My Engine Meltdown!!!!!!!!!
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From: South of the Mason Dixon
My Engine Meltdown!!!!!!!!!
Truth Squad time.
Flash back to Saturday and my ill fated trip to the drag strip
Here is what I posted in another thread on the Drag Racing forum after I had a short lived high from breaking my personal best time at the track that night. What I though was a small ticking lifter or some minor issue was actually the total destruction of my entire engine.
Well finally I got to the track after a few months. So here goes My stock Ecu Vs. Aem.
I ran my stock ecu on the pump gas 4 times and the best was 12.090 @ 113.55 mph with a 60' of 1.798 I also put race gas in and the car started to run slower 12.2
Now I stick my AEM in with the 2 gallons of c16 i stuck in prior and on my 4th run I put down the 11.645 @117.95mph I ran one 11.7 and three 11.8 the F*%$# motor went I think it is the lifters cause it starts Knocking after 2000rpm and goes away once in a while if anything I need head..........Work
David Buschur was 100% correct about what happened to my motor. It was no lifter , that was just wishful thinking on my part. I am writing this post to set the record straight about my situation. I am not here to bash any vendor or blame anyone for what has happened. I don’t want anyone taking advantage of my situation to bash any vendor or get into a pissing contest. This is my life and my machine here which has been destroyed. I am writing to share my story. My intention is to let everyone know what can happen when you are using a stand alone ecu and to be aware of the end of my story. It seems I was a little too hasty to post about my faster time slip as it came along with a huge price to pay. A price that is not worth it.
Well folks, I took off my oil pan and head today as I wanted to see with my own eyes the truth of what happened and the news is as bad as it gets. It turns out my engine is completely destroyed. My crank is destroyed and I have bearing and crank shavings in my oil pan. My head is shot also. I fished out what is supposed to be a rod bearing and from what I can see my motor has been detonating beyond belief. I have an excessive amount of rod end play on the crank journal where the bearing spun. I pulled my head off and I can see noticeable damage due to this detonation. Its amazing to me that all this damage came from a few passes down the track. It can happen so quickly by the time you hear anything its too late.
IThe time I had mentioned my car was sputtering and having some running issues was the final blow to what has happened to my motor. As as result I’m taking my car and having Dave Buscher install a new stroker motor with a new head. Dave was very informative in explaining what he can do for me in getting me a new motor. Mark from TurboTrix has also offered to lend a hand in helping me in any way he can for me.
As far as the tuning goes with my AEM…all I can say is its not what I paid for. I’ve made over 100 track passes on my DYNOFLASH STOCK ECU with no problems. Since I got the AEM tuned by another tuner who I will not mention I have been having nothing but problems with cold start/blowing fuses/ and a slew of other situations that has caused me to become very irritable with this car. The car ran like a junk heap after thousands spent on the AEM tune and associated modifications. As an end result of the negligence of this tune my engine is totally destroyed. I was told by several certified AEM tuners that my tune was dangerously aggressive and my tuner left the knock protection OFF. I had turned it on, but the tune was so far off it still blew up the engine.. After inspecting all parts and examining them in detail I can safely say that this tune on my AEM is the one and only reason to why my EVO has been put down. This is a very costly replacement of which I am not at all happy with. Spending a few thousand dollars to have my car tuned with a new set of cams installed and other work performed, I feel that it was the biggest mistake I’ve done to my car to this date.
I will post the bin file for this tune so that everyone can view and see how and why this tune has caused my engine to fail prematurely. I only have 35K on this motor so its essentially just getting good. I will also post images of the damage to my engine to show the extent of how bad my engine had detonated during runs. Please post any information that you may want to share with all of us regarding this tune.
Under no circumstances should anyone have to go through something like this. I would advise many others to have you AEM maps checked out by another tuner to ensure the safety of your vehicle. This is a very costly situation to go through and I would not want to see anyone else endure what I’m having to go through right now.
The images shown are pure proof of detonation caused by an insufficient tune that was never good from the start. Reality is a *****, I ran down the track with my Dyno Flash stock ecu hundreds of times, but trying to go faster, I plugged in my AEM and my car was dead in a few passes I get a blown motor/money spent on something that isn’t right/ and I have to replace it with my own again. I say this once so everyone understands my frustration.
I would encourage others to download your bin files and post them here in this thread or email them to me so I can match them up to what I have. If I see similar attributes in the tune I will let you know and recommend you get your car retuned by someone that is
experienced in Evo tuning and who has a proven track record of success with AEM tuning.
I hope all of you have read this and see how bad a tune can cost you and hope that anyone out there stay with whats proven.
Flash back to Saturday and my ill fated trip to the drag strip
Here is what I posted in another thread on the Drag Racing forum after I had a short lived high from breaking my personal best time at the track that night. What I though was a small ticking lifter or some minor issue was actually the total destruction of my entire engine.
Well finally I got to the track after a few months. So here goes My stock Ecu Vs. Aem.
I ran my stock ecu on the pump gas 4 times and the best was 12.090 @ 113.55 mph with a 60' of 1.798 I also put race gas in and the car started to run slower 12.2
Now I stick my AEM in with the 2 gallons of c16 i stuck in prior and on my 4th run I put down the 11.645 @117.95mph I ran one 11.7 and three 11.8 the F*%$# motor went I think it is the lifters cause it starts Knocking after 2000rpm and goes away once in a while if anything I need head..........Work
David Buschur was 100% correct about what happened to my motor. It was no lifter , that was just wishful thinking on my part. I am writing this post to set the record straight about my situation. I am not here to bash any vendor or blame anyone for what has happened. I don’t want anyone taking advantage of my situation to bash any vendor or get into a pissing contest. This is my life and my machine here which has been destroyed. I am writing to share my story. My intention is to let everyone know what can happen when you are using a stand alone ecu and to be aware of the end of my story. It seems I was a little too hasty to post about my faster time slip as it came along with a huge price to pay. A price that is not worth it.
Well folks, I took off my oil pan and head today as I wanted to see with my own eyes the truth of what happened and the news is as bad as it gets. It turns out my engine is completely destroyed. My crank is destroyed and I have bearing and crank shavings in my oil pan. My head is shot also. I fished out what is supposed to be a rod bearing and from what I can see my motor has been detonating beyond belief. I have an excessive amount of rod end play on the crank journal where the bearing spun. I pulled my head off and I can see noticeable damage due to this detonation. Its amazing to me that all this damage came from a few passes down the track. It can happen so quickly by the time you hear anything its too late.
IThe time I had mentioned my car was sputtering and having some running issues was the final blow to what has happened to my motor. As as result I’m taking my car and having Dave Buscher install a new stroker motor with a new head. Dave was very informative in explaining what he can do for me in getting me a new motor. Mark from TurboTrix has also offered to lend a hand in helping me in any way he can for me.
As far as the tuning goes with my AEM…all I can say is its not what I paid for. I’ve made over 100 track passes on my DYNOFLASH STOCK ECU with no problems. Since I got the AEM tuned by another tuner who I will not mention I have been having nothing but problems with cold start/blowing fuses/ and a slew of other situations that has caused me to become very irritable with this car. The car ran like a junk heap after thousands spent on the AEM tune and associated modifications. As an end result of the negligence of this tune my engine is totally destroyed. I was told by several certified AEM tuners that my tune was dangerously aggressive and my tuner left the knock protection OFF. I had turned it on, but the tune was so far off it still blew up the engine.. After inspecting all parts and examining them in detail I can safely say that this tune on my AEM is the one and only reason to why my EVO has been put down. This is a very costly replacement of which I am not at all happy with. Spending a few thousand dollars to have my car tuned with a new set of cams installed and other work performed, I feel that it was the biggest mistake I’ve done to my car to this date.
I will post the bin file for this tune so that everyone can view and see how and why this tune has caused my engine to fail prematurely. I only have 35K on this motor so its essentially just getting good. I will also post images of the damage to my engine to show the extent of how bad my engine had detonated during runs. Please post any information that you may want to share with all of us regarding this tune.
Under no circumstances should anyone have to go through something like this. I would advise many others to have you AEM maps checked out by another tuner to ensure the safety of your vehicle. This is a very costly situation to go through and I would not want to see anyone else endure what I’m having to go through right now.
The images shown are pure proof of detonation caused by an insufficient tune that was never good from the start. Reality is a *****, I ran down the track with my Dyno Flash stock ecu hundreds of times, but trying to go faster, I plugged in my AEM and my car was dead in a few passes I get a blown motor/money spent on something that isn’t right/ and I have to replace it with my own again. I say this once so everyone understands my frustration.
I would encourage others to download your bin files and post them here in this thread or email them to me so I can match them up to what I have. If I see similar attributes in the tune I will let you know and recommend you get your car retuned by someone that is
experienced in Evo tuning and who has a proven track record of success with AEM tuning.
I hope all of you have read this and see how bad a tune can cost you and hope that anyone out there stay with whats proven.
Last edited by PHILLY EVO; Dec 1, 2005 at 07:12 PM.
sorry to hear this has happened to you. at least you will have a stronger and faster car in the end.
if you don't mind me asking you should let us all know who "tuned" your AEM so someone doesn't wind up in the same predicament as you. i am not here to bash on anyone but it may save someone alot of money in the end.
good luck on getting your car done, dave is a great guy.
if you don't mind me asking you should let us all know who "tuned" your AEM so someone doesn't wind up in the same predicament as you. i am not here to bash on anyone but it may save someone alot of money in the end.
good luck on getting your car done, dave is a great guy.
i was in similar situation before but i had Utec. My tuner was tuned too aggressive and my engine knocking left and right. i asked my tuner not to tune it too aggressive. My car was running extremely lean and injector was max out. i asked him to tune it down but he won't do it and told me the only way to solve it is by getting bigger injector. I was so FXXKing **** and end up selling my utec within a week
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Ouch man, that sucks. There's really not much else one can say about that other than that sucks. Hard. I hope you get everything sorted out. I think the tuner should be helping you with the cost of a new engine though, if it was indeed the tuning that caused the engine to blow...
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Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 12
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From: Cartersville, Ga.
Ill send you $500 for that POS AEM. 
You have to know before you track your car for the first time that it may cost you thousands before the night is done. Sucks, but its the chance everyone takes. If it was a bad tune, you'd think it wouldve shown knock (possible detonation)in the log from previous driving. Good luck with the rebuild.
You have to know before you track your car for the first time that it may cost you thousands before the night is done. Sucks, but its the chance everyone takes. If it was a bad tune, you'd think it wouldve shown knock (possible detonation)in the log from previous driving. Good luck with the rebuild.
I feel your pain, but every thread similar to this just ends up with the person telling or PMing people with the name of the tuner. One of them slips up and says the name, usually with a *cough* insert name here *cough*. Then a huge finger pointing grudge match insues and all hell breaks loose until the mods clean up the thread or delete it. AEM isn't for everyone.
Good luck with the new engine! You made a good choice by going to Buschur.
Good luck with the new engine! You made a good choice by going to Buschur.