Am i the only one who has a fear of their engine failing? Any little squeak rattle or sound and im in the garage trying to chase down a ghost...just wondering if its just me. Had my engine built by a pro but still that whole modified engine and reliability thing question lurking in the back of my mind. any thoughts are welcome, or mods feel free to delete or move.

 

Nah, I'm much more concerned about that asteroid that is bound to hit the earth.

You are obviously keenly aware of your engine's condition, and if you keep up with the maintenance and continue to keep an eye on it, you should be able to detect any minor problems before they get out of hand.

 

Yeah, you could say I had the fear:

http://importnut.net/blown.htm

My engine was originally built by Payn Technologies. The original build lasted for about 37,000 miles when I cracked a valve guide. I managed to do that at a 2 day track event at Gingerman Raceway. Too many RPMS for too long a time (I'm a firm believer in Endyn's philosophy of rpms=ruins peoples motors). Not a huge deal but I had the head redone at Demaree Automotive in Indianapolis. 4000 miles later and one of the valve springs broke...springs that were supposed to be checked. As you can see from the photos, the engine is destroyed. It let go while cruising at 4000 rpms.

Demaree wouldn't take any responsibility. They said that the only way I could do that was to mis-shift from 3rd to second and mechanically over-rev the engine. Since I don't drive like a punk kid, that kind of thing doesn't happen. Even then, my rev limit was set to 9000 and the engine was guaranteed to rev past 10k if I wanted...

I realize that built engines really don't carry a warranty, but 4000 miles?

So, my all motor 200whp baby is a lump of metal in my shed and there's no recourse. I thought that my build was over the top and that's why it died, but I look at the specs on my '07 Si and they are very similar to what I had in my B18C1. <shrug>

Stock or built, there is always a chance that there is one little imperfection in the right spot that causes an ugly failure.

It all depends on what you're doing with it. Good luck!

-Alex

 

^ Yikes...sorry man that sucks. I havent had anything like that happen...but i keep reading these horror stories on h-t and seeing pics much like yours and wondering when its my turn... ::knocks on wood ::

 

i usually do a leak down test or compression test. if all checks out ok....im not too worried about my engine blowing up

 

Does it scare me? Not really. I just see it as part of the risk of highly modified engines.

With 130k N/A miles and 35k boosted miles, if it does let go, it lived a long and fulfilling life.