Give me ANY motor and I will blow it UP! 56k DEATH

[sunnys14]

The last thread I made, I said I ran at the track. I hit like 21psi for some apparent reason (boost controller failed?) And I blew a headgasket. AEM truboost was supposed to cut boost over 18psi since I set the warning limit. Apparently IT DIDNT. So I limped home with a little bit of overheating and compression tested.

#1 142psi#2 20psi#3 53psi#4 153psi

I took the head off today to inspect for damages. Heres the damage...

#1 cylinder

#2 cylinder

#3 cylinder

#4 cylinder

Entire gasket

Yeah so the headgasket was toast... I inspected the bottom of the head, and it was fine.

So everything should be a quick fix, just slap a new headgasket it on and call it a day. So what about the block? I'd thought you'd never ask. Take a look for yourself...

Wait... is that detonation damage that I see?

#1 piston

#2 piston

#3 piston

#4 piston

Wow... thats all I can say at this point. The forged sluggers went to their death on this motor. #2 is the most heavily damaged piston, I can see the entire upper piston ring on the intake side. Then #3 was the second most damaged, then #4 and #1. Cylinder #1 and #4 is what suprised me. It still gave pretty decent compression yet the intake side of the piston was a little rounded off.

Not sure what im going to do now... the block is pretty much as good as done. Too much detonation damage on the upper part of the cylinder wall. I DO have a spare block in my back yard and MIGHT swap everything over to it. I just gotta get it overbored and new pistons...etc.

I guess 100octane + 23psi overboost was too much? Even for a fully built forged motor? HEHEHE i guess so. Just mine ofcourse.

Im not even sad, its happened so many times, i dont even care anymore. Im just deciding on what to do at this point. 6 KA's have given their life to give me boost.

Heres the car as it sits now...

I guess ill be riding the bike till i figure out what to do.

[240sxvaj]

sry to hear what happen

you can sell me your T28 now

[sunnys14]

I already sold it. I have a GT3071r waiting to go in.

[nelson8708]

to bad the tru boost didnt work right. If you decide to rebuild i would recommend adding the hobbs boost cut setup. It has saved my *** a few times.

[D-UNIT]

OUCH!! I have t28 waiting to go in. I mapped it at 17psi max in the 74% efficiency island. so anything over 17psi will cause super heated air to come from the outlet. which would cause deadly detonation. sorry to hear a heavily fortifed beast was taken out. you're new turbo will have a way bigger threshold of detonation maybe like 25psi before heat pumping. Live and learn : Round 7

[importdude]

yikes man

[Biggamehit]

There you go champ lol you have just excepted reality.... im on number 5 lol

with motors as you know you can have a perfect tune blah blah and one thing goes wrong such as temp change and or a failed part could ruin it.....

[WDRacing]

If you rebuild it or boost another KA, get the J&S Knock Safe unit. You won't pop pistons or headgaskets atleast. Rods can still go through the block, but that will be rpm or torque at that point.

Get it, tune it and be done with it.

WD

[TheOne]

i haven't even boosted yet and i've gone through 4 engines:), don't let this 1 put you down, just make sure to put in a safe tune and install a boost cut, like the 1 on the writeup.

lot of boost and no tune for it will blow up any engine, even if fully forged.(tho i understand it wasn't your cause, it was the tru boost's)

[sunnys14]

I had an enthalpy tune, no safc correction, 555cc, z32 maf and even race gas.

I guess I have a special gift. Ill destroy any motor thats given to me.

[sunnys14]

I also checked the detonation damage on #2 and #3. It looks ok. Its just melted pieces of the piston thats stuck on there. Nothing a quick hone and hot tank cant get off.

[Jookmasta]

wow man, u really are racking up the amount of engines that you've gone through. at this point you must be the guru at taking them apart, installing em, tuning em, etc. lol.

i will say that 21 psi on that turbo effectively did ya in for sure. 18 psi is the borderline but anything above would result in the same thing that happened to ya. this is half the reason why i'm upgrading my str8 t3 to a t3/t4............even with enough fuel and proper tuning, heat pump will lead to detonation........

[sunnys14]

I now upgraded to a GT3071R so that turbo shouldnt be a heat pump till about 25psi.

[spooled240]

Live and learn, that's how we live life. Look at the bright side, you already have everything for the next ka-t, just a block.

Best of luck with the next motor!

[spooled240]

so let me get this straight, a smaller turbo at a boost level that is higher than its efficiency range will pump air so hot that it will detonate your engine?!

[sunnys14]

YES. Its like running a t25 to 18 psi. Anything after 13-14psi would be pointless.

[WDRacing]

In short, yes. Small turbo's superheat the air charge where properly sized turbo's do not. The hotter the air, the more chance you run of detonating.

For the record...we shouldn't be congratulating Sunny on anything other then being a jerk. He's depleting the resources of a motor that isn't in production anymore.

I'm not buying the...it was a boost spike excuse anymore. The problem is the user. I can't find a good price on a KA anymore because of people that have NO idea what they are doing, blow up motors left and right and then think it's something to brag about.

Sell the 240 and get a Domestic bro. For the love of God, quit blowing sh1t up...

WD

[sunnys14]

I have 3 motors total. Im just rebuilding them over and over. The last time i bought a motor was 3 years ago. I am not depleting any motors. Me being a jerk for rebuilding the KA? How is that? Me bragging about blowing up motors?

Ok, I could have easily said "blah blah blah, KA's are weak sauce, SRs are built for turbo blah blah blah." But I didn't. I have faith in the KA and don't give up on it.

Just because something breaks doesn't mean I should give up on it. Sure there are better motors out there, but after messing around with the KA for 4 years, I feel this motor is the easiest to work on and build.

I'm not even sure how this built motor died. No safc, straight enthalpy tune, 555cc injectors + race gas.

[WDRacing]

6 KA's have given their life to give me boost.

Really...

The title to the thread alone makes you come off like you could give a crap less man. Give me any motor and I will blow it up. Can be taken two ways, one is that you don't give a crap the other is that you have no idea what you're doing. So you get to pick...which is it?

Sorry if me confronting you is a problem...but for me to sit back and watch the number of KA's available slowly dwindle...well that's just not going to happen.

Why is it that you run a ECU tune through Enthalpy and pop motors left and right, yet no one else does? Are you calling him out? Was it the wastegate? Perhaps we should get them in here to stand behind their product. Maybe the manifold is the issue...

Somone other then you must be to blame right?

[Ali 556]

OP,

I Think This Is The Time To Upgrade To LSx Swap...the same cost as a KA+T (Almost) And No way You Will Go KABOOMMM

I Love The KA....And I'm Planing To Turbo The KA With A GT3071 Like You....But Damn...6 KA's And You Are Still Going....

Hope Every Thing Work Out For Ya....

Regards,

Ali

[sunnys14]

Nowhere in my post did I say it was anyones fault. I just listed enthalpy ecu as one of my mods. Wait, since i listed z32 maf as one of my mods, should I blame that? OK man....

Sure, you can say I could give a crap less. I'm treating this like ITS NOT THE END OF THE WORLD. I'm going to rebuild it, not cry about it so yeah, I dont give a crap.

Im sorry that the cost of KA's have risen and its too much for you to bare. People blowing them up isnt the only reason why theyre going up. The KA is getting really popular now and the aftermarket is blooming so demand for the KA has gone quite up over the years so yeah... it's not my fault. Don't blame me.

Ive ran the same setup for over 6 months and 10000 miles with countless times at the race track. I have no idea how it just gave up now.

Rebuild and re-live. Just going to pull the pistons and hone the cylinder walls, put some Supertech's in and drop it back in.

[480sx]

Props for stickin with it, the ka's a great motor. Lots of ppl would have given up long ago, or gone with something else. Blowing a Ka beats the fk out of blowing a 2g Sr, Rb, or any other motor really. Thats why im stickin with it for a few years for sure. Plus it helps that i know the motor and its components like the back of my hand, as im sure you do too..

23 psi thru a heat soaked IC ftl. Another reason to never go t2 flange.. I guess the gt30 with the t2 flange is doable, but you'v got no other options if you want to go bigger.What size IC are you running?

Do you know why you spiked?

WD man.. Im pretty sure sunny(or anyone) isnt going to single handedly deplete the US's supply of Ka's, or jack up the prices. The motor is going to be around for years, and you will still be able to find 100k mile motors in great shape for years to come. They still arnt nearly as popular as the Sr, or Rb, and that will continue. Sure we are seeing a surge of Ka-t guys, and i think the days are nearly dead where people bash the ka for no good reason. However this in no way means that a motor that was cast aside as trash for a long time will become the hot sht, and supply will suddenly dry up.

Basically, the sky is not falling, the ka world is still robust and full of ka's waiting to put down stupid ammounts of low end Tq for a 4 cyl. Long live the king(maybe? i just love this engine) of all 4 cyls!

[sunnys14]

I am running a Hybrid 24x12x3 FMIC core.

The T2 flange itself didn't cause this. Im sure it was the turbo getting pushed way past its efficiency.

The turbo is pretty much out of its breath at 17psi. The AEM truboost gauge read 23.4psi peak boost as recorded.

[480sx]

O/C the flange didnt cause engine failure dude, im just saying the smaller turbo was the main factor here. I have i spiked my t3.t4 to 24 psi and had no problems with the same setup. To me, small turbo and t2 flange are synonymous. I also didnt know you could get a gt30 with a t2 flange but thats beside the point..

Your IC also isnt really isnt as big as it could be, but thats on you. I mean if your not choosing to push the turbo past its peak efficiency range then you'll be fine, your IC is not small. However the bigger the better as far as IC goes for higher boost levels. Since you like to PUSH IT TO THE LIMIT( ) you might want to think about a bigger IC.

[sunnys14]

24x12x3 is the most basic size core 90% of 240 owners get.

Im sure it was the turbo being overworked and just forced heated air intke my engine causing my pistons to take a ****.

[480sx]

Ah well, i got a monster one then and just made it fit..

I also thought you were using the potato at first but i see now you were using the Gti-r t28.

But i mean your right, it was definitely pre-detonation caused by overheated air.

[sunnys14]

What size FMIC core are you using?

[Biggamehit]

lsx same as KA-T price I doubt it very much

you can fully build your ka for about 2300-2500k (only if your really seek to push pass 350whp)

put your own decent turbo kit together for about 1500-2000k

and your choice of engine management for the level that you want

the thing is not all people are building for high power setups.. just a little power boost

My Ka deaths were more freak accidents such as punctured oils pans

[Florida240sx]

I think you passed me now.... I think I'll be building my 6th this time. I stopped keeping track. My current engine has 0miles and bad compression. Wish I had my turbo on it so I could send a rod through the block..... My old setup is gone. One of our nico members is building my a ka block done right

[WDRacing]

WD man.. Im pretty sure sunny(or anyone) isnt going to single handedly deplete the US's supply of Ka's, or jack up the prices. The motor is going to be around for years, and you will still be able to find 100k mile motors in great shape for years to come. They still arnt nearly as popular as the Sr, or Rb, and that will continue. Sure we are seeing a surge of Ka-t guys, and i think the days are nearly dead where people bash the ka for no good reason. However this in no way means that a motor that was cast aside as trash for a long time will become the hot sht, and supply will suddenly dry up.

Basically, the sky is not falling, the ka world is still robust and full of ka's waiting to put down stupid ammounts of low end Tq for a 4 cyl. Long live the king(maybe? i just love this engine) of all 4 cyls!

Actually, the price is going up because they ARE harder to come by. Junk Yards and Salvage yards get rid of older model parts and cars to make room for newer model parts and cars. The prices are increasing ALOT over what they were a short 4 years ago.

This isn't a shot against Sunny alone. Just a reminder that we can't take for granted that the KA is a cheap and easy swap once we pop one of them...or 6...lol.

I shouldn't have called you a jerk Sunny, I apologize. I do however think you need help with your next build. Yes you have been doing this for a long time now, but there is definitly something wrong.

WD