69GTO96Z

Had the car out last weekend, forged 346 with YSi, 15-16 psi, MLS gaskets with ARP studs, stock ported 243s, 93 octane and meth. During a WOT run I saw the coolant temps jump up about 20 degrees over normal, let out, and almost instantly the temps dropped back to normal. Car made the 20 mile drive home just fine after that with no signs of overheating. The back of the car does look to have some oil on it now, however coolant tank and oil level are still well within operating range. No signs of oil in coolant or vice versa.

I have determined I had a meth failure, as the pump is not working now. Pretty sure I saw some detonation. I plan to do a leak down on the motor this weekend. If all cylinders check good on the leak down, would there be any need to look at replacing the head gaskets? I plan to double check torque on the studs as well.

Sorry for the stupid question, I searched and didn't find an answer. I am still relatively new to the boost game, and this is the first hiccup I have had with the car in the 3k miles it has been boosted. I am nervous to hit it with boost again, even if everything checks out and I get the meth issue fixed.

DKS2K

I find it normal under boosted for the coolant temp to rise.. My temp goes up when boosting.. but goes back to normal after.

69GTO96Z

I am used to seeing a slightly higher temp, but not this much. The car has an upgraded radiator and fans. What concerns me is that within 2-3 seconds of getting out of boost, the temps dropped 20 degrees. It was almost an instant drop. The smell of burnt oil/coolant followed, along with the *** end being sprayed with oil. Attached is a pic of the back end of the car.

stevieturbo

Did it lose any water at all ?

69GTO96Z

A little bit. Coolant level is still in the operating range, but down a tad from normal.

c5mtl

When I lifted it puked all kind of coolant from the resivoir cap...my gaskets we’re fine but we had a clear indication where it was lifting. Hard to believe you lifted at 15-16 psi but then again if your tune is off it’s possible

Kingtal0n

Lets see. 15psi on 93 plus meth. No idea how much meth, but,

I Would say 7 to 9* of timing would be my best first guess.

And what you experienced is far more likely if you had, say, 15 to 20 instead.

69GTO96Z

Car was tuned by Pat G, so I am very confident in the tune. It is very possible it didn't lift a head. That is good to know that your gasket was okay after lifting the head. That is mainly what I was after, is if the gaskets survive it when it happens, or do they typically have to be replaced. I appreciate the answers

stevieturbo

If you didnt lose any water, then it's unlikely there is any harm done with respect to lifting a head.

BLOWNBLUEZ06@RKT Performance

Even if your motor is forged, I've seen events such as you're describing cause at least some of the piston rings to lose tension, so performing a leakdown test is definitely a wise move. When rings lose tension, crankcase pressures rise dramatically and oil gets pushed out from all over. The size of your catch can/ breather can hose matters little once this happens. If your head gasket got breached under boost, pushing combustion across to water under boost only, I would replace the head gaskets. I would make sure your heads have a very low RA if you can. I've even hand stroked my cylinder heads with custom blocks and sand paper to get my RA down to best guarantee a good seal.


I'm not sure who's meth kit you have but I've never had a failure from an Alky Control kit. That doesn't mean that I've never had to replace any parts because the pumps should be replaced on a regular basis. They're considered a maintenance item. When my customers fail to replace them in a timely manner, I've seen them begin to leak from the seals, but not fail to operate properly. As you've already discovered, it's critically important that the system is installed/wired in a way that best guarantees it'll never fail to operate. There are a number of things that I do to make that happen. I connect directly to the alternator for power and switch power using a quality, Bosch/Tyco relay. I make good, proper ground connections and use a product called No-Oxide on that connection to ensure it remains good forever. I never use any scotch locks and only solder when I'm able to guarantee there are no stress risers in the wire that I can't support so that they won't break in the future. I will crimp the wires with the highest quality crimpers and crimps, which is actually industry recommended over soldering. When done properly, the wire will break before the crimp connection will. I like to put a good, fast IAT sensor downstream from the meth nozzles so that I'm able to make changes to the tune when the IAT's reach levels that indicate the methanol isn't working. This has been my recipe for success for many years now.

Bret

Kingtal0n

I don't use crimps in my car. Anywhere. Soldier and heat shrink has NEVER let me down.

I've had to wire the entire engine harness AND chassis harness in my car. It was over 100 wires. Could you imagine if I had 100 crimp connectors in there? What a #(@*#( mess.

stevieturbo

Crimps like OEM and aviation use....yea, they're terrible, they'll never work.

BLOWNBLUEZ06@RKT Performance

Soldering in marine, aviation, aerospace and vehicles is technically wrong. You won't find any technical manuals in any current industry that advocate the use of solder in wiring connections and repair. There's a reason that's the standard.

c5mtl

Absolutely right .....mls gaskets need mirror mirror r/a...most machine shops don’t get it right

69GTO96Z

Bret, I appreciate the information! I live in Forney as well. I did not perform a leak down on it. I climbed under the car yesterday, and I definitely leaked some oil. It is coming from the front of the motor, around the timing cover area. There were zero signs of leakage around either head from what I can see. I then tested my meth kit, and I was only getting a dribble out of it. I took the lines apart from the filter to the intake tube, re-assembled, and it flowed great. I am using an Alky dual nozzle kit. I decided to take the car out, and do a boost hit to see what happens.

The car has had a very small oil leak for a little while, and I am thinking it finally blew the gasket. 8 psi and a smoke screen. The car does fine as long as it is out of boost. I am beginning the tear down today, pulling the head unit and the accessories, and will be performing a leak down on it as well while I have it apart.

Kingtal0n

Now hang on. The factory crimps look nothing like what I see for sale that is typically referred to as a 'crimp connector'. I admit there are factory crimp-style connections that serve their purposes just fine, but
A: they dont look hand crimped to me
and
B: they typically only have a small amount of tape over them, and are completely bare under that


When you come back to an engine harness and need to wire it- at least for me; I don't have access to any machine-style, high quality crimp connectors. And even if I did have some that I could trust, I couldn't imagine having 100 of them side by side with no protection besides a small amount of factory tape. There has to be a better solution than what the OEM uses when doing 100+ wires at once. And nothing that I would ever trust to be crimped by hand; thats just asking for trouble.

stevieturbo

Are you really that incapable of making a proper crimp with hand tools ? Even a 5 year old could do that properly.

If you cannot manage that, then you're even more likely to **** up a soldered joint.

BLOWNBLUEZ06@RKT Performance

Kingtal0n

captain obvious says: "Nobody likes the look of 100 solder joints together in a lump."

No way I am hand crimping 200 or 400 ends of anything, so that seals it regardless. Too much wear and tear on the hands when you need to make 10 harnesses, what a joke that would be and look like. Nobody would accept that kind of work unless it was done by a machine.

Always use the right tool: if I had a machine crimper I would use it sure, all the time. On the other hand, I do not have one, and solder is fast as @#$% and seems very strong and reliable. I get what you are saying about the yield/fracture but I always test my welds by pulling apart the wire as hard as I can. I feel that sufficient because,


A stress riser, due to manufacturing, or uneven cooling of 'new' materials in this case, is stress concentrated at various points within the material. From what I understand of stress riser concentration, it would not get worse with time, so that means we can test them at the time of manufacture, or test a sample size and set boundaries for minimum and max yield stress if mass producing a beam or something. The book "mechanics of materials" is pretty clear that manufacturers know about the uneven cooling / stress relationships in production of materials and include this in safety factor calculation. And also that for the direction that we pull on the wire, there will be a higher maximum stress likely to occur at other crystal angles within the atoms in the material that could be calculated by rotating a stress block.

In the case of solder joint, besides testing it by pulling on it, I assume you are worried also about fatigue. Or the effects of repeated loading due to force, temperature, vibration, and so forth. So its worth looking at that as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solder_fatigue
Just a quick rundown wiki style is showing that temperature is a likely candidate to cause fatigue more than anything. So I guess keep the wires away from the engine. Besides temp, mechanical fatigue isn't likely because we don't have any machine parts pulling on the wires repeatedly. So that basically leaves vibration.

I will take my chances with vibration. I don't feel like my wires are going to vibrate apart anytime soon. They are fairly accessible and there is such a thing as clear heat shrink, I just started using it though. And I love it. Because you can see right into the wire. So, yeah, I'll watch them and pray they don't vibrate apart.


This is my method I found it online




I am convinced I'd like to avoid both solder and crimps all together and replace everything with single pieces of wire. But then I realized the plugs themselves contain crimped endings, connectors within connectors. So it never ends, everything is crimped, -.-

STL94LT1

I'm an electrical repairman at a General Motors Assembly plant. This is the crimp connectors we use, no soldering.