Originally Posted by Megamarines (Post 3999214)

Anyone experience near overheating on this kit?

I’ve had it on since November, and started running E85 somewhere in April; makes close to 700whp or more now. I had a run against a new GT500 and beat it uphill, but by the end of the run I was one dot away from overheating and was having a decent amount of white smoke coming out of my hood vents. The run maybe lasted forty-five seconds at full WOT. Car eventually cooled down but I almost thought I had something on fire until I noticed it was just whitish-grey smoke that eventually stopped. When I finally pulled over there was no spilled coolant, car went back to normal, and car has felt fine since.

Did I experience head lift or something? I cant even begin to figure it out; I have no idea if overheating caused the white smoke or what. My knock sensors are on, all safety parameters are set, but car is basically at maximum send with the E85 power tune.

Weirdest part? Car drives fine. It’s had numerous hard pulls and has been pushed a bit. No running or idling issues at all.

Originally Posted by TopgunZ (Post 3999257)

What PSI are you making?

Originally Posted by redondoaveb (Post 3999260)

He mentioned 18 on Facebook, definitely over the threshold

Originally Posted by TopgunZ (Post 3999389)

If this is definitely over it, what's the threshold?

Weren't you over 17 for years?

Your sig states 19.5 and I don't believe that was built.

Just trying to normalize the data.

Originally Posted by redondoaveb (Post 3999391)

I was told getting above 16 psi is getting into the danger zone. Of course there's no magic number. I think a lot has to do with how often you're in that zone. I was making 17 for a couple years but I don't put a lot of miles on my car and I wasn't at peak boost that often. Since I haven't torn apart my blown motor yet, I'm not sure what caused the bottom end failure but I'm pretty sure it would have lifted the heads if the bottom end didn't fail.

What psi was your rotrex build making when it lifted the heads?

Originally Posted by TopgunZ (Post 3999392)

22.5psi

There's lots of guys running 16 psi or more. Do the heads lift over time? I wouldn't think so. I'd imagine it's discrete.

Originally Posted by TopgunZ (Post 3999392)

22.5psi

There's lots of guys running 16 psi or more. Do the heads lift over time? I wouldn't think so. I'd imagine it's discrete.

Originally Posted by Spooler (Post 3999418)

Read and watch all of the video's in my thread. It will take 2 weeks or so. Lots of information in there.

Originally Posted by Megamarines (Post 3999214)

The run maybe lasted forty-five seconds at full WOT.

Originally Posted by redondoaveb (Post 3999419)

What's the primary failure on headlift (headgasket, head bolts)?

Originally Posted by Spooler (Post 3999424)

The guy that had 22psi failure was due to head lift. The other one that started to overheat was due to the cylinders moving around. That eventually will wear down the headgasket and cause a failure. There are 2 problems going on.

1.) The open deck cylinders moving around wearing out the headgaskets which creates an appearance that the head is lifting due to the decrease in clamping force from the wear.

2.) Actual head lift where the cylinder pressure is greater than what can be held by headgasket, Head studds, etc.

Both combined together is very unpredictable of what the actual cause was. That is why there are only 2 methods that are working at the moment. I made it 7k miles with mostly 17psi of boost before my first engine cut loose. That was an open deck block.

I hope this makes sense.

Originally Posted by Spooler (Post 3999430)

So in short, the problem is in the open deck block itself. There is an inherent defect that allows the cylinders to move under higher than stock cylinder pressure. Is what it is. Any more questions, just ask. I may or may not know the answers.

Originally Posted by redondoaveb (Post 3999432)

Didn't I read that closed deck blocks are getting head lift also?