First a little background history of the car. 99 WS6 M6, lid, pulley, Mcleod, 100 Dry Shot single nozzle 47 jet, TR6's, bottle heater.

I was out racing and sprayed the car(900PSI like always) 2nd, 3rd, and 4th gear, and all of the sudden coolant light came on. I figured I picked up a head and blown a head gasket (I've had previous experience of this on my old blown mustang) so I towed the vehicle home since it was running really rough, which also had a small knock to it.

Upon inspection there was water in the coolant looked like chocolate milk so I assumed I blew the head gaskets no biggie. I take the valve covers, pushrods, rockers, exhaust manifolds and finally the heads off only to see a busted piston on the passenger side 3rd piston back, which explains the knocking, but I was looking at the heads gaskets and neither of them were blown ANYWHERE, which is very odd and doesn't explain my coolant problem.

I finally turned the motor over with a wratched to see if the cylinder walls were scratched only to find out that there is a huge 5"+ crack down the cylinder wall of my block! None of the other pistons/cylinders are hurt and there were no appart signs of detonation, etc on them either. This would explain where the coolant was getting in the engine b/c coolant was coming through the crack.

Now I've ran over 15+ bottles through this motor fine and have made over 75 passes on the car no problems at all.

The question I have is what happened and in what order. Did the block split first under high cylinder pressure(Nitrous), pumping coolant into the cylinder under the spray braking the piston or did it detonate brake the piston and then split the block?

I took the valves out of the head and they are perfectly fine and true. The head is not knicked anywhere.

Let me know what your ideas are.

Thanks. And if you got a used short block FS let me know <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="gr_stretch.gif" />

 

Damn <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="gr_eek2.gif" />

 

That sucks. What do the plugs look like? Do you have any pics?

 

I don't think the cylinder pressure killed it unless you sprayed below 3K rpm. A 100 shot isn't enough to kill an engine by pressure, unless at very low rpm.

More than likely, you went lean, detonated, and blew the piston/cylinder at the same time. Then the coolant came in. Our pistons are pretty crappy, they are very brittle around the ringlands.

-Tony

 

<img src="http://www.dfwstangs.com/hosting/L4m3r/blockclose.jpg" alt=" - " /> look anything like mine <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="gr_stretch.gif" />

 

That looks like you took on coolant and hydrauliced the block causing failure, in that order.

 

I had one do that to me with no NOS. I replaced the block with one from pace but found out later that valve god has them for half the price. If this ever happens again , I am going to a 6 liter truck block with good pistons .

 

I agree with LS1derful,
The crack was probably caused by spraying over time, which finally allowed coolant into the cylinder, and hydraulicd the cylinder. The way the chunk of cylinder wall is pushed outward, toward the coolant passage should verify this.
We have shortblocks available, or we can do a Darton sleeved conversion for you, just give me a call if you're interested.

Ed

 

The picture that JS12 posted looks similar but not exactly. The crack in my cylinder wall when you rub your finger over it appears to be cracked outward toward the water jacket rather than inward. The crack is DIRECTLY across from when the piston broke a piece off of it. I will try and get a picture of it for you. It's quite interesting.

Thanks.

 

I think it hydrauliced too.

 

Call Valvegod, do a search for the #. I have the # at home & can post it later, if no one else does. He has new Z06 blocks for $500, he might have something cheaper. Might as well upgrade to forged pistons, rods and new bolts. Then you can spray 200-300 <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="gr_eek2.gif" />

 

Bout time for an all-bore Mikey <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="gr_images/icons/wink.gif" />

 

I think Chris From Diamond Pistons can get you a nice set of Forged slugs <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="gr_images/icons/wink.gif" />

 

Yes, if you need pistons I can help you out.

Chris Gelineau
Diamond Pistons
877-552-2112 toll free

 

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Call Valvegod, do a search for the #. I have the # at home & can post it later, if no one else does. He has new Z06 blocks for $500, he might have something cheaper. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Shaun at SMC Performance or "Valve god" as many people refer to him as, sells new surplus LS1-6 blocks for about $600. I recently bought one.

 

Whenyou look under the car and see a cam lobe sticking out of the side of the oil pan, then you have killed a motor, yours looks like a mere flesh wound to me Here's my Turbo Buick v6, well, what was left anyway.
<img src="http://home.earthlink.net/~sligtone/images/IM000080.JPG" alt=" - " />
<img src="http://home.earthlink.net/~sligtone/images/231Engine2.jpg" alt=" - " />

 

Oh good god...

That doesn't look good... <img border="0" alt="[barf]" title="" src="graemlins/gr_barf.gif" />

 

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by TurboTnZ06:
<strong> Whenyou look under the car and see a cam lobe sticking out of the side of the oil pan, then you have killed a motor, yours looks like a mere flesh wound to me Here's my Turbo Buick v6, well, what was left anyway.
</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">That has got to be one of the worst engine blow-ups I have seen. The came lobe caught against the flex plate and sticking out of the oil pan is freaky. It must have made a hell of a bang. How much boost were you running? 30 lbs?

 

(whistling in amazement)

DDDAAAYYYUUUUMMMM!!!

 

Well I called and spoke and emailed a gazillion people and didn't get the responce and PRICE I wanted (everyone wanted like sell me a complete long block for 2500+) and I also had to factor shipping in,(around $150) so I went and picked up a used long block locally $1500.00 and I plan on dropping a cam and all the bolt on's on it and sell the NOS kit (although I could just pill it back to like a 50 shot dry hrmm..) anyways thanks for all of the responses. When I get the old short block out I will take pictures of it and post them up.