N54 cyl 5 timing drop

[SlowE93]

Problem is on stock turbos up to 460 whp I had ZERO corrections on ALL cylinders. That made me feel my motor was "happy" . So now I would like to know if its truly happy still or cyl 5 really is struggling ? Again, not just for myself and my car, im talking in general for all N54s plagued with this problem breaking the 500whp mark.
Let me add.....the vast majority of motors that blow is cyl#5. So coincidence that #5 drops timing on higher h.p. builds then when it blows it just happens to be cyl #5 ?

 

[suspenceful]

Just chiming in with my experiences.

I would rarely get timing drops on stock turbos. I had proper E50 fueling and ran 20+PSI.

Then I upgraded to MMP Stage 3 turbos. On lower boost, I would see small timing drops from cylinder 5. On high boost ~700whp, I would see timing drops across all cylinders (5 included, and sometimes more affected than others). The motor ended up letting go around 120k miles, but it was cylinder 3. Cylinder 5 was fine.

Now with a new motor, I've switched to a Doc Race single turbo kit. On low boost, I'm again seeing timing drops just on cylinder 5. I'm not sure what will happen as I raise the boost as the weather warms up. I generally ignore isolated cylinder 5 timing corrections. If you are seeing it on other cylinders, there is an issue (fuel, ignition, knock, etc.).

 

[SlowE93]

Thanks for chiming in. Yes, this thread was more for clean log, correct fueling, etc, just with #5 crashing or dipping.
Btw, how was cyl 3 looking before it gave ? Do you constantly log ? Were there any signs before it gave out ? What whp did it give at ?

 

[veer90]

Then I upgraded to MMP Stage 3 turbos. On lower boost, I would see small timing drops from cylinder 5. On high boost ~700whp, I would see timing drops across all cylinders (5 included, and sometimes more affected than others). The motor ended up letting go around 120k miles, but it was cylinder 3. Cylinder 5 was fine.

Also interested. What was the failure mode? Fried ring? Broken ringland? Cracked piston?

 

[chrisdfv]

IIRC he was having misifire that wouldn't go away and then a compression test revealed the cylinder was dead.

 

[suspenceful]

Thanks for chiming in. Yes, this thread was more for clean log, correct fueling, etc, just with #5 crashing or dipping.
Btw, how was cyl 3 looking before it gave ? Do you constantly log ? Were there any signs before it gave out ? What whp did it give at ?

Yes, I was constantly logging. Cylinder 3 showed no signs of issues. If anything, it was one of the better looking cylinders when I started having problems. Cylinder 5 was the first one to get fussy every time. Eventually all cylinders started having issues for some reason, and then I damaged the the motor shortly after. I was at 28psi on the MMP S3s, so at least 650whp+.

Also interested. What was the failure mode? Fried ring? Broken ringland? Cracked piston?

I haven't ripped the motor apart yet, but all signs are pointing to a cracked ring or a chipped ringland. Potentially a cracked piston. It didn't smoke, and didn't drop compression completely. It wasn't a bearing, etc.

IIRC he was having misifire that wouldn't go away and then a compression test revealed the cylinder was dead.

Exactly. Cylinder 3 starting misfiring all the time and no matter what I did, I couldn't get it to go away. Turns out, it was at 90psi compression compared to the others being at 160psi+.

 

[V8bait]

Life is better when you log something like time or ambient pressure or battery voltage in place of cyl 5 corrections.

In all seriousness, it's worth watching, but I put the least faith in it. Logs are more about trends and seeing why 3 cyl corrected here... was it knock, over boost, traction issues, lean spike etc. Timing corrections are only a piece of the action, important, but only one thing.

 

[SlowE93]

So dont stress on cyl #5 ?

 

[doublespaces]

So dont stress on cyl #5 ?

Famous last words

 

[veer90]

Famous last words

S E N D I T

 

[V8bait]

So dont stress on cyl #5 ?

Depends on the severity? A random -3 on 5 at 5k and -3 on 2 or something at 3k with everything else clean i wouldn't worry.

 

[SlowE93]

Depends on the severity? A random -3 on 5 at 5k and -3 on 2 or something at 3k with everything else clean i wouldn't worry.

Example. Sometimes its less severe as you know logs vary. But in a nutshell, something along these lines. Everything else is clean on the log. Trims, lpfp, hpfp, wgdc, etc.

 

[SlowE93]

Another example. Here it didnt recover post shift, but I have other logs that recover just fine. Sometimes even better than other cylinders. So once again, overall # 5 ??

 

[N54gasm]

Bumping up! Battling this issue as well

 

[SlowE93]

Mine look good again. Have not changed anything. Im thinking weather, humidity, etc ? I actually pulled a perfect 3rd gear pull last month or so at 1 psi higher, so go figure. Back down 1 psi and logs look pretty clean.

 

[N54gasm]

That's good news, but I am still experiencing this. Am messing with vanos timing now as ive replaced everything and the motor is healthy. I am on e90, so no reason i should be getting timing drops at all lol.

 

[iminhell1]

We can log battery voltage?

Not with MHD, that I've found.


And I want to log this!

 

[V8bait]

We can log battery voltage?

Not with MHD, that I've found.


And I want to log this!

 

[SlowE93]

That's good news, but I am still experiencing this. Am messing with vanos timing now as ive replaced everything and the motor is healthy. I am on e90, so no reason i should be getting timing drops at all lol.

What mods ? Power level ? Boost ?

 

[SlowE93]

I like those....simple ! To log +12V