Sorry, just saw this.

I definitely prefer the power delivery of the 4B11.
But I don't trust the 4B11 further than I can throw it for reliability. I have purposely kept mine to very light mods so I don't get the piston, ring, or death knock issue. I want a car I can mod and know it will be dead nuts reliable at 450whp.

The Mivec in the IX vs. the VIII 4G63 in addition to the other changes made a huge difference. An IX with exhaust and a tune will outpower an VIII with a tune, exhaust, hotside, cams, cam gears, and have lots more area under the curve.

 

I've read a lot of those threads, I didnt comment for obvious reasons, but isn't that a pretty rare event? We've seen a lot of 4b11's making great power day after day with no issue

 

I would consider it rare.... Also, there could be many variables involved with why these issues are happening.


People were already a 400Hp in less than a year with the car with light mods.

 

I think it is somewhat rare, but I saw it happen to two friends firsthand, and it has me spooked. One was uber modded (so it was somewhat expected), the other was basic bolt on mods (very unexpected).

 

Seems pretty random

The theory for turbos to make power has been around for years now, esp after the evo viii introduction - more flow more timing etc. Could it be the tune? It's relatively easy to make power, and quickly - but a tune could take years to figure out exactly what it is the 4b11 likes and doesn't like.

Did they figure out exactly what it is? I hate not having peace of mind with my cars

 

I understand why you'd be spooked, but honestly just about every thread we've come across on a 4B11 getting toast: the user either had a sketchy tune, had something odd happen, was pushing the engine to see the limits, or was being completely wreckless with it.

I have yet to see a 4B11 fail for anything reasonable. Now with that being said, I'm sure there are a few out there. Manufacturing defects happen no matter what, even machines can't be perfect 100% of the time. So it's going to happen. This is the whole point for warranties. Not for someone to push their car until it explodes, return it to stock and take it back to

I'm still optimistic about the 4B11. Look at people like Ryan Gates, ETS, GST, Buschur, English Racing. All these guys have pushed their Xs to the limit. Sure they've had issues, but not so much with the 4B11. ETS didn't crack a piston and have rod bolt troubles until 680whp. They had their car over 500whp for over a year. DD too.

 

I have the utmost respect for those shops.
If GST were not on the other side of the world, I would love to pay Bryan to map my own car. He's already helped me and this community a ton. By Bryan's own admission, this is a rare problem. Other than Boostd4's car, I don't think they have seen it other places.

Buschur's own car went down, and they are building it into an awesome monster. They had a customer with a similar failure IIRC.

I have no explanation for Ryan Gates. The car is light, the kid is a freaking epic racecar driver, and he is lucky.

I am not saying all 4B11s will do this, nor that many will. I am saying that after seeing my friend's car do it and knowing that it was tuned properly, never driven hard, and that he had so few mods, it scares the crap out of me. I had a lot of time diagnosing and trying to correct his car, and that was the most defeating engine problem I have ever seen in my life.

 

Well only time will tell. I don't think there is any other way to see. But the X has been out for almost 3 years, and we can probably count the failures on two hands. There are a ton of Xs out there. Probably more than the IX. The IX had a few engine problems as well, doesn't mean it was common or the 4G63 was a bad engine. Things happen. Especially when we do what we do to our cars.

And btw, I don't consider Gates lucky at all. I think AMS knows what they are doing.

 

I can account for a lot more than two hands worth of failures!
A lot of people are going for warranty.
There are also people that don't want to look bad, shop to look bad, etc.

Its none of those people's fault, IMO. Its the engine is just not as robust as the 4G63.

 

you mean 4g63.. no seriously, in the back of your mind you wanted to say 4b11 lol.

 

Robust can mean a lot of things, what do you mean by that?

 

You mean the 4G63. And dont be so quick to forget as you have lightly modded your 4B and have had no such issues. By your own admission your 8 had a cracked piston.

 

Strong. Able to handle a 30R on race gas for 40k miles without drama.

Ah, my Evo VIII and its cracked piston.
That was 100% owner stupidity on my part. I was an early modder, and had a TME on race gas running 27psi. I had the boost gauge tapped at the rising FPR line like everybody did at first for ease of access and gauge stability. It blew off WOT in 4th and went 17:1 AFR for about a second before I caught it. Its dumb luck all I did was crack a piston.

 

and the car to look bad - it's unfortunate but I get the feeling because of the competition with the old car X fanatics would be less willing to admit a failure, however rare etc it may be.

Is it a fairly similar issue that's effecting the motor? It's probably a less than 1% issue

 

I have had my car X for a year and a few months, I hit 30k yesterday, it has been modded with a tune for 26k.... I still think there are only a few cars that have gone over 30k, so time will tell.