Hello - I am hoping someone here can help me figure out whats going on with my motor. I have a motor out of a 2003 cavalier 2.2 ecotec in my sandrail. I went out last weekend to the dunes and blew up the motor within 2 hours. Well I had the motor dyno tuned before I left so i thought for sure I must of just had a bad motor. So I drive to the salvage yard and pick up another motor. A 2004 cavalier ecotec 2.2. Well We swap the motor out and get it ready for the next day. This one lasted about the same amount of time. I get home and pull the motor apart to find all 4 pistons cracked and broke at the tip down to the piston ring. They were all broke on the intake side of the piston. The pistons were black and didnt look like it was runing lean. My A/F ratio was staying between 10.5 and 12 throughout the day when it was running. I have a T3 turbo with an external wastegate. I do not have an intercooler and do not have a blow off valve. My wastegate is set to 6lb of boost and did not ever see the gauge go over that. I was running premium gas. Im not sure what else I can tell you so if anyone has any questions or suggestions I would greatly appreciate it! My third motor and in and waiting to be drivin but I done want this to happen again. Thanks for all your help!
its simple, eco ring lands are very very thin
"barrel-faced moly-coated top ring fits in an anodized ring-groove below a super-thin 3mmtop ring land, creating a low crevice volume for reduced emissions"
far form ideal for boost
Isn't there a lot of people running 6lb of boost on stock engines?
sand rail vs a car = 2 different worlds
the rail will be subjected to major amounts of shock loads , that are alot worse then it will see in a 2800lb car on hte street
talk with the guys at
http://www.turnkeyenginesupply.com/Street/60550.htm
youll prob want the a/f ration to stay no higher than 11.5 , and will want a intercooler on it
but you are delaing with a heat issue on this motor. They build and hold heat, and even at 6lbs of boost, the non-intercooled part may have been your downfall. Is my personal opinion, but I am sure someone else will refute it.
Don Youngker wrote:Isn't there a lot of people running 6lb of boost on stock engines?
psi is preaty much useless, the same psi is 2 very different amounts of air if a big turbo vs. small, also more heat means more detonation, non intercooled is a bad idea
Ok well I guess I will get a intercooler and see is that help... I really dont want t chane this motor again so hopefully that fixes things. Thanks for the input!
mike wrote:why not add a BOV?
Exactly what I was thinking? That would cause a problem right especially on and off throttle in a sand rail car.
~Boost. Its what's for dinner!~
if you're going to add a BOV in a sandrail. Thinking it's going in an offroad environment. I would get one that recirculates back to the intake on the compressor side of the turbo, just so there wont' be any risk of debris getting in through the Blow off valve.
Intercooler would definitely help, as your temps from all the on and off throttle use would make the motor a lil crazy..
since it's a sandrail how long are the times your wackin on it? Mayve even a liquid style intercooler would work out even better.
-Trailblazer SS - not so custom 6.0L - custom intake - custom tune
- (1) 2.4L on an engine stand (1) blown trans (2) good quad trans (1) eco trans = party
like i said contact turn key , and talk with them
since they build them , they should be able to help you out more than we can , only cause they deal with buggies
I will call them today and update what they tell me. Thanks for everyones help!
get a blitz bov with a the filter attachment
300hp&tq coming soon
Team GREEN
Well turnkey tells me that they are not sure what would cause that but it could be fuel or that the stock pistons cannot handle boost. They change out all there pistons when they boost an engine. They also told me that I do not need to run bov and that the only reason you run a bov is to save the life of the turbo??? I am taking the bad engine's to the guy that tuned them tomorrow to see if you has any ideas. I definately will be getting an intercooler and run race gas for the next trip. I will let everyone know what happens with the guy that tuned the motor tomorrow. Thanks again for everyones help!
What spark plugs are you running?
What size T3 turbo?
How are you controlling the fuel during boost?
What are you running for engine management?
What octane premium gas are you using?
How is your fuel pump and tank set up?
You obviously had detonation to break the ring land (edge of the piston)...
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I am running the stock spark plugs and using an aeromotive fpr and a delphi mefi computer. 91 octane fuel using a high pressure external fuel pump and a fuel cell. I will need to check on the size of the turbo.
yeah 2 step colder plugs and keep the a/f ratio alot more rich , like nothing higher than a low 11
Thanks for all the input! My dyno guy and I went through the whole car today and we are going to add an intercooler, change the plugs, take down the timing a bit and I am going to run race gas. Hopefully after that we should be fine! Thanks again for all the info and I will update once I run it on Thanksgiving.
What boost level was this thing outting out is the one question I don't see anyone asking. On here we aren't normally seeing internal failures till about 15 psi with the ecos.
Marchi1 wrote:What boost level was this thing outting out is the one question I don't see anyone asking. On here we aren't normally seeing internal failures till about 15 psi with the ecos.
Thats because he stated it in the first post, 6psi...
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Buy stuff from CarCustoms Ebay! Won't be disappointed!
constant race gas in a stock block and stock internaled 4cyl! lolz
N2O + Bolt-ons
= 220Hp/
250Tq
Coming Soon:HpTunersPro, EagleConnectingRods, WiescoPistons, 13sec2200
kind of off topic but how much power are you making with that. a turbo ecotec on a sand rail is probably crazy fast.
Don Youngker wrote:I am running the stock spark plugs and using an aeromotive fpr and a delphi mefi computer. 91 octane fuel using a high pressure external fuel pump and a fuel cell. I will need to check on the size of the turbo.
Just seems like to hot of an intake temps (from being non-intercooled)......
I do have a question for you, I also have a MEFI system, MEFI 4 to be exact..... any chance I can get a copy of a base program your running? I need something to start with, so then I can adj. from there (running a Turbo Quad 4)
SPD RCR Z -
'02 Z24 420whp
SLO GOAT -
'04 GTO 305whp
W41 BOI -
'78 Buick Opel Isuzu W41 Swap
Well when we hooked it up to the dyno last time I was at 189hp. Were going to tune it again with the new motor this week once I finish changing everything.
SpeedRacerZ I can send you my base program this week once we tune it again. Send me an email so I know where to send it to. Thanks
