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- #16701
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- City
- Seacoast
- State
- NH
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- Vehicle
- 2022 Hellcat Charger Redeye Widebody
Some of you may know I've been a member here for a little while now, actively drag racing my 2022 HCREWB chasing a 9 second slip with help from @Jon-MooredPerformanceLLC. Unfortunately the fun came crashing down at a track rental about a month ago where I experienced an engine failure on my first and only pass of the day.
Long story short, I completed the pass (slow, only a 10.4 and with good air) and upon coming back down for the slip noticed my engine was misfiring badly with a distinct lack of responsiveness from the gas pedal. I thought maybe a quick cool down or a tune reload or something might fix it so I parked it and shut it down. Tried to crank it again and no luck. There was too much resistance for the starter to even turn the car over and it sounded pretty much like a dead battery. Thinking that may actually for some reason be the issue, I got a jump from @2ndAmend which provided enough juice I guess for the starter to overcome the resistance and I got the engine fired. Immediately, white smoke began pouring out the tailpipe, pulley tensioner bouncing around like crazy. Uh oh, I thought...something is really fucked here. I ended up having it towed and it's sat at the speedshop waiting for work in front of it to be completed since then.
Finally this week the shop was able to pull the motor and disassemble and confirmed it was a failure in cylinder 2, which ironically enough Jon told me was his guess weeks ago when we discussed the situation initially. Based on what we can see currently, it appears a lean condition due to an FIC injector failure caused excessive heat buildup in that cylinder, blowing half of my piston off and creating a blowtorch of sorts that actually had tried to cut through the bottom of the block. Basically, I need a new short block and porting of the heads may be required if the machine shop doesn't think they can machine the little bit of damage that those also sustained. $$$$ Jon's guess and observation is that it's likely that these motors just have an inherent weakness in cylinder 2 and that the injector will test out fine. This isn't the first time he's seen this and in multiple cases, it's happened on stock motors.
What the shop did tell me, though, is that the rest of the engine looks great with no visible wear on my pistons or within the other 7 cylinders. Jon's tuning work, to no one's surprise, is excellent and had absolutely nothing to do with this failure. He's actually been great and engaged in this situation and will work with me to help vet quotes from the shop, put me in touch with folks he knows who can build me a short block for a reasonable price, etc.
Anyways, unfortunate that it is, it looks like I'll have an opportunity to possibly throw a 426 stroker kit or something of that nature at it and really build something next level. Photos exist of the damaged engine but I unfortunately didn't receive them tonight. Once I have them, I'll make sure I post them here so you can all see the damage.
Feel free to leave thoughts, ideas, create a prayer circle for a downed brother, etc I'll make sure to update this thread with photos and of course let everyone know what we end up doing with this build.
Long story short, I completed the pass (slow, only a 10.4 and with good air) and upon coming back down for the slip noticed my engine was misfiring badly with a distinct lack of responsiveness from the gas pedal. I thought maybe a quick cool down or a tune reload or something might fix it so I parked it and shut it down. Tried to crank it again and no luck. There was too much resistance for the starter to even turn the car over and it sounded pretty much like a dead battery. Thinking that may actually for some reason be the issue, I got a jump from @2ndAmend which provided enough juice I guess for the starter to overcome the resistance and I got the engine fired. Immediately, white smoke began pouring out the tailpipe, pulley tensioner bouncing around like crazy. Uh oh, I thought...something is really fucked here. I ended up having it towed and it's sat at the speedshop waiting for work in front of it to be completed since then.
Finally this week the shop was able to pull the motor and disassemble and confirmed it was a failure in cylinder 2, which ironically enough Jon told me was his guess weeks ago when we discussed the situation initially. Based on what we can see currently, it appears a lean condition due to an FIC injector failure caused excessive heat buildup in that cylinder, blowing half of my piston off and creating a blowtorch of sorts that actually had tried to cut through the bottom of the block. Basically, I need a new short block and porting of the heads may be required if the machine shop doesn't think they can machine the little bit of damage that those also sustained. $$$$ Jon's guess and observation is that it's likely that these motors just have an inherent weakness in cylinder 2 and that the injector will test out fine. This isn't the first time he's seen this and in multiple cases, it's happened on stock motors.
What the shop did tell me, though, is that the rest of the engine looks great with no visible wear on my pistons or within the other 7 cylinders. Jon's tuning work, to no one's surprise, is excellent and had absolutely nothing to do with this failure. He's actually been great and engaged in this situation and will work with me to help vet quotes from the shop, put me in touch with folks he knows who can build me a short block for a reasonable price, etc.
Anyways, unfortunate that it is, it looks like I'll have an opportunity to possibly throw a 426 stroker kit or something of that nature at it and really build something next level. Photos exist of the damaged engine but I unfortunately didn't receive them tonight. Once I have them, I'll make sure I post them here so you can all see the damage.
Feel free to leave thoughts, ideas, create a prayer circle for a downed brother, etc I'll make sure to update this thread with photos and of course let everyone know what we end up doing with this build.
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