I Broke Her

It was destined to happen sooner or later, and it seems like this was the weekend.

It all started out innocently enough. Was signed up for the NASA-SE Winter Melt Down event at Carolina Motorsports Park. My buddy that usually goes with me had his car out of commission, but wanted to test out his new tow rig so he offered to trailer my car up there for me (about 4 1/2 hours). Well we're loading it on the trailer Friday morning and not thinking this is going to be an issue cause he has had his (much lower) EG hatch on there dozens of time. What we didn't allow for was that his EG doesn't have a big fat custom 3" exhaust hanging down underneath.:bash: So after the flex pipe separates from the header and we dig it out from underneath the car we get the car up on the trailer and to a jack leg exhaust shop to get it welded back on. Carefully load the car back on the trailer and we're back on the road.

So we get to the track with only one minor incident (blown tire on the trailer) get the car unloaded, teched and everything is golden. I run most of the day Saturday, driving the piss out of the car and no problems. Only reason I didn't run all day was my own dumassedness in missing a required classroom session8).

So Sunday morning rolls around and I'm ready to run. I run the first session and the motor sounds just a little off, but I attribute it to an exhaust leak since the repair job was half assed and I knew it. I figure no big deal I'll just live with it. Second session of the day and I've requested a check ride to move from HPDE-2 to HPDE-3. I'm four laps into the session and all of a sudden the motor is making a whole lot more noise, and even worse power is way, way, way down. I pit in, pull back to my paddock spot and start crawling under the car trying to find anything and can't. I hook up the laptop and she isn't throwing any codes either. So fuck. The weekend is over we load her up and take her home.

On the way home I call the mechanic that has done most of the work on my baby and ask if we can just drop it off at his house (he does side work out of his house) on the way home. We get there and he is hearing some fairly serious rod knock. He's going to drop the motor out this week and get it apart to see what the damage is.

So it seems like we are looking at a rebuild. Now I have to decide exactly how far I want to go. I already have a K20A2 that has had a mild PNP and valve job done on it and that is definitely going on. Rods and pistons are probably going to have to be replaced too, but I haven't decided with what exactly. Going to have to see what shape the crank is in as well.

Aww, sh*t Mike.
Sorry to hear that man.

robb86 wrote:

Aww, sh*t Mike.
Sorry to hear that man.

Well, we can fix her, make her stonger, faster, we have the technology.

Good point.
Positive attitude knows no limits, well maybe, but it sounds good - hahahaa.

Built k20a2?
500whp?
awd conversion?
fullrace turbo kit?

I'm going to stick more or less with what I've got for now. I like the nice broad linear powerband the s/c gives me. Looking at probably boring it .020 over and putting forged internals in probably with a bump in compression to 11.0:1 to 11.5:1 depending on what is available. That with the PNP K20A2 head that I've got in the basement on it should make some better power. Also looking to add an Accusump since the more I think about what happened the more convinced I become that it was an oil starvation issue.

Lucid Moments wrote:

I'm going to stick more or less with what I've got for now. I like the nice broad linear powerband the s/c gives me. Looking at probably boring it .020 over and putting forged internals in probably with a bump in compression to 11.0:1 to 11.5:1 depending on what is available. That with the PNP K20A2 head that I've got in the basement on it should make some better power. Also looking to add an Accusump since the more I think about what happened the more convinced I become that it was an oil starvation issue.

I like that plan, cause I was just going to say bigger bore!

So where the hell is the updates, mike?

Unfortunately not much news. Still waiting on parts. Especially the biggest part, the bottom end.

I've talked to ERL and they are going to be building the bottom end for me. They still had my core from back when I was dealing with that other engine builder, and they had already sleeved it. They are going to be cutting me a deal on the sleeves.

Its going to be ERL Superdeck I at 87mm, Wiseco 11.0:1 pistons fully coated, crower rods, K20A2 head that has been ported and polished, and had the combustion chambers and exhaust ports coated, The same cams, same header. Going to have an Accusump system put in as well as a K20A2 oil pump and aluminum pan. Going to go back to the shorter stock EP 4.7 final drive.

Thats everything I can think of off the top of my head.

A little bit of news. I've finally gotten an estimate on a delivery date for the motor and ERL is saying that it should be done by 03/31. Still waiting on my Buddy Club coilovers too, but they may be in by then as well. We'll see what happens.

Nice - so when can we expect joy rides?

Well I'm signed up for a track weekend in Savannah in mid-May so sometime before that I hope.

The motor finally got put on an engine stand today and got tanken apart. And would you believe the culprit was a spark plug

Looks like #1 cylinder was running a little lean and the spark plug dropped the electrode into the cylinder. Beat the piston face and combustion chamber up a little but nothing that a little machine work and new pistons won't cure. Didn't damage the sleeve at all that I can tell. Didn't have the right tool to take the rod bolts out so I don't know the condition of the bearings right now, but there was no signs of any damage to the bottom end other than the one piston, and no damage to the head other than the one combustion chamber.

I'll have pics later. My camera is busted by I took some pics with my mechanics camera and he's going to e-mail them to me.

The plan for this motor for now is to have the head repaired. Have the cylinders bored out probably 0.25mm and go back in with factory replacement parts and keep it around as a spare. None of this is going to happen immediately, but as I have money.

Here are some pics of the damage

This is cylinder 1, the one that failed



This is cylinder 4, the opposing cylinder



Cylinder 1 Combustion Chamber


Cylinder 4 Combustion Chamber


Cylinder 1 Wall

The bottom end got in from the machine shop






The head is on now too, cams installed, timing chain etc... is all on, and it should be ready to go in the car sometime soon. I've got a tuning appt at Balanced Performance on May 9 so we'll see what happens.

Cool beans, hopefully it all works out well.