Long story short, we were tuning my car the other weekend and we blew a radiator hose during a pull. Obviously air was getting into the coolant system meaning a blown HG usually.

Pulled the head to find this.


My tuner said he has seen this happen once before from a stuck or clogged injector.

Anyone else ever seen anything like this? I know there will be tons of questions so just post and I will answer to the best of my knowledge.

It is a brand new build. Both the head and block were machined/decked before assembly.

Head consisted of
GSC guides
GSC standard valves
GSC valve seals
GSC springs/retainers

I'll be sending the injectors off to get checked tomorrow.

Any help or insight is appreciated

 

The tuning is obviously way off there and it takes a real skill or lack thereof to melt a hole in the cylinder head.

 

never seena hole through a head... but, 1 bad injector can destroy motors very quick

 

Post more pics of the other chambers.

 

Why do you say tuning? He has tuned my car before and the car was just fine. We were working on adding boost as I had just built the motor. I will get pics of the other cylinders today.

 

High egt from possible injector failure or detonation. Logs of the last few pulls? Interested in what the other chambers look like as well and a full view of the failed one. Spark plug still in one whole piece?

 

this is head lift from detonation. 4000psi cylinder pressure pressurizes water jacket designed for 30psi. high pressure water cuts head as it shoots out of jacket.

 

So you think the clogged/stuck (tbd) injector caused detonation, thus lifting the head and ripping the head apart?

Upon removing the vc a few of the head studs in that area had less tq than the others.

 

Head gasket blew, and combustion cut through the head.

 

had a similar failure. search my username and you'll find the thread and the culprit

 

This actually seems more accurate. I continued to look at the hole and you can see that its not chunks missing, but rather edges that melted down.

You think that extreme detonation caused the head lift or improper headstud torque?

Still interested in data logs.

 

I torched a hole in my head as well, although it wasn't at the water jacket.

The injectors were then sent to FIC for inspection and cleaning and two of them had a horrible spray pattern from being gunked up. I was on ethanol.

I figured the lean condition lifted the head from pre ignition, EGTs and cylinder pressure went through the roof, and burned the hole. it also put a divot on the deck.

 

I am in the same boat as you now. There is a divot in the head.



If I get the deck resurfaced the pistons will stick out .001 over the deck.

My dilemma with that is with a 9 HG will the extra thickness give me enough piston to valve clearance still?

The other option is that the machine shop has said he has repaired heads and blocks by drilling the hole out and tapping it and plugging with a very strong bolt made out of some special metal. He can then smooth it out and it will all be uniform. He showed us a few heads and you can't tell that it was ever plugged at all. Has anyone ever dealt with that?

Pics of the other cylinders coming tonight.

 

That sucks. There's a place that can fix it called Midwest cylinder heads. Id give them a call.

Its more then likely a fueling issue probably. whenever you melt parts randomly it is fuel related from being to lean.

Get your injectors tested then go from there. then go through the rest of the fueling system in the car if the injectors come back good.

Could be:

FPR not doing its job
Clogged inline fuel filter
Clogged feed or return line
Clogged fuel pump sock/filter
Not small enough Micron filter in the inline filter (recommended no bigger then 10 micron to protect the injectors)
Weak / bad fuel pump.
Failed pressure switch

list goes on and on. If its a single pump its easier to diagnose of course.

 

yeah, single rewired 450.. it'd be nice to have individual widebands for each cylinder lol.. it'd make for an easier diagnosis.