Spool Turbo MP3 Blew Up

[TurfBurn]

Yep,

Terry's old car just blew up on me on the track. Happened yesterday (6/21). I was racing in a lapping event out at Gingerman Raceway in Michigan and in the 4th or 5th (can't remember!) heat the engine blew up.

Don't have a lot of details for you right now as to why or what, lots of metal chunks all over the place, and LOTS of white smoke and noise when she blew. Basically figure a rod went. But there was no sign of detonation (JandS was sensitive as all hell, and didnt' show anything) and had plenty of oil (checked before every 10-15 minute heat). EGT's were very low... 760 was the max. The only sign of trouble was it missed a couple of times and was running exceedingly and abnormally rich on that heat. Then out of the middle of nowhere, in a straightaway where I was taking it VERY easy and not accelerating all that much (was discussing the missing and rich readings with my passenger CONEH8R (my younger brother)) and then BANG chunks were flying, car was engulfed in white smoke, lost power steering, lost the engine, lost brakes, everything was gone and I luckily was on the straight leading to the pits, so I just pointed it that way coasted off the track (leaving lots of debris and oil behind) and parked it.

Trailered it back to wisconsin, got in at like 12:30 last night. Haven't looked it over much (it was torrential rains in Michigan) and haven't even gotten it off the trailer. So no real info there. I will be tearing it down and pulling the motor and inspecting everything. Hope to find the cause and have more info (and definitely pics) for you guys. I will be rebuilding and going bigger, better, stronger, and faster this fall/winter. Probably forged engine, ported head, newer injectors, improved wiring, nixing some accessories, 18G turbo, etc.

NOTHING is for sale at this point... and no rebuild will happen until I can recoup funds to do it. But hopefully by October/november I can get started.

No needs for the condolences. I'm not all that bummed. Boosting and racing run the risks of blowing motors, and I accept that! So oh well! But anyway... that's all I know right now, but will add more info (I have more story for you as of now... but can't type it...at work... ) as I have time!

 

[jersey_emt]

Damn.... 253WHP on stock internals can only hold up for so long I guess...

 

[TurfBurn]

The engine had actually been running absolutely fantastic until that heat when it blew up. Finally had the cold start taken care of, had throttle response ironed out. Tamed the timing so I wasn't pushing it too much, was holding boost at 7 psi (yes only 7). Etc... so no idea! I have boost creep issues with the Profec B but it read an absolute max of 12.1 after the blown motor, the microtech was cutting ignition at 14, and I had the car tuned to handle up past 14 as a "just in case" (basically just lots of extra fuel and lots of timing pulling to make it safe... not for actually running in those ranges).

 

[roni]

ouch. well i have plenty of extra parts around if you need anything.

 

[TurfBurn]

The car will still "run" in that it starts and will idle.. but you can HEAR the metal getting chunked around.

 

[low_psi]

Well, its probably about time that someone's motor went from just too much power instead of poor tuning. There are a couple FS-DE's here in Houston if you have trouble locating a donor motor.

 

[TurfBurn]

can't rule out the tune though. It could have still been my fault. But with the JandS and knowing that my wideband was reading fine, the EGT's were fine, and no signs of trouble popped up until that heat when it was rich and then blew... don't know! I drove it 300 miles out there at decent speeds on the interstate, drove it in town and back... put it through the heats etc. And had actually pulled some timing and so forth out on the drive to Michigan and so forth to make things "safer" and less aggressive... but it could still be the tune. I'll look for any sign of detonation. Terry had said that he'd get audible pinging at times when he ran it up to near 13 for the AFR and with certain timing. I was running at the leanest around 12.2 and typically more around 11.8. So don't know! But it's blown, and it'll be a fun but BIG project!

 

[igdrasil]

Wow....2nd spool turbo protege this month?

Mine blew last week ...just like the infamous video "Big Ass Smoke". Car was running very good and very hard @ 11psi. Raced against an STI and won all races by 3-4 car lenghts not from a hole.

Anyway, the EGT was showing cold exhaust gases, but the A/F was around 13:1 so I think it was detonation. Maybe temperature management. This was after racing the STI, I was just flooring it alone...and BOOM

In my case, I was able to see a mid crack piston on the top of cylinder 4 and piston 1 thru the block held by the air conditioner compressor...funny!

I will open my thread as soon as I have pictures and stuff and leave the threadjack.

 

[ddogg777]

Both of you need Oliver rods and CP pistons.

Beau at Mental Addiction Motorsports is your guy. PM him at MAMotorsports or Matthew or me because Beau can be too busy and/or out of town to answer all his PMs. We can get ahold of him.

 

[TurfBurn]

be crazy if we failed the exact same way though as far as modes... I just really don't think it's detonation... never got pinging of any sort (although the exhaust is loud enough) and I trust the JandS. I had it sensitive enough to pick up random noise at times, and it would detect genuine stuff other times based on it's behavior. So dunno! But the engine is blown, that's for sure!

Sorry to hear your misfortune as well!

 

[acidbug]

Wow..all the sudden..engiens are blowing.

<---runs to the car..and adjusts timing cure & richens mixture.

 

[alexlitov]

well, it was a test vehicle...

 

[Bigg Tim]

Sorry to hear about it, but can't wait for the results of the next motor. Talk to MPNick, he does it ALL at his shop and I have seen his 400hp msp run on the dyno and it's awesome. The thing sounds like a stocker while idling and I spoke with dinospeed (the owner of the msp) and he said it's up to 21psi and the thing is a totally different car. I'll be going with nick when mine goes. Just keep him in mind.

Do you think maybe by running so rich, it could of caused the failure? I heard the too rich can cause detonation. Although, detonation was probably ruled out by the J&S. (Mine should be here this week ) Maybe you threw some rod bolts. That's what happend to Micah's when he was turboed. Have you ever over rev'd by accibent? Who knows, it could of been a ton of things, since this was the frankenstien of the turboed MP3's. A sad day for the old dog of the family. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[TurfBurn]

It wasn't running rich until the last 10 minutes or whatever before it blew, so dunno... I've heard rumors every direction as to things that have or haven't happened to the car before I owned it, so who knows. Don't really care honestly. I bought a modified test car, got a great deal on it, Terry has been there to answer questions and so forth, and well frankly I blew a motor which is really a simple fact of racing and modifying engines and something I fully and honestly HAPPILY accept as part of the process. Just the way it goes!

My girlfriend admits she's somewhat happy that she'll get to see more of me the next few months as this limits my racing and garage time some! But woe upon her this winter when I start the rebuild! LOL...

 

[Bigg Tim]

It wasn't running rich until the last 10 minutes or whatever before it blew, so dunno... I've heard rumors every direction as to things that have or haven't happened to the car before I owned it, so who knows. Don't really care honestly. I bought a modified test car, got a great deal on it, Terry has been there to answer questions and so forth, and well frankly I blew a motor which is really a simple fact of racing and modifying engines and something I fully and honestly HAPPILY accept as part of the process. Just the way it goes!

My girlfriend admits she's somewhat happy that she'll get to see more of me the next few months as this limits my racing and garage time some! But woe upon her this winter when I start the rebuild! LOL...

Booo, no need to spend time with the woman, the car comes first. J/K, cool deal, I know my woman doesn't like the money I've put into my POS but she will get over it.

The only way to see what happened is to open her up. I can gather that you weren't too bummed, but it still sucks a little. But, on the plus side, I'm sure it will be a beast next year.

 

[Matthew]

i agree with alex. im sure terry beat the hell outta that car. but glad to hear you are going to build it up. i hope im not in the same boat one day.

 

[azian6er]

how many miles on her?

stock injectors?

a friend of mine's mp3 with the spool turbo kit blew up about 2 months ago on the freeway. Same description as yours blowing up with the white smoke etc.

When we took off his head there was no piston left in cylinder #2.

We think an injector may have failed on him and then there was massive detonation which blew the piston to pieces.

How many miles are on your injectors?

-B

 

[03MSPRO]

hot rods always run their bets before blowing....

 

[Protege2K]

i agree with alex. im sure terry beat the hell outta that car. but glad to hear you are going to build it up. i hope im not in the same boat one day.

ditto (nervous)

 

[vindication]

hey turf, why not go with the gt30 and port the intake to make it work better in our cars.