Engine failure

[Mad1186]

Ouch, then there is a substantial quantity of coolant in the oil. I guess you won an extensive rebuild of the engine.
The thing is, don't you have a warranty on it? If the engine was correctly reworked in the first place this shouldn't have happened.

It's either their incompetence, you being extremely unlucky or you abuse your engines past what they are meant to endure because one catastrophic failure can happen, twice you are becoming a statistic....
Don't mean to bash on you but have at least a conversation with who worked on the car.

It’s all good! I worked on the car myself, i took my time with everything as well. Took me about 3 weeks to complete the long block and that’s just because i was taking my time. The car had 9k miles and I’ve taken it to autocross and private track days, road trips up north and south so i am not sure how this could have happened, no signs previously to lead up to this, it just came out of nowhere. I haven’t driven the car any differently. Now building this motor a new part that i mentioned were Apex Torque head studs, I’ve never heard of anyone using these and i couldn’t find much info, at the time arp head studs were out of stock everywhere. So if this whole problem was because of that, i would be surprised.

Now again when the car intentionally overheated, i let it cool down and limped it home which was about an hour away with numerous stops, oil looked perfect. Then only turned on to get on the trailer and off the trailer once the car was back in SC. Drained the oil and boom! Chocky milk.

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[luca1290]

Something out of the ordinary must have happened. Since you are working on the car yourself, tearing it down and measuring everything will find the root cause. Maybe a stud let go or something other broke or was not seated or replaced correctly.

Best of luck! Been in your spot with a motorbike engine (and in the end I found out I had to look in the mirror to find the cause ).

 

[w000000]

I actually made this one haha.

I was thinking it might be one off based on how there’s kind of a lip in front of the oe chin. Car looks awesome.

 

[Traffic22]

It’s all good! I worked on the car myself, i took my time with everything as well. Took me about 3 weeks to complete the long block and that’s just because i was taking my time. The car had 9k miles and I’ve taken it to autocross and private track days, road trips up north and south so i am not sure how this could have happened, no signs previously to lead up to this, it just came out of nowhere. I haven’t driven the car any differently. Now building this motor a new part that i mentioned were Apex Torque head studs, I’ve never heard of anyone using these and i couldn’t find much info, at the time arp head studs were out of stock everywhere. So if this whole problem was because of that, i would be surprised.

Now again when the car intentionally overheated, i let it cool down and limped it home which was about an hour away with numerous stops, oil looked perfect. Then only turned on to get on the trailer and off the trailer once the car was back in SC. Drained the oil and boom! Chocky milk.

This is a bummer man. Hope you’re able to salvage the block, deck and hone it, and get it running again.

On the plus side, if you can save the block you’ll end up, with slightly more displacement.

 

[Keeffa]

It could just be a simple head gasket.

 

[Mad1186]

It could just be a simple head gasket.

Hopefully yes that would be great, more updates tomorrow evening!

 

[Keeffa]

I guess you'd have to look at why. Also check head surface and studs. You built the engine so you know what your doing.
Maybe it did just need to be retourqe.

 

[Mad1186]

I guess you'd have to look at why. Also check head surface and studs. You built the engine so you know what your doing.
Maybe it did just need to be retourqe.

That’s what I’m thinking also since these headstuds are new and i haven’t seen any reviews about them. Hopefully the problem is simple.

 

[Mad1186]

So Sunday i took the motor out within 3 hours! I kinda didn’t have any motivation on working on it at the same time. Now i had to leave back for New York and the motor was sitting for a couple days and i will get into that later.

So good news and bad news. Bad news first, so taking all apart and it seems like the head studs backed out, and as i were taking off the other ones, some were loose and some super tight. Now I’m no idiot and honestly i have no idea why it was like that. These are Apex Torque Head studs and i am not using them again.

Now for the good news! Nothing is warped or burned! Took the heads to a machine shop and they are just as good as when i got them. No damage to the bearings or anything at all. Everything measures out perfect. And crazy how every other bolt and nut is tight and to spec other then the head studs, just disappointing.

Now i do have one area of concern, since i said before, the motor was sitting on the stand for about 3 days and what i saw was a pool of coolant/oil mixed on top of the piston when i took the head off. I cleaned up the coolant/oil mixture like it was nothing serious but it left this line. Should i be concerned? The surface is still super smooth and I’m not sure if i can rub it off or not, i tried some brake clean and a rag but nothing. Is the cylinder fine and good to go still?

 

[ice445]

@tdstuart you're absolved of blame, seems like the apex studs have some design flaw that causes them to back out.

Glad your wallet isn't being wiped out OP.

 

[Keeffa]

So Sunday i took the motor out within 3 hours! I kinda didn’t have any motivation on working on it at the same time. Now i had to leave back for New York and the motor was sitting for a couple days and i will get into that later.

So good news and bad news. Bad news first, so taking all apart and it seems like the head studs backed out, and as i were taking off the other ones, some were loose and some super tight. Now I’m no idiot and honestly i have no idea why it was like that. These are Apex Torque Head studs and i am not using them again.

Now for the good news! Nothing is warped or burned! Took the heads to a machine shop and they are just as good as when i got them. No damage to the bearings or anything at all. Everything measures out perfect. And crazy how every other bolt and nut is tight and to spec other then the head studs, just disappointing.

Now i do have one area of concern, since i said before, the motor was sitting on the stand for about 3 days and what i saw was a pool of coolant/oil mixed on top of the piston when i took the head off. I cleaned up the coolant/oil mixture like it was nothing serious but it left this line. Should i be concerned? The surface is still super smooth and I’m not sure if i can rub it off or not, i tried some brake clean and a rag but nothing. Is the cylinder fine and good to go still?

Try rubbing with tooth paste.

 

[ice445]

Also OP, I wouldn't worry too much about the staining if you can't feel it on your finger. It's also probably wise to try and clean up the bottom end as best of you can of the old contaminated oil, it tends to be hard on bearings.

 

[tdstuart]

Yep same thing happened to me. 3 Studs loose. My bearings spun and I noticed when I tore it apart. I am going to make a warning post. I sent them to apex and they said they saw no issue with them.

 

[Soulja4187]

Yep same thing happened to me. 3 Studs loose. My bearings spun and I noticed when I tore it apart. I am going to make a warning post. I sent them to apex and they said they saw no issue with them.

I was about to post about your experience with the apex studs. That sucks what are they going to say now. I suggest OP let’s them know that so far 2 members of the mustang forum have had the same issue.

 

[tdstuart]

I was about to post about your experience with the apex studs. That sucks what are they going to say now. I suggest OP let’s them know that so far 2 members of the mustang forum have had the same issue.

I made a post and will post detailed info. Hopefully they can figure out the issue and contact owners.

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