Miracle My Engine Didn't Blow Up

DetroitST · Aug 19, 2023

My ST has been running pretty crappy for a couple weeks. Misfiring under anything over 50% acceleration. But overall running fine under normal driving conditions. I've been telling myself that it's probably just a bad batch of E85. Three fill ups later, still behaving that way. Getting annoyed, I haven't had my power in a while I gave her the beans on the freeway today easing into it. It actually went well and pulled like a champ, I was thinking OK! Here we go, it's better now. As soon as I let off the gas it started to misfire terribly and didn't stop. There was no where to pull over it was down to 2 lanes construction so I had to drive it about 3 miles like that (felt a part of me dying every second). Last week I did an oil change and decided to take a look at the air box... See picture. Obviously not good. Figured I had been running rich as not enough air was coming through and maybe I fouled a plug or two. I got off the free way and there was an AutoZone right there, got 6 plugs, adequate tools in truck already and I swapped all 6 plugs. See the issue?? Thank god that piece(s) didn't go through and grenade my motor. Two hours later, and a few scratched knuckles it fired right up, cleared codes, idled for about 20 minutes, took for test drive, no codes, no misfire, all the power back! Someone was looking out for me today!

GearHead_1 · Aug 19, 2023

I think you should buy a lottery ticket. I can't believe that went out an exhaust valve and through a turbo without damage. That's amazing. I'd probably do a leak-down test on it just for grins and giggles. I'd stick a camera in the cylinder and if I could find the motivation, I'd take a look at that turbo too.

DetroitST · Aug 19, 2023

My only reasoning is I was off boost and it went out the exhaust. If that hit a impeller it would have grenaded for sure.

UNBROKEN · Aug 19, 2023

I would have bore scoped that hole at a minimum. Looks like you lost the ground, center electrode and insulator….they didn’t just evaporate. If they made it past an exhaust valve without damage they didn’t make it past the turbine wheel without smacking something. It doesn’t take much to throw a turbine out of balance.

DetroitST · Aug 19, 2023

Cylinder walls and piston head almost certainly is not good lol. I didn't put my scope in because I want to will it to be OK. Didn't even put my magnet down there to pull scrap. But Holy hell it's back to my 500hp beast I'm used to and I'm so happy. Lotto ticket? This is hitting the lotto.

Side note I'm going to say anyone else running e85 should change plugs every 2 oil changes. That was 3 for me and was smoked.

GearHead_1 said:

DetroitST · Aug 19, 2023

UNBROKEN said:

I would feel it for sure if a turbo was off. They spin at ridiculous rates. They would implode if off even a little. I really think I just got lucky as hell.

GearHead_1 · Aug 19, 2023

Like I said if you're that lucky, you need to buy the lottery ticket. I can't believe there isn't damage in there waiting to deal you aces and eights.

DetroitST · Aug 19, 2023

I have driven about 3 hours today after repair and no issues. Car gods have blessed me. It is the Woodward DreamCruise today here in Detroit so maybe I had someone watching out for my motor in spirit form.

DetroitST · Aug 19, 2023

Number 5 is easy to get to, which was the plug in discussion. Maybe I'll scope it this week if enough people get on this thread and pressures me lol. Don't want too jynx my fortune though.

scoobysportD · Aug 20, 2023

DetroitST said:

You definitely got lucky!

But i wouldnt push that luck either

Perhaps there is some damage and the sooner you'll know, the better, so it won't lead to more damages.

TMac · Aug 20, 2023

Your engine will not "run rich" because your air filter was dirty, although a filthy filter will impact performance.

You had better have that cylinder bore-scoped. I cannot see any way that amount of material exited via the exhaust valve and turbine without some damage. Most likely that garbage is still in the cylinder.

FORZDA3 · Aug 20, 2023

What’s left of the metals that weren’t vaporized are probably imbedded into the piston top. The ceramic was pulverized into small enough pieces to pass through without significant damage.

You may have an injector clogged or otherwise not spraying enough fuel in that cylinder. Lean causes plug destruction, not rich. Or you may have installed a bad plug.

You’re lucky all right, but almost certainly not damage free. If you look, you will see the damage. It can run great for a long time with dents and dings in the head and piston top.

jwuonog · Aug 21, 2023

You did the 5 cylinder mod!

I've seen this happen a surprising number of times on the Focus ST (2.0 liter ecoboost) and I can't recall any catastrophic results. Usually everyone gets lucky. I was in the same situation recently as my cylinder #4 spark plug electrode disappeared and the car was only running on 3 cylinders.

I replaced the plug and it's been fine for several months now.

I'm wondering if these motors somehow create a condition that can make the electrode tip simply liquify and melt, instead of breaking off and destroying everything. I've just seen way too many cases of people getting lucky.

Blue Beast · Aug 21, 2023

I had this happen to a Pontic G6 my daughter was driving, and we had to replace the engine. It completely destroyed the one cylinder and engine.

DetroitST · Aug 28, 2023

Well I drove 2.5 hours away on a trip and same thing happening, misfire city. Changed 5 of the plugs (all but #3), all looked good and didnt change the outcome. I stopped after I slipped and broke a vacuum nipple off the charge pipe. So waiting on a very expensive tow home to rip it apart this weekend and find out what's going on. Sadness.

Cruising68 · Aug 28, 2023

DetroitST said:

Bummer for sure. I’m checking my plugs at 20k just to play it safe. Had to be something strange going on

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

TMac · Aug 28, 2023

DetroitST said:

By any chance did you pull the codes- I'd be looking for "P" series misfire codes, and possible something else related to the cause?

DetroitST · Aug 28, 2023

Of course. Misfire 3 5 6. I suppose there's a chance there's an issue with number 3 plug. But either way something bigger is wrong if I'm buying plugs every other week. I'll update this weekend when I tear it apart.

TMac · Aug 28, 2023

Yeah, something bigger is wrong! Since you have the Nostrum parts, any chance you've logged fuel pressure?

DetroitST · Aug 28, 2023

I have not but I will be turning to this thread for the consensus of tests I should do to rule out what's wrong. Plug, coil, injector, or something worse.

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Miracle My Engine Didn't Blow Up

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