andrew wouldve been nice to find out how it happened tho.

we do regular leak down tests now for the peace of mind it gives you that everything is ok in the combustion chamber

Getting water in through inlet .. Or may be a fuel injector leaking badly or ECU malfuction causing the injector to stay open .. I dont think a bent rod would last long before it broke .. from past experience .. any way just a thought .. I have heard from other people that copper head gaskets tend to leak easily .. i had a twincam engine that would only leak water in to the cylinder when it sat for awhile but was ok when running .. there was a crack in the cylinder head from the exhaust seat to the water jacket .. well good lcuk mate ..lucky you found it

Jewels I hadnt noticed any problems with engine it had been running fine been racing and had done a few dyno runs before I pulled it off the road with no problems. I hadnt done any compression checks that would have shown something was wrong.
It is possible that I had assembled it with a slightly bent rod years ago. The only reason I noticed was because both no 2&3 where at the top of the bore. The rods had been race preped with the chev ARP bolts peened and balanced I dont know if they would have picked the bend up then. Its only very slight. Anyway better to find out now then later with a leg out of bed.
Cheers Andrew

gee andrew that is a strange one...
and never noticed anything else with engine or its performance?

very lucky to find it
it could have been a lot worse...

I dont know anything about CA piston and rod markings but is it possible that the piston has been fitted backwards onto the rod or even the piston itself is faulty and has been drilled for the gudgeon pin offset to the wrong side? By that I mean has it resulted in the rod being too vertical for crank rotation and at high rpm the force of the combustion stroke has first gone straight down the rod vertically into the crank before the angle between the rod and crank is sufficient enough to deliver rotational forces to the crank?
Either way half a millimetre is a pretty good find with just a visual inspection. Good thing you found it now though.

Cheers Steve

We knocked the head off my brothers FJ20 when changing the timing chains, just for a look. Same problem. Engine was still running fine, idle etc. . .

Anyway, a $500 bottom end was dropped in while the forgies were fitted. Apparently this is quite a common problem when running high cylinder pressures.

Quote:
Where's the finger?

its not that easy a problem to pick, as you race your engine at times, the heat build up would cause some types of metal fatigue with the heat up and cool down process, as the rods are 4 separate parts, theres no guranteees if or when they may bend or break.
Having you been running the car harder with more boost lately. Have you re tuned t for the cahnge in the warmer weather, small things like this on a highly tuned machine can have dramatic effects.
All things you would have known already

Very strange!! Maybe your right ive heard that before they are girly plastic motors
ahh well more power now I hope it made 190atw with a bendy rod.
I only wish I picked it up the proplem when I pulled the head of a few months ago. Time is not on my side for bathurst Ill have to pull the finger out

dont you hat how those soft alloys get stuck under your fingernails.... ucky you didnt break one


(really bad sarcastic joke)