Yep you read it right, one more down The motor didn't lay down on me, but it wasn't right either! I kept getting metal(bronze) out of the breather tank oil on Sat so that told me to cut the first filter open after changing oil at the track. It didn't look bad at all, so I asked around some and everybody said thats normal. So I ran the car on Sun in the second session after adjusting the lifters in the mourning, and it ran fine but seemed down on power like all weekend. Well I did run the car in the 3rd session in 105deg heat with the water at 210 and oil at 280 at 70psi. I drained the oil breather again and it looked bad again, so I put the car on the trailer after just 5(out of 10) sessions on the weekend.

I'm off to talk to the engine shop now........

OH for those that want the BEST brake setup ever, call Steve over at ProStop Performance and get you a 996 setup! I could lockup(ABS) my 315 V710's on any lap any time that I wanted(over braked )
I'm pretty sure the Carbotech XP12's pad's are to much on this setup!

The only good thing this weekend...... I picked up 4 used Hoosier(5 sessions) for $12.50 a tire!

So John is it toast or will day surgery fix it?

Bummer about the motor. I don't doubt that ProStop Brakes are one of the best setups out there, but lockup is not a conclusive sign of a good brake setup. Of course, I wouldn't mind a ProStop setup myself.

Hopefully just a new set of bearings will do, but we need to know why it went bad and how much is bad!




Very true Dennis

Bummer buddy!

Keeping my fingers crossed for you. I've found out about a bad motor condition by luck, but can't imagine doing it multiple times.

find the engine gremlin and kill it... hope the engine issue gets resolved without setting you back too much.

That SUCKS man!

I will hope for your sake it is not as bad as you fear.....but from one who has had MORE than his share of issues.....you will break on thru to the other side....soon!

Any chance you saved some of the oil for analysis? Unless you're going to take the engine completely apart of course.

Ambient heat is a real HP killer (I'm sure you know that); just curious if that was more what caused your engine to feel down on power rather than it truly being damaged. I know my car feels lethargic when I'm in Phoenix compared to the coast.

Anyway, sorry to hear about your engine, let us know what happened!

Too much timing can pound the bearings out of a motor (yes, we swapped them in the Mustang in the pits at Road Atlanta). Could it be a tuning issue?

There is no need for an analysis, the oil is Bronze in color




It could be a tuning issue, I'm using a PCMforless tune. I had the idle problem which has gone away, i guess the pcm just relearned by its self. The only change in the motor since installing the program is .30 over/ .005 deck and .026 head gaskets.

Well, .30 over, .005 deck and a .026 head gasket could be responsible for a small but signifigant bump in compression. Potentially making a marginal situation worse, or bad enough that the timing needs backed down. I'm just thinking out loud.

Sounds kinda like a spun bearing, but I'd expect you'd see some difference in oil pressure.

I was thinking it was 11 to 1. Marcin and I have been trying to get this thing tuned, but the motor is aways down



Motor is out! just have to pull the trans off and crap.

We will see soon enough....

John
I have a rant on here somewhere about PCMforless -- it did NOT work well for me.

Of course YMMV,FWIW yada yada

It hasn't gone well for me either.....

WELL I found out what is wrong, THE PISTON SKIRT'S BROKE OFF the bottom of a few pistons!

How would this happan?

Piston rocking in the bore?

Or getting on the throttle too soon before the engine is properly warmed up? That happened to me once. My #6 piston (TRW forged flattop) came out of the bore in two pieces, all while the car ran 13.50s (Gen I SBC 355).

Sorry to hear that.


Maybe too much piston to bore clearance letting the piston rock?

Wrong length rod / too much stroke letting the piston come out of the bore too far?

Detonation will usually take out something on the top of the piston, not the bottom.

If the wrist pin was sticking, it might get the skirt in a bind on the way back up.