Roush wants my Alum. FE 511 motor

[Spoooky]

Well I just found out tonight that the Roush techs that are here at Anthem Motors want to take my motor back to Michigan. After doing a leak down test and blowing compressed air into the cylinders, finding out that 3 have enough blow by to warrant the motor to come out. Thank God for warranties. I will be down for at least a month. Just when the weather was getting nice too. After speaking to Charlie there, they are going to replace the pistons and rings in the motor. They feel the rings might be stuck. Only about 1000 miles on the motor and it runs great, just blows white smoke when you get on it a bit. Hey at least I can say that they stand behind their product and they flew out here to check it out. I hope the outcome is great and I get my car back soon.

[csx4910]

I will second that. too bad to hear about the motor. Hopefully they will get it back soon to let you enjoy the great driving weather. i am hopeful I will have mine back sometime next week but I would rather them keep it and fix it permanently than to keep bringing it back.

I guess I should be thankful about mine after hearing this. I also spoke to Charlie tonight. Mine seems to be mostly timing and the computer control of the injectors from the sound of it. It doesn't sound near as serious as yours. Hang in there!

[decooney]

Is it one of the Shelby aluminum blocks?

[Bob Broberg SPF667 460BB]

Yes it is Duane: http://www.performanceparts4fords.co...p?idproduct=45
Should be top gun on the street.
AZ Bob

[Spoooky]

Duane,

As Bob said it is a Shelby block. Just glad to see that they are going to make it right.

[PANAVIA]

sad to hear it has to come out, let us know the root cause/defect when discovered. it may help someone !

[blykins]

That's weird, that's the second post I've read on here about a Roush motor with stuck/broken piston rings.

[madmaxx]

How does a ring get stuck? I did not know they rotated on the piston as the piston moves up and down. I know the tolerances for aluminium blocks are much tighter than for cast iron due to the expansion of aluminium as it heats up.

[Spoooky]

That's a good question. How do the rings get stuck? Roush wants the motor to run with very light weight oil, 10w-30wt, conventional only. No synthetic. I thought it might be a heat thing and my motor runs right at about 200 degrees oil and about 210 degrees water. That is right on. I know that the FE/ alumn. big blocks run a little hotter. Mine is right where it is supposed to be. I've been going through a little oil right from the start. Roush does run these wide open before you get them. I don't have the answer. It does run great though. I'll keep everyone up to date as I get the info. Good stuff to know.

[vettestr]

Rings can loose their tension and allow oil or compression to pass by them, overheating is the most common reason. Many racing rings are designed to have a lighter tension and use gas porting to help expand the top rings. Aluminum engines have steel sleeves because the aluminum is just to soft. Sometimes carbon make rings stick in the ring-lands of the piston. The groove accepting the ring on the piston (ring-land) becomes deformed from pinging, heavy detonation or even breaks the rings so they fail. Some rings just never seat or seal against the cylinder walls.

When you think about the speed a piston must travel it is a little amazing. A piston in a 4.0 inch bore at 6000 RPM travels 66.6 feet every second but only gets 4 inches before it has to change direction.

[Spoooky]

Jeff,

You are exactly right. Heat! I'm not sure if they even really seated yet too. Remember only 1000 miles on the motor.

[razerwire]

Did you see the thread on some of the zink taken out of oil? Kroyer engines had problems with mobil one and I went with valvoline , 468 shelby in my car , and have no problems. Temp runs up to 195 in car. I also run 407 all alumi twin turbo ls1 in my dune buggy , and its a heavy car that is lugged and turned to 6500 rpm in desert temp, temp in car up to 225 at times with no problems. My zo6 corvette as you know is 427 small block all alumi and temp up to 225 and has a 100,000 mile warranty, maybe sub contractor for Roush had problems, I say this because Roush knows how to build first class power and want customers happy, but i get parts that have be sent back or wrong all the time. Chevy has problem with bad rocker arms on zo6 engine, needle bearings fall out, just a bad batch on a few engines. Roush will find and fix.

[Spoooky]

They only want conventional oil in their motors. I use 10w-30wt Valvoline. No synthetic. I'm sure they will find the problem. I'm just out a Cobra for a while.

[CHANMADD]

Rings do not rotate on the piston!! I think from looking at a lot of Cobra's, that a lot of guys build a full race motor....for the street...no PCV etc.
The PCV helps the rings to seal.
john

[RodgerH]

Originally Posted by CHANMADD

Rings do not rotate on the piston!!

John, You might want to rethink that...

Rodger

[Spoooky]

Well Roush got the 2 fuel injected 511 FE's dialed in at Anthem. Gives me a little faith. My motor comes out next week and sent to them. I hope I'm up and running soon.

[csx4910]

Hang in there! If your motor comes back and runs as strong as mine does now it will be worth the wait!

[FUNFER2]

What's the cost of this motor ?

[vettestr]

Hey CSX4910,
Ron it was good to put a face to all your recent posts. The car looks great and sounds like she should run pretty good too. The engine bay just jumps at you with that polished stack system and in a black car all the shinny stuff really pops. Good to meet you tonight. Jeff C

[csx4910]

Same to you. ( and everyone else) I look forward to getting to know everyone better in the future. See you soon
Ron