vdubmechanic

I'll keep it brief. I've been thinking a bunch on what makes cars blow up. Fuel mixtures, ignition timing, ping or knock, intake temps ect ect. Lets say in the perfect world of controllable variables we have a "ideal setup" every reason one could give as to why an engine would blow up I counter with a system that has been put in place that would prevent that from happening ect. Given that perfect scenario what could be expected as far as power goes on stock non built internals? Lets use 2 situations one is a crate LS1 with the ideal setup to control everything from intake temps to knock ect. Lets say the piston rings have been perfectly gapped and all that, but we are still talking a non-forged "stock" LS1.. What would be the limit of boost pressures for that setup and what would yield? Would it be the connecting rods bending from the extra strain? Would it be ring blow-by? The other situation is our engines. Take a brand new 4G63 "crate engine" (Whether or not those exist is not relevant) strip out the internals and put in literally the best components money can buy. I'm Bill Gates and I literally cannot spend enough money to even notice. Have the best engine builder put it together, have the best tuner tune it. Install every little system possible to add boost. We don't care about weight, aero, decibels, NVH, turbo lag, ect or anything BUT getting more and more boost. What would be the theoretical yield point then? Is there one? Have we hit the limits of the internal combustion engine already? Or are we only beginning to see "high boost" applications?

For the fun of it I'll put my little brain to 5 minutes of thought and tell you what I would think would happen in those 2 situations, but I'm a couple steps up from functionally retarded so don't use my words as gospel.

Situation 1: LS1. 20 or even 30 psi is literally nothing even to "weak" parts like a stock LS1. I mean we keep 120 psi in rubber hoses with no problems. I'd say in that ideal situation with the perfect everything we are only scratching the surface of what those materials can handle. Take away ping/knock, bad tune, ect and remember this is a hypothetical fantasy land where it's always 0c in your intake and it is impossible to NOT be in the perfect tune. I wanna throw out a number of PSI as something like at LEAST 50 with this ideal situation before it shakes itself apart and explodes? Maybe? Am I overestimating the strength of modern quality steel?

Situation 2: Given the maximum money to throw at this and adding in the ideal situation from above we literally don't know the limits of an engine like this (material yield limits, not thermodynamical limit). 100psi maybe? Again lets say that whatever reason a person says that this engine would stop making power I have a system installed to negate that. First thing that comes to mind is not being able to spool a turbo that could feed 100psi and running out of RPM before building boost. Ok then add a supercharger and de-couple it once turbo boost kicks in. Ok lets say the super charger robs the engine of so much power it has trouble making any boost. OK bore it out to 2.4 and install nitrous oxide (again perfect ideal situation) These engines aren't even meant to go in cars at all. I'm more interested in what would break these 2 engines given that the only thing you are adding is power (boost, efficiency, whatever you want to call it) Are we closer to the edge of what steel can handle? Or just getting started? Yes I know this is basically 1st year thermodynamics problem and anyone can say X is the limit because of this formula... ect... but I'm more interested in what the materials can actually handle given "perfect" conditions... Sorry if that was long winded or if this has been discussed before but this kind of thing is hard to search for...

Tl;Dr - Read, it's not that hard and chicks dig it...

Also I've been lurking these boards for years. I have a blue evo 9 with 22k original miles and I came here first when I decided to ask the internets about my dumb hypothetical "problem" so... yay!?

Pic unrelated.

Biggiesacks

an engine is a system of parts, there will always be a weakest link. The question is really about if the weakest link is strong enough for what you are trying to accomplish. If you wanna know the limits of what is possible i would say Top fuel dragsters are probably the most HP you will see out of an automotive internal combustion engine.