easyC

regular variocam... 7.2... now car is 7.8 with variocam plus

yes there was excessive wear on the chain ramps for the variocam... as per our master mech there...

cdodkin

Ray, the only person who even mentioned "all M96 engines are bad" is you!

Get over it.

cdodkin

So what's the prognosis - does it look like the constant flexing of the block caused a structural failure in the cylinder wall?

Or did the block crack and take the cylinder with it?

ivangene

Wow, thanks for the photo's - I took quite a bit of time looking at each one....

easyC

the prelimenary diagnosis is a cylinder wall crack... I may be sending this to Raby for an in depth diagnosis though now...

cdodkin

Interesting that it was cylinder 4.

It's more common to find one of the center cylinders cracking.

That's why I was asking if the head had cracked as well, as this is more common on the outer cylinders.

Did you have any signs of intermix or coolant loss before the engine eventually let go at the track?

easyC

well none of those signs were seen... it was a friday open lapping day, fairly cool, and on my first hard lap of the day after two warm up laps... coolant and oil were checked that morning as well... also you can see the heads in the photo... the piston themselves were completely destroyed and only a few larger pieces were left as can be seen in the first photo from inside the cylinder... my theory is that the crack in the wall reached its critical point that morning on the track, and trying to start it multiple times later caused the hydrolock... again this is just my amateur theory... Im medically trained... not mechanically...

redridge

Thanks for sharing... If you find out more from the experts... we would appreciate the updates.

Van

If anyone does, I bet it's these guys: http://www.lnengineering.com/

Jake Raby

We are working with LN now on a 4.0 engine based from a 3.2 foundation with our parts and processes coupled to theirs.. I have done all the product testing and development for LN and was their very first customer years ago... We work together continually.

Lots of things never seen or heard of before will be released really soon. We have been busy!

Like I said on 986 forum, these broken pieces are valuable to our program and I'll purchase them for investigation.

I'd have to see it up close and Charles would have the final call in the matter, but I'd say that this block is repairable with LN's procedures. It would be a good foundation for one of our 4.0 test engines.

b-man

Thanks for sharing the pictures.

b-man

Ray S

That didn't take long, cdodkin the resident engine e-thug has arrived....

Ray S

Thanks for the info.

cdodkin

your attempts at personal attacks are not welcome in this thread, or on this forum.

Give it a rest.

judd944

Wow, it looks worse in person. Great photos !