Forced Induction Vroom vroom boom!

Vroom vroom boom!

Taken directly from my MySpace blog:

Well, I'm not sure what happened exactly, but my engine is currently toast. I was trying to catch the green light before my apartment when Megan and I heard a bad sound emanate from the engine bay. I didn't notice my check engine light come on, but I did see my oil pressure light was illuminated. I managed to get the car to the stop at the next intersection (the brakes didn't want to work without any vacuum) before killing the engine and popping the hood. I think that maybe the oil pump gear might have given out because that's the area where the fire was. Thankfully, I have a fire extinguisher in the car. Unfortunately, it only partially worked, but just enough to put out the flames underneath. Nothing looks damaged in the engine bay aside from some black carbon deposits and a slightly melted rubber boot around the steering arm. Guess I'll be getting the head worked on as well since I'm not driving the car now. Maybe get a port and polish job done. I just hope none of the bearings in it got damaged from lack of oil... same with the turbo.

yikes...glad you and Meg are safe!

Yeah, me too. You should have seen me trying to get the extinguisher off the a-pillar. I took the whole a-pillar cover out with it. I think I'm going to get a rechargeable extinguisher with a gauge on top this time, because if the fire was any bigger, I would have been SOL with that OBX extinguisher.

don't put it on the pillar. stick it in the footwell behind you.

dang man glad u guys are okay, hopefully the damage is not severe

I'm planning on putting a full size extinguisher in the back seat or on the passenger floor. I'll need another passenger side a pillar cover though (any color is fine). As for the engine, the entire block's getting replaced, so I'm not worried about that too much. My main concern is the head. I won't know the damage until I pull it off, which won't be this weekend (damned rain). I'll also have to replace the steering arm boot, because that was messed up from the heat of the fire.

sounds scary man... welcome to the blown engine club! mine was from 15psi and a 13to1 afr in 5th gear though.

keep us updated on the rebuild

I was a member of that club over 4 years ago. Lol.

but not when boosted! i remember

Wow. Good thing you guys are ok. Keep us updated on your car's progress. Hope it doesn't give you too much headache.

Speculation until I have time to pull the head off and crawl under the under the car. No oil leaked out on the road where it broke. There was a little bit of oil under the car around the serpentine belt area.

I'd be intrested to hear what was the cause of that problem. Good thing you had a extingushier, I keep one in my car within reach right between the door and my seat.

man that sucks!

Well, I pulled the turbo and intake manifold off this weekend. Fortunately, the turbo looks fine. The block on the other hand has two holes on the bottom by cylinder 1, which would explain the fire in that area. Also, the intake manifold's innards are broken and I found some of them in the entrance to the head. The manifold is in perfect condition on the outside... it's just the inside pieces that are broken. I'm wondering if maybe they cause some airflow issues between cylinders, resulting in reduced fuel, which may have caused a lean condition in one of the cylinders.

New theory formulated after doing some research. My oil catch can wasn't working efficiently enough, and I found heavy traces of blowby oil in the intake. I think it lowered the octane a lot and caused detonation and a backfire into the intake manifold. Maybe I had some bad gas on top of that.

Not sure. Haven't hooked up the battery to pull the last stats from my ECU and boost controller. RPMs where around 3500 - 4000 though. I was accelerating to catch a short green turn signal light.

how much PSI are running anyway? as far as the intake getting blowby you might want to check the seals on the turbine for they may be either blown or worn out. if you had the internals give way on cylinder number 4 ( the first cylinder on the left toward the tranny) its normal there have been numerous corollas mainly the 98 -present ( 98-02 mainly) that have a lot of oiling issues, simply because the pressure it not high enough and there is ususally not adequate oil in the pan,even if the mark is on normal, add about a 1/2 to 3/4 of a quart more and it should be good, one i did this the engine started to run smoother even when it got boosted, simply beause the design of the oil pan does not let it get sufficent oil to the bearings.

In this case, Moroso oil pan, FTW. Next mod, Vamp.

swap a 4age in there man... with some gze pistons. boost away with that setup. you can even use the 6 speed trans from the 20v cars. 14psi daily with proper fuel. didnt the 98+ still come with a 4age in some over seas corollas? the zz is a good engine and all, but its kind of like trying to polish a turd.

yes it did until 2000 they are widely avalible. here in Japan

so its just a matter of engine mounts, a harness, and a very available longblock? that would be an awesome swap. a 20v turbo 6speed.

I was running 12 with 11.0:1-11.5:1 AFRs and no knocking. It was definitely blowby in the engine. I could trace it back to the PCV and in the intake pre-turbo. It was also the 1st cylinder (next to the serpentine belt) that busted. As for oil, I usually add a little more to compensate for the turbo.

why dont you all vent your pcv somewhere else instead of back into your intake? i capped my manifold and vented my pcv to the atmosphere... you can see the fuel line running from my valve covers and they terminate below the intake manifold.


some of the big power cars run their pcv downstream in the exhaust. you still have a vacuum source and you dont take the chance of oil on or in your compressor housing.

Puch! That sucks vamp So are your connecting rods all in one peice? My engine had 5 holes in the block when it blew and out of one of them a connecting rod was hanging. I also blew my engine at 12psi. I now run no more then 8 on my new engine.