For those that care:
Cylinder #3 doesn't like me anymore. Last night we made 519awhp at 22psi, very safe tune. Then we decided to turn it up a bit. It made 526 at 24-25psi...the car seemed to just go "flat" after spool-up. Safe a/f ratios, no knock, low timing (16 degrees advance), a very safe and monitered tune, almost like you'd see with doctors watching someone in the ICU wing of a hosptial
. Upon decel it smoked really bad, smelt like fuel and oil. We pulled the plug on cylinder #3, it was wet with fuel. We didn't have plugs so we called it a night.
We did a cold compression check and #3 was weaker than the rest. We figured with the rich a/f ratio, it could have washed out the rings, so we were going to see if they'd seat, or if running it would help figure out what happened.
This morning I swapped in some plugs and fired it up, still plumbing to beat hell. It hasn't lost any oil or coolant, and all the gauges read fine, no knock, no noises...so I figured we'd do a few vac pulls. I ended up doing a "power pull" it made 486? AWHP or so...but it "ticked" a bit so we shut it down.
Thinking we threw a cam follower or something, we pulled the valve cover (it sounded like valvetrain)...all is fine. Pulled the plug again, very rich and some oil. Peer down the hole, and my beautiful weisco pistons are coated. The cylinder #3 is a bit clean from the fuel and I can see the numbers/writing on it. The only problem is instead of being "inline" its at a 45 or so degree angle.
Our theory is that the rod bent under power, probably right where it necks down. The piston probably went to low, and ripped off the oiling control ring (hince the smoking). The rod was probably just pushing the piston up and down the cylinder cockeyed. I hope the valvetrain is fine (looks good from the top side) and the rest of the setup (turbos!) are good.
I guess I was asking for it pushing the factory rods, but we did try everything. This rod was probably just a bad apple, as the rest of the cylinders are 100% perfect (or so they appear). I know people have excellent luck with the factory shortblock, but I am never lucky in life.
I am not worried about the rest of the setup being damaged, because we shut it down very quickly, and it has excellent oil pressure.
I'll probably put the car in a corner for a bit before I rip it apart. I am thinking forged crank with pauters before it runs again. Then we'll see what 30+psi looks like on race gas.
Oh well shit happens, and I am no longer a fan of stock rods. Even if they are brass bushed, arp'd, cryo'd.
So much for trying to crack records this year
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I was really worried about the rods, and I guess the worry was verified.
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Bloody Seal Bounce Champion!
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