best gas we could get was 89 octane and that was hard to come by. On top of that the high altitudes were not helping anything. Detonation probably was occurring and caused head lift and ultimately the gasket to fail. I noticed on the second day I had to add about 1 quart of coolant and had just checked all the fluids prior to starting the 3rd days driving. The oil was fine, if a little bit dirty for only having 1,500 miles on it and the coolant appeared to be OK also.
FYI: I was running my 7.5 PSI map for the entire trip on my stock engine and we were driving her VERY HARD for 3 days, 12+ hours each day before it died.
On a good note, I saw my built engine the other day. She is looking very nice and is patiently waiting for the car to come back so we can start the install.
Oh, I also bought a Lotus Elise to run the AKA rally. The Lotus did well, but suffered badly from the harsh break in miles. It’s at a dealer now getting checked out and repaired.
If you want to see some pictures from the Rally check out the website http://www.akarally.com/gallery2/main.php
Peace
--B
While driving the car out to start the race my engine popped in Wyoming. This was day 3 of a multi-day cross country drive and in those 1,500 miles we spent a lot of time racing and at speeds well in excess of 100+ MPH. While going 110+ up the Rockies it finally gave out. BIG clouds of white smoke were billowing from the exhaust and finally the engine just dies and would not restart. I got the car transported to GT Motorsports in LA. They did a compression test and I have no pressure in 2 cylinders. The head gasket is definitely gone and the engine would need to be taken out to fix the problem.
Until we can get the engine out we have no proof of the cause of the problem nor can know the extent of the damage to the engine. GT Motorsports believes the pistons might be damaged due to loss of compression and contact with the heads. We will have to wait until I can get the car transported back to AAM and they take the engine out for analysis.
The guess is that my tune was done in Maryland near sea level and on 93 octane gas. Unfortunately crossing through Nebraska and Wyoming the best gas we could get was 89 octane and that was hard to come by. On top of that the high altitudes were not helping anything. Detonation probably was occurring and caused head lift and ultimately the gasket to fail. I noticed on the second day I had to add about 1 quart of coolant and had just checked all the fluids prior to starting the 3rd days driving. The oil was fine, if a little bit dirty for only having 1,500 miles on it and the coolant appeared to be OK also.
FYI: I was running my 7.5 PSI map for the entire trip on my stock engine and we were driving her VERY HARD for 3 days, 12+ hours each day before it died.
On a good note, I saw my built engine the other day. She is looking very nice and is patiently waiting for the car to come back so we can start the install.
Oh, I also bought a Lotus Elise to run the AKA rally. The Lotus did well, but suffered badly from the harsh break in miles. It’s at a dealer now getting checked out and repaired.
If you want to see some pictures from the Rally check out the website http://www.akarally.com/gallery2/main.php
Peace
--B
Last edited by BamBam; 07-11-2006 at 12:44 PM.
07-11-2006, 12:34 PM
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Damn Brent...You logged a lot of high HP miles before the old girl couldn't take it anymore.
This is another example of the VQ's inability to handle boost. Brent is the second person (after Bert) that I know who understand our cars and takes every precaution to insure that their FI applications were done right and continue to run right.
Well it looks like the good part is you got a Lotus for your misfortune...
This is another example of the VQ's inability to handle boost. Brent is the second person (after Bert) that I know who understand our cars and takes every precaution to insure that their FI applications were done right and continue to run right.
Well it looks like the good part is you got a Lotus for your misfortune...
Last edited by BobbyRitz; 07-12-2006 at 05:50 AM.
07-11-2006, 12:54 PM
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Sucks man, would've been great to see your Z in the rally. Guess you'll still make out in the end with your built motor and all.
07-11-2006, 01:07 PM
#5
Wow....the elevation and gas theory make sense to me. That would really be difficult to map out... (pun intended) 
At least the cops are cool, right?
Can you elaborate on what happened to the Elise? Just curious. There's two of them in my neighborhood....one that is stripped for the track, no headlights or anything. There's also a black Exige, it's bada$$!
At least the cops are cool, right?
Can you elaborate on what happened to the Elise? Just curious. There's two of them in my neighborhood....one that is stripped for the track, no headlights or anything. There's also a black Exige, it's bada$$!
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07-11-2006, 02:13 PM
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Well, we were driving from Pittsburgh, PA. I think we were on I-70 most of the time, but we detoured about Denver and hit I-80 to Salt Lake City. We did not see stations with 91 or 92, trust me we looked. We even met some guy saying he did not know they made gas with 90+ octane....
Some places had 3 choices... 85, 86 or 87 octane... see now, I did not know they made 85 octane gas...
The Elise was the last 2005 still on the dealers lot in Vegas. It had 450 miles on it and I am sure was sitting in the sun all of that time along with those hard 'Test Drive' miles on it. There were a series of problems with the car, some cosmetic and other pretty serious. The top did not fit right, door seals by the windows leaked, passenger seat leather was coming unglued, speaker grills came off. Exhaust rattles in first gear on takeoff, suspension squeaks pretty bad, rear deck lid does not fit well (not flush with the rear of the car) and the transmission was going. 2nd and 4th gears were not engaging. I think either the syncros or the clutch was going. You could smell the clutch burning when I tried to engage 4th or 2nd gear.
I think I saw that black Exige Friday at the CFA meet. Sexy car man... sexy girl driving it too. I wanted to buy the one on the dealers lot in Vegas, it was white with Black racing stripes, but it was like $15k more expensive
The cops were cool for the most part, but that was only when they did not directly catch us. But a # of times we got busted for some stupid stuff. Overall it was a great time but WAY TO MUCH money...
As for the engine blowing; Being completely honest, the car starting blowing some white smoke when shifting under heavy acceleration when I got to Pittsburgh on the first afternoon. We checked it out and the best guess was either oil form the turbos or coolant. There was also some type of leak that we assumed was a leak in the head gasket. I could have stopped there and taken the car back to AAM to have it checked. I am sure at this point the gasket was not that damaged and a couple of days of work would have replaced it and had me back on the road in fine shape.
Instead because the race started in a couple of days we decided to take the chance (knowing full well that I had another engine waiting for me at AAM when I got back.) We discussed the problem at that time with various chief mechanics and it was decided that the leak would not cause damage to the engine, but if it got too much worse it could. I took the chance and it lasted about 1000 miles of very HARD driving before failing. I think the engine and the tune held up very well considering we all knew something major was wrong with the engine.
Hats off to Frank and Mike for the amazing work. And to the VQ for taking such a hard beating for 12 hours a day 2 days running.
--B
Some places had 3 choices... 85, 86 or 87 octane... see now, I did not know they made 85 octane gas... The Elise was the last 2005 still on the dealers lot in Vegas. It had 450 miles on it and I am sure was sitting in the sun all of that time along with those hard 'Test Drive' miles on it. There were a series of problems with the car, some cosmetic and other pretty serious. The top did not fit right, door seals by the windows leaked, passenger seat leather was coming unglued, speaker grills came off. Exhaust rattles in first gear on takeoff, suspension squeaks pretty bad, rear deck lid does not fit well (not flush with the rear of the car) and the transmission was going. 2nd and 4th gears were not engaging. I think either the syncros or the clutch was going. You could smell the clutch burning when I tried to engage 4th or 2nd gear.
I think I saw that black Exige Friday at the CFA meet. Sexy car man... sexy girl driving it too. I wanted to buy the one on the dealers lot in Vegas, it was white with Black racing stripes, but it was like $15k more expensive
The cops were cool for the most part, but that was only when they did not directly catch us. But a # of times we got busted for some stupid stuff. Overall it was a great time but WAY TO MUCH money...
As for the engine blowing; Being completely honest, the car starting blowing some white smoke when shifting under heavy acceleration when I got to Pittsburgh on the first afternoon. We checked it out and the best guess was either oil form the turbos or coolant. There was also some type of leak that we assumed was a leak in the head gasket. I could have stopped there and taken the car back to AAM to have it checked. I am sure at this point the gasket was not that damaged and a couple of days of work would have replaced it and had me back on the road in fine shape.
Instead because the race started in a couple of days we decided to take the chance (knowing full well that I had another engine waiting for me at AAM when I got back.) We discussed the problem at that time with various chief mechanics and it was decided that the leak would not cause damage to the engine, but if it got too much worse it could. I took the chance and it lasted about 1000 miles of very HARD driving before failing. I think the engine and the tune held up very well considering we all knew something major was wrong with the engine.
Hats off to Frank and Mike for the amazing work. And to the VQ for taking such a hard beating for 12 hours a day 2 days running.
--B
07-11-2006, 04:22 PM
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Originally Posted by BobbyRitz
Damn Brent...You logged a lot of high HP miles before the old girl couldn't take it anymore.
This is another example of the VQ's inability to handle boost. Brent is the second person (after Bert) that I know who understand our cars and takes every precaution to insure that their FI applications were done right and continue to run right.
This is another example of the VQ's inability to handle boost. Brent is the second person (after Bert) that I know who understand our cars and takes every precaution to insure that their FI applications were done right and continue to run right.
Defaintly not a good example of how to treat a tuner F/I car
To the original poster: I would love to one day drive in one of these rallys. Seems like u alot of fun with good mates !
Last edited by Weqster; 07-11-2006 at 04:27 PM.
07-11-2006, 05:01 PM
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Originally Posted by Weqster
Are u crazy man. He ran 89octane from the midwest, which is probably laced with 20%+ ethonal, and CONTINUED to boost hard? its called detonation and it only takes 1 occance destroy a motor.
I guess that's what you do when you have another engine waiting.
In any case, sorry for the loss.
Last edited by ht4; 07-11-2006 at 05:03 PM.
07-11-2006, 08:24 PM
#14
Originally Posted by Kirkster
Well I guess that this is the news that Alberto was not letting slide.
K
K
I already knew about this-the Z community grapevine is big...so Brent is AAM going to reinstall the new motor and tune it? PM me if you dont want to say (yet) on the boards.
07-11-2006, 08:47 PM
#15
Hey man glad things worked out in the end. I broke out of the CFA meet early but when I left around 7:30 there were a bunch Lotuses out there. I broke out right after Kelly got there. Had to get back to prepare for a long drive Saturday morning to visit family.
07-11-2006, 10:41 PM
#16
Originally Posted by ROGUELITE
Hey man glad things worked out in the end. I broke out of the CFA meet early but when I left around 7:30 there were a bunch Lotuses out there. I broke out right after Kelly got there. Had to get back to prepare for a long drive Saturday morning to visit family.
07-12-2006, 06:34 AM
#17
Originally Posted by kcobean
I thought maybe I smelled or something. I showed up, you left. Was it because I didn't wash the Viper? That's it, isn't it?
got caught in dc traffic. long story short... i got there almost an hour later
than i had planned to and by then it was too late since i had to get up the
next morning early. last week it took me three hours to get home from dc,
after all that flooding.
07-12-2006, 06:41 AM
#18
Originally Posted by BamBam
As for the engine blowing; Being completely honest, the car starting blowing some white smoke when shifting under heavy acceleration when I got to Pittsburgh on the first afternoon. We checked it out and the best guess was either oil form the turbos or coolant.
--B
--B
07-12-2006, 07:04 AM
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Originally Posted by Alberto
.... way too much power for a stock block to ever handle, Im surprised it lasted so long.....