JE Wire Locks – A Cautionary Tale

[Mike Metzler]

In the Summer of ’13 my ’87 3.2L suffered a broken rocker and bent valve after providing >25,000 trouble-free track miles. On tearing it apart it was determined that the pistons/cylinders were at their wear limits, so I decided to do a major rebuild. Long story, but it turned into a 3.5L using LN Engineering’s machine-in 100mm cyls and matching JE 9.5 pistons. I retained the stock Motronic single plug, but with Extrude-Hone(d) intake, enlarged throttle body, DC-21 cams, and George’s 1 5/8” headers. With Steve Wong’s conservative baseline tune it made ~243 rwhp with a nice fat torque band that peaked at ~214 ft-lb. From 3500 to 6500 RPM it made more torque than my 3.2L (964 cams, headers, SW chip) did at its peak. I did not re-dyno it after the final tune, but based on analysis of my on-track data, it appeared to make 250-253 rwhp. It was a very nice engine.



It ran great – for ~20 hours. Its final session was cut short when it stopped suddenly, trailing a thick cloud of smoke as well as some unburnt oil.
On teardown inspection is became clear that one of the wristpin wire locks on the #5 piston had stopped holding, and the wristpin walked until it was only supporting half of the piston. With only half the piston supported, it cocked, the rod broke free, and chaos ensued. The rod beat the crap out of the piston & cylinder until the rod end broke off and wandered elsewhere to chew up other parts. The flailing rod punched holes in the case and bent the oil pump drive shaft. End result: #5 piston, rod & cyl destroyed; #2 piston & cyl badly damaged; the hit to the oil pump drive shaft broke one of the mounting tabs of the oil pump and bent the intermediate shaft; and there are holes in both case halves. There is more, but you get the idea.









So, why did this happen? When I drained the oil from the sump half a wire lock was attached to the magnetic drain plug, and in the case I found the other half as well as an intact wire lock (all from #5). While it is possible a wire lock broke (due to what? overbending during installation? mystery force?), I think it much more likely I did not get one fully installed when I was putting it all together and the breaking happened during the self-disassembly.

Prior to installation I had read of the difficulty people had installing JE wire locks and had that in mind as I assembled things. I went back over my work and found one wire lock that appeared to be seated, but did not look quite right. I was able to seat it properly. However, it appears I missed one. Don’t do that!

In the meantime I purchased a freshly rebuilt 3.2L (actually, it was freshly mis-built, another long story) that is currently running well after fixing the problems. I also picked up a replacement case, oil pump, and intermediate shaft, and am contemplating next steps. That 3.5L was a very nice engine….

[DRACO A5OG]

Wow, I am sorry to read your troubles, geez what an unwanted learning experience Brother Mike :-(.

Well, now you know and thanks for sharing so rest of us will hopefully learn as well.

Break a leg!

[Tippy]

That sucks beyond all that can suck.

Thanks for sharing your story (tragedy).....

[arbita1]

Ugh. I wish this had come up a few months ago. I'm well past the point of installing those clips. I've never had a good feeling about them. They are horrible to install due to the increased thickness. I hated them. Terrible design.

If this happens to my engine I will cry for days. Sorry about the damage. Did anything outside the engine get damaged as a result of the engine case blow out?




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Trackrash]

Yea, those clips are a biach. I had one bend while forcing it into place and had to order a replacement.

I had another that seemed like it went in, but wasn't seated in the groove. Good thing I noticed.

I'll be holding my breath now after reading this thread.....

[Mike Metzler]

My hope is that my error can help someone else avoid similar! Of course, I guess I should have known that telling the tale could also cause concern for those who fought the clips and now wonder (sorry Matt, Gordon, others....)

No damage outside the case occurred other than the need to clean the oil lines, tank, and coolers. Fortunately all the case holes (both halves) were on the top, so no oil was dropped on the track. Enough came out to coat the headers and cause LOTS of smoke, but no fire, and no leaking on the ground until after it stopped. Fortunately it blew at a place where it could easily coast to an access road and off the track. I have often told myself that bad as it was, it could have been worse. I am viewing it as a very expensive learning opportunity....

[KTL]

Mike,

Really sorry to see that engine failure. I know the sick feeling of munching an engine. However I was lucky enough that my carnage was limited to bearing failure and many of the engine pieces were reusable. Still much damage occurred.

Anyhow, did you install the circlips manually? Only reason I ask is because of the existence of the handy Stomski circlip injector tool. I'd heard from some that the injection tool can bend the circlips a bit too much and that loosens their fit when snapped into the groove.

Stomski Circlip Injector Tool Review

[Mike Metzler]

Kevin,

I did use a circlip injector and was concerned about bending the wire locks too far. While I did not think I overbent any, I can’t say I truly know if I did. When I rebuilt the “new” 3.2L (stock pistons / circlips) that I am running now I did not use the injector out of fear that that had led to the problem with the 3.5L. I am not entirely certain what lessons I should take from this other than to be even more careful and methodical than before!

[KTL]

I used the Stomski tool and they went in good. But my engine didn't see enough time to reveal if my clips were fatigued. Only lasted a little past one race weekend!

I really wish JE and others would more often provide clips with leg(s) on them. Would make it a lot easier to grab them with a pair of needle nose pliers, or lean against the end of the clip with a suitable tool.

I happened to stumble across these videos from Mahle Motorsports today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohbIFfdZJOo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kdhGBCpuxM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_hAsTxd9bA

[Mike Metzler]

One weekend -- that must have really hurt. I am sorry to hear that. What failed?

Those Mahle videos are a good find! Thanks for sharing them. The third one looks painfully familiar....

Of course, every time I view this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9sZ5jNiRZY I am tempted to build another 3.5L. It was "torquey" enough that I was able to run a gear higher than I can with the 3.2L in many turns. Granted, I did not have it long enough to do a real study of how much I may have lost by running a higher gear, but it felt pretty comfortable (think Mid-Ohio T1, Keyhole, T8-9, T13, and Carousel) and helped quite a bit with the overheating problem I was fighting. Just writing this reminds me of how far away Spring is....

[KTL]

Combination of things, I think. Small Canton oil filter starving the engine slowly and the next race weekend, after fixing a leaky cam thrust plate gasket between race weekends, I under-filled the engine with only 6 quarts. I blame operator error more than anything.

I typically fill with six, crank over the engine to suck it into the engine, then usually add 3 more to get it full enough to run. Forgot to dump in the add'nl 3 after cranking. Then to top it all off (not), I didn't run it up to operating temperature to top it off. So when out there running in morning warmup session, I was running on 6 quarts. I figure I was probably 5 quarts low when considering an engine-out service usually results in around 11-12 quarts to fill it up again. Oops.....

So that video is your 3.5 in action? I always enjoy watching your videos (as evidenced by my comment on it) since you are real smooth and of course I had the same car which I always wanted to re-gear! I think that video does a good job of showing the benefit of the torque. Exiting the keyhole the car came out of the hole much stronger in 3rd than i'd expect from a 3.2 engine. I recall at a track Blackhawk Farms where in T1 or the carousel i'd roll thru there in 3rd. It'd sort of labor a bit going getting on throttle and take a little while to start accelerating hard.

https://youtu.be/QHYwvfPwxFk

What was your overheating issue? Just a general issue of on-track temperature being higher than you want? I experienced that on my '87 too. I would suggest taking a look at your external thermostat and replace the bypass spring in it. I've recently heard that over time that spring loses it's hold on the bypass piston and oil bypasses back to the tank instead of being directed thru the cooler like it should be.

A new spring is cheap at $7. But the challenge is of course getting the t-stat out and then taking off the cap. I've heard we can use a hacksaw blade to cut the seal ring and that releases the grip on the cap. Or just put a pipe wrench on the cap and plan on replacing the cap, since it's cheap.

Otherwise, i've thought about adding a second Carrera-sized cooler in the driver side location instead of the windshield washer tank. But I don't like that idea that much because that location, like the same location on the passenger side, leaves a LOT to be desired in terms of seeing airflow. Ideally a center cooler, with some ducting behind it to let the air flow well, would be the way to go. I'm just not real keen about chopping a hole in the tub for that. I did that RS style duct install on the racecar, which was already chopped up (in various locations) anyway, but I not real keen on hacking up the nice '86 I now have!

[Mike Metzler]

Kevin, your story is a sad one. Low oil and track use make a poor combination. Good to hear that many parts were reusable.

Yes, the video is the 3.5L. Thanks for your kind words re. driving. I really like the gearing change. As your video shows, the gap between 2 & 3 in the stock transmission is too big, so you either run out of revs in 2nd or labor in 3rd. Or so it seems. With my gearing (stock 1st, longer 2nd, shorter 3rd, 4th, 5th) it feels much faster, sounds much better, and the engine is always happy, but the gain measured by lap time was not that great. Going from 3.2L to 3.5L made a bigger difference. However, even that is not always easy to measure. My original 3.2L on a cold (45°F) October morning was almost as quick as the 3.5L in early September (65°F). When I only run at a given track a few times a year, there are so many variables that year-to-year comparisons are a bit shaky. So I focus on having a good time (while also going as quickly as I can!)

The overheating was actually just getting hotter than I was happy with, particularly with a new engine that I was working on being confident in. I like to keep the oil < 220°F. I do have a center cooler (see below) and actually purchased the ducting to use with it, but never felt ready to cut into the car to install it.



However, when I removed all the lines for cleaning after the 3.5L munched itself, I discovered that sometime in the life of the car someone had apparently used a jack under one of the jack points instead of using the jack pad I always use, and crunched the line rather badly. I reformed it with heat and air pressure, and the “new” engine stays below 210°F even with lots of 2nd gear in >85°F weather. I can’t believe I overlooked that for 10 years! Since I had it apart, I also replaced the thermostat guts at the time just to be certain.

I am slowly getting inspired to start selling off some of the parts that have been in my basement for years, and start buying the parts needed to build another 3.5L engine. Or I may just be content with my fine-running 3.2L for a while. We will see.

[KTL]

Mike,

Yep the engine fail was a shame and also quite a learning experience as I gathered more parts and information in preparation for building it again. So in the end it certainly sucked but I come away a wiser dude. It's all good even though it cost me a bunch of money parked the racecar indefinitely. Sometimes I think things happen for a reason other than simply because of the mistake(s) I made. The engine demise has certainly let me keep my priorities in order and keep family first.

THanks for sharing your details on various aspects of what's gone on with your car. Helps me compare to what i've experienced with my former '87 (and relay things to the new owner who i've become good friends with) and the "new" '86. I'm always interested to hear what temperatures others experience at the track.

The former '87 has always run great and is in a good state of tune, with no kinks in the oil cooler lines........ So it's always bothered me that the temps run in the 230+ range and I think i'm going to investigate putting a new spring in the t-stat to test the undesired bypass theory.

If you do decide to take the plunge and cut the nose for the cooling duct? My recommendation would be to rivet it in place. I chose to weld mine and that was quite the PITA to get the seams to close up. Not to mention of course the thin sheetmetal is prone to burn through. Next time I do one of those ducts, i'm definitely going to use clecos and rivets to get it fastened nice & tight all the way around. Then finish it off with some primer and seam sealer.

I really like how the engine stays on song with the gear stack choices. I'm a big fan of re-gearing the trans so you'll never hear me questioning whether or not it's worth it. The combo of gears and a hotted up engine is hard to beat. I really liked my 3.2SS with the geared 915 trans in the racecar. That is, for the short time I experienced it!

[MotoSook]

Really good thread. Thanks for sharing, Mike. Not many guys would shared this.

[KTL]

Originally Posted by MotoSook

....... Not many guys would shared this.

Or this?

Engine Bearing Failure- Disassemble Heads Too?

[MotoSook]

Originally Posted by KTL

Or this?

Engine Bearing Failure- Disassemble Heads Too?

Yeah...that was nasty and I've learned from your failure...I know I've learned a lot from you.

[Mike Metzler]

Originally Posted by KTL

...

If you do decide to take the plunge and cut the nose for the cooling duct? My recommendation would be to rivet it in place. ...

Although with the temperatures now apparently under control, my temptation to cut into the car is reduced even further, I like this recommendation. My welding is (barely) functional, and ugly as sin!

Originally Posted by MotoSook

Really good thread. Thanks for sharing, Mike. Not many guys would shared this.

Thanks – I believe it is better to own my mistakes than to deny them. I certainly have had plenty of opportunities to test that hypothesis!

[Mike Metzler]

Hit "submit" prematurely....

Originally Posted by KTL

Or this?

Engine Bearing Failure- Disassemble Heads Too?

I remember that thread, but had forgotten it was yours. I was curious about your pressure-side filter setup and pained to see the carnage. That was ugly. Very ugly. Have you rebuilt?

[KTL]

I'll shoot you some pictures of my racecar's oil cooler ducting/notched nose. It's pretty on the outside and ugly/unfinished on the inside. Maybe that'll make you feel even better about leaving it as is?

My pressure side filter would have been better had I just stuck with a regular disposable Mahle OC 229 filter instead of getting all fancy with the Canton tiny filter. I think one contributor to my demise was that the little Canton doesn't flow enough GPM. Because even with straight 30W break in oil the filter collapsed into itself a bit, which I don't think should have happened. Cold 30W, in warm weather, is not that thick despite what Canton would have liked me to believe

Have a lot of parts on the shelf but haven't rebuilt it yet. This winter is the plan. But that was the plan the year before and the year before that and before that...... We'll see how things go this year. Gotta do it at some point soon or else just give it up and let someone else get the use out of the car & parts

[winders]

Kevin,

Get that car back together and go to the track with it!