Spei

Blew up my 94 last weekend. Was going through the canyons and started a pull in 5th. I was still messing with my CL boost control settings, saw the boost gauge spike to 16/17psi (targetting 14.5), but instead of dropping back down it held there, then boom, the engine quit with a big cloud of smoke. Hearing pieces of the motor falling out under you is a haunting sound. The rod or whatever it was also went through my starter and my starter is split in two. Will be posting pics of the carnage tomorrow after I pull the motor. Looks like it threw a rod on #4. I see a hole on both sides of the block and on both sides of the oil pan. Virtual dyno put the car at 230whp/240tq on a slight upward grade a while back at 14.5psi so I was definitely in the area of "no room for error." An older version of the tune is attached but the ignition table is the same as when it blew up. I have a feeling I pushed it a bit too far for a stock motor on e85 with that table. it's never been on a dyno so I think that was my first issue... AFRs were always 11.5-11.9 at 14.5psi of boost so I doubt this is a detonation failure.

Now what?

The Australian

Build a new engine with forged rods, and then have it tuned properly?

Spei

Yeah, I'm torn between doing that, or just selling off all my Miata stuff and getting an MR2 and do a v6 swap on it. Two vastly different builds, still haven't decided.

Spei

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Spei

Just adding some fun info. Rod #1 is bent, not sure when that happened. And it looks like the bolt off the rod end of #4 sheared off which may have been the cause of failure. Not sure.