Blocks :)
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Jun 2010
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From: Puerto Rico
2005 E55 AMG
That's not detonation all, at least not entirely. The ring land is intact ( melted, but not broken from what I can see ). That looks like a heat related failure due to friction. I read about a piston that blew into a million pieces correct? A few small pieces of piston can travel from one cylinder to the next ( through the surge tanks ) and grind other pistons down to total failure. I've seen this before. I once disassembled and engine with a broken piston and it had piston pieces even in the intake. 
Detonation over long periods of time can cause damage like this as well, but you can usually tell if your engine has pinging for extended periods of time.
Detonation over long periods of time can cause damage like this as well, but you can usually tell if your engine has pinging for extended periods of time.
To continue what I said above, I agree that it was probably caused by detonation...but the ENTIRE extent of the damage wasn't just detonation in one short burst that blew the engine to pieces. That piston saw extended amounts of detonation for a long period of time ( a long period of time could be a few hours instead of ONE large catastrophic failure ).
The top land on that piston is still intact ( melted, but in once piece ). The mid land between the ring grooves is obviously destroyed and those parts caused so much heat due to friction that it caused a hole on the side of the piston.
That piston may not even have seen detonation at all...as I said earlier...another piston that breaks due to detonation can cause pieces to go into other chambers and destroy perfectly good pistons. Although unlikely...it is possible and I have seen it before.
Last edited by GT-ER; Nov 13, 2011 at 11:10 PM.
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From: West
2005 E55 Wagon
To continue what I said above, I agree that it was probably caused by detonation...but the ENTIRE extent of the damage wasn't just detonation in one short burst that blew the engine to pieces. That piston saw extended amounts of detonation for a long period of time ( a long period of time could be a few hours instead of ONE large catastrophic failure ).
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From: Puerto Rico
2005 E55 AMG
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From: Chicago
03 E55 AMG, 06 Harley Road King Custom 06 Ram 2500 Cummins, 97 Firebird Race Car, 88 Cutlass Supreme
I tried 
LS1, bored and stroked to 422, Procharger at 12psi. Heavily built automatic.
Ended up selling the C5 before the build was complete. Kept shredding supercharger belts. We had it solid at about 710rwhp. Assuming about 18% loss, we were north of 850 at the crank.
Had 13 inch wide CCW classics. Couldn't hook up AT ALL.
Would break the tires loose. Easily. at 60mph.
Miss that car.
LS1, bored and stroked to 422, Procharger at 12psi. Heavily built automatic.Ended up selling the C5 before the build was complete. Kept shredding supercharger belts. We had it solid at about 710rwhp. Assuming about 18% loss, we were north of 850 at the crank.
Had 13 inch wide CCW classics. Couldn't hook up AT ALL.
Would break the tires loose. Easily. at 60mph.
Miss that car.
I was building an Iron block 370 that was gonna run a D1SC for all it was worth with a small shot on top of it for my old 99 Camaro SS. Got 95% of the parts and while building somehow ended up deciding to part it all out, trade and sell some cars, and pick up my Harley. I picked up the old HP Tuners car that started his whole company in the process (see sig). It's held several LS and V6 records. Original V6 car. Battled with Juggernaut for cam only and Head/Cam record and went back and forth a few times between them. Redone to something a lil different now but I love the history of the car.
Last edited by BBBSS; Nov 13, 2011 at 11:34 PM.
MBWorld Fanatic!
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From: Chicago
03 E55 AMG, 06 Harley Road King Custom 06 Ram 2500 Cummins, 97 Firebird Race Car, 88 Cutlass Supreme
One dead piston can contaminate them all for sure. Had a friend that picked up a first year Trailblazer with the inline motor. I guess very early ones had issues with casting and the wall would crack and kill the piston which is what happened to my buddy. Bought the car at carmax and floored it getting in the highway after buying and she let go. Towed back, and they showed him what it looked like after pulling the head. Every cylinder and the intake had chunks of piston. Carmax stepped up and tossed him a new motor with no trouble.
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From: Tacoma WA
Bicycle
Was that an 03 engine by chance?
Yes, lean and detonated. I lean lean and detonation are broad terms. One piston is not the whole story. You should see the blown out part of the cylinder wall and it lowert than the compression level.
Car had basic mods. Cooling, tune, pulley , 82TB and kleeman headers. About what 50% of the moders have on this forum.
Car had basic mods. Cooling, tune, pulley , 82TB and kleeman headers. About what 50% of the moders have on this forum.
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From: Texas
2003 CL55
My first motor (picture of ring land busted) , is an 03.
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CL55 UPD Cold Air Boost kit, UPD 3000 stall converter, UPD 77mm SC clutched pulley and beltwrap kit, Custom long tubes, UPD crank pulley , UPD suspension kit, UPD SC pulley, Aux. HE, Trunk tank w/rule 2000 pump, Mezeire pump, UPD 5pc idler set, Aluminum rotor hats.
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E63 Biturbo, UPD Cold Air induction kit, UPD performance crank pulley and UPD adjustable rear suspension with ride height adjustment.
CL55 UPD Cold Air Boost kit, UPD 3000 stall converter, UPD 77mm SC clutched pulley and beltwrap kit, Custom long tubes, UPD crank pulley , UPD suspension kit, UPD SC pulley, Aux. HE, Trunk tank w/rule 2000 pump, Mezeire pump, UPD 5pc idler set, Aluminum rotor hats.
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E55
What??? I'm still in for your explanation GT-ER. Here is your quote again;
"That looks like a heat related failure due to friction"
I have never seen, or even heard of, a piston failing due to friction in this manner.
Maybe a few scuffs from being too tight on the piston to wall clearance, but this piston is not showing any signs of that.
"That looks like a heat related failure due to friction"
I have never seen, or even heard of, a piston failing due to friction in this manner.
Maybe a few scuffs from being too tight on the piston to wall clearance, but this piston is not showing any signs of that.
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From: Houston/ Austin /Toronto / UAE / Minneapolis / Orlando /Cincinnati
Eurocharged Performance ML63 and TT lambo
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From: NYC
P-Carro
Love these threads 
How many times didnt i run up to the 150mph Mark on stock injectors with the OE tune
My fastest quarter mile times were accomplished on stock injectors/Rail..AFR's consistently in the mid to low 11's..V-box'n at the track all the way up to 140s-145mph in 35f weather..
But then again i changed my oil and plugs before every track event
How many times didnt i run up to the 150mph Mark on stock injectors with the OE tune
My fastest quarter mile times were accomplished on stock injectors/Rail..AFR's consistently in the mid to low 11's..V-box'n at the track all the way up to 140s-145mph in 35f weather..
But then again i changed my oil and plugs before every track event
Last edited by LOCO 05' E55; Nov 14, 2011 at 07:12 PM.
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From: Texas
2003 CL55
What??? I'm still in for your explanation GT-ER. Here is your quote again;
"That looks like a heat related failure due to friction"
I have never seen, or even heard of, a piston failing due to friction in this manner.
Maybe a few scuffs from being too tight on the piston to wall clearance, but this piston is not showing any signs of that.
"That looks like a heat related failure due to friction"
I have never seen, or even heard of, a piston failing due to friction in this manner.
Maybe a few scuffs from being too tight on the piston to wall clearance, but this piston is not showing any signs of that.
Here, this is the hole that melted , blown up piston came out of. This was instant, as the car came off the freeway, punched it and bam! Knocking, oil and smoke!
Good thing about these pictures, is it lets eveyone take a deep breath and do a little reality check. Then we all grow safe again !
More blood and guts. This is my first motor stage 1 with stock parts and 38K on it. This is the whole that number 3 exploded and ruined blower and all. Rod beat the hell out of the cylinder.
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E63 Biturbo, UPD Cold Air induction kit, UPD performance crank pulley and UPD adjustable rear suspension with ride height adjustment.
CL55 UPD Cold Air Boost kit, UPD 3000 stall converter, UPD 77mm SC clutched pulley and beltwrap kit, Custom long tubes, UPD crank pulley , UPD suspension kit, UPD SC pulley, Aux. HE, Trunk tank w/rule 2000 pump, Mezeire pump, UPD 5pc idler set, Aluminum rotor hats.
www.ultimatepd.com
instagram @ultimate_pd
facebook.com/ultimatepd
E63 Biturbo, UPD Cold Air induction kit, UPD performance crank pulley and UPD adjustable rear suspension with ride height adjustment.
CL55 UPD Cold Air Boost kit, UPD 3000 stall converter, UPD 77mm SC clutched pulley and beltwrap kit, Custom long tubes, UPD crank pulley , UPD suspension kit, UPD SC pulley, Aux. HE, Trunk tank w/rule 2000 pump, Mezeire pump, UPD 5pc idler set, Aluminum rotor hats.
www.ultimatepd.com
instagram @ultimate_pd
facebook.com/ultimatepd
Junior Member
Joined: Oct 2008
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From: Heaven
2008 SLR
So what do all these damaged engine parts have in common? Is there one part that all these engines have shared? There might be a common cause to all these failures. Is the same person tuning all these? We run lambda sensors on all cylinders on our race cars to avoid catastrophic failures like these. There is no reason this should happen other than negligence.
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From: NYC
P-Carro
Problem with most here is that 8 out of 10 guys "DO NOT" Wideband their cars and just go by what power they made at the the dyno and what that sniffer (AFR reader) tells them in that particular dyno day..Every tuner IMO should recommend these data logging devices and include a little educating about all these numbers before anything.
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From: Houston
2003 W211 E55, 2003 W220 S600
my main goal was to have everything more or less in the line of sight. did not want to mess with a pillar gauge pod since there is an air bag in there. all gauges have a analog 5v output for datalogging
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Jun 2010
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From: Puerto Rico
2005 E55 AMG
What??? I'm still in for your explanation GT-ER. Here is your quote again;
"That looks like a heat related failure due to friction"
I have never seen, or even heard of, a piston failing due to friction in this manner.
Maybe a few scuffs from being too tight on the piston to wall clearance, but this piston is not showing any signs of that.
"That looks like a heat related failure due to friction"
I have never seen, or even heard of, a piston failing due to friction in this manner.
Maybe a few scuffs from being too tight on the piston to wall clearance, but this piston is not showing any signs of that.
Anyways, it was just an observation...if you don't like it then you are welcome to post your own.
Last edited by GT-ER; Nov 14, 2011 at 10:13 PM.
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 4,173
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From: Puerto Rico
2005 E55 AMG
I have to agree Lowprofile.
Here, this is the hole that melted , blown up piston came out of. This was instant, as the car came off the freeway, punched it and bam! Knocking, oil and smoke!
Good thing about these pictures, is it lets eveyone take a deep breath and do a little reality check. Then we all grow safe again !
Here, this is the hole that melted , blown up piston came out of. This was instant, as the car came off the freeway, punched it and bam! Knocking, oil and smoke!
Good thing about these pictures, is it lets eveyone take a deep breath and do a little reality check. Then we all grow safe again !
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 1,908
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From: Florida
03SL55
Why did the knock sensor not work to stop the damage? Detonation is audible and the KS should have picked it up.
MBWorld Fanatic!
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From: Puerto Rico
2005 E55 AMG
Senior Member
Joined: Oct 2011
Posts: 419
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From: Southern Maryland USA
06 E55 AMG, 13 C63 AMG
What is the material the pistons are made from, are they forged?
What about the connecting rods?
The cylinders in the block, do they have cast in ductile iron liners or are they the chemically etched glass liners like the older 3.8L V8 engines??
G
What about the connecting rods?
The cylinders in the block, do they have cast in ductile iron liners or are they the chemically etched glass liners like the older 3.8L V8 engines??
G
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Joined: Apr 2009
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E55
Well that would definitely explain why you had a box full of them to examine.
Ok, carry on. Thanks for playing along with me.
