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      07-31-2018, 08:13 AM   #1
SYT_Shadow
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Blown engine

Our E90's engine has blown.

We have been chasing an issue with the E90's engine for a few months.
It was smoking like crazy and running rough. After replacing a ton of parts we removed the Xpipe and it turns out the driver's side cat had collapsed, completely blocking the exhaust exit.
As the fumes needed to escape somewhere so it blew through the valve stem seals and that turned out to be the source of the oil consumption.

We took it to two different mechanics while troubleshooting this. They replaced all kinds of parts but the car sometimes would run perfectly and other times smoke and run rough, like if it was on 7 cylinders instead of 8.
Both mechanics told us that if the car wasn't giving misfire codes we should keep driving it, which we did.

Finally we went to someone highly experienced in this platform who said they thought it was the valve seals. We got them replaced and also installed cams and the BW headers plus the Karbonius intake

Apparently doing a couple track days and driving a few thousand miles on the street with the engine sometimes working fine and other times not working fine were too much for it to take.

Yesterday it seized while on the dyno. It put down good numbers before that though.

The car evidently had BE bearings and ARP bolts. The current hypothesis is main bearings. We will see.


Next steps are TBD but we'll get a new engine for next year's season.

I still love the S65 regardless of what happened


The engine has around 60 double-track days on it. It is run very hard, but I'd bet that if it hadn't been because of this cat issue it would have been fine for plenty more days.

Last edited by SYT_Shadow; 02-24-2020 at 03:57 PM..
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      07-31-2018, 08:14 AM   #2
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Car with cams, headers, slonik oil pan










Last edited by SYT_Shadow; 08-03-2018 at 03:21 PM..
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      07-31-2018, 08:16 AM   #3
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      07-31-2018, 08:25 AM   #4
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Damn it. All that and now this happens. Sorry to hear.
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      07-31-2018, 08:35 AM   #5
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Dang so sorry. Let us know any updates and diagnosis as you find out.
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      07-31-2018, 08:37 AM   #6
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Ugh! So sorry to hear!
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      07-31-2018, 08:45 AM   #7
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Yikes

Really curious to see the bearings, thanks for posting for science as always
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      07-31-2018, 09:20 AM   #8
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Why would you say "The current hypothesis is main bearings" ? and how is that related to Cat issue you had. Just trying to understand your theory.
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      07-31-2018, 09:24 AM   #9
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      07-31-2018, 09:29 AM   #10
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#reallysucks ! I'm sorry .
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      07-31-2018, 09:35 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Honda View Post
Why would you say "The current hypothesis is main bearings" ? and how is that related to Cat issue you had. Just trying to understand your theory.
The cat failed after 3 seasons of tracking the car heavily, blocking one of the two banks from being able to exhaust fumes correctly.
This made the engine run rough, as depending how much of the exhaust was blocked it would either work perfectly or feel like it's misfiring or directly running on one of the two banks

When you feel an engine run this rough you just want to turn it off and take it to a mechanic. So I did. Two mechanics spent time with it and postulated bad spark plugs, bad oil separators, bad cyl1 injector, etc. After replacing many parts the car continued to run poorly at times and fine at other times.

My guess is that while it was running rough for a couple track days and a couple thousand miles the bearings were seeing undue stress.

Finally the issue was identified by a third mechanic as likely being valve stem seals and after removing the engine and inspecting it turned out to be the case. So they were replaced and while the engine was out of the car they also changed the cams, headers, slonik dct pan.
Leakdown and compression were also done and came back with excellent numbers.

The engine seized after a few hours on the dyno. I think it's main bearings because you'll usually hear epic knock a few seconds before the rod bearings go and the rod bearings had already been replaced for the proper BE/ARP combo.

We'll see though
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      07-31-2018, 09:43 AM   #12
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Wow! What a strange situatation with the cat failure. I agree you may see a main failure when you open it up. Sorry to hear!
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      07-31-2018, 09:54 AM   #13
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Willing to share the leakdown and compression numbers? I don't think I've seen what a "good" compression test looks like on one of these. I know what I consider "good" leakdown
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      07-31-2018, 09:54 AM   #14
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Oh man, that absolutely sucks! So sorry to hear about your failure after having all of those new beautiful parts installed.
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      07-31-2018, 10:04 AM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Richbot View Post
Willing to share the leakdown and compression numbers? I don't think I've seen what a "good" compression test looks like on one of these. I know what I consider "good" leakdown
Sure

Compression (psi)
1-184
2-187
3-190
4-188
5-184
6-190
7-188
8-186

Leakdown
1-5%
2-5%
3-6%
4-5%
5-6%
6-4%
7-5%
8-6%
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      07-31-2018, 10:05 AM   #16
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Damn that's tough to hear.
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      07-31-2018, 10:10 AM   #17
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Let me know if I can help.

Edit: You didn't just call an engine shop in NH did you?
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      07-31-2018, 10:14 AM   #18
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SYT, really sorry to hear, what a complete bummer. Curious to see what happened, appreciate your continued posting.

Thanks
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      07-31-2018, 10:27 AM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jcolley View Post
Let me know if I can help.

Edit: You didn't just call an engine shop in NH did you?
I didn't. I do want a stroker S85 though hehe
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      07-31-2018, 10:30 AM   #20
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Very sad news. I'm interested in hearing the details as you know more.

Maybe you should've installed those test pipes after all?
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      07-31-2018, 10:31 AM   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SYT_Shadow View Post
I didn't. I do want a stroker S85 though hehe
Two in progress at the moment. One N/A and one S/C.

Coincidental timing then, the shop just called me and asked, they referred the guy to me. They only do the boring and pass the honing and alusil exposure of to me. Let's hope you don't need any of that.
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      07-31-2018, 10:33 AM   #22
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Iyzmi View Post
Very sad news. I'm interested in hearing the details as you know more.

Maybe you should've installed those test pipes after all?
Yes. Lots of learnings here, around tracking at a high level with cats, about having the wrong mechanics working on your car. (the first 2 guys)
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