Broken piston!
03-02-2019, 11:30 PM
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Broken piston!
Had a big issue lots of smoke at idle and 110 compression on #1, no codes no misfire no noises nothing, I have a 58mm precision turbo on it thought it was the oil seals, parked the car after it started smoke at idle bad, pulled the turbo had it rebuilt still smoked, pulled off the valve cover, and replaced the valve stem seals they were ruined replaced them all put everything back together again car still smoked, I was stumped, so I pulled the head thinking it was a head gasket, got the head off and everything was perfect.. so I dropped the oil pan and tapped the piston out the top of the block, the piston ring was holding the piston chunk that was broke in perfect place, no marks on the cylinder walls popped the ring off and it just fell apart a huge chunk of the piston fell off, did all of this in a day, was actually very easy to pull apart left the block in the car, I got a few pictures of the whole job, I just ordered new pistons going to put it all together in a few weeks when it arrives I’ll add more photos of the rebuild when it’s done.
Last edited by Dylan_09ss; 03-02-2019 at 11:37 PM. Reason: More photos
03-03-2019, 10:06 AM
#2
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Do you have an idea of what the root is? Tuning issue?
Coming from building a 2.4 LE5, I am very jealous of you LNF people and your less expensive forged piston options and large wrist pin diameter...and your 8-bolt crankshaft
Coming from building a 2.4 LE5, I am very jealous of you LNF people and your less expensive forged piston options and large wrist pin diameter...and your 8-bolt crankshaft
03-03-2019, 10:40 AM
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03-03-2019, 11:39 AM
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03-03-2019, 05:32 PM
#8
Damn that sucks but your are very lucky. This is why I'm on the fence about doing a turbo upgrade lol. With a 115k on the original engine im kinda scared of something like this.
03-03-2019, 05:33 PM
#9
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Newer production cars are starting to go with exhaust manifolds integrated in aluminum heads, where the turbo inlet bolts straight to the head...the key feature is that they are water cooled. In marine applications, there are also aluminum exhausts, and again they are water cooled. Looks like racecars get away with aluminum downpipes, drag racing I reckon. On the street I would avoid aluminum near the turbo, but it's one of those things based on anecdotal experiences where some people never have a problem.
For the root cause analysis: my experience with cold air getting in on the hot side is from engines class where we were cautioned about running cylinder heads without a manifold/header. That make sense because the exhaust valve is very close to the flange. In your case, I find it difficult to imagine cold air getting past the turbine wheel and then throughout your manifold where the 3 other cylinders are pumping air out. There would need to be a significant low pressure area (aka vacuum) to pull in enough cold air to shock the piston.
An armchair analysis makes me want to look at if your tune got wrecked, if the exhaust blows out before the O2 sensors then it would for sure screw that up...but there are so many variables here and if you're using an OEM based ECM it can still survive looking at the MAF or SD tables to estimate fueling.
Are there any other weird things that happened before the incident? Did this incident impact other engine systems like the intake side? Were you trying to do the ol' "Rev it up, it will fix it" shenanigans?
For the root cause analysis: my experience with cold air getting in on the hot side is from engines class where we were cautioned about running cylinder heads without a manifold/header. That make sense because the exhaust valve is very close to the flange. In your case, I find it difficult to imagine cold air getting past the turbine wheel and then throughout your manifold where the 3 other cylinders are pumping air out. There would need to be a significant low pressure area (aka vacuum) to pull in enough cold air to shock the piston.
An armchair analysis makes me want to look at if your tune got wrecked, if the exhaust blows out before the O2 sensors then it would for sure screw that up...but there are so many variables here and if you're using an OEM based ECM it can still survive looking at the MAF or SD tables to estimate fueling.
Are there any other weird things that happened before the incident? Did this incident impact other engine systems like the intake side? Were you trying to do the ol' "Rev it up, it will fix it" shenanigans?
03-18-2019, 11:26 PM
#10
the 09 lnf does not have a defect with any piston. the defect with a lot of 09s is porus block, the block is defectively cast and as the description says, is porus and leaks coolant into the oil after a period of time. mine was at 2k kms. what im seeing in the pic is ring land failure, which is 90 percent of the time a bad tune. either too much boost on stock turbo, 27 plus psi, or a **** tune that is causing detonation. a spacer, that should not have been there to begin with, ripping off the back of the turbo would not cause a piston ring land to go. you would simply be running open turbo with no exhaust. done it before.
03-19-2019, 08:07 AM
#11
I'm sure you are aware but just wanted to make sure you don't hope to keep timing by holding the chain with zip-ties. It is very easy to skip a tooth even if you tried to hold it tight the whole time. From the picture it also looks like you sheared off a few cam bearing bolts?
03-19-2019, 09:11 PM
#12
I'm sure you are aware but just wanted to make sure you don't hope to keep timing by holding the chain with zip-ties. It is very easy to skip a tooth even if you tried to hold it tight the whole time. From the picture it also looks like you sheared off a few cam bearing bolts?
03-30-2019, 03:32 AM
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I'm sure you are aware but just wanted to make sure you don't hope to keep timing by holding the chain with zip-ties. It is very easy to skip a tooth even if you tried to hold it tight the whole time. From the picture it also looks like you sheared off a few cam bearing bolts?
Last edited by Dylan_09ss; 03-30-2019 at 03:49 AM.
03-30-2019, 03:44 AM
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the 09 lnf does not have a defect with any piston. the defect with a lot of 09s is porus block, the block is defectively cast and as the description says, is porus and leaks coolant into the oil after a period of time. mine was at 2k kms. what im seeing in the pic is ring land failure, which is 90 percent of the time a bad tune. either too much boost on stock turbo, 27 plus psi, or a **** tune that is causing detonation. a spacer, that should not have been there to begin with, ripping off the back of the turbo would not cause a piston ring land to go. you would simply be running open turbo with no exhaust. done it before.
03-30-2019, 03:52 AM
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03-31-2019, 02:17 AM
#16
it has a precision 58mm turbo at 26psi, I’m almost done putting everything back together just need my new valves and I can put the head on, it still has the previous dyno tune on it and I’m going over to trifecta to let them dyno tune it. All I was trying to say is I have no idea how the pistons cracked and just tossing up all the things that happened prior to the break. I still don’t have a solid explanation on how they broke, just thoughts. Thanks for the insight. I’m looking into the tune to see if that was the cause.
03-31-2019, 01:59 PM
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ya I get that, and every time a ring land breaks, (ringland breaking is when the piston breaks where the rings sit) is almost always due to detonation. I guess with out any log to confirm that theres really no way to know, and Idk who your tuner was, but I can say this, unless you want another broken engine, do NOT goto trifecta. if their dyno tunes are anything like their remote tunes, start saving for another engine.
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