Hi all,
I keep bending rods in hole 7 when I turn the boost up. I have played with timing to no avail and I can't read plugs for sh*t. Mods as follows:
2003 Ram 1500 RCSB
L33 SBE
Elgin SS2
Pac1218's
243 Heads
Billet 7875
Decapped Flex Fuel injectors, serviced by Eric Derr last year
Stock Thermostat, 190ish on highway
Stock, return style truck Rails
NGK 7bef and TR6IX plugs, Tried a colder plug to see if it changed anything
4 port stem vent
AEM UEGO LSU 4.2 style wideband
93 OCT
4L80e stock converter
Please look at the logs provided.
Story:
Had a gen 3 SBE 5.3 in the truck. I had just finished the turbo kit and wanted to see what this turbo LS life was about. Made a quick basemap and drove it. First couple of pulls I was intoxicated with how it felt, definitely wanted more buttttt... My 44mm WG was getting stuck and I was blowing through the bottom of the spark map and VE wasn't dialed in yet. After 3 days of abuse and not really playing with the tune, I bent 5 rods. It was expected and inevitable, I had my eyes set on a L33 local to me and kinda needed the excuse to pull the trigger.
Fixed the WG, (galling on the stem), installed the L33 with new cam and the old springs and drove it some more. Knowing my AFR was now good, 11.2-11.5, I turned the boost up to 14psi, where I wanted to be. Timing was pretty conservative I figured. Bent #7's rod, took it apart and slapped a new rod/piston in it. Figured, I didn't know the history of the engine, maybe that rod had a slight bend in it from a partial hydrolock at some point in it's life. The plugs looked okay, didn't show any big issues (I think) so I slapped in some new tr6ix's and drove it again.
This time I added even more fuel and took more timing out. Something was clearly still wrong with my WG or boost controller however because I wasn't still getting desired boost pressure, I had it backed all the way off (5psi spring) and still made 18.5psi! WTF!. I mean, it ripped hard, too hard lol. I purposefully added fuel and took out a bunch of timing in the event of overboost but wasn't expecting this much overboost. #7 rod bent, on that pull, it wasn't as bad as the last one but still.
So why? I can understand the LM7 and this most recent rod bend but why is it always 7 on this L33? Am I at the limit of my fuel rails? is my injector #7 misfiring or getting stuck? I do see a slight lean flicker on my AFR that seems to get worse as the engine gets hot Why is there no bending anywhere else? I get that 18psi is too much for just 93 especially with flat top pistons but I honestly had no idea boost went that high, with all the timing I pulled out of it as my safety precaution, it felt like the same power as it was 14psi with 14 degrees of timing.
I am going to have to check mechanical timing because this is so weird. I have removed the boost controller, polished and greased everything on the WG with krytox and am only running 5psi for now until this issue is resolved. I have an oscope too so I guess I should be checking my injector waveform as well.
Just had to vent in the hopes that someone will have a good suggestion or creative idea to test for issues.
AFR is logged through my AC transducer BTW.
The logs are from the first time I bent the L33 rod 7 and the second time I bent it.
I can't seem to find the LM7 file but regardless, I was fast and loose on tuning so I expected the results.