2014 GT 500 Catastrophic Engine Failure: Next Steps? Thoughts?

Mulholland Man said:

Thanks BiminiLX,

I emailed Lidio for more info. I can't tell you what a great resource this Forum is and how appreciative I am that you all take your time to help out. BTW, I was looking at the cost recently of buying a Foxbody. Couldn't believe how much they have appreciated in value! To hear that they are now "Classic Collector Cars" made me feel old. LOL. I wish I never had sold my 91' or for that matter my 65 fastback. Hurts. Definitely NOT going to sell my 14'. Love it too much. Our 14's have also started going up materially in value over just the past couple years.

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GT500_012308 said:

WTF............sucks your motor went to crap. Insane with that minimal amount of mods it took a dump. Bad tuning.......? Wonder who tuned it?

What were you shifting at?


Sent from my iPhone using svtperformance.com

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GT500_012308 said:

WTF............sucks your motor went to crap. Insane with that minimal amount of mods it took a dump. Bad tuning.......? Wonder who tuned it?

What were you shifting at?


Sent from my iPhone using svtperformance.com

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Mulholland Man said:

Hi Everyone,

Well it happened. My engine went boom! I had recently done a compression check and I was more than 10% lower on compression on 3 of my driver side cylinders. I knew I had a problem and that I was going to need to rebuild. I also knew that my care was injured. Just wasn't expecting Catastrophic failure. Anyway. Engine's blown and I haven't had a chance to get it looked at yet to determine if the block is salvageable or not or how damaged it is. But the sound was NOT good and the engine just died and cut out and partially caught fire, smoked and then just fizzled out. Had it towed home.

I'm in California (Los Angeles). I have called Van to speak with him but I would greatly appreciate any suggestions that anyone might have. Don't know whether it might make sense to rebuild the stock engine or start fresh or even buy a used or rebuilt engine? I know guys on this forum have dealt with this issue and I know there's a lot of experience here so I thought I would put my problem out there. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Mulholland Man

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1Kona_Venom said:

Did you even read the 1st ten posts? Post #10 answers most of your question(s)

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Mulholland Man said:

Hi Everyone, update: I took my car to Eddie Rios @ Addiction Motorsports (New Tuner). Eddie noted at first that all the water was still in the cooling reservoirs and thought the block was ok. Jack up the car and....uh oh, block has big crack in the bottom. There was oil splattered along the cats and H pipe. We pulled out the plugs and noted that they were a mess. One of the rods broke (piston was not moving during when we cranked the car) and there was a nasty sound coming from the crank caused by the road damaging the crank on its travels back down to earth under force. Eddie advised that when you have this level of damage its fairly safe to assume that there is damage to the heads as well. He advised that I was most likely looking at the worst case scenario: New Short block w/ new upgraded internals, new Crank, and rebuilt heads. He estimated "off the cuff" 18k for the build but said he would give me a written estimate (which I will post here when I receive it). Had to pay $250 buck to tow it back and forth this day to the shop as he is 25 miles away from me and I don't have "Premium" AAA membership. Keep in mind that if you need to upgrade to premium they make you wait a week for tow- Live and learn again.

Diagnosis: Eddie agreed with Bimini LX's comments. He took one look at my engine and kinda cringed when he saw my 2.4" pulley. He said that on 91 pump you are playing with fire. He advises his clients to either ADD TORCO to the mix or swap to E85 before running a smaller pulley. He also added that running 17 PSI of boost and having such an aggressive tune (Again on 91 Pump) was a grand mistake. To make matters worse he noted that my other Tuner had put the WRONG spark plugs in. He had put in some very cheap plugs with the WRONG HEAT RATING ( they were 7's instead of 6's), virtually assuring that I would have knock and the potential for catastrophic damage. My prior tuner was Ray McClelland at Full Throttle Kustomz in Filmore, CA.

I will be going to Eddie Rios @ Addiction Motorsports (Simi Valley) from now on.

My plan is to rebuild my engine no matter the cost. I love my car too much to sell her on the cheap as a build project. I will be rebuilding it. I am curious about the posts above pertaining to a Coyote Swap or 5.4. I inquired about this with tuner (really quickly) and he shook his head noting ECU compatability/ cost of conversion issues? would love to hear back from you guys on this. I am open minded about going with a 5.4 or Coyote. Shit, I'd even consider an LS Swap (haha- I have now alienated about half of you at least, JK). Hope you guys are all doing well. I'm deeply depressed. Going to take me a couple years to save the money to build unless I get a better solution. I will do what it takes though.

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Black02GT said:

That is a lot of boost for 91.
I will say you'd have to know the type of plug to judge the heat range Bosch and NGK heat ranges work in reverse (NGK higher = colder, Bosch higher = hotter).
Curious to see what it looks like when you break it down COULD get lucky. Rod let go in my 4.6, big hole in both sides of the block, literally no piston left was just tiny pieces of it and the wrist pin in the pan and like 1/3 a rod. Long story short heads were totally untouched.

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Mulholland Man said:

I was so distraught I didn't think to ask what kind of plugs my tuner put in. He only said they were very "Cheap" and were 7s. Hope you are right about the heads. Fingers crossed.

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Mulholland Man said:

I was so distraught I didn't think to ask what kind of plugs my tuner put in. He only said they were very "Cheap" and were 7s. Hope you are right about the heads. Fingers crossed.

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Tezz500 said:

Of all things.... WHY skimp on Spark Plugs.....?

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Mulholland Man said:

Hi Everyone,
Well it happened. My engine went boom! I had recently done a compression check and I was more than 10% lower on compression on 3 of my driver side cylinders. I knew I had a problem and that I was going to need to rebuild. I also knew that my care was injured. Just wasn't expecting Catastrophic failure.

Click to expand...

Mulholland Man said:

I bought the car with 5,000 Miles and didn't do a compression check at purchase. Did one several months later when I started adding mods and noticed that I had some lower compression in the 3 driver side cylinders but was still within spec of 10% from other cylinders. Added boost and more mods. Over time I think those weaker cylinders lost compression.

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Mulholland Man said:

Hi Everyone, update: I took my car to Eddie Rios @ Addiction Motorsports (New Tuner). Eddie noted at first that all the water was still in the cooling reservoirs and thought the block was ok. Jack up the car and....uh oh, block has big crack in the bottom. There was oil splattered along the cats and H pipe. We pulled out the plugs and noted that they were a mess. One of the rods broke (piston was not moving during when we cranked the car) and there was a nasty sound coming from the crank caused by the road damaging the crank on its travels back down to earth under force. Eddie advised that when you have this level of damage its fairly safe to assume that there is damage to the heads as well. He advised that I was most likely looking at the worst case scenario: New Short block w/ new upgraded internals, new Crank, and rebuilt heads. He estimated "off the cuff" 18k for the build but said he would give me a written estimate (which I will post here when I receive it). Had to pay $250 buck to tow it back and forth this day to the shop as he is 25 miles away from me and I don't have "Premium" AAA membership. Keep in mind that if you need to upgrade to premium they make you wait a week for tow- Live and learn again.

Diagnosis: Eddie agreed with Bimini LX's comments. He took one look at my engine and kinda cringed when he saw my 2.4" pulley. He said that on 91 pump you are playing with fire. He advises his clients to either ADD TORCO to the mix or swap to E85 before running a smaller pulley. He also added that running 17 PSI of boost and having such an aggressive tune (Again on 91 Pump) was a grand mistake. To make matters worse he noted that my other Tuner had put the WRONG spark plugs in. He had put in some very cheap plugs with the WRONG HEAT RATING ( they were 7's instead of 6's), virtually assuring that I would have knock and the potential for catastrophic damage. My prior tuner was Ray McClelland at Full Throttle Kustomz in Filmore, CA.

I will be going to Eddie Rios @ Addiction Motorsports (Simi Valley) from now on.

My plan is to rebuild my engine no matter the cost. I love my car too much to sell her on the cheap as a build project. I will be rebuilding it. I am curious about the posts above pertaining to a Coyote Swap or 5.4. I inquired about this with tuner (really quickly) and he shook his head noting ECU compatability/ cost of conversion issues? would love to hear back from you guys on this. I am open minded about going with a 5.4 or Coyote. Shit, I'd even consider an LS Swap (haha- I have now alienated about half of you at least, JK). Hope you guys are all doing well. I'm deeply depressed. Going to take me a couple years to save the money to build unless I get a better solution. I will do what it takes though.

Click to expand...