I saved and bought for almost 2 year and within 3 hours my car blew up on the dyno.. Motor had 556 miles on it.. My question is how does this happen.. The motor was on warranty also for a year but the shop closed down.


Metal shaving and there was chunks out of the cylinder .


Je Piston with a melted Eagle H Beam Rod



Whats left of the rod


chunk out of the block near the oil pan

 

not sure what melts an eagle rod, but id assume it had to do with poor clearance or oil starvation.

 

IMO it looks like the rod bolts let go first.

 

Is that because the cap is still in one piece and doesnt look discolored?

 

If it had poor clearance wouldnt it of been making noise while I was breaking it in or before the builder gave it back to me .

 

If its too tight, i dont think it would make noise. then again i dont have a **** load of experience with builds gone bad.

EDIT - but what 92civiceg9gsr said about the rod bolts makes sense.

 

^Yes Cpt. xThread. Also looking at the rod bolts one is broken off clean and straight... while the other looks like it held in there a moment, bent, and then broke.

 

Wonder what would cause a rod bolt to fail like that? Over tightened, not tightened enough?

 

Im going with one was tight n the other wasnt.. We removed my oil pan today and half the bolts werent even tight.. Didnt really want to tear the motor apart makes me sick to my stomach :/

 

What do the cylinder walls and bearings look like? You should be able to tell by that if it was overheating, lack of lubrication, or bad clearance. Maybe the rod was defective or the piston. I would see if you could get a replacement from whoever sold them to you.


That sucks though man, I feel for your loss. Are they aluminum bearings? Here's a chart to find out what happened:

http://www.agkits.com/bearing-failure-analysis.aspx

 

You meant the rod bolts not the pan bolts right? Pan bolts are not supposed to be tight at all, and the rods technically don't have bolts they have studs. at least in my f22 they are... If someone didn't tighten down those they really shouldn't touch a socket wrench! In my first time rebuilding my engine I made sure and double checked the tightness of such bolts/nuts.

 

Pan bolts I removed a couple with my fingers. but I didnt know they werent suppose to be tight.. And thanks for the picture

 

My condolences.

Its hard to say how it happens for sure. Could be an assortment of things. How experienced was the shop that built it, that is now out of business?

 

^Good reference chart.

 

Saw this on FB man, this is every car guy's nightmare for sure. But As long as the bearing clearances and TQ specs/rod stretch specs were correct and it had proper oil pressure then theoretically it should have stayed together. But do keep in mind, **** does happen. ARP bolts as strong as they are are not un-breakable.

 

There is no sense in trying to figure out what happened there. Its all speculation when there is that much carnage. Pick up and move on...find a reputable engine shop and have fun with the next one.

 

Very true and thats the plan just sucks my first build ended up like this

 

I'm currently on my first build. Sorry to hear about all that man... I really hope something like this doesn't happen to me

 

**** happens, I would deff lean toward poor assembly and oil starvation. Maybe you oil pump seized!

Just start over! if you want piece of mind buy a new ITR block from ebay for $2500 like i did, your all motor so it will suit your hp goals, guaranteed to perform!. All assembled complete by Honda! might end up spending that much on a new bottom block anyway. I have my motor for two years supercharged and it runs flawless knock on wood using this block. 2 left, and probably will never find this block again this cheap.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Acura-Integr...6398ce&vxp=mtr

 

Nobody bringing up tuning?

Whats the deal on the dyno? Were you getting tuned? How do you know you didnt totally lean out? Heat will do wonders inside aluminum...

 

Damn dude I'm sorry to see this. It makes me mad when people save and save and save and then get hosed by some *******. Keep your head up man, do some research and learn how to build your next block. It's not as hard as one might think. Keep strivin

 

Great point!!!!!

This happened to me but i didnt mention it for some reason!

I had a all motor gsr built motor, it ran great for weaks on a stock ecu, took it to get tuned on my vafc apexi vtec controller. The shop i took it to was called "The Dyno shop" in santee c.a. They leaned my motor out and it blew the head! bent and blew holes through my valves!

 

TBH, I started tuning my own car a few years ago. Just sharing my experience that it's hard to screw up a tune unless you totally do not know what you are doing, or are bumping up ignition to ridiculous levels despite all the warning signs like pinging/knocking or the dyno showing a drastic decrease in power. Also, need to check on the 02 sensor, they do give false readings after a lot of use, so always use other methods like exhaust temp, plug reading or knock monitor or something else to see if something is amiss. I ran a lean base map at 15-17 without issues provided i don't bump up the ignition too much, which i later tuned properly on a dyno, with a brand new 02 sensor.

Most of the time, blown engines are likely caused by defective product, improper assembly or incorrect tolerances, which is why it pays to get the engine built by someone with experience and reputation (mine was built by a engine builder that builds endurance engines, costs double of what other people pay) but I've been using the same engine for the past 3 years, daily driven, itbs, stroker, forged pistons and rods, without issues. Same brand of rod I use broke in another engine similar like mine, while tuning too, so sometimes **** happens and you get a lemon/defective product. Learn, rebuild and move on.

Also, one guy blamed the tune when his engine blew and bent valves. When the timing cover was removed, his timing belt was cracked and broke, not through misuse/improper install, but rather he never changed the timing belt even after using an aggresive cams. Take it slow, do it right, and that holds even more true when **** is getting more expensive. :/

 

The car was tuned in Iowa not going to put out a specific shop because im not trying to start problems with anybody.. This was my first all motor build and I had called multiple shops all over to make sure I had everything I needed told them what I had and what I had done to the motor etc.. All of them said it wasnt anything outrageous just a basic all motor build .The guy who built the motor was well known n the area for building fast cars and id seen his work on local forums. I had also talked with him personally and grew respect for the guy who built the motor. The car was on crome while I was breaking the motor in motor was very quiet drove 500 miles without a problem started everytime etc. ( Even took it to a friend who had swapped timed many motors and said he was impressed with how quiet the motor was) Trailed the car to get tuned on hondata.. Everything was going good and then my last pull this happened.. The car was also tuned n 4th gear .. Which I have heard that isnt normal and possibly to much timing was thrown at the motor...


I am now thinking about going K Series I have owned the car for 5 years now so I dont plan on giving up .. Just sucks I was close to being where I wanted it at and then this. Thanks for the feedback I appreciate it

 

this sucks, hopefully your next build goes alot smoother..