ethanol gurus wanted


ethonal is a solvent so yes, but in good fuel, patchy at best i dont believe it would do enough to harm anything as long as there was enough oil ? phazed fuel would be definate ( pure ethonal-water) left in flooded condition for any time. not really guru though!
 
why do you ask? bottom end problems? they can come from a top end rebuild when you do not drain coolant, and leave coolant puddle in bottom end, poor summer storage especially now with ethonal in the fuel, reminants of the fuel will dissolve the oil layer and attracked water a couple of pits is all it takes, bearings slid instead of roll and there done. poor oiling will do it too.
 
the reason i ask, is cause my bro's viper lost the lower rod bearing on the mag cylinder. there is no rust pitting of any sort on any of the bearings anywhere, so it rules out that. oil pump has been turned up for years. jetting is plenty fat, w/good wash on piston crown. good oil being used---amsoil intercepter. everytime i hear of a viper losing a rod bearing, its always the center cylinder 60%-70% and the mag 30%-40% of the time, but never the pto. i want to figure out why the hell this is. i never heard of one "red head triple" losing a rod bearing and its really rare for srx to lose a rod. so, i was wondering if my bro got a bad batch of ethanol in his fuel, as he said he just filled up 15miles prior to blow up. i'm wondering if there is some casting flash or blockage of some sort, in the fuel pump, that doesn't allow the proper amount of oil needed to keep bearings happy???
 
dont vipers have stagerd compression? how would a 440 mopar run with 10:1 head on one side and 8:1 on the other? hard on bearings i would guess.
 
no1chevyboy said:
dont vipers have stagerd compression? how would a 440 mopar run with 10:1 head on one side and 8:1 on the other? hard on bearings i would guess.
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Never thought of it this way but the one cyl is only down 10-15psi
 
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no1chevyboy said:
dont vipers have stagerd compression? how would a 440 mopar run with 10:1 head on one side and 8:1 on the other? hard on bearings i would guess.
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this particular viper had megapower heads on it, w/same compression heads all the way accross, setup for 91 octane. bro said he put in 93, but we know that what the pump says, ain't what it really is.
 
does anyone know why they stagerd the compression? maybe timing is an issue? frequency? arent the cranks counter weights different on that motor? bad fuel, i would think would take out a top end (lean/detno), but i dont think it would take out a bottom
 
the carbs control the oil by jetting, so if all jeting, needles are the same oiling, should be the same. now if you have one cylinder jetted fatter that cylinder would get more mixture and be the favored flow. now introduce bad fuel and that cylinder is going to get the most first. but i dont think the bottom would go first, i still think the top would suffer first. now spark timing that can stress bottom before the top, and being multiple cylinders spark timing on one cylinder would effect the others (early/late spark on one or double spark) would fight the rotation,
 
the thrust washer that faces the mag main bearing, is all melted and it turned into like a convex washer. its like it was starved of oil bad. i'm gonna tear into that fuel pump, as this is the 2nd rod bearing that has gone down on this sled, w/this fuel pump. different rod this time, but same pump and same high dollar damage. case got cracked, but i'm gonna tig weld it at work.
 
I'm following right along.......

I found little beads of what looked like water on my carb boot between the carb and motor on my cylinder that siezed a rod bearing!!!

bearings are rolled flat and the rod is all blue half way to the piston!!!

my oil pump is new, piston wash looks good!!!

definately looks like something washed my one rod bearing dry.....

I'm stumped.....
 
mopar1rules said:
the thrust washer that faces the mag main bearing, is all melted and it turned into like a convex washer. its like it was starved of oil bad. i'm gonna tear into that fuel pump, as this is the 2nd rod bearing that has gone down on this sled, w/this fuel pump. different rod this time, but same pump and same high dollar damage. case got cracked, but i'm gonna tig weld it at work.
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I had the same thing happen with my vmax4. The bearing loaded the thrust washer and took it out. If oil was the issue, the rollers (with the real load) would have went way before a thrust washer. Also the other thrust washer will likely look fine. So just to much side load to one washer. Thats what I have found anyway. You can see if it's no oil, it's dry all over and look like it was hot, real hot.
 
toydoc said:
I had the same thing happen with my vmax4. The bearing loaded the thrust washer and took it out. If oil was the issue, the rollers (with the real load) would have went way before a thrust washer. Also the other thrust washer will likely look fine. So just to much side load to one washer. Thats what I have found anyway. You can see if it's no oil, it's dry all over and look like it was hot, real hot.
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i'll look at it again more closely, to see if its at all oily, but it looks pretty dry, and there is not one roller left of that bearing. all the rollers are completely gone and the rod is there just jiggling around.
 
hay mopar if the bearings are gone any evidence of pitting is gone, the thrust washer got heated up from pieces of the bearing getting jammed between it. bearings are case hardened once you get past that they go pretty fast. when i say rust pits im saying small like pin points on the bearing roller, not like your going to see the whole bottom covered in rust. id say it happened on off season storage or before and took this years riding to grenade.
 
no1chevyboy said:
hay mopar if the bearings are gone any evidence of pitting is gone, the thrust washer got heated up from pieces of the bearing getting jammed between it. bearings are case hardened once you get past that they go pretty fast. when i say rust pits im saying small like pin points on the bearing roller, not like your going to see the whole bottom covered in rust. id say it happened on off season storage or before and took this years riding to grenade.
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That's exactly what my buddy said. He was thinking that when the engine was shut off, right before it sat for summer, that the piston happened to be @ BDC on that cylinder, and then allowing damp air and condensation to go thru the ports and start to rust pit that lower rod bearing. I know that if there was rust pitting on that bearing, that the evidence has been blown outta there. My buddies srx had rust pitting going on his wristpin bearings and small rod end, and that pitting was like small pick sized dimples. As far as how the pistons look, they look great. Not the one that came outta that mag cyl, but the other 2 look like new, w/approx 3/16" wash around the intake side of the crown, with 1/4"-5/16" diameter sized wash marks, right where transfers and boost enter on the crown. I'll try and get some pics posted.
 
i looked the crank over again, and there is 1 thrust washer missing and 1 still there but mangled. no rollers left like i already said. the destroyed rod bearing is dry, but the crankcase is oily for the cylinder, as well as the others. there is also some weird stickyish/rubberyish type residue that's in that crap cylinder, on crap piston, and on that crap rod. don't know what that garbage is. the other 2 pistons/cylinders/rods are perfect.
 
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