Gregg this is sooooooooo Fk up @$@)$@$)@$&*)
Let me ask a few questions, if the head gasket went after you got to Chicago would you not have water sprewing into the cylinders and white smoke out the exhaust, yet you say there was none ??? Would the truck not run like crap with water in the cylinders, yet you say it ran great ??? Would you not smell anti freeze and have a low fluid level, yet you say no there too ??? I see brahmus had a simular failure but up to that mention just now I have never heard of just shutting it down and BOOM ???

The only thing I know of that can kill a motor instanly is detonation and it didnt have any in NY thats for sure, but someone made a very good point about fuel all it takes is "1" bad tank. Remember when my Black 02 was Brand Spanking new and I got a bad tank of gas on the way to the track, (when Long Island had tracks that is %$(%#)#%()#) the results were me hearing detonation for the first time in my life, I instanly got off it and TG saved the motor but later when it was rebuild the damage that bad gas and few seconds of detonation did was EXTREMELY obvious. It ate my heads up from head to toe, (looked like Woody Woodpecker pecked away at them), AND it hammered the rod bearings enough to destroy 2 If I had to guess I would say that, it's the only thing that can take a engine out that quick....
I mean come on we've seen people lift heads at the track and race it again,
and then drive it home afterwards, I dont belive a head gasket JUST WENT out of no where, it's not something that happens on a built L ....

Keep us up to date Gregg : o (

 

Sooooooooooo what you are telling me is.. that EVERYTIME I go to get a 93 octane tank of gas I have to worry about it ???? That every time I get a tank of Gas I need to worry about a $3000.00 BOOM? Are you serious? This is a truck that was advertised as a daily driver... Cummon... All I did was drive it 60 miles in town... nothing abusive... nothing aggressive... and BOOM... I will find out.. soon I hope what the issue is.

 

Bah. This thread is heading in a bad direction.

I want to make a few comments. And by no means am I trying to place any blame on Gregg, Rob, or anyone else who's touched the truck. I am merely pointing a few things out....

These motors don't blow head gaskets like it's some common thing. Even with the highest HP built up mod motors, head sealing is not an issue.

The only time I've seen mod motors burn up a head gasket, is when they are pushed VERY hard, and/or something is wrong. In other words, if nothing has failed parts wise, it would take SERIOUS abuse to hurt a head gasket.

IF this motor has bent rods, that means that it was in the middle of being run hard when the cylinders filled with water.

IF the head gasket was burned to the point where it allowed water to seep into the cylinder(s), it would take a very long time (hours at the least) to actually fill the cylinders with enough coolant to hydrolock it.

We know there is no "flaw" in the head casting that would allow coolant to seep in. This motor was built almost 3 years ago.

For something to be burned up so bad that it hydrolocked the motor, I can't see ANY possible way that it could not have been seen before hand. No white smoke. No rough running. Truck ran perfectly fine, was turned off, and then all off a sudden it's got a burned head gasket, bent rods, and two cylinders of coolant?

I'm not calling anyone here a liar, but I'm sorry... there is more to this story than is being told. You just don't have the most abusive type of modular motor head gasket failure, and have no warning signs beforehand.

 

Well I like Rob, and as much as I like to bust his *****, I am sure he sold the truck with all the best intentions. If there was a problem with the truck, I am sure he was not aware of any problem.

Yes Bad Gas can cause problems, and a engine can go Boom, and cold weather componds the problem. I once went to a gas station in NJ where you can't fill the tank yourself. The yahoo at the station filled it up with 87 octane. I drove it home 300 miles with no problem. Though if you filled up at a station, that had water in the fuel that could blow it up

So until the engine is pulled apart we won't know.

There are a few other things that can cause a enginee to lock up. One example, is when my truck was fairlly new I took it to get dynoed, the guy accedentlly disconected one of the wires going to the rear injector. Whel when they did the dyno run, that cylinder filled up with gas, it lifter the head, and coolant blew out all over the place. When we found out what happened, we pulled the spark plugs, blew out the cylinders, changed the oil, and was able to drive it home. Though it never drove the same after that.

I have seen internal engine parts fail for no reason before, so who knows

A lot of us know that truck, I have seen it many times, and it has allways been a good truck. I am sorry to hear about your problems, and hate to see this happen to anyone.

Keep us updated, and let us know if there is anything we can do to help.

 

Gregg I know that sounds insane BUT the short answer to that question is "YES". There are TONS of people that will agree and unfortunately have personally lost a motor due to "1" bad tank of fuel, or a clogged fuel filter, or injector, or bad 02 sensor, or fuel pump, or any slow down of fuel delivery.
For the record the fuel filter in it was brand new (300-500 miles) but as I have personally experienced with my 02, and Rich experienced recently with his and many others have, even with 2 miles on it all it takes is one tank of crappy fuel and your in trouble ....

 

I agree with Don and Rob. Once you have a tuned motor (or even a stocker really) there's dozens of things that can go wrong.
Ricki blew his first engine over here when he was in boost and the fuel pump relay crapped out.
Instant lean out condition and the rods vented the block.
Bad stuff can happen anytime unfortunately.

 

No offence, but all these so call issues almost never occur on stock or near stock trucks despite very high mileage (over 100K), heavy towing and daily use and yes the occasional bad tank of gas.

It seems that many are masking the real issues by blaming all kind of obscure uncontrollable variables...

 

a tank, or a quarter tank of bad fuel can wreck the motor if that's all that was in it. They are high performance vehicles tuned to a certain way of running.

Like I said earlier, sounds more like a detonation issue that damaged the cylinder. I agree with Sal, I'm not sticking up for Rob, or Blaming Chitown, but like said earlier........stuff like this doesn't magically appear. Something happened.

I'd like to see pictures once the motor is apart.

 

Rob,

You said in another thread that Greg also received all the tunes for the truck, with his purchase. What's the likelihood of him running the wrong one for his weather conditions; and, were there any tunes that were not designed for wringing the absolute limit out of the truck. I guess my question is, did he have a tune that left a lot of power on the table for safe daily driving? Did he know that some of the tunes he had could damage the truck without racing fuel, if there were tunes of that nature included?

 

There's no guarantee that you're getting 93 octane even if the pump says so... Tanker drivers can accidenally put the wrong fuel in the tank when they're filling tanks at 2:00 A.M. One series of stations in Denver was actually cited when it was found that they were purposely using 87 octane and selling it at the 91 octane pumps.

 

I would think that any further speculation needs to wait until Gregg gets the autopsy details...without that, its all speculation and hearsay, which tends to just generate bad blood.

 

Agreed Pawn

Gregg it is a daily driver, I drove it 24/7 weather permitting.

To answer you Odin's Wrath
THERE WERE NO TUNES ON THE XCAL THAT NEEDED RACE FUEL PERIOD.
The XCal has 3 tunes on it, ANY OF THEM CAN SAFELY BE USED WITH 93 OCTANE. The most aggressive one is named 93 Octane but I dyno'd that one using only 92 Octane so YES there was room for safety built in. The one installed when Gregg left is much less aggressive so YES YES there was PLENTY OF ROOM for safety when using 93 on that tune, it was named 92 Octane. The A/F was plenty rich and the Wide Band Commander proved that daily.

 

12 degrees of timing on that safe tune?


I'm not not blaming anyone, just trying to ask some questions I haven't read yet. A little investigating you might say. Don't anyone take this personally.

 

Yes I do agree .. I need to find out what really went wrong. I do NOT and I repeat.... do NOT want ANY bad blood here. From what it sounds, there could have been any number of things that could have gone wrong. This is a forum for me to learn about the L and take that knowledge to better the life of the truck.
I do apologize if anything I said came across as " wrongly taken " . As you can imagine this was a total shock to me, as it was for Rob and Sal. I am hoping to know something soon, and as soon as I do, I will pass it on. Hopefully as an education not only to myself but to other L owners..

 

im running 14 degrees of timing on a safe tune for 93 octane.. im on a stock block still making 540hp to the tires... just 2 weeks ago i was on the Long Island Expressway heading up to see Rob and i was embarrassing a Porshe Caymen S.. then i was rippin on another Gen.2 Lightning, both times i was pinned at over 140mph... we need to wait and see what the results are from the autopsy as Dan said..