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Engine is done/seized - 2019 Bullitt

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npole

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When she broke I wasn't sure driving calm, it was a serie of tunnels and people were moving away listening to me arriving from miles of distance.. :) ...but that's the way it meant to be driven, otherwise I would have bought a Fiat Doblo.
How it has been driven (with so low mileage), on this engine, shouldn't be a factor to decide the vehicle conditions (assuming you didn't driven it intentionally in 1st gear at full rpm with the sole intentions of breaking it...).
This story now makes me worrying, when she will be back I'll be paranoid that it could break again, and what if it'll happen when it'll be out of warranty one day? Should I consider to sell it before?
What if the damage was a consequence of another problem (ie: oil pump)? I hope they will investigate all of this and not just giving my car back with a new engine to hope it won't break again.
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Vlad Soare

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When she broke I wasn't sure driving calm, it was a serie of tunnels and people were moving away listening to me arriving from miles of distance.. :) ...but that's the way it meant to be driven, otherwise I would have bought a Fiat Doblo.
That's the spirit! :clap:
I don't think how you drove it was a factor, unless you beat the crap of it while cold, or something like that.
I wouldn't worry. This isn't a BMW. Coyote failures are pretty rare. It was probably just bad luck. And if the oil pump was at fault, a new engine will most probably come with its own oil pump anyway.

Sell it? No way! And then what? Buy a BMW? An AMG Mercedes? Those engines fail, too. And more often at that.
 
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v8hgt

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When she broke I wasn't sure driving calm, it was a serie of tunnels and people were moving away listening to me arriving from miles of distance.. :) ...but that's the way it meant to be driven, otherwise I would have bought a Fiat Doblo.
How it has been driven (with so low mileage), on this engine, shouldn't be a factor to decide the vehicle conditions (assuming you didn't driven it intentionally in 1st gear at full rpm with the sole intentions of breaking it...).
This story now makes me worrying, when she will be back I'll be paranoid that it could break again, and what if it'll happen when it'll be out of warranty one day? Should I consider to sell it before?
What if the damage was a consequence of another problem (ie: oil pump)? I hope they will investigate all of this and not just giving my car back with a new engine to hope it won't break again.
Ask yourself the question "what can cause a hole in a piston?" Something has to either come up from the bottom, or down from the top. The answers that immediately spring to mind are:
1. Dropped valve.
2. Dropped spark plug.
3. some form of con rod failure.

If you were driving under 8000 rpm at the time I would rule out number 3.
It could be number 1 if the timing chain failed, but then you would expect ford to tell you that and other cylinders would be effected. It could also be number 1 if the valve failed or the retainer came loose, but once again I would expect this to occur at very high RPM.

People often forget about number 2, but I've had personal experience of this happening. On an engine where the plug is buried deep down in the head, if the oil seal between head and cam covers round the plug hole leaks at all, the hole fills with oil over time... e.g. over 12000 miles. Spirited driving warms the oil and causes the plug to fall apart, resulting in the bottom of the plug falling through the piston. (On my Ducati it took nearly 3000 miles for this to occur). There is a known problem with Coyotes leaking oil from the cam covers. In some cases this can cause the plug holes to fill with oil (at my spark plug 4 yr service they found oil in 2 of the plug holes and loose cam covers). I would ask to see the spark plug from the failed cylinder. My guess is that the metal bolt part will be loosened from the electrode part and the bottom of the plug will be missing.
 
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npole

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Coincidentally I recently broke an RX8 because of a spark plug electrode (it uses IRIDIUM spark plugs) got broke and fall into one of the rotors, destroying the apexes. :(
I know that bad things can happen, I only want to be sure that the thing didn't broke because of my "not so calm" driving style, coz I can't imagine myself driving that thing as a family car, nor in the upcoming months.. or years.

If anyone know, with a new engine is it supposed to break-in it? Or it is an engine already tested aboard of another vehicle? According to the shop, it's not supposed to pay any particular attention if not a check after some miles, but driving the car like before.
 

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Michael_vroomvroom

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Coincidentally I recently broke an RX8 because of a spark plug electrode (it uses IRIDIUM spark plugs) got broke and fall into one of the rotors, destroying the apexes. :(
I know that bad things can happen, I only want to be sure that the thing didn't broke because of my "not so calm" driving style, coz I can't imagine myself driving that thing as a family car, nor in the upcoming months.. or years.

If anyone know, with a new engine is it supposed to break-in it? Or it is an engine already tested aboard of another vehicle? According to the shop, it's not supposed to pay any particular attention if not a check after some miles, but driving the car like before.
Sorry about the engine fault of a fellow European. Not so many of us, so that's always sad to hear. I also understand the concern. Things would become really sad if that was something to worry about however. I'd sell my car and just get a 15-20 year old A-to-B car as before if things were like that.

But remember people take these cars, without modifications, to the racing tracks too. Again and again. Surely that puts an enormous amount of more load on the car than whatever your "not so calm" driving style does.

My car coincidentally has the same mileage as you (in a few hundred km's, I'll be at 20,000 too), and I've had it on the racing track 5-6 times now, probably driving around 200km on the track each time. Next time for me will be Sunday next week.

Except from some non-constant rattle somewhere inside the car (some panel, or what, I don't know yet), my only problem was I seem to have managed to drive over a long nail/screw yesterday, so got a TPMS alert when I started the car to drive back home in the evening.

I think you need to break in the engine as normal/as you did the first time. Can't imagine there is any more testing/drive-in done on the replacement engine compared to what was originally there.
 

aileron

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Ask yourself the question "what can cause a hole in a piston?"
1. Dropped valve.
2. Dropped spark plug.
3. some form of con rod failure.
By far, the number 1 cause of holed pistons is pre-ignition, not the mechanical conditions noted above. I'd guess the knock sensor, or the injector failed creating detonation, heat or a lean condition that generated enough heat to cause pre-ignition and hole the slug. Sadly, I've had way too may holed pistons on bikes, cars, boats and airplanes.
 

v8hgt

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By far, the number 1 cause of holed pistons is pre-ignition, not the mechanical conditions noted above. I'd guess the knock sensor, or the injector failed creating detonation, heat or a lean condition that generated enough heat to cause pre-ignition and hole the slug. Sadly, I've had way too may holed pistons on bikes, cars, boats and airplanes.
if the car is stock and a knock sensor failed, it shouldn't matter greatly assuming you use decent fuel. From what ive seen its unlikely the ECU would command enough timing to be an issue. Sure maybe if you are running on very bad fuel, and you were tuned to command more timing than stock etc.
If an injector craps out that could certainly do it. Also injectors can fail in strange ways. e.g. it may work at low revs so the car idles fine, then only begin to fail (to deliver enough fuel) at high revs where you don't notice it. In this failure mode then its very likely to hole a piston after a while. Not sure if the ECU has any strategies to deal with a single injector failure. e.g. shutting down the spark on the side of the engine that goes lean and going into limp mode... I suspect if it was just a slight underdeliver of fuel, the ECU would just command the injectors on the effected side of the engine trim a bit richer to compensate. For this reason its always a good idea to watch the AFR gauge occasionally to learn how your car fuels under your driving conditions and also to check the colour of the spark plugs occasionally to see if they are all the same.
 

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^^^^ Yep, agree. I don't know how much advance the timing map will permit if a knock sensor fails, but a weak injector can cause a lot of heat. If it gets hot enough in the cylinder to cause a compression ring get stuck in a ring groove, the piston crown gets **really** hot quickly..and "holes are us". Wrist pins can stop floating, more heat,...it just takes a second or two when something is wrong and fuel ignites too soon BTDC.

And, as you pointed out, holed pistons can also be from mechanical mayhem with loose parts flailing around in the cylinder.
 
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Update

The engine arrived to the shop, but they are waiting for a second part (coming in the next day or two): the intake manifold.

I've asked why they are going to change it and if it was damaged, or if it was related to the damage. They said Ford have asked to do so, and it's not probably related to damage, but since they are going to swap the whole engine, it makes sense to put a new manifold as well.
I don't have many details, and for my limited understanding, I do not see why a manifold should affect anything (considering the low mileage it has it should be pretty pristine), but whatever, I hope to have my car back soon (possibly next week).

EDIT: I just realized that the intake manifold is the whole top piece, i believed it was just the connector, so it makes sense to change it as well.
 

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Update

The engine arrived to the shop, but they are waiting for a second part (coming in the next day or two): the intake manifold.

I've asked why they are going to change it and if it was damaged, or if it was related to the damage. They said Ford have asked to do so, and it's not probably related to damage, but since they are going to swap the whole engine, it makes sense to put a new manifold as well.
I don't have many details, and for my limited understanding, I do not see why a manifold should affect anything (considering the low mileage it has it should be pretty pristine), but whatever, I hope to have my car back soon (possibly next week).
I wouldn't complain, id take new parts over old all day long. get it while the good is there.
 

Joeblowv1

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Yeah I agree because my assumption would be that ford/the dealership will swap over as many parts as they can from your old motor. I know its low miles...but basically the more new parts the better.
 

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A Free new manifold? You should count that as a win!
 
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npole

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I wouldn't consider a broken engine a "win".. but yeah, let's take the good of it.

Side ("fun") story: Ford have shipped two packages to two different dealers, one was my manifold, the other a set of shocks... guess what, they got delivered wrongly and my dealer got the shocks. Now they sent the packages to each other. 🤦‍♂️
 

Vlad Soare

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I wouldn't consider a broken engine a "win"
Maybe 'win' isn't the right word to describe it, but look at it this way: after 20K kilometres of pure fun, you'll now receive a free "reset", a free fresh start. You'll have a new engine again, free of charge. Your car will be 20K kilometres younger.
And having already suffered an odd, very rare failure, I'm pretty sure that the new engine won't fail again. Lightning doesn't strike twice.
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