Starting to build up the intrigue, finally

**crbquist** · 01-14-2013

Originally Posted by BillBoost37

Signs of a chipped piston.

1. Car runs bad, you pull plugs and find one or more electrodes smashed.
2. Pieces of piston on top of your IC core. They can come up through the bypass hole of the SC
3. Visual confirmation

From research and chatting with others, apparently GM didn't gap the rings on the L26 and L32 as much as the predecessor engines. Therefore it's easier to chip a piston.

Max should be returning from a trip today. Likely we'll hear from him.

Good info. I'm glad I have an L67 then haha

**intrigue98** · 01-16-2013

Now that I have some time to post after being away for the past few days I noticed that Bill pretty much gave you all the update. I basically got my tune dialed in with myself in the car, running 11.7 AFR and 19-19.5 degrees of timing, zero knock. I then piled three other friends into the car and went WOT from 30-65 mph, just a quick pull. Compared to the day I was dialing in AFR and timing (about 45 degrees out) we had a cold spell come through and outside it was maybe 15 degrees outside. Between the change in temperature and added weight in the car, I assumed my AFR was a little leaner than 11.7 (probably more like 12.0-12.1) and with the 19.5 degrees of timing on 93, cylinder #3 got pissed and chipped the piston.

Now that I have put a little over 50 miles on the L36 bottom end (was the stock bottom end out of the car) and running a 3.5 pulley, I'm keeping things conservative on both boost and timing until I dial in the tune. So far the car runs great, trims are already spot on within -2 LTFT to 0 LTFT. Next is dial in AFR and this time I'll shoot for 11.4-11.5. Timing right now is about 14 degrees, may increase to 16 degrees (max).

I'm just glad I finally got the car back on the road and can enjoy it again. If any of you either have tuned top-swapped cars or are running a similar set-up, please chime in if you have any knowledge on what to tune differently, what to watch for, etc.

Originally Posted by darkhorizon

is there any data to back up the failure? Chipping pistons is EXTREMELY hard to do... it takes alot of things going wrong to get those sort of piston temperatures.

As Bill said, no data to back up the failure. I was watching my Aeroforces, saw maybe 1-3 degrees of knock. The refresh rate of the gauge may have prevented me from seeing 10+ degrees of KR for all i know at a given second. AFR on my wideband was high 11's, low 12's (leaner that day compared to when I was tuning the AFR/timing in 45 degree weather).

**MrPoopyButthole** · 01-16-2013

Well max glad to see your back on the road with Intrigue

**intrigue98** · 01-17-2013

I got some great luck going on lol (being sarcastic), was driving the car last night and started to hear a ticking noise. I wasn't in the throttle, just babying the car and cruising around, maybe 100 miles on the L36 bottom end. Bill diagnosed.... rod knock, spun a bearing.

A stock, 20k mile N/A L26 out of a 08 or 09 Buick Lacrosse will be dropped in its place. Parting out... done with this platform and will focus solely on G8. Not worth dumping any more money in it. For those that are interested in parts, PM me. I'll be keeping the built trans in the car but everything else will be up for sale. Sale thread will go up this weekend....

The build was short lived, sucks to say that I am parting out but financially makes most sense. Appreciate the comments on here and hopefully people will at least find use out of the build thread and can reference if need be.