TB123

So I blew the motor on my new setup on my second pass at the track...kind of disappointing, but I just want to figure out what caused this to happen so that my next setup will be more reliable. There is excessive smoke/oil coming out of the nipple on my valve cover and the #3 spark plug does not look so good. I assume that there is internal engine damage, probably on the ringland.

I have thought of a few possible reasons as to why this happened and want some input on what MOST LIKELY caused the detonation.

1. I do not have a catchcan. I simply left the valve cover vented out of the nipple and ran a hose from the PVC valve to the ground.

2. It was a very hot day when it happened. It was probably 90-95 degrees where as it was probably only 70 degrees when I had it tuned. Also, my intercooler is medium sized, it could probably be a little bigger.

3. Maybe I was just simply making too much power for the motor to handle. It is a bone stock (it has only ctr cams) gsr with a 57 trim/.63 ar turbo boosting about 14.5psi. The motor has 140,000 miles on it. It made about 400whp (dynojet).

4. I think this is the most unlikely cause of the problem, but could it be the tune? It was tuned at a very reputable shop and I am VERY confident that the tuner knows what he is doing. He has lots of experience. He warned me that we were pushing the limits of stock internals, so I am in NO WAY blaming this on the tune, but I thought that it would be worth looking at. If anyone is willing, I could email you screen shots of the calibrations to see if anything stands out.

My second question is what i should do next. I need to decide if I want to stick with stock internals or go forged and build the bottom end. Would it be worth throwing another stock gsr block in, or is it just too much power for the internals to handle? I could also look for a built block in the classifieds section and go in that direction...

Any thoughts/opinions would be appreciated. Thanks

Blue94Accord

you might have been running lean under boost. It could be a lot of things bro.

TB123

Yeah, I know it could be a lot of things, and it is impossible for someone on h-t to tell me exactly what happened. I just want to see what people think most likely happened. I wish that I would have recorded a datalog during that pass.

I guess that my main question is whether or not it was too much power for the stock bottom end to handle. I see other people post 400hp all the time on stock internals, but how long do they last?

94GSRMR

a catch can probably would have did you a bit o help, my motor made 340hp stock internal. had a cracked ringland...(DETONATION) rings were good but not my ringlands on my pistons.. cast pistons can only handle so much.. every motor is different... there is no set point to how long a motor will last..

SOHFAST94

95% of the time its a collapsed ringland.

cleansi

did you ever do a compression check on it or leak down check before you had it tuned most reputable tuners wont touch a car that has noticeable problems, unless this was before you had it tuned. but then again you kept running the motor after you noticed the problems?
you said that you noticed one fouled plug ive seen in the past where one injector has failed and caused a single cylinder to run lean and destroy the rings. but doesnt sound like the case.

was the motor idling weird, or sputtering, fluctuating or bogging down ? sounds like old stock internals just couldn't hold up.

good luck on your next set up and i would deff recommend forged internals its worth it imo

TB123

I did not do a compression check right before the tune, but I have done one not too long ago and the motor was healthy.

I was racing 200 miles away from my home so I had to drive the car back to my house after this happened, but I made no more passes and babied it home.

The motor was running perfect right before this happened and seemed to be fine even right after it happened. The only thing is that it felt week at the end of the pass. I only trapped 116 which seems a little low. Now, after driving it 200 miles, it seems to be a little rough. There is more smoke, and idle is a little bumpy, but still it is not too bad. no bogging. It is starting to sound like a Subaru. ha ha

cleansi

if the idle sounds like a subaru i would check the timing maybe to much what ems are you running but that doesn't really explain the smoke unless it was unburnt fuel.

TB123

Hondata s300

The smoke is definitely burning oil. It even feels oily when you hold your hand up to the valve cover nipple.

2000CTRSi

Stop driving it!

Pop the pistons out and look at your cyl. walls. Driving it that damn far while hurt prob made pieces of the RL come loose and tear them up... If this is the case, take the whole thing out and machine and run forged internals...

If the cyl. walls are still in good shape, bearings ok,everything xcept the pistons, throw stock ones in there. Dont evn take the block out, and turn the boost down some. Good luck.

00-Civic-Si

get rid of you pcv system because you are pressurizing your crank case. vent it better because the valve cover breather isn't enough. and ring lands sounds possible. cast pistons FTL.

funintheteg3

iTrader: (1)

Almost 100% ringland. I had the exact same scenario happen to my motor. Rough running in low RPM, smoking out of valve cover/crank case, loss of power, burning oil, sounds like a Subaru, etc....

Hate to say it but your gonna have to build the motor. Most likely cause is detonation or faulty injector. In my case the injector on cylinder 3 was leaking whenever it felt like it and caused the currently cracked ringland.

TB123

Yeah, I know that it is 99% the ringland, and that it was caused by detonation. I am just trying to figure out what most likely caused the detonation.

I probably should have just simply asked if you guys think that 400 horsepower is just too much for stock internals to handle and if we were just pushing the motor too hard. And also if a catchcan could have prevented this from happening. I understand that I should have had better crankcase ventilation. My next setup will definitely have a catchcan.

I would like to stick with stock internals if possible. I see that other members seem to be safely making over 400hp without problems. I am thinking of throwing another stock gsr block in there and seeing what happens. I just want to make some adjustments to my setup and maybe tune to reduce the chances of this happening again.

Unfortunately, I think I am asking a question that nobody will be able to answer over the internet. It is probably going to have to be determined through trial and error. Thanks you guys for your input though.