I'm faced with a dilemma, I have had a string of bad luck with my Turbo Foxbody Mustang that I've spent thousands and thousands of dollars on.

It all started with having my entire holley EFI wiring completely stripped out and rewired because of multiple wiring issues with the initial install. Once that was all dealt with I proceeded to move forward with installing a well built 8.8 rear end and put a set of sticky tires on the car. So that I could finally drive the car on 12lb of boost it was tuned for. I previously was on just gate spring and old bald street tires

Once the new rear end was under the car and the boost set on 12lbs she only lasted roughly 200 miles till a hole was melted into a piston. Showing my timing table to multiple people all have told me it had way to much timing. I paid a tuner to set the car up on a dyno. The motor shows signs of severe detonation in almost every piston and the heads.

I'm on the path of getting my motor rebuilt.

So here I am left with decisions to make on how to go about not having this ever happen again.

My original set up was
363 Dart block
AFR 205 Heads
Trick Flow Box R upper and lower
Borg S475 Turbo
Holley EFI
9.5:1 Compression
93 octane Fuel
tkO600 Transmission
3.55 Gears
Callies crank
Weisco Pistons
Bullet Racing Custom Ground Cam

HOW CAN I MAKE THIS COMBO SURVIVE ON 93 OCTANE? Max boost would be 15lbs. I was thinking about upping the compression to 10:1 its not much difference.

Also we were thinking of getting the tops of the pistons ceramic coated.

 

Do not raise the compression if you want to run straight 93. If it was detonating bad enough to shit the bed,I'm surprised you couldn't hear/feel it.
I'm around 750hp, guessing by MPH never been on a dyno, on 93 and water/meth. I ran just 93 up to 12psi,above I was having to pull a lot of timing to keep the detonating at bay. My compression is about 8.5:1,running 20 psi boost.

 

Can you post your timing table?

 

https://www.theturboforums.com/thre...-dart-363-and-a-borg-s475-turbo.381590/page-7

He did post it here. On post 124 I think. Waay high if you ask my opinion.

As far as how to set it up to run on 93 and 12 pounds, not to sound like a smart ass, But you kinda already have it setup for pump, just run reasonable timing. Set timing at 100 kpa to around 30 and then pull 1-1.5 degree's per pound out of the table as boost climbs. Your afr if i remember right was about right already so just keep an eye on it and start making pulls on some empty street, drag strip, or dyno while adding a degree at a time and checking plugs till the strap looks good.
There is not any super mystical way to make that work. Just run 11.0-11.5 afr, 12 psi and timing that makes the plug happy. For a street car, its all a guy needs to do really. Especially with all your nice parts.

 

^ Now I remember reading that thread. What was that tuner thinking?!

Like fastspec said, keeping it together on 93 is all in the tune.

 

I was talking to a new tuner that I was going to have tune the car for me this go around and he was wanting me to run nothing but C16 fuel. Which confused me because I thought guys running that are on kill mode.

I'm just a street car trying to stay 93oct.

Guys i'm frustrated scared and tired of failing all the time and losing thousands of dollars. Its not cheap getting my motor rebuilt and once its all back together i'm scared to death of having another engine failure. I've got way to many other things happening in my life to keep spending money on this car. I'm to that point with it.

I'm determined to get the motor fixed and get the car all put back together. But I DO NOT WANT A FAILURE again. I just can not have that happen. Over something stupid like timing.

why does this new tuner want me to go C16. I don't want to spend $20/gal on C16 that is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. I think he just doesn't want to take a chance hurting my new motor so C16 is safer for him to tune with because he knows it wont hurt anything if hes off with his tune.

Like how stupid is all this sounding? because i'm about to pull my hair out with all this crap.

 

Run premium fuel and just keep the timing reasonable.
I don't know how you find these guys but christ. You remind me of a girl I knew in college, she could walk into a room full of Nobel prize winners, philanthropists, and pillars of society and find the one dirt bag waiter in the room that would quit his job and treat her like shit.

The car already ran and drove well for the most part, just get the motor back together and chop the timing down just like I said earlier. It will be fine, lots of guys running pump gas and your power level. At 12-15psi and 11-1 afr you are going to land in the 12-15* range probably and find it will hold together without issue.

Or huck it all in the trunk and I'll give you two grand for it.

 

Yes,tuner wants to tune it on C16 because its easy.

Tuner? Not sure that's an accurate title.

 

You should consider water/meth to ease the tuning window.

Maybe I missed it...what are your power goals?

 

Throw a good intercooler on it. Makes a huge difference in reliability.
What was timing at 12psi??

 

To add. A friend used to run a chassis dyno. He said with stick cars he had to spend extra time with the tune down low in rpm cuz peeps would often lug the motor down low and then jump on it without downshifting causing heavy low rpm load causing detonation in areas where an auto car wouldnt.

 

I want to stick with 700whp range like the car was before. Meaning anywhere from 700-775 or so.

 

when I would race in mexico I would be around 3-3500 rpm and put it to the floor. But I can see how that is a factor and I never thought of that before until what you've said. makes total sense.

 

29deg and the car has a good Intercooler but its air to air

 

LOL!!

First post
"My car broke. This sucks. I cant have this happen again. I have made poor life choices. People break my shit. I cant afford to fix it all the time. I don't know what i'm going to do. I just need it to stay together, I'm ready to shoot myself and end it all!!!!!"

Last post
"I want to make between 700 and 775"


Forget a power number, Read the plugs and make sure its happy.
Car will run great and hoop tires at will.
Or take up knitting, its a "safe" hobby.

 

It was making 710 so yeah I want to stay around that power level. I aint trying to make less than that. Around here that power level is starting to become slow

but I see what you're saying.

 

Slower then broken on jack stands?

 

I didn't spend 60k or who knows what the amount is to end up going slower. That was the reason why I chose all the best parts I could afford.

 

OK!

 

Seems like a lot of timing for a 9.5:1 Ford .

I mean Im no Ford guy , but my 9:1 SBC is running 25 degrees at 12 psi . Im at 19 degrees at 17psi . On 93 .

Im now running a small shot of water meth coming on at 12 psi .

Im also water to air .


Is there any oil on the plugs ?