So my engine blew up....
 

Hey all! Wanted to post this over on the mechanical side of the forum but I don't have the privileges to post there.

My BRZ was sitting at about 9000 miles when the engine failed. In a parking lot going 11 miles an hour at 1300 revs the engine block failed. In the picture you can see the hole that was big enough for me to put three of my fingers down into the cylinders.

It's a completely stock car, so nothing I did to it caused it. Subaru is baffled and they shipped the engine back to Japan to determine what went wrong and they had to completely swap the engine.

Anyway the guys at Subaru were great about this issue and it appears to be so rare that they have never seen it happen before. They suspect it was bad metal in the cast. Thought you guys would appreciate hearing about that.

Glad to hear that Subaru has taken appropriate actions in your case.

WOW!!! CRAZY! How long until your girl is back up?

Oh and if it's not too much trouble, I'd appreciate it if an admin could move this post to the proper section.

About a month now. I've put about 1300 miles on the new engine....no issues.

Nice!! Hope this engine has a nice long life!:cheers:

That's pretty crazy....

Now you have me questioning myself if I should go FI next month.

Well, that's too darn bad.

I hope your new engine hangs together better ...:thumbsup:

humfrz

Any particular reason you think your engine went so early?

Driving habits, etc?

Not really, no. I don't take her to the track or anything like that....and it was only at 1300 revs when the engine failed. I had an issue during a nasty rain storm where I ended up in a puddle that put water up over my hood and caused the engine to stall out. It was fine after a couple hours though, and that was months before the engine gave way.

Also I hardly have the expertise to speculate. I'm hoping to find out once I hear some results from Japan.

Had an issue where I was off-roading in my land cruiser and went into a puddle of water, months later I found out that the block was cracked on the 2nd cylinder. Think your block had the same issue and gave away months later..?

I'll guess, that caused the block to crack (weaken).

humfrz

Glad ya got it back Cam!

thanks for the info. Hopefully not a start of a big recall.

got almost 15k on mine and nothing yet, besides the dang chirping.

I'm no engineer...well not automotive, anyway. I think Humf nailed it! You obviously did not share this with Subaru or they would have likely congratulated you on creating a do it yourself detonating engine!

To be honest I completely forgot about the puddle until just now. I figured any water in the engine would cause it to seize up immediately if it didn't break the engine entirely.

Funniest shit I've read in a while. Fucking brilliant!

I don't think it hydolocked (water in the cylinder(s)).

I'm guessing that cold water against a hot block may have set itself up for cracking.

humfrz

Ooooo......I missed something ..... what part about the engine giving out is funny .... ??

http://www.runemasterstudios.com/gra...ages/whaat.gif

humfrz

I agree. It is incredible how hot the engine blocks get on these things. I have a 2ZZ-GE in my Spyder and it gets nowhere near as hot as the F20A in my son's FR-S. And my engine is in the back and gets very little airflow over it.

I can see that big block of aluminum getting immersed in cold water and developing a crack.

Yea it's definitely a big hole once you are easily putting 3+ fingers in it

I would close this thread before the Subaru dealership starts digging around.

or I can post some nudes on here and the mod will delete it immediately. They don't like boobs here.

In that case, honesty has earned you mad respect points.

Done

That was strange; but glad the Dealer did the right thing and your back up and running and hope this time is for good. Thanks for sharing your experience with us

lol.

Driving into a puddle over the hood means you sucked water into the engine. Likely bent every rod in the thing and it finally came apart.

Subaru will figure it out pretty quick if that is indeed what happened. People in the warranty rooms in the engine shop are smart cookies.

Definately doesn't sound right if you're the first owner. :bellyroll:

Nah, that couldn't have had anything to do with the problem!

Hope you're being sarcastic. This is a clear case of hydro lock, the OP is extremely lucky that he got a free engine. The Japanese engineers will figure that out real soon. And there will probably be a bulletin in the TechTip next month telling techs to check for water contaminated oil in crank case.

OP got lucky being the first one and the rod actually went through the block so all the oil probably drained out.

Yep, sarcasm. It doesn't always come through on the internet.

But if some water on the outside of the engine will crack the block then what happens when you're just driving around in rain/wind?

Seems like a design flaw if a non-hydrolock puddle causes engine failure.

It wasn't from the outside that caused the issue. He obvs took some into the engine and damaged it enough to cause the failure. My buddy did that to his 22re, drove it for 3 weeks before Rodney wanted out. The Tech's will find out and I wouldn't be surprised if they came after him for the bill or revoked the warranty on the replacement

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

So the car got dunked in a couple of feet of water?


...hydro lock much? ...yea not good for the engine.

Went through a puddle (more like a LAKE) in a construction zone during a flash flood in an RSX.
Ingested water but started up once the plugs were dry enough to function.

Got lucky and the car lasted through added 16psi of boost for a few years until it got stolen.

Sometimes it only lasts a few weeks/days before something gives out due to the stress of trying to compress a fluid

that sounds like a big hole, 3 fingers deep.

glad they swapped that for you, you're very lucky.

My lane was flooded about 5 inches deep, my speed six barely cleared 3 inches, and the CAI was in the driver's side wheel well. I was doing a good 45mph. Motor shut off in the next intersection, torrential downpour, no tow truck was coming till rain stopped. Kept cranking until she fired up, figured the damage is already done, so might as well get out of the damn intersection. I just took it on the interstate and WOT at 20psi. took 2 days to stop studdering, but ran like a top after that for another year until I traded her in.
It was known not to boost until after 3k on those motors because you bend rods and it becomes a ticking time bomb. I don't condone doing that in the case of a hydrolocked motor, as things like this do happen. I was aware of the consequences and made my decision accordingly.

If your car ingested enough water to stall, the damage was done. Not saying that i was for sure going to cause a failure after that, but a failure did happen, therefore its almost certain that ingestion of water was the cause of failure, not hot aluminum cooling down causing thermal stress cracks. That aluminum isn't hot enough for that to happen. It would have to have repeated cycles ( countless) at those temperatures to weaken the metal. Nowhere near hot enough.

It's not just aluminum anyways, there are other alloys that are added for their different properties like heat tolerance, hardness, wear resistance, corrosion resistance, etc.

:popcorn::popcorn::popcorn: