Simple equation

modded car + blown engine = no warrantee

Is that clear enough?

If there is a recall or TSB then by all means take you car in but we voluntarily chose to void our warrantees. If his car was stock then this wouldn't be an issue (if my car was stock it wouldn't have been an issue)

BTW - My mitsu dealer is doing my 2.3l install. They are good guys and I took it to them so I could get great work done.

 

The Magnuson-Moss Act protects you from that equation.

http://www.impalaclub.com/naisso/magmoss.htm <---Valuable Info.

This helped me get my brand new TC and tranny re-build.

 

when i blew the motor they voided the warrenty 15,000 stock. took 2 months to get a reason why i got over reving as my reason, 1 month later after asking 600 times they narrowed it down to 5,000. Than i went to pick it up about 4 months later after all the bs they wanted 9,000. drove it away on a credit card ic hose popped off on hw, 2 hours to wait for tow truck. next time drove away a/c didnt work. Hooked up a boost gauge 11 psi. i just got the boost working now , atleast it was a really good break in on the new motor. Mitsu is a joke, make sure you monitor everything before you do it it is completely not worth it blowing a motor. anyway credit card company opened a case with them, they never responded, obviously they just tried to run me for what they could. Now the clear coat is off the car because of them, dinged up, and just not fun anymore, probably going to happen again, these cars are not what theyre supposed to be, i never heard of sti motors blowing this much, im just sick of all of this is it worth modding if your worried all the time just not fun anymore.

 

So if you were to put an exhaust on your car and one of your Synchros blows under normal driving conditions, its your fault? I don't think so.

I'm not trying to get them to pay for anything that isn't their fault. The problem is that they don't pay for 50% of the major problems that ARE their fault.

 

They did fix my syncros under warantee and I was at the same mod level. I would love it if they did admit fault but that's not going to happen and I am now getting my 2.3 installed.

Good luck with the rebuild and make sure to use ARP rod bolts once everything goes back together.

 

You dont get out much.

 

So you took a modded car in for warranty work yourself, then posted that I'm wrong for doing the same.

 

how do the piston crowns look, that should show if there was detonation or not, and help us diagonse the problem...

 

Can't see down the plug holes too well, and I'm not popping the head.. spark plugs look fine, I'll try to get pics up in a bit when I get the 10,000 megapixel camera over here..

 

Stew - I am not trying to bash on you at all.

But someone suggested that you put the car back to stock and take it in to have it covered under warantee. That is fraud.

 

That was me by the way

 

This is not a shot at you Stew, but I have been saying for the last couple years that all these mods people are doing were not good on the stock engine. Everyone is so proud of the 400whp they made on "Stock" engine, then a couple months later they are not happy that the bottom end has self destructed.

Has anyone ever looked at the rod bolts on the stock rods? They are small and weak.
Lets see, stretched rod bolts (the most common cause of all rod failures is bolt failure).

And I am sorry but 12:1 is too lean at 7000. Remember you were on a dyno and saw that number. A dyno cannot simulate all conditions that vehicle will see on the street or the track. Everyone thinks that if a car detonates it has to damage the piston, which is just not true.

What I don't get is why you were running a mail-in flash when you are in CT? Especially if you were tracking the car.

 

I understand you're point. BUT, the practice of putting the car back to stock is because will void your engine warrenty if you have an aftermarket air freshner in the car. Did you see the pics with the millions of FINELY grinded metal shavings inside the head? that does NOT come from an engine blow, that comes from slow wear over time.

for your reference:

Notice the darker center of the fresh oil on the runner there in the head. those are very fine metal shavings. There are a TON of them. They are allll over the old oil filter. I have a more high res picture coming later. Tell me that does not look like a faulty part or faulty tolerance.

 

You stated yourself that the car was running over 12:1 A/F ratio on a dyno. It will most likely run another .1-.2 leaner on the highway. Hard intake pipes have been PROVEN to make these cars run significantly leaner than the stock intake pipe. You guys are searching elsewhere when the problem is inherently clear.

Don't be so quick to place blame on Al's flash either. Mail-in flash tuning is somewhat risky anyway. Al has flashed enough cars to have a very good idea of how each one runs with certain modifications. He tends to heir toward the side of safety, which is a good and smart thing to do.

But......As we have found, and I'm sure Al will tell you the same, there are cars out there that just run differently for some reason. You can take 10 completly stock Evo IX's, dyno and flash every single one, and there will be one car that acts differently and will not take to timing and fuel changes like the rest will. Its very possible that your car is one of these. The problem could have been caused by the car itsself, or one of the parts on the car.

Did you let Al know that you dyno'd the car and it was getting lean up top? I'm sure he would have been happy to get that ecu back and make some changes to prevent this from happening. In my opinion the owner of every mail-in flash car should dyno the car before sending the ecu in so that the flash tuner can see the state of the current tune and dyno the car after the flash so that the flash tuner can verify that the changes he made are within a reasonable range.

I'm not ruling out any factory defects in the motor, but you did modify the car in a way that it runs more boost, different timing, and differnet a/f ratio. You will be absolutly wasting your time by even speaking to the dealer about warranty coverage. Someone mentioned The Magnuson-Moss Act earlier and how it helped someone. That will not help you in this case. You made modifications that directly affect the performance of the motor and warranty WILL be denied due to this fact, regardless if there was a problem in the motor due to a factory defect or not.

 

Stew,
Whatever you do, make sure the oil cooler and lines are professionally flushed or replaced!
Otherwise you will destroy the new engine in a matter of days.