You need some help? I am not doing much today so if you need a hand give me a call.

 

Man im trying to get there for sure I need to move to texas get some evo love. LOL no evo love in LA lol. once i drop this car off at kevin shop im going computer job hunting there lol must be nice to have e85 for sure. When you find out whats wrong with your car let us all know im curious.

 

I went outside this morning to do some initial diagnosis (mostly visual). Before opening the hood, I tried to see if the car would turn on but it would not. So I opened the hood to see if there was anything in plain sight as it was too dark last night and I didn't have a flashlight. I initially noticed signs of oil on the engine coolant reservoir and valve cover (nothing like I'd imagined since I've heard several horror stories). The brief glimmer of hope was quickly extinguished when I took a closer glance by the downpipe when I saw the following evidence.









These are two cell phone images that I was able to take.

So what are the details of the incident? After finishing a brake pad change, Mario and I had to run to HEB to grab some E85. On the way, I gave him a short sprint (about 1/8th mile) to give him an initial idea of what the car felt like. So on the way back from HEB, we took the Paddy Hamilton exit which has a nice straight that runs about 3/4th mile. So, in second gear (about 4K RPM), I gun it and the Mamba starts to do her thing. The 2-3 NLS went fine (right at 7K) and the 3-4 NLS went fine (again, right at 7K). For the 4-5 shift, I lifted to make sure that I was in gear. I planned to run the Mamba in fifth gear until 7K but at about 6.5K, I hear what sounds like a "rock" hitting a piece of metal followed shortly by a cabin full of smoke. I take my foot off the gas and just coast the car to the side of the road and when I was about 20-30MPH, the Mamba shuts down and I finish the coast to the side of the road. When the car finally stopped, there was a short flame that shot out of the passenger's side of the hood (nothing like a shuttle taking off but a flame nevertheless). At this time I'm thinking, "Get the heck out of the car!" Mario was like, "Dude, did you see that?" So once we got out of the car and realized that no more flames were coming, I decided to open the hood. When we did, the only thing that you could see was the bright orange exhaust manifold and turbine housing of the turbo. When I say that they were orange, I'm talking about some serious orange. It was so orange that I told Mario to close the hood as I thought the sudden drop in temperature would cause more damage. I told Mario that I wanted to leave the car overnight and then get it back to the house in the morning but he came up with the great idea of pulling the car back the same night if we were able to find some rope. So after about a mile walk across HWY 190 and through a trailor park (as if we were thieves or something) we finally made it back to my house and luckily my neighbor had a nice strap that he offered up to us. After making it back to the Mamba and having her tied nice a tight, we started the slow drive back to my house and the pictures are the evidence of what happened.

 

Very unfortunate. Hope you get everything figured out and rebuilt to your liking.

I have a quick question for you, out of curiosity. What were your AFR, boost, and timing curves like on E85. I'm in no way accusing the tune of the issue, but I am just curious how close to MBT the tune was at certain RPM ranges. I'm just about to dyno tune my car to find MBT for my setup.

At that torque level, passing MBT won't last too long, especially on the stock bottom end.

 

First off, it's a little disheartening as I haven't been able to enjoy the car for a good two weeks. And to think that it happened just after Christmas (if there is any consolation) is what I try to focus on. I'm not thrilled at all to now have to go through this. I also try to tell myself that it comes with the territory when you're making good power. I'd just wished it happened when I had a bit more flexibility and financial overhead to keep the smile. I do know that things will work out as I know that I'll have readjust my priorities. To address your questions, I don't know what my AFRs were at the time or what my boost curve is. I suppose that I'll have to get a nice gauge for this in the future. For boost, I spike to 30.5 and with the nice cool weather last night, I know that I was more than likely pushing things to their limit.

 

maybe its me but how do you do that with a stock turbo and your tq was not near 450. i seen the stock bottom end handle more then what you were throwing at it. I mean unless the tune was not finalized or something find that hard to digest

 

Sorry to hear that your car is down, I hope you can get her back up and running.

 

To address your concern, I can't answer what made things happen as they did. I'm not speculating and a simple "every block is not the same" works for me as it is the only thing that I can go by. Yes, it is hard to digest and you have no idea how much of a bind this has placed on me.

Back up and running will not happen anytime in the near future. Right now I'm considering several options but the Mamba will be placed in the garage until probably the summer time.

 

evolution dynamics strikes again

 

no but on a serious note im running 27 psi on evo 9 stock turbo stock block and sure has taken lots of beating.. and i blow up my tuners phone always asking questions on what you think about this or that.. but i still think that the stock block could handle more than what you were throwing at it.. take it apart see what happen

 

You thinking about selling it?

 

thats what im saying man almost like the tune was off or something i understand the every block is different but stock everything i just dont see how thats possible unless something came loose in the motor. OP do you even have a afr guage? yea also sounds like your not in the position to get a built block or another oem block. if your still making payments on it the best options might be to sell it and just get another mamba later when the situation presents itself again.

 

Were you getting any knock during your runs? I assume you have the Tephra mods with knock-flash...

 

With E85, you go past MBT quite some time before gettin knock on the stock ECU, or so I've heard.

 

Pretty sure tuner told him knock wasn't there or had minimal knock