Guys, horrible news.

[240power]

Sorry for you, man. But it does happen. Not as a flame on your bad luck day but I never have built an engine that puts out 100% more horse without using forged rods and pistons, maybe even a new forged crank... That holds true for 4 cyl, 6 cyl or V-8's. That much power needs a beefed up lower end... big time. sorry again, want to see pictures.I bet block between last bearing and flywheel is out of shape or even cracked up into the starter mount.

[trackslut240]

its a sad sad day, fiz...u cant give up...u have to pick it up and put it together again, coz u got the best writeups... hang in there... gotta watch those rods... time for me to rethink my kat project...

rods, rods , rods, and all this time i thought that the piston was the weakest link....

[IvanAtSPRacing]

I believe the stock rods will handle quite a bit of power if prepped right and treated correctly. We shotpeened the stock rods and installed ARP bolts and pushed 502 whp on the dyno and probably close to 575 whp on the street before I bent a rod. Any over rev, any detonation, any bad gas and they are history. The processes on the stock rods are good insurance for the lower HP KAs but forged aftermarket rods are needed when shooting for high HP.

As far as cranks are concerened, there is no aftermarket crank availble for the KA right now. I believe the single counterweights cause some stretching issues when over reved but other than that, the crank is strong. I have the record for the most HP out of a KA at 500% over stock. Rick from KA-T.org makes 5 less HP than me. So thats two KAs with stock cranks holding the power.

[superDorifto]

foster, i know you heard me say it all night while we disected your motor, REBUILD IT! you have to much invested into this car financially and emotionally to give up. on the bright side, now when i start to build my motor i know to spend the extra cash for the forged rods.

[fiznat]

THANK YOU GUYS for all your kind words.. It was a bad day for my KA, but you guys made it a little bit better.

Will (SuperDorifto) and I started pulling the engine apart tonight. Here are the pics and results:

Here are the holes on the intake side of the engine. Looks like my starter was blown because it was actually hit by a rod as it was coming out of the engine! haha, fantastic.



It looks like everything on the upper end of the motor has survived in excellent condition. The head had zero damage, along with any of the other (turbo or otherwise) components.



The pistons also, look pretty good considering what happened to this engine. I am not extremely experienced in all of this, but it looks to me like detonation was NOT a factor in this blowup.



Each of the pistons look pretty clean, except #3 which had some weird cracking along the very edge, and #1, which is turned almost sideways (!)... caused I'm sure by the rod. Here's a closeup:



On a lighter note, I have to say that I got a little bit of a bad omen about our sponsor Import Auto Performance while pulling this engine apart... Take a look at one of the chunks I found:



It says IAP! hahaha, sorry Marc I couldnt resist haha.

Thanks again for the comments guys--- do you guys agree looking at the pics now, that this was probably a rod failure and not a detonation issue?

Oh and to clear some things up-- I DO have a cometic headgasket (which survived in perfect condition:)



Also I NEVER NEVER over-reved this engine. I hardly ever even came close to redline, because it didnt really make much sense with the powerband I was putting out. Over-reving was not a factor with this blowup either. In addition, the rods WERE secured by ARP hardware... the hardware eventually failed in this blowup, but I really dont think ARP is at fault here, either.

Anyways... thanks again guys-- keep up the encouragment, I'm still undecided but I just might go at this thing one more time...

[Checkered-Member]

Here what I think happened one of the rods failed (what reason is that? Umm 20psi = twice the pressure it was meant to withstand) which caused the other rod in its compression stroke to become unstable and fail. Since the gasket and pistons are in perfect condition. No tuning or detonation/pre ignition was the problem

[uncle_louie83]

you know...i would be a lil worried about those pistons you mentioned that have a hairline crack in them if i had any cracks in any of my pistons i wouldnt use them again cause id be worried about failure.

lewis

[fiznat]

I guess that was you looking under your hood on route 9 around 2:30-ish. . .

Yeeeeahhh that would be me! Why didnt you stop?? A fellow 240 owner in distress, man! Not that you coulda helped me put my rod back in the engine, but you always gotta help out a broken down 240!

[fiznat]

if i had any cracks in any of my pistons i wouldnt use them again cause id be worried about failure.

Oh haha believe me, these pistons will not be reused. I'm sure the bottoms are destroyed anyways, since I have already seen at least one wristpin chillin' in the oil pan as if it belonged there...

[Checkered-Member]

you know...i would be a lil worried about those pistons you mentioned that have a hairline crack in them if i had any cracks in any of my pistons i wouldnt use them again cause id be worried about failure.

lewis

Oh sorry I worded my sentence awkwardly, I meant that the the pistons were damaged from the rods not from 20psi.

[WDRacing]

Your a puss...

I get the my car running and you make yours blow up so I can't beat you silly.

Seriously though, thats alot of money u spent to have your block unass itself. I feel for ya man. All that worry about pistons breaking and you shoot rods threw the block...LMAO.

Get rid of it, buy one of those cars we were talking about. You'll feel better man. Promise...

[Gofast1]

Fiz-Sorry to see that man Our hearts jumped into our throats when we saw that picture until we realized, "Hey, wait a minute, we don't make blocks!"

Seriously though, if there is anything we can do for you drop us a line!

[fiznat]

hahah I thought youd like that Marc.

I may be giving you a call about engine internals... is that something you guys carry?

EDIT: Nevermind, guess you do! I'll give ya a call tomorrow, maybe we can work somethin out.

[S14tat]

wow that really sucks, well i guess just for safety's sake, i'll save up for rods too.

[veilside180sx]

I'm sorry to hear about this Foster. Definately putting rods in mine as well. Although I was already planning it, this solidifies that.

[TheOne]

sorry to hear bout the engine fiz, man that has to suck.

you'll come back:), you know that in your mind you still gotta beat WD:P.

and holy batman rod just went through that block and blew the starter apart, reminds me of a friend who shifted to a lower gear from high rpm in his civic..couple of days later he called me to swap another engine in there cause his had a hole the size of a baseball.(bit bigger)

[HolyShiznit]

Heh, Foster get your shiz back together and git r dun again.

And you guys can see if the rods will or won't hold. I have faith and my high boost dyno trip is the weekend of the 19th.

[paemt6220]

Hey man, Sorry to here that!!

I can only imagine how that feels, I was mad when I first heard my rod knock, and I don't have all that time, love and money invested in my engine. On the bright side(if there is one), your problem is rather obvious, you don't have to search for it!

If I find a new motor soon, you can have my bad one. I'm pretty sure the block is good, Just has rod knock! All you have to do is find a way to get it!

Chad

[sil80drifter]

Hey, I'm all the way in Europe and I'm sorry to hear about it before I got a chance to come back and drive around CT with you. I have a few SOHC blocks, and if you want one, and if you need a transmission (in case yours got damaged) I'll just give them to you, just come pick em up. I'm htinking you'll be up and running soon enough, maybe even before I get done with my 240 (although that would be a stratch on my part lol).Hang in there Fiz, make sure you try to figure out what happened, so you can learn from it.

sil80

[mirra32]

that sux man....keep us informed as you take the whole motor apart....maybe i can prevent something before i go turbo....If you need any parts from a salvage yard or something i'll go look for ya and get you the best possible price if needed....

eric

rebuild it man. ..use a stock motor just to get it running again and go turbo when you ready ...you guyz are my freaken inspiration...because of ya i put a 95 motor and transmission in my 90 240sx....and i even started ordering Turbo parts(just ordered a T/3T/4 Turbo) it wouldn't help to see a member give up on their 240

[huguetpj]

Hmmmm...$700 for rods does seem like a good investment know.... wish I would have bought them before my last rebuild. But .... I'll just have to see how much the stock ones can last. I don't plan to run more than 18PSI anyway.... and that will be for race only... probably... maybe....

Fiz... it's a bit hard to help you out from all the way down here... but you have my full moral support to get that puppy off the ground again.

[duncan351]

Fiznat, I'm very sorry to hear what happened man. I went for 17K miles on my stock rods (CryoTreated) with ARP bolts. I boosted up to 25psi on mine and they did great til I over rev'd to 10 grand once at WOT. A week later I threw one rod. What pistons are those that you have by the way? I'm still needing 1 JWT arias piston. I'm gonna go ahead and rebuild. Its taking me long time but I'm doing it slowly. Might as well keep it man and just rebuild slowly. There's a guy on ebay right now that has Crower Rods.

Good luck with which ever decision you make. PS: Let me know on the pistons. I'd be willing to pick them up off you.They look like JE's. I have 3 of those too, Just needing one.

Duron

[-ExCesS-]

Yeeeeahhh that would be me! Why didnt you stop?? A fellow 240 owner in distress, man! Not that you coulda helped me put my rod back in the engine, but you always gotta help out a broken down 240!

sorry man, but every time i see a 240 in the road i always turn my head. . .by the time i saw u looking under the hood I was already about 5-10 car lengths away and was on the right side of the highway =\

btw you know fendermaniac? He's doing an SR swap (not sure when) but if he doesnt want his KA anymore, try asking him for it

[Thee 240sx Owner]

Wow i almost cried seeing those pictures.... nothing as bad as my buddy who already went through 2 KA but nothing like that... he just blew the rings out of them 1 bar... and I only threw a rod but not through the block.. Sorry to read about your loss.. but i would rebuild it and make it stronger... no point in investing so much time and money to just sell it because it doesn't work out.... If you need and info let us know... Good Luck

[ILikeMy240sx]

Im soo sorry about what happened. It kindda sucks to look at all these pictures and think about the hard times you had trying to get this car going.... Im sorry.

I will be pulling my KA out with about 80k miles on it. Approx in few weeks. Aug 15th I go back to MI and that weekend Im going to my friends shop to drop in a SR so let me know if you are interested. I will definitely help you out.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

Damn fiz...you have to rebuild man... hearing that you wouldnt rebuild would be like hearing that there is no santa, tooth fairy, or easter bunny combined... devastating. I just wanna say that im glad I got a ride in her before she went, and Im glad she really blew the hell up. Let me know if theres any extra offers for extra KA's, you know im still looking. theres a kid up here with one from a 96 with 80k on it, but he says it needs a head gasket. He wants $150 for it. Let me know. and hey, whats your paypal adress... maybe im feeling a little generous

[klattr1]

sorry to hear it Fiz. i know what it feels like to mess up a built motor. even though it was a bad thing, i knew it was a start of something good. it will work out fine for you cuz you have a good head on your shoulders.

[Jookmasta]

well this is terrible news to see in this forum. I know WD was having his little kinks but u definitely take the cake. I have to agree that this looks similar to what happened to virus but since there is no sign of detonation, can bad gas be ruled out? i thought that you were using upgraded rods tho. as said a million times, this was outta of your hands as your setup really had no flaws. best of luck to the rebuild and "if it doesnt kill ya, it makes ya stronger"

[Structure240sx]

always need attention, " oh great numbers fiz" few weeks go by without much talk from you then "hey fellas i made speed holes in my block, look at me again"

j/k buddy you know i love you, i know WD does. you will be back on your feet better than ever

[float_6969]

I'm sorry to hear about your loss my friend. But don't get too down about it. It couldn't be that hard to find another bottom end for cheap.