shoeish

I've been having weird overheating problems with the mustang so I pulled it apart. I always said "next time the heads come off, I'll have a shortblock ready" so I had the shortblock sitting there the whole time. I got it apart and found the following. I guess 550hp+ flywheel horsepower is too much for a motor that came out of the factory at 240hp.

To my dismay, my head was messed up, too.

Chewed up piston:



It ate up my expensive head:


New motor (331ci/5.5L fully forged shortblock):


I don't have the new heads yet, but I'm hoping to get some air flow research 185cc with 2.02" intake values.

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Shoe

2003 BMW M3
2008 BMW 335i hardtop convertible w/ Dinan Stage 2
2008 Toyota Tundra Extended Cab 4x4 5.7

Horsepower is fun.

mechmike0034

"Think you used enough dynamite there, Butch?"

Juice, boost, or both? You're running head studs rather than bolts - probably to deal with higher-than-stock cylinder pressure.

Looks like a corner of the piston dome at the upper ring land broke off and got pounded into submission. The witness marks on the piston and head are too sharp for it to have burned. Where the dome broke is the hottest point on the piston top, though (as evidenced by the lack of carbon even on the healthy piston next to it).

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Burzhui

sheesh how much for the new motor??

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shoeish

Thanks for your theory, mechmike0034. I was running about 9-10lbs of boost, no juice.

The new motor was $2500 delivered. http://www.x2cmotorsports.com/cart/s...d=true&key=127

The v2.0 with blower pistons, and the main girdle.

I'll grab a nice set of heads while i'm at it, so I'm hoping to make 600hp to the wheels with the new combo.

mechmike0034

Yep, 9 psi on stock pistons over time will do just that... How hard were you pulling when it popped? That's not a bad deal on that shortblock. You gonna O-ring it this time?

johnnymk

Those indents on the perimeter of the block look like they are for O-Rings.

I didn't realize that Ford has a tranny that will accomodate that much horsepower.

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TERRIBLETOM

Maybe I missed something but that almost looks like you sucked more than fuel in there. You sure nothing fell in there?

mechmike0034

This article talks about and shows a picture of a simple o-ring head gasket. Mega-boost and mega-spray guys sometimes have o-ring grooves machined into the block deck as well.

This is done to seal against high combustion chamber pressures typical of turbo, blower, or nitrous-fed engines. The Ford Windsor block only uses four head bolts per cylinder (where other engines use five) so head gasket sealing can sometimes be an issue.

shoeish

I will o-ring the heads again. The motor ran almost perfect except for some intermittent cooling problems. I'm pretty sure my 12.98 @ 5800ft above sea level was run w/ the motor like this.

Svyn

A coating for the pistons you currently have if you are looking at possibly detonation (like you previously had). A coating called Swains Coating works great, it has been around for 25+ years and used in multiple race engines. I am building my 92 T-bird SC up with this coating on the pistons. Basically like having teflon on a frying pan. Carbon does not like to stick to the swains coating, thus helping prevent carbon buildup on pistons for glowing carbon and pre-detonation.

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p3rsian

what kind of car was this ?
american ?

shoeish

It is a ford mustang with the 5.0L pushrod motor.