Guys, horrible news.

[turtl631]

This is so bizarre. Your setup was over the top: AEM EMS, built engine with everything but aftermarket rods, all new and high quality parts, even alcohol injection. It baffles me that it blew up, especially in such a violent fashion. KAs seem very fickle. Some make lots of power on stock block or a light build for years, while others with a seemingly perfect setup blow up out of nowhere.

Now that you've tasted 400+ whp, I'm sure going back to a stock block at 12-15 psi isn't really an option? Several people have run setups like that with no problems for long periods of time, and its a nice power level, but I bet you will want more.

As an aside, are you still an EMT and planning to go to med school? I'm doing that whole MCAT thing right now

[Sepp]

Hey Fiz...I'm a lurker for three years and thus a newb, but have had a KA-T for over four years. Have followed your buildup and am sorry for your engine fragmentation. I have a stock block, crank, girdle, (60K miles) and Arias forged pistons you can HAVE if you want. Just pay for shipping. Happy to help.Pe-mail me.(PS: we've talked before)

[fiznat]

Hey Fiz...I'm a lurker for three years and thus a newb, but have had a KA-T for over four years. Have followed your buildup and am sorry for your engine fragmentation. I have a stock block, crank, girdle, (60K miles) and Arias forged pistons you can HAVE if you want. Just pay for shipping. Happy to help.Pe-mail me.(PS: we've talked before)

WOW Sepp, are you serious? I'm totally blown away, this is something I would never expect... I sent you an email, lets talk about it!

As an aside, are you still an EMT and planning to go to med school? I'm doing that whole MCAT thing right now

Yeah I am.. .actually going for my Paramedic licence this winter as well. Med school and the MCATS are still a couple years away (have to take all the premeds post-bac along with work and things like the medic cert so its taking a while). Shoot me an IM or email, I'd love to talk it over with ya.

[fiznat]

Okay, more pics as the teardown progresses:

Got the engine completely out today:



Not exactly a good thing when you can look completely through the block, eh?



This is how everything looked when we pulled the oil pan. No I'm not kidding:



We were able to find most of the parts to one of the rods... Think I can use this one in my rebuild?



Amazingly though, one piston/rod combo did survive almost unschathed. The #2 looks like it saw a little bit of stress, but all in all its pretty damn good considering what happened to the rest of the motor:



More pics to come later on. Thank you again for all the support, you guys are awesome!

[Craving4Boost]

fiz u better weld that rod back together

[jEzTeR]

Pretty fast work my friend!

[WDRacing]

Looks like you can reuse that rod bearing...lol.

[WDRacing]

On a troubleshooting note, have you considered a loss of oil pressure or oil starvation problem that cause the bearing to lock up on the crank thus snapping the rod or rods? This seems like a more feasible idea then a stress fracture or bend without actually over revving the motor.

[superDorifto]

its so sad........that rod is all alone now, its entire family died

[turbo98_240sx]

Fiz you have brought new meaning to the words "catastrophic" engine failure, I though I had done some damage when I put 2 rods through the side of an 81' olds cutlass (it only had a V6 IDK it was my first car) anyways that was nothing compared to your damage there I salute you. Oh and I'm sorry to hear that it allways sucks to put so much time into something and have it go poof but it looks like your gonna score a KA-T block (don't forget rods this time, but who knows WD could be right too) for shipping talk about a fellow NICO member helping out another, D@MN, someone send me some stuff I'll pay shipping hehe j/k, unless your gonna send me stuff I need like a BOV in that case I'm not kidding. Well just though I should let you know how unlucky (sorry to say) and maybe now pretty d@mn lucky you are.Peace Pat

[Shaefer Thomas]

Fiz man, just another 240 owner sending out their condolences. The only thing I can say is, as cheesy and cliche as it might be, luckily you didnt get in an accident and trash the car AND good thing no one was hurt. On an EXTREMELY lighter note, I think this has put future KA-T builders into perspective, MYSELF included. I was JUST talking to some other 240 owners tonight about how I want to boost my KA to 15+ psi and how Ive heard all over the place that the stock rods were basically bulletproof. One of the guys I was talking to told me it COULD be done, but wouldnt last long. I just hopped on tonight to put a post up as to whether or not forged pistons would be good enough to run that much boost, and ran into your post. I now know that the extra money for some rods is WELL worth the money. Unfortunately your loss is our gain. Im sure you will save future KA-T builders out there tons of money in the end. Thats the way things tend to go though on this forum, thats why we all stick together. 15,000+ heads are a helluva lot better than one. From me personally, thanks for the info because you have saved me, at least, from deciding whether or not it was worth it to beef up the rods.

A question though. Someone mentioned earlier about maybe your engine being starved of oil. Do they make a dry sump kit for this engine? The dude I was talking to earlier told me it would be WELL worth the investment as to not starve your high boost engine while driving/drifting.

[AZhitman]

Hey Fiz...I'm a lurker for three years and thus a newb, but have had a KA-T for over four years. Have followed your buildup and am sorry for your engine fragmentation. I have a stock block, crank, girdle, (60K miles) and Arias forged pistons you can HAVE if you want. Just pay for shipping. Happy to help.Pe-mail me.(PS: we've talked before)

Sepp, I'm sure you're not interested in being in "the spotlight", but thanks for stepping up and offering to help Foster out. If there's anything we (or I) can do for you, let me know.

Damn cool of you, sir. You da man.

[huguetpj]

On a troubleshooting note, have you considered a loss of oil pressure or oil starvation problem that cause the bearing to lock up on the crank thus snapping the rod or rods? This seems like a more feasible idea then a stress fracture or bend without actually over revving the motor.

WD could have a point there. Fiz, do you have a oil pressure gauge or something? Maybe something was acting weird a couple of days before and you did not pay attention to that. Just spilling out ideas... maybe I'm just trying to rule out the rod failure due to power to give myself some peace of mind

[fiznat]

I really dont think it was an oil problem. Check out the other thread entitled "rod discussion" for more on the subject, but yes I do have an oil pressure gauge and the rod bearings showed no sign of abnormal wear.

[comablack783]

dood, that sucks...hope your rebuild goes better. tag to see the other pics..

[Hijacker]

everyone needs to remember that every motor has a breaking point, no matter what. In Foster's case, it was the rod. I've always wondered what would happen to the rod given the rest of the bottom end could stand higher boost pressures. KAs have a non-square bore/stroke ratio, which puts more stress on the rod as more is asked out of it (it's why long stroke motors have a lower redline. The rod can only spin so fast or so hard before it fails). With the longer stroke over the bore, the rod gets to see all sorts of fun leverage, especially at the bearings.

[huguetpj]

Hey fiz... guess who just popped a motor big time?

But I believe I felt some detonation before all hell broke loose. Popped @ 17PSI... just 1 PSI short of my goal.

In my case I'm just selling the car cause I cannot afford another build up at this point in time and I have debts to pay.

Good luck to you all.

[fiznat]

Jeez dude! Make a thread about it! Show us pics, lets talk about this man- dont jump to conclusions!

[huguetpj]

To tell you the truth I don't even have the cash to open it up... I can't do it myself since I don't have the tools to do it. I'm quite short on cash so it's been long time coming, debts are piling up and I need the cash and not to spend more, and it was fun while it lasted. For now I'm trying to sell as is, don't really want to open it up and find out that the head is also busted. Right now I only know that I have 3 holes in the block and one in the oil pan... and I picked up some rods pieces and a rod end from the highway.

The only other option I have is to garage the car for a year or more while I try and save the $2200 I initially estimate it's going to cost me to do a good build up on the block... if nothing happened to the head. The main issue I have is getting a new shortblock, since I could get one pretty cheap in the US but shipping to Costa Rica is about the same amount I can get the block for ($700 shipping for a full engine, plus customs). Too much time for me, plus the money expenses.

Too much hassle right now in my life. And I'm trying to save up to buy a house within the next few years... gotta think about the long run. So don't think I'm jumping to conclusions, it's been thought over way before it blew.

Right I have it for sale in a forum I frequent here in Costa Rica. If it does not sell as a whole in the next couple of weeks I'll start parting it out.

But hey thanks for your interest man... I appreciate it.

[Thee 240sx Owner]

Now this isn't for the faint of heart but i have to say this because it is really pissing me off.... I know atleast 4 very good people that browse this forum that are well known that have blown nicely built KA's with money that they worked and invested time and effort... (no i'm not saying you fiznat didn't) but when they made a post no one offered to "donate, give, for a deal, part, or in any helpful way" help them with posting "if you need a motor you can have mine. So what in the hell makes one NICO member better than another? When someone can answer me that.... Then i'll write up an apology letter on here and have someone sticky it but in the mean time, start thinking, because it seems favorites are being played left and right for obvious reasons.....

[crzycav86]

Well... obviously some NICO members share their VALUABLE information with other members much more than other knowledgeable members do.

Is that good enough for you?

EDIT: The value of fiz's threads has probably been matched with whatever freebies generous members may offer. Also, the fact that fiznat recorded his progress so well makes his project more of a NICO project. Fiznat is a popular member of the ka-t forum. But he's popular for a good reason.

[Thee 240sx Owner]

I'm not going to argue in someone elses thread.. i just stated a point related to it.... if everyone you would like.. i shall start another thread...

[crzycav86]

You asked a question, and I took a stab at it.

No need to argue.

[PapaSmurf2k3]

yeah, seriously, fiz's posts are always helpful to other people, and he is always answering the hard questions that people have, and always friendly. His writeup on the intake manifold alone was worth some freebies... i say step off his nuts. There is obviously a reason he is liked on these forums. Now that I think about it, what exactly are you implying?

[koukiKA240]

So what in the hell makes one NICO member better than another?

this is a place where everyone is created equal, untill people like you come along and quickly toss themselves to the bottom of the foodchain, your freakin avatar says got banned and i usually only see you causing trouble just like right now. Its pointless and has no place in this thread. Ive never said a freaking word directly to fitz before but i can already tell you he is 10 times the human being u will ever be.~Sam

[superDorifto]

just because your not on the recieving end of the goodies, dont get jealous. ive known fiz a long time hes helped me on several projects. Hes also helped me fix tons of my own mistakes. hes the reason im even on these boards, posting instead of the DSM boards. nobody likes a hater

[fiznat]

Look dude, I'm sorry you feel slighted about the fact that your other friends werent offered parts/help/etc like I was. Honestly I was taken aback by it myself, as was pretty much anyone else who saw how people are so willing to help me out.

I'm not going to comment on if I'm more deserving of the help, or a "better NICO member" as you put it. All I can really do is say thanks to those willing to help, and try to pass it on and do the same for others when the time comes.

WD will call me a puss if I leave it at that, so I wont.

Quit complaining about this in my thread. I appreciate everyone's help, unexpected as it was, but you are just whining about it and I cant see anyone on this board really caring that much about what you have to say.. Screaming "thats not fair" is a far cry from actually taking time out of your day to help other people out-- maybe if you did a little bit of that first, you'd be in a better position to actually have people listen to you.

[AZhitman]

Hey Jack -

Sometimes a bum will come up and ask me for a handout and I'll stroll on by - "Sorry, can't help ya."

Sometimes I'll drop a $10 on a brotha.

It's just the way things are. Get over it.

Besides, you never got "hooked up" by someone right out of the blue?

Quit hatin' on those who "pay it forward".

[VmaN!]

I think the issue that "Thee 240sx Owner" has is that Fiznat recieved offers because hes a Moderator..which is what I think is implied by "favorites."

But I don't believe it has anything to do with that. Fiznat has been pretty active in the KA-T forum and posted his progress as he kept on with his build with detailed photos and information. I think the members learned a lot of information from his posts, and from what I've seen is willing to help anyone that has questions. People became immersed in his buildup and became familiar with him through his posts.

I think a good example for this would be..lets say two people that you knew needed a motor...and you had a spare one that you could give. One of them you vaguely knew, maybe only seen once. The other, you know quite well and what his buildup is and how much work it took to get there. Who would you be more inclined to give the motor to?

Fiznat didn't ask for anything, the offers came from the individuals.

[AZhitman]

LOL - Schmoozing a NICO moderator won't get you anything anyway... They're all overworked and unpaid.