I want to blow up my engine!!! (Edited)
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From: Del Monte Beach, Monterey, CA
This post is great.. and I just want to share my own story. I believe my car was in for certain disaster this past summer.. however due to some very lucky timing my engine was saved. I originally had a tbe and 02 housing installed on my 03.. during the install the shop damaged the 02 sensor. I received the code on the way home from the shop.. called to ask my freind what it was and they said, oh thats from the hi flow cat.. dont worry.. turns out it was the front 02 sensor which was destroyed and causing the car to run mega rich and hot as a result. fast foward a little bit, i put on alot of other basic supporting mods and take the car to have it tuned.. the shop tells me something is wrong with my car (they failed to tell me what) and basically give it back to me with a weak safe tune.. they say check my mbc.. so i replace my mbc with an ebc.. and ditch the gfb bov for the stocker. Nothing else was changed. I bring the car back to a dyno day and no my ar is at a 13.1 and im detonating all over the place on the dyno. Turns out the person who had installed the cam gears slipped a tooth.. I put new belts on and through alot more mods at it and the car finally became the beast that I wanted and I havent had any problems yet thus far.. but damn, how im not sure how changing two minor variables and running less boost could results in a swing from 11.1 to 13.1..It is highly likely the car had a boost leak prior to being tuned...that and the shop also tuned the car on fouled plugs ( how a reputable shop did this without just saying we need to change the plugs after having the car on the dyno for 5 hours is just unbelievable to me, especially when you could hear it audible misfiring from outside the building.. but that is another story).. but anyway, Id like to have a mail in flash for a base.. but I prefer now to stick with safcII because I can go for frequent retunes for $100 to make sure everything is in line, or when i change any part of my setup.
A lot of people seem to think that this was probably tuning problem. There's a very good chance that there could have been a mechanical problem. A malfunctioning injector, a clogged fuel filter, a faltering fuel pump, a defective oil filter, bad gas, a defective coolant temp sensor, a failing oil pump, a faulty MAF sensor, etc. etc. etc. could all cause an engine to go.
Honestly, I wouldn't expect even a stock motored Evo to last 50K+ miles if driven regularly on road courses anyhow. That is extreme duty and I wouldn't expect the same life span out of the motor as I would if I just street drove the car or drag raced it. Very few forced induction cars can withstand repeated prolonged high RPM sessions on a track, especially during the warmer months.
Anyhow, I'd be very alert during the break-in period to make sure that the culprit for the previous failure isn't still lurking in the motor as a legacy part. All the more reason to have lots of sensors and gauges.
Honestly, I wouldn't expect even a stock motored Evo to last 50K+ miles if driven regularly on road courses anyhow. That is extreme duty and I wouldn't expect the same life span out of the motor as I would if I just street drove the car or drag raced it. Very few forced induction cars can withstand repeated prolonged high RPM sessions on a track, especially during the warmer months.
Anyhow, I'd be very alert during the break-in period to make sure that the culprit for the previous failure isn't still lurking in the motor as a legacy part. All the more reason to have lots of sensors and gauges.
Originally Posted by Az3ar
you should...
One of the MAIN reasons I got mine was because I heard of people driving their Evo's just fine daily at 20psi. That's where mine sits.
Originally Posted by TrinaBabe
I just get bored 
The UTEC is a great tool... thats what i used all last season. It is very user friendly and makes it hard to blow up your car. Youll like it.
The UTEC is a great tool... thats what i used all last season. It is very user friendly and makes it hard to blow up your car. Youll like it.
Well for the most part it does seem that there was a malfunction involved. So to say the least as long as you monitor your engine and everything is safe there is still a chance that this could happen to you!
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From: brewerton, ny(home of right coast tuners)
Originally Posted by QAT-R
I think the AEM UEGO gauge is a wide band.
Originally Posted by race17k
yes it is i was wondering if the AUTOMETER air/fuel gauge serves the same purpose as the aem?
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From: brewerton, ny(home of right coast tuners)
Originally Posted by djskyy
The Autometer is a narrowband gauge and it's not accurate as a wideband gauge. Although, Autometer is coming out w/ an wideband gauge pretty soon. It's similar to the AEM UEGO..
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From: benson, nc
Good eye opener post...
nrcooled, when you were talking about the ticking that you heard, was it an actual ticking sound or maybe a slight rumbling noise?
i wonna know cuz i have a strange rumbling kinda noise, its not loud, its hard to hear but its there, at around 3000 to 35000 rpms, or around there, when im cruisin or when i give slight throttle.
it might be cam noise, lifter noise, dunno, maybe im too paranoid bout my car, but thats never bad tho, sometimes the best monitoring devices for you car can be your own ears.
but anyway... is it actual ticking or a rumbling?
thanx
edit: and no its not the rumbling from my greddy ti like in my sig
, its comin from the engine bay, it was there even before i got my exhaust, i bought the car brand new and my only performance mods are in my sig, with stock downpipe
nrcooled, when you were talking about the ticking that you heard, was it an actual ticking sound or maybe a slight rumbling noise?
i wonna know cuz i have a strange rumbling kinda noise, its not loud, its hard to hear but its there, at around 3000 to 35000 rpms, or around there, when im cruisin or when i give slight throttle.
it might be cam noise, lifter noise, dunno, maybe im too paranoid bout my car, but thats never bad tho, sometimes the best monitoring devices for you car can be your own ears.
but anyway... is it actual ticking or a rumbling?
thanx
edit: and no its not the rumbling from my greddy ti like in my sig
, its comin from the engine bay, it was there even before i got my exhaust, i bought the car brand new and my only performance mods are in my sig, with stock downpipe
Originally Posted by DynoFlash
Reading this post is very disappointing to me
While I can certainly empathize with anyone who has engine related problems, as they are very costly to repair, I find that this post regretfully points a lot of fingers and makes a lot of very negative assumptions
Some thoughts on this situation from a tuner's perspective
No tuner can warranty that a given set of modifications is going to be 100% bullet proof in a road racing environment which places great stress on engine parts
The success record for reflashes has proven to be nearly 100% reliability and there are literally thousands of customers out there with reflashes of all types and sizes with virtulally zero reported failures of any kind.
Keep in mind that STOCK motors fail - right off the showroom floor. Mass produced motors have a certain rate of failure which no doubt increases when you are making greater levels of power delivery.
Without a mechanical engineer to take the motor apart and inspect the car and oil it is impossible to pin point a flash tune or any other part of your set up as a cause of a rod bearing failure. Detonation as experienced on most professionally tuned ecus would be quickly addressed by the ecu pulling timing and that is how the stock ecu is designed.
Just as likely a cause of failure as any other can just be one particularly bad tank of gas. A bad tank of gas can cause severe knocking which the ecu can not react to quickly enough. Without a testing of the fuel it is also hard to draw conclusions.
Some general suggestions for anyone who is "road racing" or doing "track days" on a regular basis - I would always suggest that high octane race fuel be used at all times in such extreme operating conditions, the extreme thremal loads heat soaks all elements of the turbo and fmic and results in super high intake temps.
Race gas is your cheapest insurance that the car will not have knocking when you are doing these track events.
In conlsuion, the past expierience of the past two plus years of reflashing in the US Evo community and the past 5 years plus in the JDM shows that a properly set up reflash is very reliable and most if not all of the users of typical BPU combinations at 300 whp have not reported any problems what so ever with reflashes.
Monitoring engine data is always a great idea and can only help - however, I feel the tone of this post and some of the comments made are innaccurate and ill advised.
Thanks
PS - Just to add that I have had a LOT of customers who regularly road race thier cars both for fun and for compeitition. Out of all of those cars racing NOT ONE has had any engine related failures of any kind what so ever.
When you are road racing your car , you are taking risks that things can go wrong. Is it likely to fail ? NO. Can it fail - maybe. Road racing, is a very abusive and destructive excercise. People road racing should expect that rod bearings may fail at a more frequent rate and should do ARP rod bolts as a preventative measure. Also, you may consider to drop the oil pan and look at the rod bearings every few events to see how they fare. In this, an ounce of prevenetion is worth a pound of cure. Finally, oil should be changed after every event.
While I can certainly empathize with anyone who has engine related problems, as they are very costly to repair, I find that this post regretfully points a lot of fingers and makes a lot of very negative assumptions
Some thoughts on this situation from a tuner's perspective
No tuner can warranty that a given set of modifications is going to be 100% bullet proof in a road racing environment which places great stress on engine parts
The success record for reflashes has proven to be nearly 100% reliability and there are literally thousands of customers out there with reflashes of all types and sizes with virtulally zero reported failures of any kind.
Keep in mind that STOCK motors fail - right off the showroom floor. Mass produced motors have a certain rate of failure which no doubt increases when you are making greater levels of power delivery.
Without a mechanical engineer to take the motor apart and inspect the car and oil it is impossible to pin point a flash tune or any other part of your set up as a cause of a rod bearing failure. Detonation as experienced on most professionally tuned ecus would be quickly addressed by the ecu pulling timing and that is how the stock ecu is designed.
Just as likely a cause of failure as any other can just be one particularly bad tank of gas. A bad tank of gas can cause severe knocking which the ecu can not react to quickly enough. Without a testing of the fuel it is also hard to draw conclusions.
Some general suggestions for anyone who is "road racing" or doing "track days" on a regular basis - I would always suggest that high octane race fuel be used at all times in such extreme operating conditions, the extreme thremal loads heat soaks all elements of the turbo and fmic and results in super high intake temps.
Race gas is your cheapest insurance that the car will not have knocking when you are doing these track events.
In conlsuion, the past expierience of the past two plus years of reflashing in the US Evo community and the past 5 years plus in the JDM shows that a properly set up reflash is very reliable and most if not all of the users of typical BPU combinations at 300 whp have not reported any problems what so ever with reflashes.
Monitoring engine data is always a great idea and can only help - however, I feel the tone of this post and some of the comments made are innaccurate and ill advised.
Thanks
PS - Just to add that I have had a LOT of customers who regularly road race thier cars both for fun and for compeitition. Out of all of those cars racing NOT ONE has had any engine related failures of any kind what so ever.
When you are road racing your car , you are taking risks that things can go wrong. Is it likely to fail ? NO. Can it fail - maybe. Road racing, is a very abusive and destructive excercise. People road racing should expect that rod bearings may fail at a more frequent rate and should do ARP rod bolts as a preventative measure. Also, you may consider to drop the oil pan and look at the rod bearings every few events to see how they fare. In this, an ounce of prevenetion is worth a pound of cure. Finally, oil should be changed after every event.
Now I am going with another tuning option because I want to be able to control my own tune and be able to make appropriate changes at the track to ensure that this won't happen again.
Also, I want to point out that I actually endorse flashing but I also stress that Evo owners should also be monitoring all parameters of their car.