I been reading up on quite some posts about people who blew their engine.. And there were so many factors that could have caused these 'booms'
Would someone please be able to tell me what the main concerns are for blowing an engine?

I'd like to keep mine as reliable as possible, as the gsr will remain out of the engine bay for quite a while, so got time to check everything



Bless yall

 

Make sure to get a good tune, and keep your power output within the limits of the internal components.

 

the tune is probably #1

health of the engine before boost, if you have higher leakdown numbers boost will increase the speed of death

high compression, cast pistons and pump gas, while not impossible it means the tune has to be spot on. imo it's dangerous as i had one of the best tuners in the state do mine, add just a little too much timing and it's done.

if you have a forged piston bottom end and 9:5-1 to 10:1 it's easy to tune, lives a long time and you probably won't be making a "i blew my motor thread"

also notice most blown engine threads use pump gas, i'm not sure i've seen an e85 or meth injection motor die on the first week

 

^^^ +1 A proper tune is everything.

But you are correct. There are a handful of reasons/scenarios for why an engine goes "boom".

1. Improper air/fuel/ignition parameters (Leading to pre-ignition, detonation, etc)
2. Mechanical failure (Due to poor assembly, over revving, etc)
3. Overheating
4. Oil deprivation

The list goes one... the only thing i can advice is a good tune, proper assembly, and stay with the limits of your components. (I.E. don't try for 650hp on stock pistons/sleeves)

 

I have yet to do research on Meth Injection =P I heard many good things about those systems.

Would yall consider an Compression 10.6:1, high? (jdm gsr) Would this be reliable enough to DD on around 300whp?

@JDMH22, Would you have any estimation of how much WHP is within the limits of an jdm gsr?

Thanks ^^

 

it's do-able, would be easy on e85, but like my ITR, if you screw up once it's toast on pumpgas. any detonation under boost will fracture a ringland. the jdm gsr and itr pistons are somewhat similar, yours are a bit better for boost but not by a lot. the usdm gsr is probably the best of the bunch being a real flat top

 

Meth can essentially be used as a power maker and also a preventative measure.

In many cases it's combustion chamber temperatures in turbo applications that fry a motor. The cooling effects of a high octane methanol drastically reduces those temps.

I'm running E85 on top of AEM's meth kit

 

Its perfectly fine to use for 10.6:1 on 93 octane gas.. Remember Racebum. Not everyone has access to that stuff around the world. America and Brazil (sugar-cane based ethanol) are the main ones used globally.

 

true there. 93 would also be another margin of safety over 91oct. do you have any advice on controlling detonation? heat range plugs, gap, how to bring on the timing etc? i mean, i've seen it work, just on those cast pistons, any mistakes can be a disaster

from what i can see on the boreascope in my motor, the ringlands aren't cracked, the cylinder walls are scuffed, looks like heat expansion from high cylinder temps

 

thanks for all the input

 

-Use a heat range 7 plug (NGK, DENSO only)
-have it tuned professionally
-Don't touch the distributor for timing
-make sure you have large enough injector and good fuel.

 

As everyone mentioned, a good tune. With that make sure who ever you go to knows hondas and has a track record with the honda society.

Reliable and dependable parts... that means NO EBAY!

Turbo's bring in more air to the motor which means more fuel and a better spark. Make sure you change out your fuel pump and get a spark plug as Shodan said with a heat range 7, If one of these three things fail... boom

And make sure your coolant system is not malfunctioning. While in the engine bay, now is a good time to replace any of those parts or make sure the system is full and the overflow has fluid in it.

 

Well said.

 

Hello all.... I recently replaced the headgasket in my stock motor b16a turbo (holset powered), and I did this becuase we saw a very milky oil consistancy and thought fist that I may of cracked a sleeve.... well sleeves were fine and pistons looked good from the top, but I guess my question here is do you guys think that a cracked ringland would cause a milky-like oil? My intuition says no, but we leaked downed the motor and compression tested it, and we had 200, 200, 180, 195 on first compression test (hot) and then cold it was 200, 200, 150, 165, so we knew there was a problem. leakdown numbers were consistant with the findings compression wise, but I dont have the specific numbers for that. IE: leak down testing would narrow the problem down to maybe valves or something? instead of ringlands? Im no guru here, but bottom line: Im asking wat all can contribute to milky-oil and low compression? (car was not bellowing smoke out of catch can setup at all/or under load, but would puff out cloud of smoke upon initial start up. (we found some water in #4 when I removed the manifold)....

Now, car sits for long periods of time >3months at a time, so im wondering if this could just be condensation building up or if this is a sign that motor is on its way out the door..... Will be compression testing again to see if new head gaskett improves the low compression on #3, 4.

Thanks.

 

You should probably start a new thread, but around 200 is normal. Compression tests should be done when the engine is at normal operating temperature. 200, 200, 180, 195 looks good to me. If you were at 160 or lower I would check your rings and or head gasket.

 

yeah.... my spare "known" good motor has 230+ on every cyl. though, so i was a little worryed... didnt mean to jack the thread but this does provide some technical information about blown engines. Im thinking my milky oil was just due to condensation building up over time.

 

Recipe for Not blowing an engine.

Start with:
1. Healthy engine
2. Quality turbo setup - properly matched to goals
3. Realistic Goals for given engine and turbo setup
4. Sufficient fuel amount and grade
5. Good tuning
6. Maintenance

You do those things and you won't have to worry.

 

Awesome thread!

Since it may help many other ppl out, i'd like to ask an small question ;P

Like Schister66 said, those things help prevent an engine from blowing up. But a few posts ago a dude was talking about cast pistons and high compression not being good either for the engine. So pretty much lowering the compression would pretty much make the chance of early detonation kinda impossible unless ur tuned with 93 oct and go with something much lower, right?

Edit; would headwork also work towards the reliability && durability of the engine? Such as; Retainers, Valves, Valve Springs, Camshafts?

 

just got this for my new setup for extra saftey! but i think you need a AEM ems to use this guage. It includes technology to activate a failsafe strategy in the event AFR falls outside of a user-defined operating window. If the AFR falls outside of the set operating window, the Wideband FAILSAFE Gauge triggers a user defined output function that can save an engine from catastrophic damage. After the engine is tuned and a safe operating window of AFR is established, the Wideband FAILSAFE Gauge continually monitors AFR and boost or vacuum to make sure that AFR does not fall out of the defined operating window at a given boost or vacuum level. If the Wideband Failsafe detects an out of range AFR reading, the gauge triggers a low side output (ground signal with a 1.5 amp draw max) that can save your engine from catastrophic damage.


http://www.aemelectronics.com/gauges...safe-gauge-85/

 

Ah sweet, imma read into that ;P thx for contributing to the thread