There's been some say that it takes a while to kill an engine due to a tuning error. Obviously as the stage of tune goes up, the speed of failure increases.

http://www.TurboBuicks.com/forums/sh...&referrerid=58

~2 seconds,

*Climbing onto soap box*
Some of the *racing fuels* are really forcing guys into a corner on plug reading. Some now reguire an almost gray apprearance for max HP. Gray is also an indicator of detonation. Telling the difference in shades of gray, IMO, is an art form limited to a very exclusive club.

I just mention this, cause the chamber's colors do look so good for a *gray fuel*.

 

 

ouch..

 

Holy crap Batman!!!!!

I hope that was a LONG 2 seconds!!!!!

 

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm, is that bad?

Dohhhhhh.....

Im just crossing my fingers so when all is said and done my TTA will not end up like that....

baby steps, miight take longer, but no holes in anything along the way.........

later
Jeremy

 

I've seen a likable amount of damage done on a dyno, where from the first instant of evil happening, to immediately hitting the kill switch netted close to that same damage.

Not trying to panic folks, just make them realise, that some of this *automatic* tuning still needs to be backed up with the same hard work, as the none auto. When you get to making serious HP, you really want to be sure of your tune, go in small steps, verify what you're doing, and then have some form of redundancy, again all this is just, IMO.

 

i saw something like that happen on a turbo chrysler 2.5 once. had a crack in the valve seat and its just blow torched its way out past the head gasket. id be thinking that was a metalugrical failure. the plug damage was most likely due to the oxidation of the aluminum.

 

Damn... thats some damage...

One thing I found about aluminum is that it burnes really HOT once it lights up.

 

So did NASA. The SRBs on the Shuttle have alot of AL mixed into the propelant.

 

So maybe this is why we don't see any magnesium heads .

 

Wasnt that a problem with the DC3? I hear some of them got magnisium parts a plenty and they burn like crazy in a fire.

Thats pretty cool how that failed. Just torched right through the gasket and looks like a bunch of molten liquid aluminum washed out with it. I dont think Ill have to worry about that peticular mode of failure any time soon. Would take 3 of my motors going side by side to produce the 800 or so claimed horse power output.

 

Grumpy, I was wondering what you'd recommend as far as small steps? I'm assuming you mean verify the tune at each portion of the RPM band, breaking it down into small portions. Would every 100 RPM be too small? Too much? I'm nowhere near making real power, but I'd like to get into the habbit of tuning properly.

A friend of mine that does boost high (2JZ Toyota - 1.6-1.8 bar on the street, 2.0-2.3 bar at the strip) runs methonal/water injection via fuel cell (92 pump gas in the stock tank) and yeah he says he can notice differences in the grey but I still fail to see the differences. Guess I just dont have the "eye" hahaha.

 

Do your intial tuning rich, say for a turbo motor, 11.5. Get the calibration to match your WB. Then just use your PE commanded AFRs to dial the AFR in.

Reading plugs, and being really good at it, takes years. And slight changes are critical. One of the 10x magnifiers really helps those that haven't developed the *knack*.

 

Ever see a Air cooled VW?. They used Dural, alloy of Mag, and AL.

Trouble with Mag is that it's not at all ductile, in addition to being road flare material.

 

That would be funny, a mag head with standard spark plugs, hahaha.
Though there ARE ductile mag alloys for the automotive industry.