Stock Bottom Carnage

[SSBUSDRVR]

Who has had an engine failure? Stock bottom? Boost # Cam etc. What failed if you know and what did you end up replacing it with? Going to weigh all options what to replace it with.

Let loose Friday Nt without warning (other than a quick slight vibration and an immediate failure) Up in a cloud of smoke. Hole in block. Has run trouble free since work done 17 months ago. Sh*t Happens.

[BullF-16]

My OE motor let go almost 2 years ago. Number 5 piston top 2 ringlands gave up followed by a huge cloud of smoke. This was during a 1st - 4th pull on the back north Tx farmroads. Car drove fine after that just smoked alot. Upon tearing the motor down in my garage, block is fine as are all the other components except the #5 piston.

I was at 715whp running meth. Cam was 226/235 if i remember right. Nothing extreme.

I had already contracted Erik Koenig at HKE racing engines to start my LSX motor so i was basically running an experiment to see how long the LS3 would last above 700rwhp since so many here said it would last forever with a good tune. Well, taylor Simms of Dallas Performance was the tuner and is extremely well known as a great tuner.

Car lasted probably 6000 boosted miles but only 6 weeks after pulleying down and upping boost from 7 to 11.5 and hp from 637 to 715.

I was very hard on the car, about 6 gallons of meth in 6 weeks before it let go.

It will eventually happen if you drive the car the way it should be driven.

Now build a beast and have fun.

[MANNYS2SS/RS]

Originally Posted by SSBUSDRVR

Who has had an engine failure? Stock bottom? Boost # Cam etc. What failed if you know and what did you end up replacing it with? Going to weigh all options what to replace it with.

Let loose Friday Nt without warning (other than a quick slight vibration and an immediate failure) Up in a cloud of smoke. Hole in block. Has run trouble free since work done 17 months ago. Sh*t Happens.

Wow!! Sorry to hear.

[1LE Red Dragon]

That's not good. How much boost were you running? What kind of power was it making? I seen headers and an Edelbrock Eforce. What else was done?

[1 SIK SS]

Thing like this make me think twice about boosting my car lol

[SSBUSDRVR]

Thanks Manny hopefully there will be SSCR3 and be back for it next year.
Bull been awhile. How are ya? Coworker's son you helped train ended up based out at Luke.
1LE Red Dragon: 3.25 pulley JRE E-Force Mod. VR Grind COMP Cam all the supporting parts,ZL1 and KB BAP. VR Flow match upgraded Injectors(sorry can't remember what brand they used.) Avg 8.5 Boost and 10ish top end.
Mid 6's. 93 pump gas No Meth.

[jessrayo]

Originally Posted by SSBUSDRVR

Who has had an engine failure? Stock bottom? Boost # Cam etc. What failed if you know and what did you end up replacing it with? Going to weigh all options what to replace it with.

Let loose Friday Nt without warning (other than a quick slight vibration and an immediate failure) Up in a cloud of smoke. Hole in block. Has run trouble free since work done 17 months ago. Sh*t Happens.

I lost an engine. It was not stock, it was a 417 stroker crankshaft with forged Calles rods and Wisco pistons. I was running about 16 pounds of boost and making 807 whp. Running hard laps at Eagles Canyon raceway when the head gasket let go. I tried to limp it off the track to keep from sending out the wrecker and bringing everyone else off the track but the engine hydo-locked and bent the rods. After some more inquiries I found that some engineers consider the head fastners a weak link if you go over 800 whp. LSX high power blocks are made of iron and have "6 bolt" heads to deal with this. I had ERL make me an aluminum block with 6 bolt heads just because it is 80 lbs lighter than the LSX block. There are some other choices for blocks that run 6 bolt heads and at this point I encourage anyone that is even considering going over 750 to plan ahead and look for a 6 bolt block.

I only had about 3000 miles on that engine but almost all racing. That block had over 30 drag passes, about 8 total hours of hard road racing and had seen 200+ mph at a speed run. My new motor is bigger and makes a lot more torque. After the winter is done, I'll go racing on the new block.

[SSBUSDRVR]

Wow Sorry to hear and thanks for the input. Appreciate it.

[dan0617]

Also all should mention if their tune was spot on or if mods were made after the last tune and before the boom.

From the picture I'm gathering on some or many of the failures, 2 things.

1. Mods were made but no additional tuning was done, and....

2. High boost (10 or so) on a PD blower, which is ALOT of boost and ALOT of torque at low Rpms, where the peak torque is on a dyno chart. I have been told by a couple VERY good and reputable tuners NOT to go over 8 psi on a PD blower because of the high boost and high torque at peak torque Rpms, and not to go over 11 psi on a centri LS3, but can creep up to 12 or so pretty safely on an L99 with stock cam since the cam is more of a restriction than on the LS3.

Not by any means saying these are the causes for all stock bottom failures, just seems a lot if them, especially #2 with stock cams.

[Bo White]

2nd stock bottom I've seen put a window in the block with the Eforce.

[BigMatt]

It's all in the tuning and amount of fuel you have.

[10aSSee D]

I didn't have a failure but when ADM put my 417 in and pulled my old motor out them cam was in bad shape. It was pitting and had wear marks on all the lobes and the cam was only in for about 3,500 miles so it was only a matter of time before I would see some major problems. If you are going to stay with the E-force I would suggest a 417 stroker, if you are going to change to turbos or a bigger centri I would say 427. Once you pass the 800rwhp it starts to get expensive. I'm very happy with my 417!!!

[Piccione Performance]

I personally have been very lucky, 83k on my stock bottom end with as much as 713 rwhp. When I built it I was hoping to get 50k out of it, now it has become a longevity experiment. I am running a Maggie and I am constantly checking and logging my tune as the weather changes year around. I also perform above average maintenance. Running a Performance shop allows me those luxuries.
I have seen many engine failures in my business and unfortunately a larger percentage have been on tweaked up E-Force equipped cars. I have also built a few afterwards that run really awesome, the 417 properly built an tuned seems to be a good combo with the E-Force, its one of our best recommendations if your sticking with an Edelbrock.
Sorry for your loss, I hope you get it up and running soon.

[SSBUSDRVR]

1. Mods were made but no additional tuning was done, and....

2. High boost (10 or so) on a PD blower, which is ALOT of boost and ALOT of torque at low Rpms, where the peak torque is on a dyno chart. I have been told by a couple VERY good and reputable tuners NOT to go over 8 psi on a PD blower because of the high boost and high torque at peak torque Rpms, and not to go over 11 psi on a centri LS3, but can creep up to 12 or so pretty safely on an L99 with stock cam since the cam is more of a restriction than on the LS3.

It's all in the tuning and amount of fuel you have.

No mods were done post tune and Car was tuned correctly and ran great for 17 months. However The E-Force without JRE Fuel Mod(which didn't know about at time) was put on at another shop and tuned elsewhere a short time before all the other work on top end, fuel system mods etc was done at current shop. When they dynoed and street tuned it they said it had a bad tune and I was lucky. Who knows maybe the fuse had already been lit way back and that it took this long to blow. Again ran fine for quite awhile.Who knows? Oil under the Bridge now.

I have seen many engine failures in my business and unfortunately a larger percentage have been on tweaked up E-Force equipped cars.

Do you think it is because of the linear boost Have read somewhere here (and tried searching no luck) that guys were getting readings of 11-13+ lbs on top based on 3.25-3.0 pulleys or not modding the fuel feed system. (Have the JRE E-Force Fuel mod and 3.25) Thanks again guys.