The shiny wear area on the back of the bores is normal on all evos

The tiny scratches on the cyl wals are from all the metal bits in the engine

The two cylinders which did not contact the piston to the rod look normal to be.

Two cylinder which the piston hit the valves, breaking them off look strange as it is odd that so much damage occured as you would think the engine would have just cut off when the piston hit the valve. The engine ran long enough for the stuff to melt into the top of the piston, odd. Perhaps the bearing had failed and there was enough tolerance for the piston to smack off the valve top and you were running for a while with the valve top floating about in that cyl?

As I said in the other post - I would be interested to measure the length of the rod studs and see if any of them have streched out

 

Because the mods may not have caused the damage.

 

That would be tough to prove, where's moss-magnuson put the burden of proof?

 

It puts the burden of proof on Mitsubishi. They have to prove that the mods directly caused the failure in the warranty work in question.

Part of the Moss magnuson act that pertains to this topic.

Section 2302. Rules governing contents of warranties

(c) Prohibition on conditions for written or implied warranty; waiver by Commission No warrantor of a consumer product may condition his written or implied warranty of such product on the consumer's using, in connection with such product, any article or service (other than article or service provided without charge under the terms of the warranty) which is identified by brand, trade, or corporate name; except that the prohibition of this subsection may be waived by the Commission if -

(1) the warrantor satisfies the Commission that the warranted product will function properly only if the article or service so identified is used in connection with the warranted product, and

(2) the Commission finds that such a waiver is in the public interest. The Commission shall identify in the Federal Register, and permit public comment on, all applications for waiver of the prohibition of this subsection, and shall publish in the Federal Register its disposition of any such application, including the reasons therefor.

Link to the Moss Magnuson act: http://autopedia.com/html/HotLinks_LemonMM2.html

 

To answer a few of the questions here:

The tear down costs no more than $400 (quoted from the dealer). If the tear down proves to be a faulty OEM item, Mitsubishi is reliable for the bill of the tear down as well as the warranty work. If the teardown proves that my mods are at fault, I am responsible for the tear down bill as well as parts/labor (just parts ) for replacements.

I did NOT over rev the motor. Heard the clicking grow louder as the drive went on, note: as soon as it was noticable that it was a mechanical engine failure I began to head toward the nearest stopping point on the highway. I was just across the GW Bridge in NY, so I had to go 2 miles or so as to not stop in the center of a traffic filled highway. The clicking first presented itself at 6 am as SOON as I got in the car, but started VERY VERY faint. I was easy on the car until I determined what the sound was (wether it had been motor/CV joint/radiator fan/whatever). By time the sound was prevalent enough to determine its cause it was about to let loose. Final blow happened at about 2500-3000 RPM.

 

Man I know the feeling of the car breaking on a highway, that is the worst. That would explain the way the one cyl looks.

Btw - if i read the other thread correctly they did not pull the oil pan and look at the rod bearings / bolts as part of the inspection ?

 

I see no detonation

 

Nope, just the head....so far.

 

That is odd as I would think the defective area is in the rod big end

Lets hope that does the right thing

 

The defective end is in the bottom, and I'm sure they know that.. They just want to find something in the top end that I might have caused with mods.. pre-ignition/detonation related, etc... They know what they'll find in the bottom.. Only problem is that the rod bolts may not be left in the block, most are on I-95 in NY

 

it wouldn't have to run very long... as soon as the engine blows it's sitting in a smoldering pile of metal... all cooling stops... coulda melted then while just simmering.

i'm guessing that the valves brokw when the crank etc decided to leave its journals and fly around freestyle and then throw stuff outta the block.

btw your other thread is disgusting stew... i hope someone closes it cuz it's just disgusting. can you let us know what the exact cause of failure was? was it some bearing that slowly got ground away etc.

 

I've seen a 32 valve Mercedes V8 bend most of its valves ($$). In this case, it appears as though #4 is the one that knocked off both exhaust valves when the engine jumped timing, and seized the rotation (piston still near TDC) with valve head remnants melted into the top of the piston.

That shiny wear area that's worked its way through the factory bore finish may be typical, but all that piston skirt scuffing doesn't look like a desirable wear pattern to me. I'd be curious to know if normally aspirated 4G63s exhibit the same, and also if engines rebuilt with forged pistons by independent parties wear similarly. At a glance, it looks to me like the piston to wall clearances aren't sufficient to withstand the rate of expansion caused by the heat of combustion.

 

damn, that sucks, makes me so leary of putting parts on my new evo simply because if something like this happens. Also makes me more leary of mail in flash, looks like dyno is way to go.

 

Bingo Al.

Question for Stew. You're the 1st owner of this car I take it. How many miles were on the car when you picked it up? I've heard some bad stories about test drives.

I too stopped reading the other thread after the 10th page...but 2 of the cylinders still have the rod's connected, right? Have those bolts tested and the bearings checked out. Sounds to me like one or more bolts could have stretched allowing a slapping rod and thus wear. That in turn, got into your oil and caused more damage - just like Al mentioned above. The stretching could be a design flaw, but that design was intended for stock RPM limits. Just wondering how this relates to un-modded cars. I know Al said that he's heard of a ton of stock bolts failing.

If that's the case, I would put the blame on either a bad lot of bolts, or the factory not torquing them properly. Because there are plenty of '03s and above with many modded miles under their belt.

Another thing...you could have a company test these things outside of Mitsu. Failure analysis can show a ton of info. Like oxidation layers which build up over time (and thus lead to HCF - high cycle fatique). Striations (beach marks) in the micro structure in the metal can show HCF too. If it is HCF, it definitely puts the ball in Mitsu's court...but this type of analysis is something I bet Mitsu stays away from (better for their pocket). If you're interested, let me know and I can get you in touch with some people.

Al, do you have PNs, or links for purchasing ARP rod and head bolts? I'm definitely interested.

 

While I would certainly respect your thoughts about this situation, I would like to tell you that the past three years of experience with evos have shown that a bone 100% stock evo is just as likely to have an engine failure as one with a few minor upgrades

of course with a completely totally stock car you will not have any warranty concerns if it blows up

As for the saftey of mail in flashes, myself and other tuners have been offering them and there are several thousand out there with only a few individual failures. Most importantly, this one and the others can not be related to the tuning of the mail in flashes. I have over 2500 ecu flashes out there with no tuning realeted failures and only a few that experienced this kind of rod bearing problem. This percentage is similar to that of 100% stock cars which is to be expected.

In fact, for those who are modifying an evos with modifications that are typical (known as "basic performance upgrades" BPU) such as intakes, exhausts and boost controllers the fact is that running without a proper tune to match your modifications is more dangerous than running with a properly set up tune.