Engine blew up

Slow89 said:

Jon from Lund will not run past 20psi on 91. So yes timing can kill a motor. But boost will too just as quickly.

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That is the funniest thing I've heard in a while. Instead of throwing Jon's name around like that with such an uninformed (nicest way I could say it) statement, I'd highly suggest you talk to Jon first and ask him why he limits the boost. Either that or do some reading.

ForYourOwnGood said:

What exactly is wrong with the motorcraft oil? I have the dealer change mine since even jacking the car up at my house is a pain. Last I knew the synth blend stuff actually did quite well in UOA testing and I have mine done every 3500 anyways.

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Blyman93 said:

Not sure how to answer that. I just follow what high performers use which is usually Mobil 1, Amsoil or Royal

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I had Mobil 1 in my (2015 Spain) engine when it blew up. My new motor gets nothing but Motorcraft at the dealership for $40 now. Until someone can say for sure why the motors blow up I'm not taking as many risks. I now have a 2016 motor (Full Ford Warranty) now but I'm not willing to go past the CAI and intercooler upgrades on it. Maybe I'll go with a Roush or FP tune someday but I dunno. I'd rather save money and get out of this car or get a built motor and keep my current as a spare.

Mattrix said:

I had Mobil 1 in my (2015 Spain) engine when it blew up. My new motor gets nothing but Motorcraft at the dealership for $40 now. Until someone can say for sure why the motors blow up I'm not taking as many risks. I now have a 2016 motor (Full Ford Warranty) now but I'm not willing to go past the CAI and intercooler upgrades on it. Maybe I'll go with a Roush or FP tune someday but I dunno. I'd rather save money and get out of this car or get a built motor and keep my current as a spare.

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I don't think oil is the cause of blown engines. I think the early motors had some issues which got fixed in 2016 and up. As long as it's full synthetic I don't see any problems. I have a 2016 and its full bolt and tuned to 23-24 psi. Runs great. Saving for a built simply because I plan on good turbo changes but so far so good. Was tuned from day 1

Mattrix said:

I had Mobil 1 in my (2015 Spain) engine when it blew up. My new motor gets nothing but Motorcraft at the dealership for $40 now. Until someone can say for sure why the motors blow up I'm not taking as many risks. I now have a 2016 motor (Full Ford Warranty) now but I'm not willing to go past the CAI and intercooler upgrades on it. Maybe I'll go with a Roush or FP tune someday but I dunno. I'd rather save money and get out of this car or get a built motor and keep my current as a spare.

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I saw your video before you took it off youtube about you engine blowing.
Didn't you have a JMS BoostMax or something like that and raised the boost? If I'm not mistaken the boost controller tricks the ECU that it's not hitting its target boost and then forces the engine to produce more boost. So then its running more boost but timing is not adjusted so then that can cause your mixture to lean out and then blow it?

LuckyJerk said:

I saw your video before you took it off youtube about you engine blowing.
Didn't you have a JMS BoostMax or something like that and raised the boost? If I'm not mistaken the boost controller tricks the ECU that it's not hitting its target boost and then forces the engine to produce more boost. So then its running more boost but timing is not adjusted so then that can cause your mixture to lean out and then blow it?

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IIRC that was exactly it. He was running the BoostMax on top of a tune and kablooey. No way would I put a BoostMax on my car, even on the factory tune. Controlling engine parameters by bypassing the engine's programming seems like an obvious recipe for trouble.

Good news in my 'hood today! New bullet arrived

LuckyJerk said:

I saw your video before you took it off youtube about you engine blowing.
Didn't you have a boost controller and raised the boost? If I'm not mistaken the boost controller tricks the ECU that it's not hitting its target boost and then forces the engine to produce more boost. So then its running more boost but timing is not adjusted so then that can cause your mixture to lean out and then blow it?

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Yes, and the BoostMax adds up to 5 PSI of boost. It does so after the ECU but before the boost controller. Basically if the ECU says run at 20 PSI that signal gets intercepted by BoostMax, edited and then fed to the boost controller. I didn't have a dial to change my boost levels so it was always adding 5 PSI since the car was using 93 octane.

I still doubt the BoostMax blew the motor but there is no way I'd put one back in this car.

HappySquirrel said:

IIRC that was exactly it. He was running the BoostMax on top of a tune and kablooey. No way would I put a BoostMax on my car, even on the factory tune. Controlling engine parameters by bypassing the engine's programming seems like an obvious recipe for trouble.

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It was not tuned when it blew up. Lots of people have good stories about BoostMax, I'm just not one of them.

Mattrix said:

It was not tuned when it blew up. Lots of people have good stories about BoostMax, I'm just not one of them.

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Yeah, but it was tuned while running BoostMax simultaneously at one point, correct? If so, do you think maybe that put too much stress on the engine?

Also, "lots of good stories about Boostmax" is unverified anecdotal...whatever. I'm not even going to call it evidence. Like I said, IMO it would appear to be common sense that anything that bypasses the engine's computer control and adds boost should raise a red flag, especially in a small turbo-charged DI engine that's already pumping out quite a bit power per cubic inch.

The only reason I'm even bringing any of this up is because you entered the conversation and somewhat insinuated that oil choice might have had something to do with your engine blowing up. Could using the right or wrong oil (with a different calcium content, etc) have something to do with the chances of an engine blowing? Possibly. I kind of doubt it, but I certainly have no evidence either way. But in your case I think it's reasonable to say that the Boostmax was almost certainly a much bigger factor in your engine letting go than running Mobil 1.

HappySquirrel said:

Yeah, but it was tuned while running BoostMax simultaneously at one point, correct? If so, do you think maybe that put too much stress on the engine?

Also, "lots of good stories about Boostmax" is unverified anecdotal...whatever. I'm not even going to call it evidence. Like I said, IMO it would appear to be common sense that anything that bypasses the engine's computer control should raise a red flag, especially in a small turbo-charged DI engine that's already pumping out quite a bit power per cubic inch.

The only reason I'm even bringing any of this up is because you entered the conversation and somewhat insinuated that oil choice might have had something to do with your engine blowing up. Could using the right or wrong oil (with a different calcium content, etc) have something to do with the chances of an engine blowing? Possibly. I kind of doubt it, but I certainly have no evidence either way. But in your case I think it's reasonable to say that the Boostmax was almost certainly a much bigger factor in your engine letting go than running Mobil 1.

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I simply said I had Mobile 1 in my car when it blew and now I only use Motorcraft because I'm afraid. I don't know why I bother even getting involved with these engine blown conversations, it never works out for me lol.

The car had a canned tune from SCT applied to it over a month before the engine blew up. That tune was on the car for less time than it took to apply and remove it. I just tested the shift points when in automatic mode. Also the dealership found no evidence of that tune ever being on the car. In that months time I had been to the drag strip and made a bunch of passes plus my normal driving around. Did it possibly hurt it? Could be man, to many variables all around. I just accept it as lack of knowledge and then some bad decision making on my part. Part of life, live and learn.

I agree with HappySquirrel that anything that bypasses the ECU of a car should be labeled a red flag and should not every be used. I'm not sure of the timing but didn't the BoostMax come out before canned tunes/tuning devices? Could this be the cause of early engines blowing? That along with not fully understanding what they do and someone can buy this and this its safe to use or use it in conjunction with tunes?

Mattrix said:

I simply said I had Mobile 1 in my car when it blew and now I only use Motorcraft because I'm afraid. I don't know why I bother even getting involved with these engine blown conversations, it never works out for me lol.

The car had a canned tune from SCT applied to it over a month before the engine blew up. That tune was on the car for less time than it took to apply and remove it. I just tested the shift points when in automatic mode. Also the dealership found no evidence of that tune ever being on the car. In that months time I had been to the drag strip and made a bunch of passes plus my normal driving around. Did it possibly hurt it? Could be man, to many variables all around. I just accept it as lack of knowledge and then some bad decision making on my part. Part of life, live and learn.

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You have the right attitude, press on!

LuckyJerk said:

I agree with HappySquirrel that anything that bypasses the ECU of a car should be labeled a red flag and should not every be used. I'm not sure of the timing but didn't the BoostMax come out before canned tunes/tuning devices? Could this be the cause of early engines blowing? That along with not fully understanding what they do and someone can buy this and this its safe to use or use it in conjunction with tunes?

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Was not the cause of early engines blowing, well it was for at least one I remember. i forget whose tune he had but he was tuned and running the BoostMax and PedalMax I believe.

I think those by themselves are probably not that bad, just not combined with anything else. They were designed to augment the stock tune and take advantage of the elasticity in the stock tables and conservative stock tune. To add that after a tuner pushes it close to the limit is a recipe for disaster.

Most of the early engines that blew did not use the JMS products so I wouldn't go there.

jbailer said:

Was not the cause of early engines blowing, well it was for at least one I remember. i forget whose tune he had but he was tuned and running the BoostMax and PedalMax I believe.

I think those by themselves are probably not that bad, just not combined with anything else. They were designed to augment the stock tune and take advantage of the elasticity in the stock tables and conservative stock tune. To add that after a tuner pushes it close to the limit is a recipe for disaster.

Most of the early engines that blew did not use the JMS products so I wouldn't go there.

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Yea I was not sure if that even was a reason lol.
I do think that the tuning from when this engine first came out to now have greatly improved. Many things have been learned so that they should be relatively safe now.
It all depends on the customer. I'm sure a tuner will let the owner know when they are coming to the limits and if they want to keep pushing then its on them.
Also now that FP has a tune and you keep a warranty there is something for everyone!

Mine blew because of a lean condition due to being at the max of the fuel system's limit (on ethanol) and then spraying a dry shot of nitrous on top of that, in an environment that the car was not yet tuned for (66* weather). Lean, lean, lean = kablooey = #EcoboomGang :lol: