2008 Stage 3 ROUSH - Rebirth...

AutoXRacer

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 8, 2009
Posts
2,603
Reaction score
6
Location
Florida
Piston tops

Piston 1

Piston1_zps8d2f41ef.jpg


Piston 2

Piston2_zps7f79a028.jpg


Piston 3

Piston3_zpseb4bc910.jpg


Piston 4

Piston4_zpsd6db711f.jpg


Piston 5

Piston5_zps65fb4b56.jpg


Piston 6

Piston6_zpsc45c0cd0.jpg


Piston 7

Piston7_zps328cb2c4.jpg


Piston 8

Piston81_zps899af1ee.jpg



At least I got carbon on the piston tops...unlike with the last motor... lol
 

swflastang05

Back for More
Joined
Dec 21, 2013
Posts
2,098
Reaction score
121
Location
N. Ft. Myers, FL
Ok,,,where is the oil in the elbow coming from ???

Maybe left over from seating the steel rings / break-in period? Not sure how many miles are on the motor now. I know when I pulled my intake last weekend to change the t-stat there was oil in the intake runners too, but I only had about 90 miles on the new motor, also with steel rings.
 

BeachMonkey100

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 6, 2013
Posts
1,092
Reaction score
2
Location
Myrtle Beach, SC
Maybe left over from seating the steel rings / break-in period? Not sure how many miles are on the motor now. I know when I pulled my intake last weekend to change the t-stat there was oil in the intake runners too, but I only had about 90 miles on the new motor, also with steel rings.

how did you break them in? heat cycle a few times? then drive? or what
 

AutoXRacer

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 8, 2009
Posts
2,603
Reaction score
6
Location
Florida
Ok,,,where is the oil in the elbow coming from ???

Not sure, my guess is either the PCV system or like SWFL said, its left overs from the break-in period.

Although I should have approx 1000 miles on the motor already.
 

AutoXRacer

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 8, 2009
Posts
2,603
Reaction score
6
Location
Florida
nice! I plan to do just some idle heat cycles, cool back down. then got for some WOT heat cycles and I should be good to go.

Beach, NO IDLING!!!! Its the worst thing for a brand new motor!!!
Part of the failure of my old motor was lots of idling!!

According to my builder, NO IDLING, two short heat cycles of 10 mins at 2,000 RPM to wash the heads with oil; check for leaks, mechanical issues, etc. Make sure you are not running rich!! Do not let your AFRs go richer than 13.5. Let the motor cool down completely. Coolant temps should drop down to 100 degrees at least.

Then 10-15 heat cycles with LOAD!!! Do not run the engine without loading it. So find a steep ass hill and load that motor. You want your AFRs to be on the lean side if you are running steel rings. They need heat!!

Are you blown/turbo or NA? Your tuner may have to tweak your tune to run slightly lean to help the rings seat.
If you are blown, you want low boost at part throttle, no more than 7PSI or so and keep your AFR at 14.7 or so.

So two things!!!
-LOAD
-HEAT
Actually three things:
-NO IDLING
 
Last edited:

BeachMonkey100

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 6, 2013
Posts
1,092
Reaction score
2
Location
Myrtle Beach, SC
Beach, NO IDLING!!!! Its the worst thing for a brand new motor!!!
Part of the failure of my old motor was lots of idling!!

According to my builder, NO IDLING, two short heat cycles of 10 mins at 2,000 RPM to wash the heads with oil; check for leaks, mechanical issues, etc. Make sure you are not running rich!! Do not let your AFRs go richer than 13.5. Let the motor cool down completely. Coolant temps should drop down to 100 degrees at least.

Then 10-15 heat cycles with LOAD!!! Do not run the engine without loading it. So find a steep ass hill and load that motor. You want your AFRs to be on the lean side if you are running steel rings. They need heat!!

Are you blown/turbo or NA? Your tuner may have to tweak your tune to run slightly lean to help the rings seat.
If you are blown, you want low boost at part throttle, no more than 7PSI or so and keep your AFR at 14.7 or so.

So two things!!!
-LOAD
-HEAT
Actually three things:
-NO IDLING


Calm down everyone! haha I know to put load on the rings and yes they are steel rings. I grew up building all sorts of motors and load is probably the most important factor along with fuel. I plan to get it heat cycled a time or two with varying RPM just to make sure nothing like you said is leaking and everything is correct.

As of right now it will be NA, Lito is doing my tuning and I still need to go over stuff with him about it so I will make sure to mention that.

lol about the steep ass hill.... I live in Myrtle Beach, SC. If you find a hill anywhere around please let me know! The closest thing I have to a hill is the 544 bridge going over the waterway, roughly about 7 miles from my shop.

I wouldn't let it idle for long, just enough to get the tune good enough for some WOT pulls. That is if you're using steel rings too.

Definitely! Just long enough for me to check for any leaks, etc.. Then were off!

Haha... Remember my previous build, the piston tops after 10,000 miles where shiny, looked brand new out of the box. (which was a bad thing!!)

lol yes I remember that! I guess it's good to check up every now and then.
 

one eyed willy

Pizzle fo shizzle
Joined
Jul 1, 2008
Posts
7,533
Reaction score
26
Location
Lakeland FL
This is the reason i do not use a PCV/catch can any more.

I tried every thing and then some. I even had 2 catch cans in series on the same hose and it still would not catch all the oil.

My vacuum at idle or low RPM was enough to pull oil out of the bottom of a catch can, so any oil that actually got trapped in the catch can would eventually get sucked into the motor. My catch cans would be empty any time I drove for a long distance, i would have that burnt oil smell soon as i stopped the car.

Went to a vented can and the smells are gone.
 

AutoXRacer

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 8, 2009
Posts
2,603
Reaction score
6
Location
Florida
This is the reason i do not use a PCV/catch can any more.

I tried every thing and then some. I even had 2 catch cans in series on the same hose and it still would not catch all the oil.

My vacuum at idle or low RPM was enough to pull oil out of the bottom of a catch can, so any oil that actually got trapped in the catch can would eventually get sucked into the motor. My catch cans would be empty any time I drove for a long distance, i would have that burnt oil smell soon as i stopped the car.

Went to a vented can and the smells are gone.

Your vented can doesn't smell? I had two small ones tucked underneath the front bumper and it stunk.

Do you have your passenger and drivers side routed to one catch can?

You have no worries about crank case pressures?
What about effective vacuum at the bottom of the rings to help seal...?

I know all this stuff with discussed to death. sigh

After seeing this yesterday... I am having thoughts of vented valve covers, but wouldn't I also have to run the vented oil cap?

The vented oil cap works great for daily driving, not for high RPM road racing as it sprays all over the engine bay due to the passenger timing chain being right under the cap/filler neck.
 

one eyed willy

Pizzle fo shizzle
Joined
Jul 1, 2008
Posts
7,533
Reaction score
26
Location
Lakeland FL
I have a hybrid system of sorts.

I have a hose off each valve cover that goes to a vented can, each hose has a check valve in them so they only open if they see pressure, so at idle i dont get any fumes but at WOT they open and at that point im going too fast to be worried about fumes.

I have a third hose off the back of the driver side valve cover that is open all the time, it is connected to the old emissions metal tube that runs to the back of the car, where i have another smaller catch can that is there just to collect the oil.

seems to be working with no fumes, no ring-seal issues, not burning any oil at all.
 

one eyed willy

Pizzle fo shizzle
Joined
Jul 1, 2008
Posts
7,533
Reaction score
26
Location
Lakeland FL
my covers have an fittings welded to them, 2 on each valve cover. the 4th one on the pass side is routed to a boost gauge so i can monitor the pressures in the crank case. back when i was experimenting with everything i would monitor to see what different things did. as it sits now i never see any pressure.
 

Latest posts

Support us!

Support Us - Become A Supporting Member Today!

Click Here For Details

Back
Top