Casper RIP: Not with a bang, but a wimper.

McRat

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Our 2005 LLY Dmax "Casper" might have lost a cylinder.

It didn't even happen while driving. Kat drove it, it ran fine. I went to drive it and it wouldn't start at first. I finally got it to start and it idled rough and was smoking white (diesel fuel, STRONG).

I just did a compression test on 6 of 8 cylinders (you can't get #4,#8 with my gauge), and the cylinders were between 295-320PSI except number 3 which was 240. It was a crappy gauge (Mity Vac?), so I need to do it again with a better tool.

There are 5 "normal" types of dead cylinders:

Head gasket (it's not using water)
Rod bent
Piston cracked (surprisingly little PCV blowoff)
Injector pushed out of bore (will replace clamp and retest)
Bad valve (rare)

Shortly after California Speedway with the GT42R (119mph pass) it started to make a little white smoke on start, and took longer to crank. We ran it at LACR with no problems except a blown intercooler hose (120.4 mph) and dyno'd it 755rwhp, 1360? TQ.

It ran excellent up until now except for the warm up smoke and the 3 second crank cycles.

The GT42R runs 75 deg hotter EGT's (1625 through lights), makes 80 more RWHP, and runs far higher boost 42 vs. 59 PSI.

Did boost do it? Did HP do it? Did TQ do it? Did EGT's do it? Did it's short brutal life do it?

Not sure.

Since we are taking the engine out in about 2 weeks to put the new one in, I'm not going to tear into it right now, well, except to perhaps replace the injector hold down on #3.

My theory that we would be immune to engine failure if we just ran fuel is probably not true.

I will do the autopsy to find out why, but I felt I must warn those of you running (or contemplating) big #2 HP of my experience.

Well, at least I probably didn't wreck the cores. Good night Engine #1, you were alot of fun, and will be missed.
 
Well that sucks Pat, but at least the next one will be bigger, better, faster!
sure would be cool if you could re-tell the story to include a fireball or something though.
 
Dang Man that sucks... We all want to know what happened..Keep us informed. Thats strang that is was OK then all the sudden Problems??
 
Sorry to hear that Pat.

Seems you were kind of looking forward to this in a demented sort of way.:rockwoot:

Thanks for the testing and letting us know the limits. Keep us informed, hope it's something easy.
 
Demented? Pat? Nah..........:hehe:

Put it back together, Pat...Brighter days are ahead...:)
 
PS - Someone is spreading a rumor that Casper is on it's second engine. This is not true. It had the oil pump fall apart at 3000+ RPM and 42PSI and go instantly to zero oil pressure. It creamed the charger, but the engine was was not replaced, just the oil pump.

The engine has over 250 (way over) 1/4 passes, a few sled pulls, hundreds of dyno pulls, several bottles of nitrous, 14 turbochargers, and perhaps 200 different tunes run on it. It just kept getting meaner until it took Kat home safely, and layed down to rest.
 
Bummer Pat, but at least you're lookin' at the bright side of things. You can still be proud of what you have accomplished too!!!!!
 
Casper was a product of "Group Think" via the internet. LLY owners were told by the experts that we could never make big power in an LLY.

So LLY owners all over the country got together with shops such as PPE and others to prove them wrong.

There are few words more dangerous in the English language than "you can't".

;)
 
Ok, since you obviously have no talent for writing let me retell this story for you ;)


(McRat speaking) Well I got some good news and some bad news for you guys. While trying out a new tune on Casper we had it turning 1168hp on #2 only and close to 1400hp with nitrous. The new tune was laying down some serious torque, almost 2,000ft/lbs at 1600rpm and after the third pull the dyno snapped. With all that power and a sudden no load condition it overreved and at 7,800rpm the #3 piston let loose. There was a huge fireball, lots of smoke and pieces of engine flew as far as 200feet from the site.

The great news is we have found another block and some custom made billet rods to hold the power. Our new tune should be avaliable by the end of the month and you can expect 1200hp at 5,600rpm with 2100ft/lbs at 1600rpm and with a simple addition of rods and turbo everything else is stock.



See, wasn't that a much better story :) Next time you need to tell a story jsut send me the rough draft and I'll fix it for you so it sounds much better :thankyou2:



Seriously though sorry to hear about your loss, but at least it happened just weeks before the new engine and not while your wife was out on the road somewhere with it.

George
 
i like version 2 much better. pat get the new motor in so i can own you in tulare...j/k
 
gstanfield said:
Ok, since you obviously have no talent for writing let me retell this story for you ;)


(McRat speaking) Well I got some good news and some bad news for you guys. While trying out a new tune on Casper we had it turning 1168hp on #2 only and close to 1400hp with nitrous. The new tune was laying down some serious torque, almost 2,000ft/lbs at 1600rpm and after the third pull the dyno snapped. With all that power and a sudden no load condition it overreved and at 7,800rpm the #3 piston let loose. There was a huge fireball, lots of smoke and pieces of engine flew as far as 200feet from the site.

The great news is we have found another block and some custom made billet rods to hold the power. Our new tune should be avaliable by the end of the month and you can expect 1200hp at 5,600rpm with 2100ft/lbs at 1600rpm and with a simple addition of rods and turbo everything else is stock.



See, wasn't that a much better story :) Next time you need to tell a story jsut send me the rough draft and I'll fix it for you so it sounds much better :thankyou2:



Seriously though sorry to hear about your loss, but at least it happened just weeks before the new engine and not while your wife was out on the road somewhere with it.

George

:hehe:

Yeah, that's better!

Last time at the track it was going 100 mph then BAM!!!! We thought that was it. Stupid intercooler hose made me ruin a new pair of BVD's, and stopped Casper from going out in a blaze of glory.
 
BIGRPOWR said:
i like version 2 much better. pat get the new motor in so i can own you in tulare...j/k

You don't have to worry about Casper, you need to worry about the bone stock Blue truck that runs a tow tune. :D
 
McRat said:
:hehe:

Yeah, that's better!

Last time at the track it was going 100 mph then BAM!!!!

A dodge that left the line 10 seconds behind you hit you in the arse before the 1000 ft mark? :hehe:
 
George...I wouldn't worry about Casper blowing up with Kathy driving......She knows how to use a cell phone....Pat, on the other hand would probably have to walk home...:hehe:
 
Timbeaux38 said:
A dodge that left the line 10 seconds behind you hit you in the arse before the 1000 ft mark? :hehe:

All the Dodges at our track have went into hiding. Even the SRT-10's are changing their badging to GMC in the hopes of going faster...

;)
 
GMC= Gay Man's Cummins............you know that..... Oh, wait you are in cali LOL
 
Timbeaux38 said:
GMC= Gay Man's Cummins............you know that..... Oh, wait you are in cali LOL

I'm thinking of drilling a hole in #8 piston, then I'll have two dead cylinders.

Then I will know what Cummins power feels like as well as the vibration!

:D
 
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