The lessons we learned after our C5 Corvette's engine exploded

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

According to the article, someone forgot to torque the main bearing caps during a thrashing session. The crank fell out at the hit of the throttle.

Huh.  A 500 horsepower LS engine, properly built (Clearances etc.) doesn't strike me as a exceptionally stressed engine.  There wasn't any suggestion in the article that the build itself was at fault.  No manufacturer makes 100 percent unbreakable parts and even the best made parts sometimes break.  Still, would it have hurt journalistic integrity to name the brand of rod that broke.  I mean, it was an autopsy. . . ?  

AndyHess said:

Huh.  A 500 horsepower LS engine, properly built (Clearances etc.) doesn't strike me as a exceptionally stressed engine.  There wasn't any suggestion in the article that the build itself was at fault.  No manufacturer makes 100 percent unbreakable parts and even the best made parts sometimes break.  Still, would it have hurt journalistic integrity to name the brand of rod that broke.  I mean, it was an autopsy. . . ?  

The brand was whatever BlueprintEngines sources. Not sure if they contract their own or buy something off the shelf (although i'd imagine they're big enough to have their own private label with a supplier). 

Honestly the main thing I question is using sintered rods in the first place. Yes there's some perfectly fine one out there, but forged rods seem like a small cost bump for a major durability upgrade.

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

I have an S shaped sintered rod from a 6 liter that suggests they aren't as bad as one would assume   It bent like a forging would instead of shattering.  (I hydrolocked an engine that had a sticky methanol injection driver. No rod would survive that)

The sintered rods in Ford 4.2s bend, not break, when the intake manifold fills the #2 intake port with coolant.  There is even a technical bulletin for this.  They run fine, they just knock because the piston slams into the crank counterweight at BDC thanks to the shortened rod.

IIRC people are running the 4.8/5.3 engines to 8800 with stock rods, at the dragstrip.  THAT concerns me, but the rods aren't what break there.

What engine oil were you guys running when the engine failed? Not so interested with respect to the failure cause but rather with respect to BPE honoring the engine warranty. Their 'recommended oils' list is exclusively conventional mineral oils, so I'd love a data point that they'll honor it for someone running full synthetic. :)

Edit:


A-ha. Thank you for the inspiration.