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To the boosted guys that have had a engine failure

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Old 10-14-2018, 03:39 PM
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Default To the boosted guys that have had a engine failure

I have a quick question for you guy that have cracked a piston. Chunked a rod. Damaged the engine under boost. Did you guys have a wideband? Just wondering.....
Old 10-14-2018, 04:57 PM
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A wideband is only a small piece of information....so really not massively important in terms of post failure.

2 widebands are better than one wideband.

8 widebands would be better than two widebands....

Tuning is am combination of many things, wideband info to assist that is just one aspect.....Hopefully you arent asking because it went bang ?
Old 10-14-2018, 07:42 PM
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I have lost an engine under boost. I had a wideband it didnt show anything amiss. To much timing or to much rpm with dod lifters killed mine. Under full song any failure is hard to trace to the reason it happened. But the tooner i trusted with my car had turned the rpm up to 6800 and had stock timing at 15 pounds on 91 octane. One way or the other something was going to die for sure. Wide band showed 11.5 the entire time the piston disentegrated and the rod whipped through the block. Pieces of piston bent valves and trashed the cam or the valves stuck open from the lifter and trashed the piston. Chicken or the egg. I saw an interview on tv one time and the intwrviewer ask a top fuel driver what happened to the engine? He answers back this isnt nascar who freaking knows everythings trashed at this point.
Old 10-14-2018, 07:49 PM
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Originally Posted by stevieturbo
A wideband is only a small piece of information....so really not massively important in terms of post failure.

2 widebands are better than one wideband.

8 widebands would be better than two widebands....

Tuning is am combination of many things, wideband info to assist that is just one aspect.....Hopefully you arent asking because it went bang ?
nah man, I’m trying to be very cautious. I’m still at 6lbs. I just modified my wastegate to be adjustable today. I’ll post in my turbo thread what I did. You may appreciate what I did.

I posted this this because I was just wondering. There’s a lot of people on here that do their own work and their own tuning and then there’s a lot of people who pay someone and trust in them. In my mind, I’d never not have a wideband. Any thing could happen and if it runs a little lean without you knowing, boom. I guess I also wonder if because I’m being as cautious as I am if I have a better chance at keeping it together.
Old 10-14-2018, 07:50 PM
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Originally Posted by jordoza
I have lost an engine under boost. I had a wideband it didnt show anything amiss. To much timing or to much rpm with dod lifters killed mine. Under full song any failure is hard to trace to the reason it happened. But the tooner i trusted with my car had turned the rpm up to 6800 and had stock timing at 15 pounds on 91 octane. One way or the other something was going to die for sure. Wide band showed 11.5 the entire time the piston disentegrated and the rod whipped through the block. Pieces of piston bent valves and trashed the cam or the valves stuck open from the lifter and trashed the piston. Chicken or the egg. I saw an interview on tv one time and the intwrviewer ask a top fuel driver what happened to the engine? He answers back this isnt nascar who freaking knows everythings trashed at this point.
damn man. Sorry to hear that. It’s always disheartening to hear something like that.
Old 10-14-2018, 08:03 PM
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No sweat. It was bad at the time but gave me a reason to buy an LSX and go to town. Im much happier now or i would be if i coukd just get off my butt and finish my car. Lol.
Old 10-14-2018, 08:34 PM
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You can have all the wideband you want, but if you are able to stare at it while wide open, your car is way too slow.
Old 10-14-2018, 08:59 PM
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^^^ lol
Old 10-14-2018, 09:24 PM
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Originally Posted by Game ova
You can have all the wideband you want, but if you are able to stare at it while wide open, your car is way too slow.

yea your absolutely right. I can’t stare at mine when I make a run but:

thats what loggers are for, no?
Sometimes ill have a passenger keep an eye on it.

I had a fuel pump issue once and the normal afr was off and I noticed it. Come to find out, the fuel pump oring was torn and leaking prsssure. Had I not had a wideband and I would have got on it, it probably would have been bad. So there’s an example of how my engine was possibly saved by having a wideband because it wasn’t driving any different at first.
Old 10-14-2018, 09:24 PM
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Learn to read plugs and you won’t have any problems
Old 10-14-2018, 09:49 PM
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Uhm.. if you go lean under boost waiting to view the logs may only tell you why you hurt the engine. I'd put the AFR gauge on the pillar where it's easy to see. Of course keep your eyes on the road, but it is easier to glance at.
Old 10-14-2018, 09:57 PM
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Originally Posted by ForceFedC5
Uhm.. if you go lean under boost waiting to view the logs may only tell you why you hurt the engine. I'd put the AFR gauge on the pillar where it's easy to see. Of course keep your eyes on the road, but it is easier to glance at.

this isnt a question or a discussion of what I’m doing. Or what I need to do. It was a question of anyone had a failure who does not run a wide bang. I would have not known to pull plugs in the middle of my daily commute to see if I was running lean. Which I couldn’t feel.
Old 10-14-2018, 10:16 PM
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I’d say almost all boosted Ls builds are running a wideband I don’t think you can use any software without one ?

the people who are using blow through carb setups may be 3% at this point.
Old 10-15-2018, 01:14 AM
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Originally Posted by 47ford
Learn to read plugs and you won’t have any problems
Your comment is both accurate and a backhanded slap at most of the people on here. Ethanol content makes plug readings far more difficult than it used to be, and forced induction trends toward some really weird exhaust manifolds that make pulling plugs more difficult. The trend toward higher compression ratios with boost also makes for a smaller tuning window, so you could easily blow a motor with a minor adjustment. People are generally more comfortable now relying on sensor data nowdays. I am not expressing an opinion on whether this is right or wrong, but it is what it is.
Old 10-15-2018, 08:32 AM
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Not meant to be a back hand it’s just a fact? I’ve been through a few setups and no matter how many sensors you have the plugs don’t lie. I switched to efi this year and was having some issues ..... long story short you have to revert to reading those plus even when sensors are reading “correct” just to be sure... everytime I even have a slight issue I’m always asked what the plugs look like.... haven’t dove into ethanol tuning but when I do, no matter how hard it is, I will learn to read those plugs too.

to the part of plugs being hard to get to and higher compression. If you can’t tune on higher compression run lower if you are not a wiz at tuning? If your plugs are hard to get to you didn’t think hard enough about your set up. My #1 priority on my hot side was using stock plug wires and ease of access to the plugs.

Last edited by 47ford; 10-15-2018 at 08:53 AM.
Old 10-15-2018, 08:53 AM
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its harder to read afr on the plug with alky but it's still pretty reliable for timing in my experience
Old 10-15-2018, 10:10 AM
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I've had no issues reading timing on the plugs even on daily driven setups with XXXX miles. You can easily see the strap as well as number of thread with heat in them, and obvious signs of speckling on the porcelain. Can't really use it for dialing in AFR on something DD'd.
Old 10-15-2018, 10:15 AM
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Unless your running a blow thru carb or open loop, I would think you need a wideband so the ECU
knows what to do. Depending on the ECU, you can build in safeguards as you tune. I had a reg fail
and the CL comp. was trying to save the engine, which it did.
Old 10-15-2018, 10:15 AM
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Originally Posted by 47ford
Learn to read plugs and you won’t have any problems
While it absolutely help tuning, reading plugs is still an after the fact action that wont save an engine if it leans out during a pull for various reasons. Agree that reading plugs helps with the tuneup but its not uncommon for things to change so if you see your wideband go lean during a pull its easy to lift rather then pick plugs up off the street. Pumps die, filters clog, injectors fail, boost spikes, voltage drops, etc..

Originally Posted by Game ova
You can have all the wideband you want, but if you are able to stare at it while wide open, your car is way too slow.
Have you even ran 10's yet? lol Yours is still plenty slow enough to read a gauge at WOT!

Lots of gauges have configurable colors, alarms, 5v output, etc that can help you avoid disaster.
Old 10-15-2018, 10:27 AM
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Originally Posted by SLOW SEDAN
While it absolutely help tuning, reading plugs is still an after the fact action that wont save an engine if it leans out during a pull for various reasons. Agree that reading plugs helps with the tuneup but its not uncommon for things to change so if you see your wideband go lean during a pull its easy to lift rather then pick plugs up off the street. Pumps die, filters clog, injectors fail, boost spikes, voltage drops, etc..



Have you even ran 10's yet? lol Yours is still plenty slow enough to read a gauge at WOT!

Lots of gauges have configurable colors, alarms, 5v output, etc that can help you avoid disaster.
If you are staring at a wideband, even in an 11 sec car....you're a fool. But yes, my junk has seen 10s, nice jab btw.



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