302 gone to $h1t

[graygt07]

I ordered the 302E from JDM (2 reasons well known company and stock cr). I installed it myself. Then put my 1000 miles on it. Then took it to Brenspeed (2 reasons well known company and dynoed my car before) and after the dyno I went out on the test drive and at 1/2 throttle it started to ping like crazy and smoke out the back.
I talked with both companys and all I got was finger pointing. I felt like I had 2 kids in a room and there was a broken glass and nobody did it.
I broke the motor down today and I have a hole in the piston on the driver side closest to the driver. I will be taking it to a "local" engine builder tomorrow and see what he thinks.
I have $5000 into this build and then some

word to the wise buy with caution from everyone
sometimes a v8 should be a v9

 

[Alter Ego Trip]

I'm sorry to hear that. What tune were you running prior to bringing it to Brenspeed?

 

[retfr8flyr]

Give us some more information. Was everything OK before the tune? What tune did you use to put the 1000 miles on the car. Did you keep driving it when it started to ping?


Earl

 

[graygt07]

the car was tuned by brenspped before before the shortblock change. after the change i used the same tune which was fine. i never got on it for 1000 miles ( i followed engine builders directions.) then went to kurgen motorsports and had the car tuned and ran fine even went to the track and ran down 8 times. I WAS always happy with brenspeed and had a couple day off so i went to ind. and had them tune it. After the dyno I went out for the test drive and as soon as I heard ping I got off it.

 

[Embalmer]

the car was tuned by brenspped before before the shortblock change. after the change i used the same tune which was fine. i never got on it for 1000 miles ( i followed engine builders directions.) then went to kurgen motorsports and had the car tuned and ran fine even went to the track and ran down 8 times. I WAS always happy with brenspeed and had a couple day off so i went to ind. and had them tune it. After the dyno I went out for the test drive and as soon as I heard ping I got off it.

Not sure why you had Brenspeed tune it when Bob already had. Sounds like they messed something up to me.

 

[chad05gt]

the car was tuned by brenspped before before the shortblock change. after the change i used the same tune why?which was fine. really? i never got on it for 1000 miles ( i followed engine builders directions.) if you say so... then went to kurgen motorsports and had the car tuned why, thought it was fine... and ran fine even went to the track and ran down 8 times. I WAS always happy with brenspeed and had a couple day off so i went to ind. and had them tune it. why, again... if it was fine???? After the dyno I went out for the test drive and as soon as I heard ping I got off it.

New motor... you didnt have a datalog running... nearly constantly for first 1500 miles???.... at the track? What gauge(s)?

 

[LuckyH]

Not sure why you had Brenspeed tune it when Bob already had. Sounds like they messed something up to me.

Maybe too much timing + bad gas. Also could have been a lean out condition. If it was just the one piston maybe check the fuel system. Injectors, fuel pump, etc etc.

 

[KIMMER]

Why so many tunes if you thought it was fine? Too many hands messing with it IMHO. I'm a firm believer in being built and tuned by the same place so there is only one place to blame when it takes a shit...lol.

 

[chad05gt]

Why so many tunes if you thought it was fine? Too many hands messing with it IMHO. I'm a firm believer in being built and tuned by the same place so there is only one place to blame when it takes a shit...lol.

but... not all builders tune, and not many real tuners build.

(by real tuner, I mean build there own, not go to 'their' site, download foundation tunes, do a little a/f, call it a day 'tuners')

 

[KIMMER]

but... not all builders tune, and not many real tuners build.

(by real tuner, I mean build there own, not go to 'their' site, download foundation tunes, do a little a/f, call it a day 'tuners')

True, not all do tuning. I'd love to learn myself, but I plan on learning to tune diesels before I learn gas. I've always been a truck guy and there is no one around here that does it. I've got Breenspeed and Livernois within a couple hours for gas tuning, so I might as well play with some diesel tuning.

Hopefully you get it figured out and taken care of. Sucks when you do a build and stuff goes wrong.

 

[chad05gt]

True, not all do tuning. I'd love to learn myself, but I plan on learning to tune diesels before I learn gas. I've always been a truck guy and there is no one around here that does it. I've got Breenspeed and Livernois within a couple hours for gas tuning, so I might as well play with some diesel tuning.

Hopefully you get it figured out and taken care of. Sucks when you do a build and stuff goes wrong.

if you can 'play' w/ turbo diesel tuning, gas will be nothing!

 

[GrnBullitt08]

Why did you have Brenspeed tune it after Kurgan? I would have just stuck with kurgans tune. Guy is one of the best that I know. Im with the a few of the previous guys, too many hands in playing with the car and tuning. Should of just stuck with one tuner. Sounds like Brenspeeds Tune ran you lean.... Same thing happened to me.

 

[onequicktang]

not good, but everythign was good before I would say its on brenspeed.

 

[retfr8flyr]

I hate to say this but I'm guessing you went to Brenspeed asking them for more power then you were getting from your Kurgan tune, is this correct? If so they probably made more power by leaning out the tune and the result is you burned a piston. I really can't understand why you would go the them after Kurgan tuned the car and you claim you were happy with the results.

I doubt Brenspeed will do anything about the blown engine and it sure isn't JDM's fault so IMHO you are on your own for the rebuild cost.

Earl

 

[TheKurgan]

Goddamnit! When are people gonna learn about Brenspeed. I got $$$ says they won't do a damn thing.

 

[WarFords]

Goddamnit! When are people gonna learn about Brenspeed. I got $$$ says they won't do a damn thing.

He's right, they are not going to do Shit!

 

[bullitt boy]

In my experience with Brenspeeds tunes they are always on the rich side . If the car was "running fine" why did you take it for a retune?
To the Brenspeed flamers remember the last member that blamed them for their engine failure turned out to be wrong,perhaps you should not be so quick to throw shit around before hearing both sides.
Kurgan what do mean when are people going to learn about Brenspeed, how many motors have you read about on this site that have failed because of them? Is there something I missed about a consistent failure rate from their shop? For the most part the customers that use them seem pretty satisfied.

 

[WarFords]

In my experience with Brenspeeds tunes they are always on the rich side . If the car was "running fine" why did you take it for a retune?
To the Brenspeed flamers remember the last member that blamed them for their engine failure turned out to be wrong,perhaps you should not be so quick to throw shit around before hearing both sides.
Kurgan what do mean when are people going to learn about Brenspeed, how many motors have you read about on this site that have failed because of them? Is there something I missed about a consistent failure rate from their shop? For the most part the customers that use them seem pretty satisfied.

I used them for two years and $70k. They lost my business when they did nothing about the hole Techco deal after they told me that was the blower I needed to get to get where I wanted to be. Brenspeed actually talked me into it. I got the blower 2 weeks before they closed the shop and couldn't make anymore than 530 hp cause I couldn't get parts for it anymore. They wouldn't do anything about it. I never got a call back after telling them we needed to work something out to make this right.

 

[19COBRA93]

If you have a hole in a piston it's from detonation. That's it. It could be the tune, it could be an injector, or fuel system related... It certainly can't be JDM's fault, and it's likely not the "builders" fault. It's got to be in the tune or a failed fuel system part.

I recently put a hole in my piston on my 302 stroker (Saleen stroker, I built myself), but I made the mistake of loading the wrong tune at the track and leaned it out really bad.

Whether you knew it or not, your motor was detonating. That's the only cause of a piston to melt down. You've just got to figure out what caused the detonation. My guess would be tune.

 

[Riptide]

That would be the logical thing to suspect since the car was fine up until that point. Correlation doesn't always equal causation but you would tend to want to suspect that first.