Re: 1991 200q 20V 3B Failure - Swiss Block, Anyone?

[Linus Toy <linust@mindspring.com>]

At 09:56 12/4/98 -0500, Glen_Powell@ne.3com.com wrote:
>Very sorry to hear about your bad luck!
>
>I do doubt your conclusion that 'the rods are weak' though, there are just
>too many very high-mileage and highly-boosted examples still running around
>for this to be true....
>
>Something was 'wrong in there',

Something probably was wrong in there, but the rods likely ARE weak--this
is not the first example I've heard of where 3B rods have bent or broken.
>From the stories I've heard, the culprit may be in the rod bearings--thin
and susceptible to oil starvation.  I'd guess from Sarge's description that
they may also be susceptible to an overly boosted engine encountering
detonation.  

One local (PNW) 3B engine recently spun a rod bearing--but the rod
held--good bet that the rods being near new Carillos helped a lot.  why,
you might ask, were there Carillos in there?  a couple of the original rods
in this engine actually bent--noticeably enough so that the afflicted
pistons did not rise in the cylinder bores as much as the others.  that
first time, the engine was running a very agressive computer (more
agressive than the typical IA stage III).  I've also seen a piston from
another 3B that violently lunched a rod--this rod is very bent.  One other
local 200q20v spun a rod bearing about a year & a half ago at a track day.
that car had only an IA stage III computer.  

food for thought.
--Linus