James M

I have read many articles/threads on this subject and have personally suffered catastrophic engine failure, twice, due to what I believe to be the culprit - the press fitted cams on the 2001 & 2002 C32 models. I have seen bent valves, valves through pistons and cylinder heads and quite a few pistons with chunks torn out. After posting an advert to sell off spare engine parts, after I had bought a replacement engine, the calls came flooding through from guys with very similar problems - I am talking about 10-15 calls per year for the last 3 years. Most cases started with a misfire which led to the car running on 5 cylinders followed by limp mode and lots of smoke. Very few of these cars were modified, but the 2 things they all had in common was that they were 2001/2 models with over 120 000 km/75 000 miles on the clock.
How many of you out there are on your second motor or sold their car off as a non runner? Also, I would be interested to know what year model was it and what was the mileage? I have not seen many engine failure cases like this in the US, but over here in South Africa I have seen plenty, which is weird because all our C32's are full imports?

Lenin

Maybe it's the quality of gas in SA? Altitude? Where are you going with this?

James M

Just interested to know if guys in other countries experience this type of problem? Altitude doesn't seem to factor into this as I have seen as many cars blow up at sea level as they do up at 2000m above sea level. The gas at 2000m above is 95 octane and 97 octane at sea level. Maybe someone else has other views on what the culprit or cause is?

Gramma_Benz

My cams failed due to being press fit, but I got away head gasket leak and new cams.

Supgee

I've had no issues with my cams as my car is a 2003, but I keep an eye on it..

loudandheard

My car is a 2002 and the engine failed last year. I haven't opened up the engine to see what the issue is, but the compression test showed that I lost compression on two cylinders. I can't remember which ones.

My engine had a 178 pulley and a tune, but I added equal length headers and that's when my issues started. So either it was the headers or the cams, but I'm not sure which. I made it all the way to 178k miles.

I'm in search of a low mile srt6 engine if anyone knows of one.

James M

That is the other suspected culprit I have seen blamed for engine failure on many occasions - longtube headers. As I have said previously, I have seen more bone stock 2001/2 C32's engines fail than modified ones. I have also seen leaking fuel injectors blamed. I still cannot seem to get conclusive proof on what causes these engines to fail.

C32owner

Wow 178000miles that's good going!!!

tw2

How do longtubes result in engine failure?

James M

No idea. Heard lots of crap about why headers always come up as the number two culprit, but nothing that makes any sense?

Lenin

Ever read this book:
It is possible that mostly hard core people will push their C32 to the limit and fry the engine. And hard core people will of course have headers. Just a coincident. BTW, do you know how many LT headers where ever produced for our cars? I would be surprised if EC made and sold more than a dozen. I can see if the failing cylinders where 3 or 6 and that would put them closer to the exhaust but we don't have this data to even entertain this conclusion.

Pansu

Headers broke engines, sure.. If something brokes maybe it is your exhaust backpreassure, how many have measured it? If you running with cats and original exhaust(catback) there is preassure...and..a lot.

tw2

I cannot think of a reason unless they are poorly insulated and melt things around them. Lack of back pressure can affect performance but doesn't result in engine failure. I think it is unrelated or because people who have headers have other mods causing problems.

C230 Mulac

Great book, and plausible theory.