I'm sure my engine failure had something to do with it being boosted. Very rarely have I heard of a stock, well maintained engine just keeling over.

 

Mine's been towed home a few times. Once was due to me forgetting to torque the bolts on the water pump pulley -- a week later it threw the belt on the way home from work. It also ate a coolant line at Laguna Seca and then blew the head gasket after bypassing that.

--Ian

 

my TB jumped teeth. my crank pulley is off 10* form my pulleys. I get to fix that tonight.

 

Vlsd blew at the track, that's the only time I've been stranded. I've cut a lot of sessions short due to over heating. I've also limped home on two cylinders A LOT, either from MS, COPs, or injectors. Or my wiring.

 

Nothing turbo related. Put it together well with good parts and it won't go wrong until the life of the parts is up. Overheated once, but that was my fault. Someone told me I didn't need a coolant overflow tank . I also blew up the POS 2-piece DP that Begi sells a couple of times... replaced it with ARtech goodies and all is well.

MS has never left me stranded, but once, for some unknown reason, the car ran like ****. Almost stalling out, no power, that sort of thing. Let the car sit overnight, next day, it was fixed. Weird.

The LC1, however... Don't get me started on this ******. I think it's broken on me 4 or 5 times in the 2 years I've had it... Lots of random errors over the years that seem to reset themselves with time. It's never left me stranded, but it has pissed me off to no end.

Only time I was ever stranded was my fault. Bracket got into the tranny housing when I did up the tranny and it proceeded to start to grind on the flywheel... bad noises. Probably could have driven it the 10 miles home, but I didn't feel like risking it.

60 miles a day probably 4.5 days a week on average at 219rwhp. Hasn't given me any serious problems. Like I said, if it's well put together and well tuned, it will be no worse than any other factory turbo car.

EDIT: The only problem I have with DDing my turbo Miata is that it's delicate, low and hard. I've been driving my A6 more and more just because of these reasons.

 

My car has never failed on me.

My shitty/ignorant wrenching skills
Bullshit fuckups from vendors/shops
Crappy turbo systems designs

Have stranded me.

 

This should be on the front page.

 

+1. the things that break are the things I touch.

 

I broke my key in half last night, and I was stranded at the Frat house. Read: Pusha

 

My fuel pump said F YOU, after filling up at a gas station on the way to work last year. Had to get towed home.
My alternator crapped out at night on the turnpike, also last year...got it towed home.
Otherwise, it's been a good car.

 

Stranded once. City driving it died and wouldn't start again more than momentarily. Water had made it's way down pressure signal tube from the intake mani to the sensor in my megasquirt. It killed the mapdaddy. Computer thought the car was seeing max pressure all the time. Overboost protection kept the car from running. I've looped the line and added a small fuel filter to prevent it happening again.

 

I've blown a headgasket and I've blown a coolant line off twice and had another bust on me. All but the busted line were my own fault (and that one probably was as well, for reusing lines instead of replacing). These were actually all on my old car as well, current car has never left me stranded. I do daily drive mine and I'm confident in it cranking and getting me to work everyday. That said, I have a ninja 500 that I can drive when something does happen.

It's also been very rare that I've tried to do something that should easily be done over a weekend (install turbo/ecu/swap motor/clutch/etc) that I hasn't up taking 2 weeks, waiting for some random part that I managed to break in the process. Be it bad luck, or just plain stupidity, at least 95% of my problems come from trying to fix or improve on something that wasn't really broken in the first place.

 

Several times.

-Stranded me at Thunderhill when 2 of the 4 turbo studs failed, and the other two seized halfway on, halfway off. Fixed with v-bands, you can fix it with our inconel studs (if you're man enough).

-Stranded me at a meet about 15 miles north of home, blown 5-speed. Probably could have limped it home but I didn't want to be doing 40mph and have the rear end lock up somewhere.

-Stranded me 75 miles north of school, on the way home - threw #4 rod from the 160k original longblock (30k boosted miles).

While I was still DDing it, honestly, it was pretty damn reliable. Aside from massive major components failures caused by the stresses of track duty, there was really no stupid issues. I did a lot of homework before I bought any parts and it paid off big time.

It's absolutely doable, if you don't cheap out on important stuff. You have to have good oil/water lines, a good manifold/downpipe, a good ECU and tune, and generally good maintenance habits. The guys that have chronic problems with street cars are either unlucky or lacking in quality components.

Tracking the car is an entirely different story - it's definitely doable, but you need to be utterly pedantic about maintenance, oil analysis, and overbuilding for your use. Cars like Trey's may look like street cars, but when you do 12-15 events a year, it's a race car with an interior and plates, and it needs to be maintained like a race car. That includes regular nut and bolt checks, UOAs to determine oil change intervals, more aggressive fluid cooling throughout the chassis, monitoring engine/drivetrain vitals more closely, and just being a more ---- owner overall. You can neglect a street car a little bit, but if you "leave something to the next event" on a race car you're playing with fire.

 

Thanks all for the replies. I have a 2002 Jeep Liberty that is my winter/spare vehicle. My first matter of business is probably to get THAT car tuned up solid so it will be available if I need to drive it for any period of time while i work out gremlins.

Next, it looks like my biggest danger is ME f'king up my install. Check all fittings, bolts, connections, and double check them. Don't expect to drive to work immediately after messing with the engine management.

Unless I am mistaken, the LC-1 is the O2 sensor/pigtail itself and requires an analog gauge, but the MTX-L has the O2 and pigtail included correct? Which is preferred? Should I get the full length cable or is the 3ft "motorsports" cable a better choice?

Thanks!

 

I'm in the middle of a 1500-mile, two week road trip in my white, shitbox daily driver. Both are meticulously maintained, but I really considered taking the track car because I know deep down that my trackcar is more reliable than my street car. I'm more worried about my 130k, stock motor zinging at 4500rpm for 6-hours on end than I am doing the same in my track car.

It's pretty cool when you check yourself and think about it.

 

My car randomly shut off on the way home today. I down shifted and it started back up. But the throttle didn't work and the tack was flipping out. Turned the key and got power back but now its idling at 1500. Valerie acting like a bitch!