Well I blew the motor (pics inside)
Curious if you had any problems with the sparkplugs randomly going away and having melted tips prior to this? Usually they dont clog all at once severely, there will be other small indicators. I am curious if it is clogged and there wasnt any prior warning how long it had been since your last cleaning?
I have seen stuck injectors do that, the one that killed this piston was down 20% flow. The car was tuned for the strip so 12.3-12.4 20% less fuel in one hole at 36psi was not pretty:
EGTs stayed low but it got REALLY CLACKY...like it was a crushed skirt. Ended up being not quite as simple.
This one got so hot it vap'd the piston. Literally there were only small pieces of it left after the failure but it matched what yours did. Random failure as his AFR had been check and then at 7800 it was gone.
The head didnt too good either:
I have seen stuck injectors do that, the one that killed this piston was down 20% flow. The car was tuned for the strip so 12.3-12.4 20% less fuel in one hole at 36psi was not pretty:
EGTs stayed low but it got REALLY CLACKY...like it was a crushed skirt. Ended up being not quite as simple.
This one got so hot it vap'd the piston. Literally there were only small pieces of it left after the failure but it matched what yours did. Random failure as his AFR had been check and then at 7800 it was gone.
The head didnt too good either:
You'd need 4 EGT gauges, possibly a single WB might have caught it but I am inwilling to say it would have but it didnt in the case of the aforementioned motors.
Mugen777- Pull the internal log off your AEM and look at the AFR.
Mugen777- Pull the internal log off your AEM and look at the AFR.
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I'm no expert but doesn't AEM have failsafes to prevent this from happening? For example I know with stock ECU and Tephra V7 you can run a wideband....and if your AFR failsafe is tuned and your running ecu control boost the ecu will pull boost, timing, and fuel cut to save the motor. I would assume a almost 2k EMS system has these features
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Curious if you had any problems with the sparkplugs randomly going away and having melted tips prior to this? Usually they dont clog all at once severely, there will be other small indicators. I am curious if it is clogged and there wasnt any prior warning how long it had been since your last cleaning?
I have seen stuck injectors do that, the one that killed this piston was down 20% flow. The car was tuned for the strip so 12.3-12.4 20% less fuel in one hole at 36psi was not pretty:
EGTs stayed low but it got REALLY CLACKY...like it was a crushed skirt. Ended up being not quite as simple.
This one got so hot it vap'd the piston. Literally there were only small pieces of it left after the failure but it matched what yours did. Random failure as his AFR had been check and then at 7800 it was gone.
The head didnt too good either:
I have seen stuck injectors do that, the one that killed this piston was down 20% flow. The car was tuned for the strip so 12.3-12.4 20% less fuel in one hole at 36psi was not pretty:
EGTs stayed low but it got REALLY CLACKY...like it was a crushed skirt. Ended up being not quite as simple.
This one got so hot it vap'd the piston. Literally there were only small pieces of it left after the failure but it matched what yours did. Random failure as his AFR had been check and then at 7800 it was gone.
The head didnt too good either:
I've never seen a piston melt like that. The pictures that John Bradley posted is what I’ve seen. Injector failure is my bet. I would call Wiseco and see what they think happen. To be honest with you, you got very lucky. That’s a very clean.
Last edited by awdboosted; Jan 7, 2010 at 06:11 AM.
EXACT same thing happened to my buschur 2.3..... except i melted #2. sent my shortblock back to david and he said detonation for sure. mine never had any major knock but seems like i could hear slight detonation from time to time. after about 1500 miles of it my piston looked just like yours. IMO, i dont think this happened all at once. it was an over time thing. was for me at least and my piston looked EXACTLY like yours. melted intake. i am waiting on buschur to send me back my shortblock for another round. SO, there is a common trend here.
you melted #4. i melted #2. i was watching my WB when it happened. 11.5 afr all day!
so unless i tuned with a bad injector lean afr was not the problem. weird thing was i had NO timing in it. 1 deg @ peak tq and 6 deg @ 8k. this was at 24psi!
dont feel too bad buddy, your not the only one! LOL
you melted #4. i melted #2. i was watching my WB when it happened. 11.5 afr all day!
so unless i tuned with a bad injector lean afr was not the problem. weird thing was i had NO timing in it. 1 deg @ peak tq and 6 deg @ 8k. this was at 24psi!
dont feel too bad buddy, your not the only one! LOL
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I hadn't heard of "AFR Failsafe" with Tephra... what is that?
I've not heard of anyone configuring any kind of check on AFR within an ECU. With my Autronic and its general purpose controls I could maybe imagine configuring something like that, but not sure if it would be possible. I think AFR guages read so funny on lift off it might not be plausible. Something like, if TPS > 40, RPM > 3000, ensure AFR is between 12-10?
And guessing whether it was det or heat is difficult isn't because if the car was running lean, with excessive heat, that would cause det, then det would cause more heat, etc... or it could be the other way around I guess. See what I mean?
I've not heard of anyone configuring any kind of check on AFR within an ECU. With my Autronic and its general purpose controls I could maybe imagine configuring something like that, but not sure if it would be possible. I think AFR guages read so funny on lift off it might not be plausible. Something like, if TPS > 40, RPM > 3000, ensure AFR is between 12-10?
And guessing whether it was det or heat is difficult isn't because if the car was running lean, with excessive heat, that would cause det, then det would cause more heat, etc... or it could be the other way around I guess. See what I mean?
I hadn't heard of "AFR Failsafe" with Tephra... what is that?
I've not heard of anyone configuring any kind of check on AFR within an ECU. With my Autronic and its general purpose controls I could maybe imagine configuring something like that, but not sure if it would be possible. I think AFR guages read so funny on lift off it might not be plausible. Something like, if TPS > 40, RPM > 3000, ensure AFR is between 12-10?
And guessing whether it was det or heat is difficult isn't because if the car was running lean, with excessive heat, that would cause det, then det would cause more heat, etc... or it could be the other way around I guess. See what I mean?
I've not heard of anyone configuring any kind of check on AFR within an ECU. With my Autronic and its general purpose controls I could maybe imagine configuring something like that, but not sure if it would be possible. I think AFR guages read so funny on lift off it might not be plausible. Something like, if TPS > 40, RPM > 3000, ensure AFR is between 12-10?
And guessing whether it was det or heat is difficult isn't because if the car was running lean, with excessive heat, that would cause det, then det would cause more heat, etc... or it could be the other way around I guess. See what I mean?
To OP - sorry for your loss...
I had a similar problem. 4th cylinder piston missing a small piece at the edge and looked melted, but my piston was stock. I also had a crack that went down the skirt, all the way across underneath, and then back up the other skirt. Injector failure caused mine.