DC5 Rod through block

[haggis]

The other evening i had a guy on the phone asking about my 98 glanza v i have forsale, he asked what i was after next and i mentioned the dc5.
He told me there was some kind of recall on the dc5 due to it spitting rods through the block.
Ive been reading a few posts on the forum over the past few months and i havent heard of any serious engine troubles.
Does anyone know what he was talking about??

 

[User]

What a crock of sh1t.

 

[C&S Evo7]

It can happen but is certainly not at all common, certainly no recall.
To put a rod thru the block is not easy at all as one end needs to break or jam, it is usually caused by a catastrophic internal faliure ie gudgeon pin breaking (not common) piston breaking(not common) and jamming or possibly mis shifting 5th to 2nd etc while doing 90 could cause a bigish problem

Generally the K20 engine block is really strong and can take a load of abuse, i beleive (someone correct) even in turbo s/c applications the std block is used, diff pistons etc .

 

[haggis]

Ok thats good to know, I was looking at a few turbo kits for the rsx/dc5 on ebay. They are around 1000usd pretty cheap[ for the full kit, has anyone on here used them? I'd imagine u'd get what you pay for with these kits.
Whats a turbo'd dc5 like?
It was a thoyught if i get one as ive been used to driving turbo cars now and i dont know if i'd like the change back to N/A

 

[Suped]

if you love your turbo's stick with them mate as N/A will be a step downwards.

 

[C&S Evo7]

Ideally you need to uprate internals before forced induction, yes there are plenty of people who don't but ask martin200 what his internals looked like.. :shock:

the block is plenty strong enough ( i only mean the bare casting not any bits inside)

 

[martin200]

Ok thats good to know, I was looking at a few turbo kits for the rsx/dc5 on ebay. They are around 1000usd pretty cheap[ for the full kit, has anyone on here used them? I'd imagine u'd get what you pay for with these kits.
Whats a turbo'd dc5 like?
It was a thoyught if i get one as ive been used to driving turbo cars now and i dont know if i'd like the change back to N/A

If you do a general sniff around the forum, you will deduce:

a) DC5 engines are pretty robust in N/A form, theres probably only two people on here who have had an engine fail, none from which was due to rod failure. So if you were to be a betting man, you'd be clever and saying your engine will be fine, provided you don't abuse it by over-revving, etc.

b) The K20 can take FI, but for how long depends on your driving style. Mine was makinga bout 280bhp, 210 lb/ft of torque. It was imported into the country with 16,000km on the clock, unknown how many miles whilst it was turbo'd. 22,000 miles in the UK later, it lunched a rod out the side of the block the weekend after an intense 2 hours of track action at Castle Combe. If I had not have driven it on the track, the conrods would probably not have bent. K20 conrods are toy rods, designed to be light and capable to rev, not take the torque from a turbo'd car.

Reliable turbo power is not cheap....

 

[f1nal zeros]

I assume he may be talking about people over revving the motor thus putting a hole in the block.

In alot of cases here in the states some will mis-shift thier car.
And will mistakenly go from 3rd gear at redline to 2nd while aiming for 4th gear.
It happens, and during that instant the engine suffers a huge impact and things will brake thus putting a hole in the block. I've seen it happen a bunch of times.

As for recalls on the k20a, no.
They now make you sign a wavier stating that should you over rev the motor there will be no warranty applied.