Suppose I left my (running fine) car at an independent shop overnight for some parts installation work and got it back the following day not quite running right and then on the drive home it starts blowing smoke.

After the dealer tear down, we find find the #1 and 3 rods are bent, a chunk missing from the #3 piston and no compression on cylinder 1. Scored cylinder wall, ruined block.

Since I don't drive my car like I'm robbing a bank, what would you have to do to achieve something like this?

 

Really bad knock would do it. What parts were you having put on the car?

 

Meth injection and downpipe.

 

The guys in the shop took it out for a test drive, blew the engine, towed it back to the shop and hoped you wouldn't notice?


Faulty ignition timing and excessive pinging will do that as well as really high over RPM.

 

ever watch the Ferris Bueller movie?

 

sounds like somebody took your car out for a joy ride.. normally bent rods are from heavy Redlines its normally not something that happens too a person that has a stock motor and drives it with out redline shifting. unless the motor just had serious problems and you never changed the oil even then rods probably would never get bent.. this whole thing smells Really Bad too me..

 

It says in your sig your running a map, what were the whp and wtq numbers after tuning?

A couple of cars in the uk have bent rods with huge torque numbers and potential fuelling issues.

 

I don't drive my car like I'm robbing a bank,

What parts were you having put on the car?

Meth injection and

Hmmmmmmm ... me thinks 1 + 1 does not equal 2

 

Every engine design is different, but I would think that it is hard to bend a rod without hydraulic locking the motor. Any chance that they were testing the flow of the water/meth without running the engine? If they had some liquid in the intake, then started the engine, really bad things would happen.

These engines have cast pistons, I would expect a ring land to break with heavy pre-ignition. Unless you have eliminated the rev limiter, serious over-rev would take work.

Again, I may be wrong, maybe the rods are stronger in this engine than I give them credit for. I haven't had one apart.

Good luck,
Mike

 

New Meth System - spraying way too much liquid - hydrolocked the motor - bent rods.


That does not explain the chunk out of the piston, though.

 

It was an Evolve tune but ran 15k miles with no issues. And...there were only problems immediately following pickup.

 

Meth/water injection is actually a net hp loss if you only intend to use it for cooling/detonation control.

 

DING DING! WINNER!

Sure it does, You can hydro lock and crack a piston, seen it done first hand.

 

Exactly. The cracked piston is then what scored the cylinder wall. You would have to dump quite a bit of meth in to that cylinder though.

Although i would have guessed at ring failure before the piston cracked, but o well. time for a new engine.

Also, how did you manage to have to replace clutch and flywheel at 17k?

 

what octane were you running? pretty sure the evolve tunes call for 93.

 

My bet is hydrolock from too much meth.

 

How much water did you run in the mixture? Too much water would call for ridiculously strong ignition.

You'd literally have to keep the system on for a good bit to cause hydro lock.

Possibly played with the system while the jet was still tapped in the boost tube while the car was off......possibly while just idling? ( not recommended of course)

 

MT? Maybe a money shift?

 

while blown pistons are rather common on the 56, especially on tuned ones....bent rods are not. If it was just the piston, I'd say maybe just a total coincidence...but the rods, I'd 98% say the shop did something...

Like others have suggested, possble hydrolock. It would have to be a quite a bit of liquid and done while the motor was off or idling....I can see it happening if they placed it in "test" mode, but had the jet installed to the car. It sprays like a fire hose in test...

I hope you investigate to the fullest and hold them accountable. Good luck though....

 

When testing my system at full spray for one minute using the .6mm jet I get 275mls if they tested the system with the jet in place would that be enough to hydolock I don't know, I'm not planning on testing that hypothesis sorry.

 

Thanks. Not much I can prove other than "it was fine before and not after."

I've long ago reconciled with the pay to play doctrine but it's usually things I blow up and fix myself.

I agree it was probably the shop - probably his new tech. Most I can do is dry up his Mini business. Still waiting to hear back from the dealer. I don't know if no news is good news or not.

 

Wait, you're not going to the shop that installed the meth system and raise hell!?

Why? It doesn't make any sense!

Dave

 

I didn't say that but first I have to get all the failure details.

Also, I don't know how much this is going to cost me yet. It will be somewhere between nothing and $9900. Somewhere in between is basically the price of a lawyer with a case of my word against his. Issues of liability and fast cars don't often mix well.

Yes, I'm unhappy. I'm also 6'7" 230 lbs so I usually contain my displeasure to a calm voice and a hard stare. Once everything with my car is diagnosed and settled, I'll take it up with the shop from there.

There's a unique feeling that goes along with a grenaded engine that I hope most people never have the chance to appreciate. This is my second. The first was a dropped valve seat on a V-12.

 

I had that feeling once! I was driving my Hyundai Tiburon last year and my engine seized at the highway.. Probably not as bad as urs since a hyundai is a lot cheaper..

Good luck and hopefully you don't have to pay anything...