Blew my Engine

johnboy89

johnboy89

Member
Well I have'nt even had my truck a month yet and already blew the engine.

What looks like happened is that the boost line came off, causing an over boost.

I was changing the idler arm and trying to reach the bolts and must have broke the elbow on the solenoid.

Stupid me for not watching the boost gage, but either way my fault and will need to rebuild/replace.

My question is for those that have been down this road, is it worth it to try and repair ( looks like it went throught the oil pan) or get another shortblock, buy a rebuilt etc.......

Thanx:)
 
2

2kwik4u

Resident slow guy
Re: Blew my Engine

Now Jeff, that's just mean......Good chance he never had a scan tool on it if he's only had it a month!

TO answer the question.....Most have had decent luck with a legit Sy/Ty shortblock. Some have used a newstyle balance shaft block with some tuning help. Keep in mind the Sy/Ty block has lower compression, and different internal parts than a standard S-Series 4.3 block, so be sure you get the right thing as a replacement.........If the block isn't trashed, then a standard rebuild with appropriate parts might be a similar costing solution for you, if you can do your own work.

At any rate, I think what Jeff was getting at, is that as soon as you get a new motor in there........you should really get the truck on a scan tool to make sure it's running good before getting into too much boost.
 
johnboy89

johnboy89

Member
Re: Blew my Engine

TwinTurboV8Ty said:
What was your scan tool saying before it blew?
Click to expand...

Funny you mention that the ALDL cable arrived in the mail today.

How would a scantool have helped in this situation, unless I happen to be monitoring it at that time????

The only scantools I have seen for these are laptops, unless I had my eyes off the road looking at a laptop!!!!
 
sytyguy

sytyguy

Moderated User
Re: Blew my Engine

johnboy89 said:
Funny you mention that the ALDL cable arrived in the mail today.

How would a scantool have helped in this situation, unless I happen to be monitoring it at that time????

The only scantools I have seen for these are laptops, unless I had my eyes off the road looking at a laptop!!!!
Click to expand...
Correct....a scantool would've helped by showing you what was going on (overboost, excessive knock, etc...) and you could've responded by saying "Holy cat sh*t!" and getting out of the throttle.....potentially saving the engine.
 
JSM

JSM

Active member
Re: Blew my Engine

Engines don't just blow up normally, they usually show signs of knock, etc which can be seen various ways, one of the easiest is knock retard via scan tool. So you would have seen for the weeks leading up, hey my boost is goofy and I have knock retard something is not right -vs- situation your at now which is hmm what was the boom, why is a rod hanging out of the bottom of the truck?
 
turbodig

turbodig

Active member
Re: Blew my Engine

To be entirely fair, this can happen to anybody. If a vac hose blows off, and you stand on it without knowing, you can take out a motor before your foot has the chance to get back out of it.

This can happen with whatever motor you want to build... stronger builds will last longer before they go, but nothing will survive that kind of abuse long term.

Your best defenses:

1) some type of a knock indicator/light
2) external boost gauge.

If you're really paranoid, you can always turn the overboost limiter in the chip on to some sort of reasonable level. Or, a Hobbs set up as an ignition kill over x psi of boost.

To the original poster -chalk it up as a learning experience.
 
2

2kwik4u

Resident slow guy
Re: Blew my Engine

turbodig said:
To be entirely fair, this can happen to anybody. If a vac hose blows off, and you stand on it without knowing, you can take out a motor before your foot has the chance to get back out of it.
Click to expand...

Having driven through a 28psi boost spike on Hardmans truck WITHOUT a datalogger running, I 100% agree with Dig. This particular scenario would have most likely NOT been helped with a datalogger.

Although if he had one he probably would've known it wasn't running right, and stayed out of it anyway. It's hard to say really without being there.

Point of the rambling here......Get a boost gauge, get a scan tool. Both will help diagnose problems before they get out of control!
 
skwayb

skwayb

NWSTP
Re: Blew my Engine

It works well. You can build the circuit and use the Moates O-Meter with the diagrams up on the site. Then we can upgrade your Code59 bin from V18 to V23 and then it should work as long as you have the values from the knock table in that thread also. If you want to do I can help you get it working.

Ashman made the LED bar graph version of it and had it working if you don't like the o-meter.. Hopefully he can post some info on that.
 
Maxtor

Maxtor

New member
Re: Blew my Engine

turbodig said:
To be entirely fair, this can happen to anybody. If a vac hose blows off, and you stand on it without knowing, you can take out a motor before your foot has the chance to get back out of it.
Click to expand...

I agree, definitely an unfortunate learning experience. I bought a truck from a guy who had this happen - stock motor with an external boost gauge. He thinks he knocked vac hose off when changing plugs.... said it felt great when he hit the gas 2-3 times so he then made the very bad decision to do a boost launch as his first WOT run. He said he couldn't get his foot off the gas fast enough in first gear to keep boost from spiking to 28psi. Completely disintigrated #3 and shot parts out through the pan.

Any time I have had my hands under the hood I do a third gear pull at WOT and SLOWLY ease into the throttle with the laptop hooked up to ensure everything is right before boost launching/etc/etc.
 
johnboy89

johnboy89

Member
Re: Blew my Engine

TwinTurboV8Ty said:
Engines don't just blow up normally, they usually show signs of knock, etc which can be seen various ways, one of the easiest is knock retard via scan tool. So you would have seen for the weeks leading up, hey my boost is goofy and I have knock retard something is not right -vs- situation your at now which is hmm what was the boom, why is a rod hanging out of the bottom of the truck?
Click to expand...

The truck ran great before this in fact it was driven across the country with no problems. It was definetly me breaking the little rubber elbow on the boost solenoid, trying to get to the idler arm bolts.

When it blew I had barely a quarter throttle in it, makes me wonder why it would throw a rod instead of blowing the head gaskets???? but this could be just me coming from the buick V6 world???

It's nice to know that there is some sort of knock gage that can be installed, I assure you it will be in my truck.

I started tearing into it today and my thoughts are the block is trashed, because there was anti-freeze leaking also, unless that was from the head gasket(s)???????
 
turbodig

turbodig

Active member
Re: Blew my Engine

Maxtor said:
Any time I have had my hands under the hood I do a third gear pull at WOT and SLOWLY ease into the throttle with the laptop hooked up to ensure everything is right before boost launching/etc/etc.
Click to expand...

I also do this after not driving the truck for long periods- stuff can rust/stick shut.

Squeeze the gas slowly until you hit the boost setpoint, then apply a bit more. If boost holds and there's no knock, keep applying until your foot is all the way down.

This is something people don't often think of.... the real possibility that something changed while in storage.
 
turbodig

turbodig

Active member
Re: Blew my Engine

johnboy89 said:
The truck ran great before this in fact it was driven across the country with no problems. It was definetly me breaking the little rubber elbow on the boost solenoid, trying to get to the idler arm bolts.

When it blew I had barely a quarter throttle in it, makes me wonder why it would throw a rod instead of blowing the head gaskets???? but this could be just me coming from the buick V6 world???

It's nice to know that there is some sort of knock gage that can be installed, I assure you it will be in my truck.

I started tearing into it today and my thoughts are the block is trashed, because there was anti-freeze leaking also, unless that was from the head gasket(s)???????
Click to expand...


We don't blow a lot of head gaskets - 5- bolt heads. Often, the first sign is parts coming apart.

Forget all you know about Buicks... syty is not the same creature.
 
SloGN

SloGN

9Sec Alky V6
Re: Blew my Engine

speaking of knock retard.

if one had that amount of knock to kill the motor. you really should have heard the pinging/rattling sound that kinda sound like to hammer heads banging together.




I can hear knock really well but it has come at a price( headgaskets on the GN)


does the syty guy use the Casper's knock gauge?
 
SloGN

SloGN

9Sec Alky V6
Re: Blew my Engine

turbodig said:
We don't blow a lot of head gaskets - 5- bolt heads. Often, the first sign is parts coming apart.

Forget all you know about Buicks... syty is not the same creature.
Click to expand...



THATS THE TRUTH............



That why i still have the stock type headgaskets on the GN. I have headstuds and main studs. but i still have killed the gaskets.


Alot of the guys use cometics and studs and when they have excessive knock there goes a rod or pistons.
 
Maxtor

Maxtor

New member
Re: Blew my Engine

turbodig said:
I also do this after not driving the truck for long periods- stuff can rust/stick shut.

Squeeze the gas slowly until you hit the boost setpoint, then apply a bit more. If boost holds and there's no knock, keep applying until your foot is all the way down.

This is something people don't often think of.... the real possibility that something changed while in storage.
Click to expand...

I hope other people read this thread and take notice to what is being said. I do exactly what DIg describes above and it has saved my butt on more than one occasion. I had an external gate rust shut while the truck sat and the only way I caught it was by doing the third gear-ease into the gas trick. Stock WG's are notorious for freezing shut too.
 
sytyguy

sytyguy

Moderated User
Re: Blew my Engine

SloGN said:
speaking of knock retard.

if one had that amount of knock to kill the motor. you really should have heard the pinging/rattling sound that kinda sound like to hammer heads banging together.

I can hear knock really well but it has come at a price( headgaskets on the GN)

does the syty guy use the Casper's knock gauge?
Click to expand...
Actually, knock can be a silent killer. Less than 8 deg of knock can be near impossible to hear sometimes and can scatter an engine. NEVER rely on sound or expect that you can hear any amount of knock.....just not a reliable method (on ANY vehicle).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top