As you may have heard...
 

...yes my car blew up a third motor over the weekend.

Friday night, I was on my way to Gruppe-S to get some new fuel injectors installed/tuned. I stopped in Sacramento to drop off some tires at Aaron's (sybir) house. Getting back on the freeway, just shifted to 4th gear 4000rpm, about 7-10psi, 165F oil temp, 100psi oil pressure, about 1200F EGTs, the car hesitated (which it's done before and was the reason I was on my way to Gruppe-S) then made a horrendous noise. Sounded kinda like a table saw being braked to a stop, I think it was the clutch slipping under full pressure because the motor had stopped turning. :(

I pushed the clutch in, and rolled to a stop. Called Aaron, who grabbed Matt (sonicsuby) and came out and picked my ass up. We used Aaron's AAA to get a tow truck (the drive of which was actually pretty cool, and took his time to make sure we got the car on the flatbed w/o damaging the intercooler or bumper) and towed the car to Paul's shop in Roseville.

Mike Warfield from Gruppe-S came out Sunday morning w/ his truck and trailer and picked up the car (Mike's the man 'cause he was took the time to come out and get the car even though he was supposed to be working on their rally car for next weekend's Rim Rally.. thanks a ton Mike!).

So the car's back at Gruppe-S. They're pulling the front of the motor apart. So far all they know is that the bolt holding the passenger intake cam gear is sheared, and that the timing belt jump timing. Which explaines the odd buldge in this picture. :(



They're gonna pull more apart and peak inside the heads w/ a borascope to see if everything's wrecked in there or not.

Dude that sucks! You have had the worst luck with that car. You gonna go with another STi shortblock still or use a Gruppe-S block?

Scott sucks. Quit blowing up motors so there will be some left for the rest of us.

I don't know what I'm doing yet. It depends on the state of the motor, and how much (if any) of the repair would be covered by Gruppe-S. If everything is trashed and the bill is on me, I'm actually thinking about parting out the car. I've got like $16k in parts in that thing at current used part prices... but parting it out will be a nightmare as far as how long it will take, and how much of a hassle it'll be. Plus, I have no idea what I'd drive instead.

Right now, I'm just playing the waiting game to see how bad things actually are. The only thing I know for sure is that it looks like I'm going to be without a car for another race season. :mad:

I just read an article in SCC about the Honda Fit race car. It's calling your name!

Holy crap Dude. That's just insane. Talk about crap for luck. :(

Geez, third time isn't a charm I guess. That stinks.

sorry to hear =(

that sucks Scott. made me wanna cry... :(

You can co-drive my slow ass bitch for auto-x this season if you want!

No luck man, just no luck.

Thanks for the offer. I'm not sure what I want to do about autocross. After co-driving all last season in MikeK's car, I'm really not looking forward to doing it again... two driver cars are a PITA.

To be honest, right now I'm thinking I'll just be helping out at autocross this season and not driving. Half the fun of racing for me is building the car to beat the competition... so just driving someone else's car is like playing just half the sport, at full price. Plus, I'm going to miss at least 1/4 of the Trials season which will pretty much eliminate me from being competative, and that was really what I was focusing on this season.

I've got an automatic Legacy wagon race car calling your name. ;)

:lol: Hopefully I won't need that:

I just talked to MikeW... he told me "I should buy a lottery ticket". Being the half-empty type of guy I am, I immediately assumed I was gonna need lottery-like dollars to fix the motor. Turns out, he meant that I am one lucky bastard (this time).

Looks like the only thing that broke was the cam gear bolt. The intake valves on that cam happened to stay shut when it failed, so it seems that they escaped damage from the pistons. Mike and Tommy already have the motor running again. The 1/3 cylinders passed the leak-down test w/ flying colors, and since the timing may have jumped, they're testing the 2/4 side now. If they pass, I'm hoping to toss in the new injectors, get it on the dyno, and get it back up to Reno before this weekend's event.

Here's to crossed-fingers.

Fixed my old post

Thank god.

The 2/4 bank leaked-down 3%. Motor looks okay... we'll see what happens when it's retuned tomorrow. Hopefully nothing else breaks, I'd really like to make this weekend's Trials event.

Sorry to hear about your car situation. Hopefully only that 1 bolt broke and soon your ride is all better ! *Crosses his fingers*

Damn, I was about to talk you into getting a 6-bolt DSM! Half the troubles, half the cost, twice the speed. Yeah?

*EDIT*

Oh, and I'm glad to hear that your motor survived.

Cheap, Fast, Reliable: Pick two.

DSM = Cheap & Fast.

Apparenly my WRX = just Fast.

You might convince me that a DSM is an upgrade at this point. :lol: Hopefully after things are back together and tuned, the motor will last a while.

thank the lord!

Hopefully better than ever!

+1

Good thing you're not old enough to worry about heart problems...although you might develop some nervous twitches and the tendency to hear non-existant sounds during the next race season.
This weekend I helped annual a friend's aircraft, and one of the cylinders tested for a compression leak, even though we had been making a decent 143mph in still air that morning...reground the exhaust valve that afternoon...flying back home (after removing and reinstalling a whole cylinder on a single-engine aircraft) we were listening for anything remotely resembling a hiccup (and staying close to the highway, I might add). Only post-annual problem was the failure of the landing gear hydraulic pump upon arrival yesterday --- but the emergency gear-release option worked. Crap!

Glad it isn't as terrible as it could have been. I assume the other bolts will be checeked...

Whew! That sounds like a bullet dodged if I've ever heard of one!


I didn't think you'd wanna drive my HP lacking car anyway Scott, but I figured I'd offer! :D

Damn, I hate that. "What was that?" "I don't think it used to do that." Sometimes I wonder why I modifiy things. Usually after it goes wrong.


Scott, Sounds like you might make it out of this one. Best of luck.

*crosses fingers for more good luck*

Well, I know that if you would have put the money into a 6bolt DSM that you put into your WRX, you'd have an amazing car. We'll, you're all about handeling, not some much power and handeling, huh?

580hp : http://www.automotosports.com/ericspec.asp

Oh no! What the crap. I'm sorry that's not even the first time...

Well I backed it onto the dyno last night Scott, if that's any sign of it's health :D

Something to add though is that the shower of oil from the oil cooler is something to watch, I think I am going to have to fix it before you come down though.

Mike

:lol: :lol: :lol:


Mike, you're exposing his competitive advantage, an SM-legal oil-slick dispenser!

Sounds like good news and a huge relief Scott. All I can say about Mike's dedication/patience with your car is WOW? Driving to pick up your car and haul it to the shop - that's what I call service!

Do WRX's/STi's come with oil coolers (air to air) stock?

Nope. There's an oil/water heat exchanger on the bottom of the motor between the block and the oil filter that helps to equalize water and oil temps, but it's not really a cooler.

I built a top mount oil cooler that kinda sits where the old intercooler went in the hoodscoop. Unfortunately it looks like the cooler core has a leak in it! :eek: Time to bring it back to Summit for a new one. :mad:

That's crap that they still use a sandwich for new model RALLEY BASED cars. Genius idea puting it where the old IC is.

Thats why I want to get a 1990 DSM - 6 bolt, oil cooler stock. :)

I think the only reason for the oil/water heat exchanger is to help warm up the oil to operating temperatures more quickly. I can't imagine that thing does much for lowering oil temps.

Overseas, the special edition STIs all come w/ grill mounted oil coolers.

It doesn't. I was wondering though - Do you think there is a way where you could run the lines to another water/cooling liquid source that could provide cooler temps than the radiator can provide? Perhaps get an oil cooler/transmition cooler and just make it an extension of your radiator route and have it immediatley go to your sandwich?

Hmmmm.... :)

The way the exchanger is plumbed, you'd have to somehow route the water that normally runs through the exhanger, around the exhanger... after which, I don't think there'd be much room to add the plumbing needed to hook the exchanger to a better/different cooler.

Really the best/easiest thing to do is to toss a sandwhich adapter in there and run a simple oil cooler, same way Subaru/STI does it:

Updates?.......

Are all in the previous 35 posts, just read 'em ;)

Motor runs, no apparent damage, new oil-cooler system has some kinks to be worked out.

The update is that the car is running, but Mike's outta time to tune it before the weekend due to his commitment to the rally team's Rim entry.

I'm trying to get down there tonight/tomorrow to lend a hand, hopefully to get my car running for this weekend, as well as to help out on the rally car if I can be of any use.

How much do they charge to do a leakdown test? When I say leak down, its not a compression test, is it?

A leak-down test is basically hooking up compressed air to the cylinder and seeing how fast the pressure leaks off. It's unlike a compression test (that uses the starter to crank the motor and reads cylinder pressures) because it's done w/o having to turn the motor.

Here's a decent explaination: http://www.type2.com/library/engineg/leaktst.htm

I have no idea what they charge... I'm assuming it's their normal $75/hr shop work rate, and probably an hour for all four cylinders. On an inline 4 it would probably take less time since the cylinders/sparkplugs are far more accessible.

Yeah, I know what a leakdown test is. Im just making sure that they were not doing actually doing a compression test when they claim it's a leak down test.

I wanted to do it myself, but I cant find the gauge in town. Would anyone happen to know where I could possibly pick one up? I've have yet to go to summit, but I've gone to nappa, autozone, and kragen... nothing.

You could probably flag down a Matco or Snap-on truck and pick one up.

So we're grabbing the car hauler at 6:30 AM, and should have frankensuby onboard by 11:00AM. Wish us luck.

You down there now?

Nope, still in Reno, I'm leaving to get Scott right now.

Scott already called me at 6:12 this morning to see if he could bring you your wheels Aaron, but they were here at work, and the store didn't open until 7.


Tried...

No worries, man, I'm sorry for all the hassle.

Eh, not a hassle at all dude! Like I've said before, I'm always glad to help out!