If you decide to redo your motor, beware of the Eagle Stroker kit..

I picked up an 05 with a "built motor" and the Turbonetics single turbo kit... Blowby in 2 cylinders required tear down. What we found was laughable at best..
First of all, I was told by my engine builder that he found out Eagle uses an Arias Piston that starts life as a Harley Davidson Blank.. The same piston that is used for Harleys is machined to work with this kit.. No big deal right? They did their homework so it should work, not like they chose the piston as an afterthought..

Wrong..

Don't know if the piston is an actual Harley Davidson piston but it may as well be.. Pin height is less than ideal, on the downstroke, half the piston including a good portion of the rings flops around in the crank case before it makes it back up into the cylinder..You could actually hear them knocking on cold starts.. This caused premature wear to the skirts, seizing of the rings which also damaged the block.. All this from a well maintained motor with a mild tune..

The end result?

Piston and ring failure with less than 20K miles on the build, piston skirts worn out needing new pistons, rings etc.. I also had to replace all of the Eagle rods (which is another story) block had to be bored .20 over (salvaged the block and crank)

I talked to the dude at Arias about the premature failure and all and his answer to me was this.. "You got 20K miles out of that setup? You did good.." I swear on dead people this is what the dude said...

The good news is that I took the time to port and polish the heads, modify the stock CMP (gutted the stockers, improved the shape as well, no more restrictions around the injectors, also smoothed out the rough castings and port matched them, welded holes where butterflies once lived) the heads were nicely massaged, no more flow restrictions, CUSTOM 1 OFF JE PISTONS made completely from scratch took 2 months to design and build (GRRR!) to address the issues concerning this assembly.. Custom cams by Comp Cams. GT500 pumps, 60LB injectors etc etc..

Tons of mods done to everything, the long block is now being setup to accommodate 1000+ HP and it is cammed specifically for Turbo. Will try to squeeze 600 from the Turbonetics kit, that should keep me happy for a couple of days..

I'm not sure if Eagle addressed this very common problem, (yes I found out from many that it is a very common problem, boys at Steeda and a few other reputable sources confirmed this)

Eagle normally makes good products, not sure what they were thinking with this setup.. If you do inquire about an Eagle setup, make sure they don't try to hand you the kit with the Harley Pistons, you're better off spending your money on Playdough or a weekend in Vegas with a couple of choice Hookers..

 

Are you saying that eagle seats their piston rings unusually low on their pistons? Can you show pictures or something?

 

wow, WTF were they thinking using those pistons in the first place?? damn...

 

Yes, something to that effect.. They use an Arias piston, these are the same blanks that are used for Harley Davidson motorcycles (supposedly) They took an off the shelf blank and made it work for whatever reason.. Translation is: pin height and ring placement are such that too much of the piston and rings make their way into the crankcase, this causes not only premature wear of the rings, but also wear on the piston skirts and cylinder bore.. I had less than 20K miles on the motor and it all had to be rebuilt as the rings failed..

When I get over to the shop, I will try to illustrate with pics and measurements.. Again, basically, too much of the piston and ring is making its way into the crankcase, upon reentering the cylinder, they flopped around and caused excess wear to everything. I had to replace pistons, rings, rods (rods for other reasons) and bore block .20 over to salvage the setup. Damaged rings scored 1 of the cylinders, .20 over fixed the problem..

Shame really, the pistons look brand new and show no signs of damage, just some wear on the skirts. I am told they can be reused, just not in the same stroker application and not as a set..


SO, the bad news is that I now have a set of pistons and rods that I can't use and I am into this for a ton of money (new pistons, rods, rings, bearings, gaskets etc

The good news is that I now have custom
1) JE pistons (1 off, the only ones to exist in the world)
2) a bottom end setup to deal with 1000+HP all day long (builder specializes in alum, building engines for 40+ years, was close buddies with Dutweiler and shares a lot of his tech savvy, especially with aluminum motors)
3) Ported heads (free flowing with every restriction removed and smoothed but not hogged out where low end torque was sacrificed)
4) Custom cams (split pattern) with around 238 duration @ .50 and about 550 lift, 113 or 114 lobe) Not too bumpy, setup is 50/50 street race with a decent idle, was hoping for an aggressive idle but it doesn't work with a turbo motor (lobe separation is 113 or higher which takes a lot of the lope out of the idle)
5) Comp ratio still close to stock (9:1 as opposed to 9.3:1)
6) Many go fast tricks which increase reliability. Heads and block/rotating assembly fitted with many tricks and mods to keep it alive under extreme boost conditions

EG: Factory head bolts replaced with ARP studs but it goes a step further with special stainless T bushings used where studs mate with heads. Instead of headbolts clamping down onto bare aluminum which causes cracks and failure of the alum castings, heads were machined to receive special bushings which allow the pressure from over torqued studs to be distributed evenly. On OEM heads, the studs bolt atop bare aluminum. This pinpoints massive pressure onto bare alum which causes crushing to the surface beneath the stud. This crushing effect leads to cracks which spread throughout the head.. It is all too common and often overlooked. Normally, you can only torque the heads to something like 60PSI before the bare alum starts to crush under the weight and cause cracks then failure. The stainless bushings distribute the load over a much broader area of the head, this allows for a much greater 90PSI of torque, which translates to much higher cylinder pressures without lifting heads off block. (sound useful under serious boost?) Simple English, heads are setup to withstand much more boost without gasket failure. Everyday reliable with massive boost.. There are a hundred or so little trade secret type mods gone into this motor now, hope it doesnt scatter day 1 on the dyno..

So I basically bought the car cheap knowing there was a problem, after which I took it to "S-turd-a" (famous shop in South Florida) where they charged me $240 to tell me what I already knew, that there was blowby in my engine (another story altogether, don't get me started!!)

I ended up at this other shop, (found them online when I was looking for a wideband gage) Talked with the owner for about an hour (after hours) told him I just wanted to have the rings replaced.. Told me to bring it by the next day.. I did.. The owner of this shop came out to the parking lot with a Snap On scope. In the 100 degree heat and humidity of an Aug afternoon, this guy took out my plugs and found a scored cylinder that Sturda missed.. And for this he didn't charge me a cent.. Not only that, he offered to drive me 40 miles to my house so I could leave the car there to avoid hurting the motor any more.. Further more, allowed me to pull the motor apart with them once they took it out, then allowed me to port my own heads at his shop, all day everyday for 2 weeks. Has also allowed me to work on other areas of the car while the engine is being redone, also allowing me to work on reassembling the engine with the builder at his other shop, this while teaching me the ins and outs of building an alum motor. Have my notepad ready!!

Yes, while Sturda charged me $240 just to tell me what I already knew, (I had compression loss in number 2) they totally missed the fact that I had a scored cylinder in 8.. This other shop found that problem and drove me home free of charge in the 3000 degree Florida sun..

While Sturda quoted me $1500/3000 just to pull engine and put it back (citing the turbo would run extra) they also tried to tell me that my bottom end was stock (and that I got robbed) also told me it wasn't worth rebuilding and then tried to sell me on a used stock motor (after I asked them what I could get for 3K used, they offered only a stock engine pulled from a customer car, told me that for around 4500, I could be up and running with the stocker.. Mutt from Sturda and his sidekick told me this, true story) The next day I found a used long block setup for 1000 HP with only 5000 miles on it, made by a reputable builder but I passed on it.. Just an example... All this while the other shop quoted me $1000 top to bottom (labor for pulling engine and turbo then putting it all back) Of course parts, machining and engine building are all additional, I still saved anywhere up to 2000 right from the start... And if I wasn't there to witness all of the damage first hand, I would have naturally assumed that I was getting screwed!! All this because I was looking for a wideband air fuel gage online and found the ad for this shop!! Talk about luck? That's what's up!!

Will keep you all posted, will start posting pics as well, have a bunch of pics of the portwork I did on the heads.. This weekend should have pics of the bottom end and heads posted!!

S-turd-a? Oh they'll build you a reliable killer, just be prepared to second mortgage your house to get a 10 second timeslip out of your 05 or later Stang... Great name if you have limitless funds and don't care about getting abused for it.. BOOOHH!!!