I'll post this up simply to get some feedback as to what direction I should take. The trip down to the SD BBQ this last weekend turned into a catastrophic NIGHTMARE. We left the BBQ around 4pm and headed north on I-15 in SD back home to vegas. cruising right along we pull a few times on some AMG mercedes and at that time.. the motor, blower etc was running normal with same boost as usual. After letting the AMG move ahead I merge into the express lanes (now just cruising at 4k rpm I would say) I begin to see steam/smoke coming out from under the hood on the drivers side.

Pulled over popped the hood and looked to see the coolant hose from the rad cap to the overflow had BLOWN open and coolant was exploding everywhere. The accessory belt had also completely snapped. Upon further inspection and hours stranded on the freeway we discovered the water pump pulley to be CRACKED (not just cracked but seriously obliterated, torn in many locations)..... thanks to s2ki, had a friend post that I was in need of a water pump pulley in the SD forum! After some 10 hours on the freeway a member came out, which I greatly appreciate and let us borrow his water pump pulley. At this time the auto parts stores were closed (sunday night) so the car would have to stay the night on the freeway. Which in itself is a huge risk... who knows if this car would make it through the night without being towed, stolen... or whatever. I called highway patrol etc... and had the good samaritan take us to a hotel

Next morning, ..... called for a cab, went and found an autoparts store with the belt we needed (knock off bullshit lower grade belt) but in this case I had no choice. Now with the new pulley and new belt..... we start the car.... all looks well and proceed home. We meet up with another s2k on the freeway that we saw and race around for a bit.... boosting occasionally, pulled over and chatted with eachother and everything seems fine!

kraftwerks is in between SD and vegas luckily for us so we thought we would stop off and explain to them the situation. Showed the obliterated pulley to OJR and he takes the pulley and goes to show others. At this point Im not that upset because I think I have solved the problem, we have a new pulley, have a new belt, put the hose back on the rad cap that had blown off etc so Im just enjoying myself.... OJR tells me that he has seen water pump pulleys fail on stock s2k's in the past. I personally have never heard or seen or TALKED to anyone who has heard of a water pump pulley fail, other than on this kraftwerks kit! however I respect that he was telling me the truth. So whatever..... we leave and continue our journey.

What we never thought about is the fact that the motor got so hot after the water pump pulley failed before the coolant hose ruptured to give us warning there was a problem so we could pull over. The car was tuned by mase on EMS but was never programmed any fail safes for over heating at all. In all fairness to mase he usually programs the CEL to light up if the engine overheats, but in my case.... he didnt!!! Which is partially my fault for not making sure this was done and I had a proper way to check my coolant temps. Had we had an active way to moniter coolant temps, I would have seen the pulley failure sooner.

So now we are driving in the heat of the desert now 80-90 miles from vegas when I hear a slight noise.... which ive never heard before..... gradually gets worse.... and worse..... and as I'm pulling off the exit we see the same steam/smoke coming up from under the hood on the drivers side.... "sigh".... get out look and see that the pulley is intact and the belt is still on however coolant is all over the rear bumper and trunk as well as misting all over in the engine bay!!! Keep in mind we are literally in 120 heat in the middle of day with NO coolant gauge.

All we could diagnose at this point is there is coolant misting out from underneath the manifold and also coolant on the rear of the car..... spending ALL DAY this time in the desert with no water debating on what to do! Not trying to get sympathy points, but that was the fact of the matter.
In that time we discovered the HONDATA gasket to be completely melted and coolant was dripping out between the manifold and the head.... We could have been running this motor over heated across the desert for hours....

After much arguing and name calling between me and my buddy who was with me I just decided to tow the car home.... 500 dollars later at 3 in the morning it arrives back in my garage with literally an OVER BAKED motor and im assuming blown head gasket.

What do u guys think I should do..... who's fault is it, my own? Im not trying to point fingers, just trying to get some feedback as to what to do. Obviously the head needs taken off and milled beacuse im sure it was warped in the heat. Should I be concerned with anything else? I still dont know what the sound was that initiated my decision to pull over this second time.... could have been detonation I guess, I dont have any other good ideas for it.

At any rate, the water pump pulley failure is what started this ridiculous nightmare to start in the first place. No matter what KW does in the future with this pulley, I would recommend getting a stronger one on there ASAP for all kit owners. I dont want this nightmare to happen to anyone else.

Thanks for reading...

 

wow that is really the icing on the cake. that sucks man. i am sad for you.

 

Damn...i was about to take my car on a long cruise. Now I am scared to be stranded on the road like you.

Hope it all works out!

 

If you have a functioning temp gauge I wouldn't worry about taking a trip.

 

I do have a temp gauge and my kpro does light the CEL if it's overheating but i am more concerned with the water pulley failing.

 

Thank you for the information! Sorry that this has happened to you.

As a new (2.5months) KW high boost owner I will be sure to keep an eye on my stuff. I was just debating on doing the the Hondata gasket myself very soon along with a TB overbore.

Thank you again!

Brian

 

Man that does bite, I couldn't imagine running without a coolant gauge though. Hell I had to get oil temp and pressure gauges as soon as I got it home.

 

Thanks for the info . i guess comptech sc is better. hope your car no damage on the engine...

 

it doesnt help now, but a serial gauge woulda been perfect, or even the modifry aem ems temp gauge fix. anywho, it sucks no matter what.

i do want to point something out. there has been at least 3 water pump pulley failures on KW cars, and i have yet to hear of any other cars breaking water pump pullies.

if the motor is fubar'd, build it. you should have the head checked to see if it warped. also check the block. ugh, what a mess

 

Do you have any pics I am really curious to see what that W/P pulley looked like.

Also myself and another member last month drove 5000 miles from Texas to Button willows, tracked our S2K's then drove to Laguna Seca Tracked somemore and then drove back w/o issue and we werent exactly putt putting when we drove across I-40 I remember seeing temps over 106 to 108 deg's our average speed and doing some pulls of our own were in the area of 80mph all the some high 3 digit speeds.

Sorry to hear what happend though.