We are hoisting the car into the garage now. I haven't found the hole in the block yet, but the fourth piston does not move up and down with the rest of them. Here's the photo thread to document our progress. The goal is to source a 1.8, get the turbo setup swapped over, and get the new motor in and tuned in 3 weeks for the Miata event at Laguna Seca.

 

Ouch! My turbo is going on the car this week in prep for Laguna Seca. Fingers crossed for us both. Good luck and hope to see you there!

 

If you could, when taking it apart and take pictures of each rod, keeping them in order. IE-from left to right rods 1-4. And also same for the upper and lower rod bearings.

 

Damn you people and your blowing up.

 

No kidding. I passed some dipshit in his chevy today in full boost in 3rd. I was thinking of sav the whole time.

 

Ouch. Damn California gas.

 

Every one of these threads I see makes me adjust my power goal lower and lower, and lower... lower. Especially since Im on a stock block with a slightly higher than stock compression ratio.

 

loving my built motor, with 2* off MBT in boost right now.

I'm sorry to hear of your pain sav.

 

Nah. Over in cali they get 91 octane. And sav ran high boost with a small turbo, which is hard on the engine for a given power level. And he tracked the ever living **** out of that motor. Considering how much time that engine has operated in boost, it lasted a long *** time. Now why it failed, dunno. I suspect detonation or a seized piston, but we'll see.

By chance sav, did you dial in more timing in cruise recently?

 

I guess that is true, but its still not very good on my nerves since I plan to be boosted soon, and daily drive it ~15k a year. What does this make, like 4 or 5 people blown up in the last 2 months. Cut it out damnit!

 

I know, right? I'm getting nervous as well. Turbo kit will be going on any day now.

Good luck Sav, sorry to hear.

 

about time.
<------15psi daily with no fear

 

the track is much different from the street. I bet we put down more time in boost in one session than you do in years in your daily driver. This is the reason I put together a built motor on low compression pistons with a turbine housing that everyone thinks is too big. I wanted headroom...we'll see if I have it after a few track days. So next time someone says my turbine is too big, compression is too low, dumb to tune for 91-octane while running 93, and to use those stupid det-cans, I'll point to my track-worthy running motor.

Savington,
have you considered coming up with $2k to put together a built bottom end and freshened-up head?

 

Sorry to hear about your motor. As I also blew up my motor, I feel your pain. Any idea what happened? Was it just overall hard use, or did something specific cause the problem?

Hey Pat you never said anything about those bearing pictures I posted in my engine carnage thread. Did you see any detonation indicators?

Yeah the track is a lot harder on engines for sure. It always amazes me for example how we run the crap out of these Japanese bike engines for hours on end (endurance racing), several times a year, and they come back for more, season after season. No way they get run that hard on the street, not unless you are a complete idiot, and then you die.

 

Hmmm...Maybe my lowly 8 psi will suffice for a while. Especially now that it appears unlikely that my 550's won't be showing up from Chuck.

 

I'm sure I stressed a rod at some point this weekend, and it let go on the highway. I was cruising, hadn't been in boost for probably an hour or so, and it let go. My timing map hasn't changed recently, and I've been cruising on those exact numbers in cruise for 30k miles now.

That motor's history:

Boosted at 130,654k in 2007
First track day a week after it was turboed - 4 track days (two two-driver days)
Two-driver day at Thunderhill in 2007 - 2 track days
Two one-driver days at Buttonwillow in 07 - 2 track days
Willow Springs Sept. 08
Buttonwillow Oct. 08
Calspeed Nov. 08
Streets of Willow Dec. 08
Streets of Willow Jan 09
Thunderhill Jan 09
RIP March 1st 10:30PST, 158,8xx miles.

14 track days and 28,200 miles in 20 months. I also cut my tuning teeth on this motor so it saw plenty of detonation. I should have photos of the internals this evening.

 

I hope I get more than 14 track days out of mine...that's just one season. I also went with a "loose" bore in mine. Hopefully that will help out. I'd like to get at l100-hours of track time out of my built motor.

Yeah, I want to see what let go on yours. I don't think anyone here is harder on engines than you and I.

 

Damn Sav, good luck on the rebuild. You got some pretty good track time out of it.

 

Sorry to hear about it letting go. Sounds like you have a good contingency plan though. Good luck.

 

Wish i could lend a hand, good luck!

Agreed, i popped my inter cooler pipes off 3 times my first track event after the turbo. Not once have i done that on the street. :/