Ouch! Sorry to hear that. Unfortunately that scenario seems to be how most of them blow. How many miles did you have on that engine, and did you mod it from the start?

 

Yes, it was tuned specially for it.I had just turned over 21000 miles on her. I bought it used with 11,000 miles. I started modding it not even 2500 miles? ago.

 

Just curious..Did you ever have it dyno tuned or have the air/fuel ratio checked with your tune?

 

You know I feel bad a fellow 99' went down in a blaze of glory, Haha Bon Jovi.

But,

This makes my point even more clear to me. Dyno tuning is the answer for me, I'm going down to Apten Performance to have Brain tune my truck. It's worth the 7 hour trip and dyno time to get the tune just right.

What your truck ever on a dyno?

Thanks,

 

Sorry to hijack the thread a bit... you going on the 28th? Hope to see some L bruthas that day!


MORPHEUS: Sorry to hear it. Get yourself built up, and you'll never have those fears again.

 

No, not yet the L is not back together yet. I'm waiting till April, so that the roads are clean and clear of debree.


Where are you located at?

 

"HP level" has nothing to do with it. It's all about the tune. A truly "conservative" tune is the one installed by Ford.

I will repeat something from a previous post:

"Knock is virtually always the cause of failure in a supercharged engine." "The pressure spike caused by the [detonation] explosion can reach several thousand PSI, and pressure rise is rapid enough to be considered an impact load. These temperatures and pressures are almost ten times higher than those accompanying controlled combustion. . . No metals in existence today, no forged pistons, no special head gaskets can withstand sustained detonation."

Corky Bell, "Supercharged!: The Design, Testing, and Installation of Supercharger Systems," pp. 27, 178.

Further, the load on a rod is a mixture of tensile loads at the top of the compression and exhaust strokes and compressive loads during the power stroke. Yet on the power stroke, the compressive load of combustion helps to mitigate the tensile loads, which are unchecked during the exhaust stroke. Thus, the tensile loads on a con rod are greatest when at TDC on the exhaust stroke, where it is purely a function of piston weight, RPM, and stroke -- not boost.

Bottom line: At 14 PSIG, peak rod pressure is only up about 20%. See Bell, pp. 21-24. With detonation, peak rod pressure is up about 1,000%.

And detonation does not have to be audible to be damaging. Superchargers mask the sounds of detonation. And detonation strong enough to cause forces many times greater than normal combustion may not even be audible -- on an NA engine.

The Ford engineers use Kisler probes to watch cylinder pressures in real time. Detonation has a distinct pressure spike. This spike can be 100% greater than normal and still not be heard. Under these inaudible detonation conditions, if a rod is marginal, it will break. You now have a broken rod and no audible detonation. The stock rods are NOT weak -- they are just the weakest link in the chain. Be conservative with the tune and all should be fine.

 

"No metals in existence today, no forged pistons, no special head gaskets can withstand sustained detonation."

 

So how can we check to see if our tunes are conservative? Reading this thread I was wondering if I should get my truck Dyno Tuned or buy a Predator or get and A/F gauge or do something. I just got my chip back last night and installed it. Took it for a ride and realized how much more power I was getting. I could also tell that the engine was working harder than before. I know there is risk with modding. Anyone know a good tuner in Ca?

 

I have heard in the past few months that having your truck dynoed will answer all the questions that "shorty" just asked.

When you get dynoed, they "data log" all that info. They should have a wide band air-to-fuel ratio meter to give you a number to see if your running lean or rich. Lean is BAD news.......

I can bolt things on my L all day, no problem.

This is one thing that the pro's should handle.

I tell you what, after talking with Brain, I would let him burp my first born.

Apten Performance is top notch!

 

Also, remember that part quality/consistency changes from truck to truck. Maybe it indeed was a bad part that decided to let go. In any case, all should have a dyno tune, or at least a dyno run to verify the tune is alright. For thos year round drivers, a secondary winter tune is a necessity.

 

My winter tune is a 1993 Toyota Tercel, labeled the "turd".

Because it is green and it smokes.

 

Sorry, this post is too reasonable and too filled with accurate information... it WILL be ignored!

 

next trip...dyno. Anyone go to the Ft. worth / Dallas area?

 

Wow only 2500 miles with mods and it let go. Something must have been wrong.