Spent about 30 mins at Exotic-metal55 place. He was disassembling some 55k engine blocks
here are some pics

 

That guys goes through engines the way most Benz owners go through oil...lol.
Tough being a pioneer!

 

I would have expected more head bolts on a factory original boosted motor. What size bolts are used on these? I know the GM LS motors have issues at big boost levels due to only 4 bolts per cylinder. Don't think anyone has tried for 1000+ HP on one of these though. Lol

 

Insane!!!

 

Where is he shipping it?

 

Read about this on another forum....thanks for posting the pictures here. :)

Sucks he broke an aftermarket piston. Won’t be too long before you’re getting after it again at the Texas Mile.

 

I'm actually surprised to see the E55 engines are open deck blocks.

 

 

What do you think caused that? Lose fuel pressure, or detonation or what?

 

Big time detonation

 

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.

 

Shardul can you clear something up for me:
Is that a stock piston or a forged piston?

 

Looks like a stock one. The skirt has no coating and is longer.

 

LOL want me to ship the piston to you so you can see it person

 

Stock piston from a motor with 80miles

 

Thanks, got confused when splinter mentioned something about breaking an aftermarket piston. Thought the one in the picture was a failed Weis

 

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.

 

Just to clarify, that blown piston is not from either of my motors. It was from another motor, that blew number 8 and I was there just after it blew. That piston went at the same time. cold 26 deg day, dude gets on it (strong motor) and kaboom! Ratlting , blowing oil out and I yelled at him to turn rngine off, before parts went flying through every orifice in the engine.. The cylinder wall has a lazer melt into the side of it, that matches the melted hole in the piston. Detonation works in very mysterious ways. couple valves on other holes had marks on them ..

Nasty!!

 

Nasty indeed! Exotic, Shardul, what causes this failure? Is there any preventative maintenance for this? Was this off a heavily modified motor or your usual pulley/headers/tune?

 

Same as with any high HP engine

Control heat, to include IAT, engine temp,and spark plug heat
Control Octane, to include reducing oil in the combustion possess
Control Timing
This the basic key factors in making your engine survive

 

very well said

 

 

So said owner just jumped on his throttle in cold weather without any fueling upgrades and it let go? What was his power level and mods?

 

Really? Please explain. Looks like is went lean to me.

 

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.