Of course

 

Hey stew, that sucks big time. I'm gonna de-tune my evo down alittle bit afther this.
Hope everthing works out. The more power you make the more things you break.
If you want I could ask if my friend will sell his 350z twin turbo engine to you . He
just wreck his car . He was fine but his toy was total from getting hit from behind. That really sucks because he had many things on it.

 

It sucks hard man. I have TurboTrix now building me a 2.4 stroker. Should be very nice. I was running methanol with 10.5 AFR up top. I agree with TedB. It was the stress I made on the motor at certain rpm levels. I was revving it to about 5k holding it in 1st gear, then WOT to redline. It was a shock to the bearings. It was just a matter of time.

 

[/QUOTE]
I wish I could believe that about the "mods". And I agree with being "honest". Home warranties work the same. If you even add as little as a screen enclosure (not by the builder of course) to the rear of the home, you have jeopardized the warranty. Its at the sole discretion of the builder if they want to approve a claim. I am going through it right now. They approved to repaint my house due to water intrusion, which they believed was caused by the pan roof/ lanai. Of course, the builder wants to keep me happy so I can refer new customers to them and it helps that they arent in the same financial position as Mitsubishi.

 

It is a reality of the evo that the rod bolt / rod bearing is a common weak link

The good news is that with a little prevatiative care - e.g. rod bearing insoection - rod bolt replacement - virtually all these failures could be emilinated 100%

The bad news is that most evo owners do not take the steps needed to prevent these problems and since it is a very small percentage of failures most reading this thread have a additude it prob wont happen to them

My position is that walbro pumps should be manditory for anyone running any form of increased boost level and that rod bolts should be installed for anyone who drives the car hard frequently going to red line area

 

not to be a devil's advocate here, and I realize i'm risking stuff by posting in a dealer ear-tagged thread, BUT,
AREn'T THESE CARS MEANT TO BE DRIVEN TO REDLINE? Seriously, stock EVO's shouldn't be throwing rods, this is retarded. . .I agree with AL, simply changing out rod bolts, rod bearings, head bolts, main bearings (might as well add cams and valves since your voiding the warranty ATTEMPTING to correct a factory defect!), etc. should take care of everything, but you will end up spending $800 on labor to have it all done, which I think is stupid since if your car is stock, you should be able to drive it however the hell you want. . .

Mitsu needs to step up and take a closer look at factory spec tolerances of the bearings. . .

 

you realize that redline is 7000 right. not 7700 when the stock rev limiter kicks in, or 8000+ on a flashed car.

 

exactly, rev to 7K all day like I did to my 03 and nothing happened. I never reved it over 7000 except twice or very few times.

 

The STi redline is at 7000rpm, and thats when the rev limiter kicks in.

I'm installing a shift light in my Evo that's triggered just before 7k, si it's never overrevved.

 

yeah that's what i was talking about, 7k, maybe 7.2k, jesus, people are revving to 8k??

well, these aren't ferrari's or porsche gt3's, engine's that are MADE to take those sort of rev's. . .on my old rig, I had increase the rev limit to 7500k rpm (from 6k) BUT I also had forged pauter rods, pauter rod bolts, fed mogul rod and main bearings, and forged pistons with revised rings. . .

I think it was smart of Al to lower the redline limit on his flashes. . .

 

+1 ... Goodluck man, I hope they fix it for you or at least offer some sort of deal because you have been such a stand up guy

 

Loomking at the numbers of cars sold here and the rate of failure it is a small percentage

It all comes down to the individual hobbiest and his her own confort level and budget

The main issue is when you start to get into a higher mod level you wont have a engine warranty anymore so it may be prudent to take a few precautions to assure you are not one of the statistics

Those who are doing road racing or driver ed days or auto cross which incluves high revs and holding out gears should without a doubt consider some of the items I have suggested

Also a few good gauges would be helpful

1 - Knock link

2 - Oil Pressure

3 - A/f wideband

4 - EGT

It really amazes me as a tuner how many customers ask me "How much WHP will my car make?" Or "which __________ will make the most power?"

I never have anyone askling me what steps they can take to make their car more reliable and its one out of a hundred who requests a "safe" tune.

Also, a lot of members drive the **** out of the cars when they are cold.

One important thing is that the OIL must be 100% warm before you start to rev the motor or boost it. I rememeber a story about a customer whoi came to pick up a car with a new clutch who got in the car in a 20 degree day and took off stone cold at WOT down the road slamming gears.

By suggesting some minor upgrades such as rod bolts and head studfs for protection, I am not trying to alarm the paranoid of the bunch.

The fact remains that these motors are very reliable and have a great record of reliability even modififed.

However, those who want to avoid these kind of situations may want to look into a few simple things you can do to make the engine more reliable.

Finally, just to suggest - that those who want to have a warranty claim fixed may want to consider to avoid posting pictures of the blown motor until AFTER its fixed. I am not second guessing Stew, but the bottom line is that there are several mod friendly dealers who would and could resolve a problem like this under warranty but it becomes hard to do after 19,000 views of your engine blown up on a public internet site.

Also on the subject of warranty

The way to determine the root cause of this failure is to measure the streched legnth of the rod bolts which requires pulling the oil pan

Looking at the spark plugs and valves is fairly meaningless as the pictures already have shown a clear case of spun rod bearing

I think the issue for warranty is IF the stock rod bolts streched out and allowed the bearing to spin



PS - I am using the opportunity of Stew's misfortune to drive home a message I have been saying since day one. Taking the right steps to make SURE your car is up to snuff is important.

Those who have questions can PM or email me anytime on what they can do to keep a positive modification experience.

Those with Stage 4 or higher - and there are LOADS of them should have the head studs and rod bolts - period.

Thanks for the time

 

More or less, which is why they are relatively short stroke, purpose built motors with meticulously selected and hand-assembled rotating parts.

Unfortunately, we don't get that!

 

I do think the rod bolts only become weak due to modifications and the bypass of important safety function of the ecu. ie MBC, revlimiter. We can all speculate all the weak points but the fact of the matter is that mitsubishi engineers know what there doing and have spent countless of years perfecting the 4g63.

 

Well, mass produced perfection on a budget, and under pressure. So, it's far from "perfect" but it is still very, very well designed from the factory.. The engine is designed for spirited driving, but not abuse. A well designed "perfect" engine driven to the limit still needs lots of maintenance.