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Night time: @ approximately 4000 RPM heard a loud thud coming from the undercarriage along with sudden and rapid left hood line movement followed by high pitch rubber whine.
At first I thought I just run over a big rock but turns out it was worse than that.
This morning, before putting the car on the lift, I took a look from above in full daylight but did not notice anything out of place until I noticed this:
E-Force Cracks at the joints/seams
E-Force Cracks and chipped metal at the seam
E-Force Cracks and chipped metal at the seam
The metal fractures seem consistent with a dislocation of the E-Force S/C at least the top (the roof line "pop").
The interesting part is that the engine starts but goes automatically on full revving. I think the rubber whine comes from the pulley belt.
Interested in S/C expertise/opinions on what happened.
At last scan I reached 9.3 PSI @ 4700. This thud showed up at a prolonged 4000RPM run.
Are the cracks indicative of too much boost? forcing/dislocating the E-Force top off?
Wegner provided me with a 3.25, 3.05 and sub 3 (2.85 I think) pulleys. I went with the 3.05.
Interested in your takes.
Thanks!
Last edited by Telepierre; 03-16-2017 at 07:58 AM.
Holy ****! I've never even heard about something like that before. There's no way that comes from too much boost. The amount of boost that it would take to do that isn't possible with that blower, in my view. There have been folks like realcanuk that have made 14+ psi with that blower for years with no problems.
Looks like there was a violent explosion inside the blower plenum. I can't even think how that would be possible, unless somehow it backfired and there was fuel inside the plenum, which should not be the case. With the injectors being downstream from the charge air coolers that shouldn't be possible. Do you have a nitrous system on it? If so, that might be where the fuel came from.
The engine revs up when you start it because it's leaking air through those cracks, so air is bypassing the throttle body. It's possible the whine you hear is air whistling through those cracks. If the blower pulley is still turning, then the rotors may be fine. Only way to tell is to look. I would start by pulling the belt off and rotating the blower pulley by hand to see if it binds, or if there's any grinding noises, etc. If there's no binding or noise, I would then carefully pull off the lid, documenting everything with photos (unless you have some kind of warranty on the motor that prohibits that?) and see what happened inside the blower plenum. If you do that, please post the pictures up, because this really is bizarre.
If the blower rotors are not binding and the motor is still running fine, maybe you'll be lucky and only need to change the lid, provided that you figure out what caused this, of course.
Holy ****! I've never even heard about something like that before. There's no way that comes from too much boost. The amount of boost that it would take to do that isn't possible with that blower, in my view. There have been folks like realcanuk that have made 14+ psi with that blower for years with no problems.
Looks like there was a violent explosion inside the blower plenum. I can't even think how that would be possible, unless somehow it backfired and there was fuel inside the plenum, which should not be the case. With the injectors being downstream from the charge air coolers that shouldn't be possible. Do you have a nitrous system on it? If so, that might be where the fuel came from.
The engine revs up when you start it because it's leaking air through those cracks, so air is bypassing the throttle body. It's possible the whine you hear is air whistling through those cracks. If the blower pulley is still turning, then the rotors may be fine. Only way to tell is to look. I would start by pulling the belt off and rotating the blower pulley by hand to see if it binds, or if there's any grinding noises, etc. If there's no binding or noise, I would then carefully pull off the lid, documenting everything with photos (unless you have some kind of warranty on the motor that prohibits that?) and see what happened inside the blower plenum. If you do that, please post the pictures up, because this really is bizarre.
If the blower rotors are not binding and the motor is still running fine, maybe you'll be lucky and only need to change the lid, provided that you figure out what caused this, of course.
Thank you! Much logic behind all your explanations. I do not have nitrous. My next step is to check whether the S/C pulley turns freely or not and listen...
The other "crazy" explanation my be that a sudden "pulley freeze" pulled the top off by momentum..?
I suppose the good news here is that the new (and expensive engine) may be OK gosh I HOPE!
Last edited by Telepierre; 03-16-2017 at 08:30 AM.
Definitely not from too much boost. Might get a clue when you take the lid off. Belt might be squealing because the rotors aren't turning. If you remove the belt, see if you can turn the pulley at all. I bet there is major damage inside that caused the broken lid........question is why.
Backfire is a possibility, but as said, unless running nitrous, that's highly unlikely. Just gussing until you open it but maybe some foreign object passed through. I know of an issue with the little paper emsssions thing coming off and blocking the throttle body....I guess its possible it makes it into the rotors.
Keep us posted.... very curious about this.....never saw it before.
Jody, does the E-force have those silly little sound dampening pads inside the air cleaner assembly like the Heartbeat does? That's why I peeled mine off, especially when I saw the corners lifting up, because I didn't want the blower to swallow that. Since the OP doesn't have nitrous, and if it's actually been belt squeal he's hearing, then I'm with you on a foreign object causing it. Most likely it will be one of those pads.
If that's what happened, and it got by the throttle body, that would have locked the rotors up. At 4000 rpm engine speed, that would no doubt have grenaded the rotors sufficiently to lift the lid.
Whatever it is, hopefully nothing got into the intake runners that would damage the engine.
Jody, does the E-force have those silly little sound dampening pads inside the air cleaner assembly like the Heartbeat does? That's why I peeled mine off, especially when I saw the corners lifting up, because I didn't want the blower to swallow that. Since the OP doesn't have nitrous, and if it's actually been belt squeal he's hearing, then I'm with you on a foreign object causing it. Most likely it will be one of those pads.
If that's what happened, and it got by the throttle body, that would have locked the rotors up. At 4000 rpm engine speed, that would no doubt have grenaded the rotors sufficiently to lift the lid.
Whatever it is, hopefully nothing got into the intake runners that would damage the engine.
Yup.... Eforce has one in the intake. That pic is from my buddies car. Lucky for him it didn't get through the TB. When I saw that I took mine off immediately and made a thread about it to warn others. That's my best guess on this issue. I bet the squeal is because the pulley is locked up.
Man, that looks ugly. Hope not, but if something non compressible went through those rotors (very tight clearances), something had to give. I'm betting on the rotor case having substantial damage. Not just the lid. Best of luck to you.
Any possibility the bypass valve got stuck closed and overheated the rotors/eventually caused some major damage? I dunno, haven't seen that one thrown out there yet so figured I'd say it.
Need to pull the top off and see what is going on. That will pretty much answer the question.
In the process of loosening the driving belt noticed the S/C pulley was rotating freely and without unexpected noises/resistance/clatter of any type. As I was rotating the pulley and holding the other hand on top of the S/C cover I noticed it was actually moving.
I sure dared lifting it up without touching a single bolt and voila' the entire S/C cover is in my hand without touching a single bolt! This is consistent with the memory of a loud thud and hood line pop basically the whole cover rocket up after the last few connects gave away..(I suppose)
Pictures tell the story. Each single connecting bolt still in place surrounded by frayed cover metal.
A first inspection of the inside does not indicate anything out of place but again am relying on your experience to point otherwise.
I suppose a detonation of sort would show up somehow?
Could not find debris of any sort but then again I really cannot see past the bypass valve. Maybe I should use the scope for that. Rotors turn and look fine to me.
So is this a case of compound PSI stress cracking the metal? I recall few old posts pointing to first generation Edel. S/C with porous valley plates... Maybe I have the same "pourous metal"?
What do I do now? bungee cord the cover to the main frame? /sarc
Last edited by Telepierre; 03-17-2017 at 05:49 AM.
That's really a strange one. At the rear the rotors are exposed. If they don't feel loose and they turn smoothly with no noises than they are ok.
My suggestion if all looks good is to call Edelbrock. I forgot the guys name but when I had an issue I spoke with the eforce engineer and he was super helpful and took care of the problem. I am sure they can help you out or tell you what to check.
I suppose a defective casting of the cover is not impossible, but I just don't know.
I'm back to my backfire theory. Somehow some fuel got lit in there and caused an explosion. Could it be that it backfired somehow and lot off fuel vapor in the plenum? I can't see every bolt boss on there popping out like that, without some serious explosion inside the blower plenum violently lifting the lid.
Thanks ALL!
On one hand the backfire theory makes sense but I would expect other signs of it such as blacking out/combustion and extremely dry surfaces.
On the other, the metal around the bolts is very "grainy", "flaky" and "porous" and all I can think of is the porous valley plate issue of old. 35K miles worth of boost slowly cracking for finally giving away?
I am leaning towards further inspecting but not disassembling and hope in a replacement lid from Edelbrock along with replacement gasket. Mount the lot and see what happens..
Last edited by Telepierre; 03-17-2017 at 05:52 AM.
Hey Guys - I really cannot afford an entire new E-F system for "just" a lid. Do you know if the new E-Force lid fits in the corvette? and if not do you know someone that swapped and is willing to sell it? or can you pass word I am in search of an old lid? I came across one lid for sale on the camaro5 site but it is three years old.. THANKS!
Hey Guys - I really cannot afford an entire new E-F system for "just" a lid. Do you know if the new E-Force lid fits in the corvette? and if not do you know someone that swapped and is willing to sell it? or can you pass word I am in search of an old lid? I came across one lid for sale on the camaro5 site but it is three years old.. THANKS!
03-16-2017, 07:54 AM
Call for S/C experts - HELP on Failure analysis on E-Force Wegner Combo
