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STOCK F20C2 Snapped a Conrod?! Friend's Car - Need Help

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Old 11-26-2018, 09:34 PM
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Unhappy STOCK F20C2 Snapped a Conrod?! Friend's Car - Need Help

With a heavy heart I post this thread. My friend has a 2006 DBW EuroDM spec F20 S2K. He said he installed a rebuilt, 4.7 final drive diff just recently. He bought the old stock diff from me and got the final drive swapped out with a 4.7. Last Saturday after the install he decided to go test it by doing drag racing... he got up to fourth gear after maxing out every gear before that and then noticed a lot of smoke out the back and then the engine switched off...see pics of the carnage below... I'm stumped as to why a stock ECU'd, non-boosted, non modified (except for the new diff) F20 engine with about 95000 miles on the clock and a one owner car (he said he never over-revved it before) would break like this...? Even the sleeve of cylinder four broke?! Oil he has been running is Liqui Moly 10W40 which is a semi synth oil. He runs on Shell V Power 95 octane pump fuel. Looking for advice to help the dude out please?







Old 11-27-2018, 02:13 AM
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Maybe oil starvation in cylinder 4? #4 tends to suffer most under heavy load, though a single 1/4 mile run isn't super stressing. Agree it's unusual for a stock motor to let go quite so spectacularly, even at 12 yrs/ 95k miles. As far as the damage, if the rod broke first, the sleeve and piston damage are just collateral.
Old 11-27-2018, 03:18 AM
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Originally Posted by twohoos
Maybe oil starvation in cylinder 4? #4 tends to suffer most under heavy load, though a single 1/4 mile run isn't super stressing. Agree it's unusual for a stock motor to let go quite so spectacularly, even at 12 yrs/ 95k miles. As far as the damage, if the rod broke first, the sleeve and piston damage are just collateral.
Thanks for the reply. This oil starvation thing is the first thing I thought of but the owner said his oil level has never been low in the past. I'm not sure exactly how many runs he might have done post the new diff install but like you said, it shouldn't be super stressing on a strong engine like this (a single run in particular)... I would have thought that oil jets could have caused starvation but Honda changed them out back in '03 for higher flow ones and people have commented about that banjo bolt issue that they wouldn't cause oil starvation unless you are running your car at 250km/h or something on the autobahn for 30 mins straight.
So the sleeve and piston were collateral due to the rod, ok.
Old 11-27-2018, 03:21 AM
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Just a correction on the diff ratio - it's 4.44 and not 4.77 as I initially thought.
Old 11-27-2018, 04:24 AM
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95 RON is a little low, no? Doesn't Honda recommend 98 or am I mistaken?
Old 11-27-2018, 04:44 AM
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Originally Posted by SheDrivesIt
95 RON is a little low, no? Doesn't Honda recommend 98 or am I mistaken?
95 RON is recommended or as high as possible so 98 would be better but unfortunately its not available at the pumps locally
Old 11-27-2018, 05:21 AM
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hydrolocked? A friend broke a con rod with a stuck fuel injector on a new crate engine LS a few years back and hydrolocked.

darcy
Old 11-27-2018, 05:47 AM
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USDM fuel spec is 91 (pump) octane which is typically 95 RON octane.

I suspect he's not telling the whole story...

-- Chuck
Old 11-27-2018, 05:58 AM
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Wow! Crazy damage. Was he using OEM rods and wrist pins?

Thanks!
Old 11-27-2018, 06:33 AM
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Unfortunately there are always outliers in engine production. There are so many people that race these engines every weekend modified....everything we suggest could be just a guess at this point.


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