Engine blown at Thunderhill on Sunday
 

I don't know the exact cause yet but I can tell you internal pieces of the engine are now external pieces. My oil temps and level were perfectly fine with oil never exceeding 230-235 and oil level right at the high mark when I checked it before the session. Starting this thread to ask for suggestions on possible avenues to take from here.

Keeping the Z, replacing the motor.

What to replace it with?

My 1st thought is to buy a lightly used VQ37VHR and have someone such as Valkryie Autosport prep it properly for track duty and ~450Hp, NA with a dry sump and replace my oem (80k mi) clutch and flywheel at the same time. I'd like to keep total cost under 10k, though under 7.5k would be ideal.

Ideas?

Martin82 is parting out his car.

How do you guys blow your motors..I get scared when i just hear someone driving around and you go blowing a motor.

Good luck with the rebuild.

Martin is?? He had such a good setup ...?

Well I wasn't quite just "driving around" haha.

Link to vid, action happens at 15:20. I suggest starting a couple mins before tho, so the only thing you see isn't me blowing up my engine :(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnioNLtpHTE

Have you still got the OEM rev limit or did you lift the limit with your tune ??

Simplest is 2nd-hand (used) engine to stick with your budget .... BUT dry-sump is $6K on its own.

Just installing a used engine will be 2-3K for used engine, more for lo-mileage, figure 10-12 hours to remove and refit (unless you do that yourself).

If you want big-HP NA engine ... figure on 20K at least (including a dry-sump).

V8 Swap!!! :D

Nice gloves :D
Sorry to see the engine go, let us know what went wrong if you find out tho.

Yeah he has a ton of money into that car but I guess he finally decided he wants something else. He just finished the SC install etc. But he also just bought a house and I think is maybe tired of fussing with it. I wouldn't be surprised if he gets a Z06 or a GTR next. But yes he is willing to sell the car as is for 25K. He has probably in the neighborhood of 40K in post market parts in that car including a gtm rotrex SC and full SPL+JRZ suspension, aeromotions dynamic wing, nismo body kit, etc. It dynoed near 500hp. Almost every upgrade you can think of is in that car.

was curt with you? lol
thunderhill sounds very familiar.. xD

I suspect oil pump rotor if you had the revs turned up at all. That is the known week spot on that motor. Our Dailey Engineering dry sump was $3500 or so, you don't need to spend $6000.

You sir... The most calm person in the world

How many miles on the engine and how many of those were at the track?

For the love of baby jesus....get off the racing line when the motor goes boom. Bummer about the motor, though.

Not that you will ever know for sure, but I suspect it was more to do with detonation than oiling. With oiling you usually hear bad things but parts don't usually won't fly through the block.

I was going to say something myself, but I thought..."too soon?" On the racing line, crossed over twice with ample opportunity to just pull the car over.

Sorry about the engine. Please let us know the cause if found...


Tracy Ramsey

ValidusVentus, we'd all like to know if you had Revs over 7500 and any oil temp data you might have.

On Porsches there is an over-rev counter and there are different tiers 1-6, level 1 being hitting rev limiter up to level 6 being 10k+ RPM money shift. I wonder if our ECU has anything.

You can tell he has logged some seat time for sure, cut him slack on crossing the line twice. Not like he fuel starved, catastrophic gonna cost me a lot of money engine failure. **** happens just like at the drag strip. Track went down for 15-20 mins, a friend of mine was there. Also a M3 flipped on turn 8.

Studying the video your oil temp is past vertical, above 240 for the last few minutes and inches towards 260 before it lets go. Plenty of Zs have driven themselves to limp mode at 280 and survived, but it is a contributing factor.

Revs were climbing to only about 6k when it let go and I don't see him taking it near 8k much if at all. Long left hand sweeper.

How many miles on motor?

Canton Racing Products - Accusump Tech Way cheaper than a Dry Sump system. A buddy just showed it to me.

I have been running this on my car for about 3 years now. I think it helps (no proof though).

Yep, you're completely right on the oil temp, I guess it was creeping to 240 in that session (pretty much the only unobstructed laps I have ever driven on that track) but its interesting how on the same lap the motor goes, it goes up noticeably higher. Only oil temp data recording device I have is the video and my brain.

Rev limit unchanged, 7.5K.

80k on the engine. I would estimate 2500 track miles, and a lot more general hard driving miles. If I cant use the power I almost always run it in a higher gear around high G corners to reduce engine wear and oiling issues. I also try to warm my oil before I take the revs high. Apparently it wasn't enough.

Yes, I F'ed up not leaving the track immediately. Was kinda struggling to absorb that I just blew my engine (never done that before) and for some inane reason was trying to coast it back to avoid a tow until they meatball flagged me and I gave up. I know that's not a good reason. After I stopped the oil thing immediately occurred to me and I felt like a total douche.

Oh and the gloves... those are go-karting gloves I snagged at the go-kart track in Dubai. Work great lol. I do own a pair of SFI approved but seem silly to wear since I'm not in a suit. Tho unburnt hands would be better than burnt hands.



Back on the subject of the thread, I have been in contact with Brian at Valkryie Autosport and he has been very helpful in working to figure out the best solution for me. Once we have a definite plan I'll update. Thanks for your time so far Brian.


Until then, thanks for the ideas, compliments and the constructive criticism.

Did you have a lightweight crank pulley installed?

For the new build, please install an old-school mechanical oil pressure light switch (32psi should be commonly available) to a big red light in the cabin so if the oil pressure drops 'cos you have surge in the sump, then you can get out of the throttle to drop engine load and hopefully save the engine.

Alternative is AccuSump or Dailey dry-sump (and if Brian says they are 3.5K US I'm getting one - I was quoted 6K US$ 18 months ago, maybe because I am in OZ, I got the special "Export" price).

Oops, someone put some marbles in the engine.... Ouch.


What kind of oil filter were you using? Amsoil oil filter have been known to let go at the o-ring gasket.

mind me asking which kit you went with, and if your taking your z past 7.5k?

Any pictures of the blown motor? How much whp does your Z have?

Nope. OEM

Best idea I've heard all day.

Purlator Pure One. The longer one.

No pics yet. 310whp on a Dyno Dynamics as of 2 years ago.

Damn bro sorry to hear your story :( I hope you can resolve soon and please let us know what happen with the engine... Im scared too when i hear this stories...

BRO! You should be :happydance: that you got that much out an engine you ran that hard. Being a driver/crew cheif in the road race field for so long man, I've been with teams that use up 2-3 motors A YEAR, with full blown race parts.

Get you a stock rebuilt low milage engine and get your butt back on the track dude! :driving: Then start a penny fund for the next engine. These things just happen. Looks to me like the motor just said "I'm done". That's racing.

Amen bro!!! :tup:

If I posted the 2nd half of the vid you would have heard me say "well, I'm no longer on engine number one." I knew the day would come, was just hoping it was still a while down the road heh.

I'm wondering if the shift a 13:09 contributed to maybe a dropped valve.

No more than any other shift...it was just a normal rev IMO

Tracy Ramsey

The suspense is killing me.

yea, looked/sounded like an almost mis-shift!

I would suspect the OEM oil pump gears gave up the ghost.

If you are building an engine.. And not going dry sump (which is high recommended) you at least need to have the Nismo oil pump gear set installed.
Also lots of loooong corners...without oil pressure logging... Just a guess but long sustained corners is not good for OEM oil pump.... And again the oem oil pump gears are not really designed for tracking.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yea definitely the calmest guy ever! That really sux man I'm sorry to hear this

Sub'd for outcome

The outcome: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZnVRZuCyuU

:)