Ready To Throw In The Towel And Sell This Thing...........

[PHANTASM]

well i took the intake off to reseal it and check the lifters because they seemed noisy at times.

i have what appears to be part of the head gasket sticking out from between the head and block on #4 cyl pass side middle.
i found a piece sticking out a couple weeks ago by the header on the same cyl when i had it up on the hoist a couple weeks ago also.

is my head gasket bad? they are fel pro 9441.

i have been getting some wierd but large amounts of knock at times.
the car is also down 4" of vac.

i haven't really beat on it that much as i was still breaking in the engine.
has about 450 miles on it.

it seems to run pretty good and i have always run 100 octane along with the turbotweak chip.

any suggestions as to why this happened?

should i pull the engine to check bearings and foreign material in the pan?

who sells the cometics?

thanks for any help.

 

[suicide six]

You may have caught head gasket in time as long as oil isnt milkshaked.Did you retorque headgaskets after fresh motor was heated up?Breaking in a new motor is tough to do,esp when you cant wait to see how it runs.Felpros are designed to be the weak link and sounds like it did its job rather than pushing everything out the bottom.What were you tune numbers like?By that I mean not too lean.

 

[PHANTASM]

i never got it dynoed yet.
didn't retorque the gaskets.

wideband always showed rich (10.8 - 12.0 : 1 )

no audible knock but caspers gauge showed red afew times and scanmaster read insane amounts of knock a couple times.
fuel pressure around 70 psi @20lbs boost

sometimes no knock would show and other times lots.

oil looks good and not going thru coolant.

i just don't know.........

 

[suicide six]

If its bulged out Id change it,you have it opened up now at least part way,I would check out cam as well.Doing this so soon isnt fun,but losing entire motor will hurt even more.By using your head and digging into this may have saved you more damage.Retorque the next new set,tune car mildly,break it in easy.

 

[PHANTASM]

i think i might get some cometics, clean out the pan, check the bearings and order a roller cam set up from full throttle.


what does everyone think.

i have a turbo mustang i am in the process of building so this is not helping.

 

[SPOOLN]

You might be running to much timing, You might have a bad injector to, how many # of boost are you running?

 

[Razor]

no audible knock but caspers gauge showed red afew times and scanmaster read insane amounts of knock a couple times.
fuel pressure around 70 psi @20lbs boost

Well.. Eric suggests 43 lbs fuel pressure for his chips. Your running 50 lbs

You see red on the caspers guage.. means your detonating.. guess what happens when you detonate.. you push gaskets. Just becuase you have 100 octane doesnt mean you can run 20 PSI.

If you put the cometics.. you'll be pushing the pistons/crank/bearings.. which is far worse than a 30 dollar "let me learn to tune" gasket.

Turn the boost down to like 10 PSI.. get it to run with ZERO knock what so ever.. then worry about moving from there. The more mods you have on one of these motors.. the more they blow **** up.. yours is stacked.. and requires methodical patience.. and lots of DATA. Dont mean to be harsh.. the gasket didnt fail, the tuneup did. Be glad you just caught it.

HTH

PS.. i'd have the injectors tested, harness checked, plugs/wires checked, and do everything to see whats up with #4 cylinder. And quit throwing mods at your car.. your only adding more problems :redface:

 

[PHANTASM]

i have gone into the low 20 lb range.
the race chip is burnt for 23-24 lb boost and 22-23* of timing with 100 octane. i run this one on the street.

i have tried the street chip that is burnt for 17-19lb boost and 18* timing with 92 octane. i usually run 92 and 100 mix with that chip.

seems to run better with the race chip though.


1 usually run between 17-20 lb boost.
i have only done a few wot runs on the street. when this knock and lifter problem came up.

car runs pretty good.

 

[PHANTASM]

another question, do you think the small front mount is not cooling the air enough?

i am putting a bigger front mount on right now. i figured this may be contributing to the problem?

 

[Razor]

another question, do you think the small front mount is not cooling the air enough?

i am putting a bigger front mount on right now. i figured this may be contributing to the problem?

No.. adding new stuff without having supporting data to change the part is contributing to the problem.

Becuase a chip is burnt for 23 PSI doesnt mean your to run it at 23 PSI.

You didnt answer the 70 PSI fuel at 20 PSI quote?

Your eager to spend money on your toy.. buy a laptop and direct scan and learn to use it/tune it. Send Eric files of your car running with direct scan and have him make a chip that matches your engines needs..

Or pay someone that is knowledgeable tuning these motors to put a tuneup in it. Putting ported heads on the motor.. you brought this about on yourself. Now comes the time to put it together.. and quit adding variables. Like cams, IC, exhuast, turbo, etc.. Until you have a "tuned" engine that doesnt blow head gaskets.

This advice coming from someone who's blown a ton of **** up... and learned to keep things together.

 

[conn84gn]

Haven't gone beyond 15-18psi on a 1500 mile new cam.
Street car
I'm still tuning softly on the new setup (ALKY in the last 300 miles)
I was getting tired of the car in the garage broke and me looking at it or under it!!
Take you time, get good advice save money go faster!

 

[PHANTASM]

No.. adding new stuff without having supporting data to change the part is contributing to the problem.

Becuase a chip is burnt for 23 PSI doesnt mean your to run it at 23 PSI.

You didnt answer the 70 PSI fuel at 20 PSI quote?

Your eager to spend money on your toy.. buy a laptop and direct scan and learn to use it/tune it. Send Eric files of your car running with direct scan and have him make a chip that matches your engines needs..

Or pay someone that is knowledgeable tuning these motors to put a tuneup in it. Putting ported heads on the motor.. you brought this about on yourself. Now comes the time to put it together.. and quit adding variables. Like cams, IC, exhuast, turbo, etc.. Until you have a "tuned" engine that doesnt blow head gaskets.

This advice coming from someone who's blown a ton of **** up... and learned to keep things together.

geez take it easy....

the fuel pressure is not exactly at 70psi
it goes up according to boost, has a hp pump in the tank.

i built the engine with these parts because the majority of people have the same parts for the power i am looking to make and i had some of them already.

i learned something about boost. my fault. first time with this car.

the intercooler is being changed because the one on the car looks smaller than the stock location unit.
i figure the cooler the air going into the motor the better. am i wrong?

i am pulling the engine and going thru it. it runs fine most of the time as is but i want to make sure nothing else is messed up.

what would you do? use the same style gaskets? i have an extra set.

thanks for your help

 

[my 1st gn]

geez take it easy

that was funny somtimes it seems like the guys get a little mean but they just want to help you to learn to help yourself

 

[PHANTASM]

i know ,sorry.

i also know that a couple of times the hose for the fp reg blew off and this contributed to the problem.

 

[rodman99999]

i know ,sorry.

i also know that a couple of times the hose for the fp reg blew off and this contributed to the problem.

Plastic wire ties are great for keeping vacuum lines on under boost .

 

[suicide six]

Id use the stockers or felpros if that is what you have.Follow the procedure for installation and follow up.May want to have heads checked for straightness if you dont know there history.Smaller than stock FM can be adding heat,agreed.

 

[MSDGN]

Before you remove the heads check out this post...

http://www.turbobuicks.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52690&page=1&pp=15

...there was some concern here too about pieces of the HG sticking out but discovered is was normal...check out the pics...I believe he was using Felpros also...

 

[Razor]

that was funny somtimes it seems like the guys get a little mean but they just want to help you to learn to help yourself

Hey its tough love

Build the motor as close to stock as possible.. learn to tune it.. then worry about turning the wick up. Too many are way to eager to crank the boost up when other issues are underlying, they end up building money pits. If you do not have knowledge how to tune of these motors.. dont build a ninja death combination.. it always leads to issues. ALWAYS.

Leave the IC alone, use the Felpro's, and follow proper engine assembly procedures.. for a Buick. As the other posts say.. check heads, bolts, injectors, etc.. nothing new there..

Learn about tuning and engine management... I dont care if you build a titanium motor.. it will come apart with a bad tuneup(timing/airfuel).

Replace all hoses with BRAND new ones, zip tie the engine to death..

HTH

 

[PHANTASM]

Hey its tough love

Build the motor as close to stock as possible.. learn to tune it.. then worry about turning the wick up. Too many are way to eager to crank the boost up when other issues are underlying, they end up building money pits. If you do not have knowledge how to tune of these motors.. dont build a ninja death combination.. it always leads to issues. ALWAYS.

Leave the IC alone, use the Felpro's, and follow proper engine assembly procedures.. for a Buick. As the other posts say.. check heads, bolts, injectors, etc.. nothing new there..

Learn about tuning and engine management... I dont care if you build a titanium motor.. it will come apart with a bad tuneup(timing/airfuel).

Replace all hoses with BRAND new ones, zip tie the engine to death..

HTH

I have some knowledge of tuning a forced induction motor.
i know the reason the gasket let loose was from the hose(s) blowing off and sending the fuel into a frenzy.
the knock could be coming from the lifters.
going to pull the engine and have a look at everything.

the heads are from frank g. and the whole engine has around 450 miles i believe. it still runs pretty good and with mild boost it seemed to run fine, just at the higher levels.

thanks for all the replys and info. chalk this up to learning.

 

[tenright]

You keep mentioning 70psi fuel, dude as Razor said erics chips are burnt for 43psi. You just can't turn and tweak things as if this was a 60's Muscle car. Subtle changes make huge differences. I would say your extremely lucky to only be facing a head gasket. Most issues can be indentified and ajusted at idle. I spent weeks tuning this thing and getting my #'s right before I ever even pulled it out of the garage.I found and fixed cracked headers, vacuum leaks, vacuum routing issues, much like you, I had decided against better advice to do my mods first then tune. Fortunately it worked out pretty well so far. But I probably would have had an easier time tuning the basic car without the mods I did first. Once I had the car idling smoothly, and running well at idle and all my #'s like TPS, IAC, FP, and such I started tuning for boost. My point is get the tune right then worry about boost....



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