2018 Mustang GT A10 Whipple Stage 2 Engine Rod bent

[roblilly33]

On teardown I was told:
Hey Everyone,
I have the disassembly finished up on the block and have attached pictures of what I found.
The ultimate demise of the engine was the cracked cylinder. The cylinder eventually hydro-locked bending the rod. From the pictures you can see the engine "tune" looks ok. None of the pistons had speckling or signs of a lean condition. The head gaskets don't show any signs of failure either eliminating overheating or extreme lean condition under boost.
All parts installed check out as well, no signs of a boost leak or a fuel issue. I have an email out to a couple engine builders that are very familiar with coyote engines to try to find out more information on this failure.
It looks like the piston was either scuffing the cylinder wall or the liner started to fail, causing the piston to put uneven pressure in the cylinder bore. With the uneven pressure and possible boost on top of everything the cylinder wall eventually failed. I want to point out that the crack is also at the weakest point in the block deck. All other head bolt holes or coolant jackets are supported to the outside of the block. The largest unsupported area is on the top, between the two cylinders and the head bolt hole.
My thoughts our this really comes down to a "design flaw" and not necessarily anyone's fault.

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[bluebeastsrt]

This should probably get moved to the FI section. The first page is mostly useless comments.

 

[808muscle]

Sounds like bad luck, another factory flawed 2018 motor.

 

[gimmie11s]

Sounds like bad luck, another factory flawed 2018 motor.

Lol. Ignorance is bliss!

 

[808muscle]

Nah I'm 2016 gen 2 coyote, better built for FI.

 

[gimmie11s]

Nah I'm 2016 gen 2 coyote, better built for FI.

Better built.. nice. How did ford make the 2016 so strong?

 

[Matt-23]

Correct me if I'm wrong but the 18 was known to have piston slap against the cylinder wall? (the BBQ tick). If you engine had this issue under boost it may have just rubbed enough to grab the piston and bend the rod? Were you running heavier oil 5w50/10w40? Did you have Cera-tec in the oil? I'm very interested

 

[808muscle]

Correct me if I'm wrong but the 18 was known to have piston slap against the cylinder wall? (the BBQ tick). If you engine had this issue under boost it may have just rubbed enough to grab the piston and bend the rod? Were you running heavier oil 5w50/10w40? Did you have Cera-tec in the oil? I'm very interested

Exactly

 

[olaosunt]

On teardown I was told:
Hey Everyone,
I have the disassembly finished up on the block and have attached pictures of what I found.
The ultimate demise of the engine was the cracked cylinder. The cylinder eventually hydro-locked bending the rod. From the pictures you can see the engine "tune" looks ok. None of the pistons had speckling or signs of a lean condition. The head gaskets don't show any signs of failure either eliminating overheating or extreme lean condition under boost.
All parts installed check out as well, no signs of a boost leak or a fuel issue. I have an email out to a couple engine builders that are very familiar with coyote engines to try to find out more information on this failure.
It looks like the piston was either scuffing the cylinder wall or the liner started to fail, causing the piston to put uneven pressure in the cylinder bore. With the uneven pressure and possible boost on top of everything the cylinder wall eventually failed. I want to point out that the crack is also at the weakest point in the block deck. All other head bolt holes or coolant jackets are supported to the outside of the block. The largest unsupported area is on the top, between the two cylinders and the head bolt hole.
My thoughts our this really comes down to a "design flaw" and not necessarily anyone's fault.

Thanks for sharing and posting this OP
Not a coyote (but I also have an Whippled 18) but I bent a couple of rod also in my Voodoo running a 2.9 whipple /3.5 pull-up /race gas and the whipple tune .

RPG just started the rebuild and the block will need to be sleeved because In 2 of the cylinders the liner was below nominal thickness

When I asked what they thought caused the rod to bent . Will said “the piston dragging in the
bore may have been the partial cause but no smoking gun yet”

 

[gimmie11s]

Correct me if I'm wrong but the 18 was known to have piston slap against the cylinder wall? (the BBQ tick). If you engine had this issue under boost it may have just rubbed enough to grab the piston and bend the rod? Were you running heavier oil 5w50/10w40? Did you have Cera-tec in the oil? I'm very interested

More misinformation.

Exactly

No.

 

[Matt-23]

So why is that misinformation? It was meant to be more of a question. I'm keen to see why an engine would all of a sudden bend forged rods as I am running a similar set up. There has to be a reason, I have seen the effects of pistons moving around in a cylinder at 13,500rpm, I have also seen what happens when there is not enough oil at those engine conditions.

 

[Zinc03svt]

Sad part is the whole forum is 50% misinformation from all the “smart” dudes. Lol.

 

[Jmtoast]

This sucks to hear. A guy on Youtube had his engine let go with a Whipple and it turned out to be a bad tune.

That falls in line with what my speedshop told me. They have had multiple cars with Whipples blow due to a bad whipple tune.

 

[GreenS550]

That falls in line with what my speedshop told me. They have had multiple cars with Whipples blow due to a bad whipple tune.

"multiple cars" ? is that 2 or 20?
I find it very hard to believe the rod was bad. The process of quality control is very, very good today. 630rwhp is not enough power to bend a rod. I missed it, was your car dyno tuned or the canned Whipple tune which is 50 state legal which means mild?
Really sorry to hear about your issues. Having had a '15 engine let go and then the rebuild let go, and then the rebuild of the rebuild let go, you wonder sometimes if it is an item over looked that rears its head under certain operating conditions. Really looking forward to what the cause is. hydro lock will bend a rod right quick.

 

[Jmtoast]

"multiple cars" ? is that 2 or 20?
I find it very hard to believe the rod was bad. The process of quality control is very, very good today. 630rwhp is not enough power to bend a rod. I missed it, was your car dyno tuned or the canned Whipple tune which is 50 state legal which means mild?
Really sorry to hear about your issues. Having had a '15 engine let go and then the rebuild let go, and then the rebuild of the rebuild let go, you wonder sometimes if it is an item over looked that rears its head under certain operating conditions. Really looking forward to what the cause is. hydro lock will bend a rod right quick.

I was just shopping. Didn't have any issues, that was the OP. When I asked which SC they recommended they told me that about the Whipple tune. Didn't specify how many just that they've had multiple cars with issues wiht the canned tune. They also didn't say which make and model either and they specialize in the big 3 since they are outside Detroit so it could have been a different type car. I went with Roush instead of the procharger or vortech (what they recommended) due to the warranty and of course I have a Roush Stage 2 but if the logistics of warranty work weren't an issue I would have not gone Roush. I really like the Edleborcks. They're putting up some crazy numbers.

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