Godzilla, Rebuilding A Monster

[paradime]

Car was on the dyno last Friday getting broken in and preliminary tuning. They took it up to 465 whp at 12 psi on pump gas, never taking it above 6K rpm without a hitch. Jason had to go to Vegas this week, so tuning will continue after the 7th. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 1, 2018 by paradime

[paradime]

The plan is to take it to 16psi on a flex fuel tune for pump and e85 and limit it at 8500 rpm. Also programing launch control where the ECU holds the rpm at 4K to have it all spooled up, and traction control on hard starts. Expecting low 3s 0-60 and mid 10s 1/4. With insane handling, the car should be a blast.  

 

[mrbigtanker]

On 8/14/2018 at 6:09 PM, paradime said:

 

Oh HELL no ?   "Rebuilding A Monster" not castrating it.

 

 Our little 2.6L will make 600+hp, redline at 8500 rpm, and sound like the soul of a Samurai warrior having a cosmic orgasm. 

 

Top of the line 6.2L LS3 crate engine makes 525hp, redlines at 6600 rpm, and sounds like a fat redneck taking a shit. 

 

But I'm not bias or anything... ?

 

 

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/nal-19355573/overview/

 

Wait did you say LS, what about this LSX. hahahahahahaha

[paradime]

No Mr. T, that wasn't me, it was nl320what who cut that blasphemous fart. Well, I guess a swarthy cast iron 454 cubic inch LSX thunder chunk might work great in a monster truck. Although it is four wheel drive, we weren't planning on doing much mud bog racing with our monster.  BTW, that little aluminum 158.662 cubic inch RB made 540 WHEEL hp on pump gas. Woo wooo! Tuning on E85 next week. 

 

 

[mrbigtanker]

I know just busting your balls. Cant wait for my other FJ to be done, really curios what it will put out.

[paradime]

Totally understood T, I just had to play my part and act like the prototypical JDM fanboy... Wait a minute, I am a JDM fanboy.  ?

[paradime]

After weeks of shakedown and tweaking the tune, the monster is loose on the streets of Oregon. Hide your children.

 

 

[datzenmike]

KPH always looks faster. ?

[paradime]

shit. that's shifting at 7K rpm, but the rev limiter is set at 9k. Lot's more to go with the learning curve though. One step at a time.

 

We're taking the family to Portland over the Christmas break to see my brother and sister. and both the 510 and GT-R will be there as well. Bring your Depends Mike. 

[datzenmike]

 

 

[Crashtd420]

2 hours ago, paradime said:

shit. that's shifting at 7K rpm, but the rev limiter is set at 9k. 

Sounds so good..... it didnt even seem to care that it was at 7k.....  I cant imagine pulling it to 9k...... 

[mrbigtanker]

Wow man sounds awesome.

[nl320what]

That is a nice RB, should bump up power about 20% on E85 tune.

 

Make sure to change 30wt-ND oil in it for break-in :)

[paradime]

Same place that did motor install and tune on Ken's GTR did this Celica build. It's on the market for a cool $160K ?WHAT!!!

 

Cleanest 2jz I've ever seen, and yes that's likely what the car's got into it, but the owner will never get that price.

[paradime]

Crushing turn of events this morning. My brother was in Portland driving the GT-R and shortly after startup it began falling on its face when accelerating and started idling rough. All the gauges read normal temp and oil pressure. He costed it to the side of the road and it died. He said the sound was only as if it was misfiring and hesitating, and heard no grinding or knocking.  First thing he did was call me and I had him open the hood to look for the obvious. No wiring plug or hoses out if place, but the oil cap was loose and there was some oil on the valve cover. Then had him check the oil, and it was clean but on the low side. Not a big deal because it takes a while for the oil to drain from the head back to the pan. I had him try and turn over the engine and the starter engaged but no turn. Kind of went into panic mode then, had him look at the exhaust and it was soaked with water. My heart sank right there and told him to call the guys at PSI. Shortly after one of the techs came out and pulled the plugs. All of them soaked and on the #5 cylinder plug the entire electrode was gone. Only two ways that could happen, either it was running so lean it was cooked off, or something like a valve fell and nocked it off. The latter would have made an unmistakeable racket, so I'm thinking the #5 injector was bad and had been running lean, but how water got into all 6 cylinder has me stumped with knots in my stomach. The engine is being pulled and shipped back to Ray the builder to see what's salvageable. 

 

I feel so fucking bad for my brother I could cry. The guy spent a fortune on his dream car and after it failed the first time, he took the time and spent another fortune building it right so it would be fun, but stout enough to be reliable. He was getting it inspected and changing the oil every 200 mile and now this. I'm fucking sick.

[datzenmike]

Does it have an air / water inter cooler?????

 

Is it hydro locked?

[paradime]

10 hours ago, datzenmike said:

Does it have an air / water inter cooler?????

 

Is it hydro locked?

 

Standard intercooler. It could be a blown head gasket that caused hydro locke, but how'd water get in all six and that plug electrode disappear? 

[datzenmike]

Does it have a single throttle plate or one for each side? OR an inline engine?

 

Is the turbo water cooled??

 

Does the throttle plate have coolant warming or is there any coolant connections to the intake in any way?

 

I assume the rad coolant level is low now?

 

Was it raining or was there standing water on the road?

 

 

[paradime]

It's much worse, but I see where you'r going Mike. Single plate intake plenum with cold idle valve, throttle body, turbos all getting water circulated. No standing water. To experience hydro lock there would need to be a lot of water entering very fast. It was as I suspected, a valve fell and pushed through the head into the water jacket. chances are there were a lot of fragments circulated through the open valves and into the exhaust turbine. Still don't know the full extent of the damage. 

[datzenmike]

RB then.  Well.... that's shitty.

[paradime]

After playing hot potato for a while, we've got the engine back on track. Portland Speed Industries is no longer in business, but Kyle, their lead tech has opened his own shop and has kept all their customers. The OwnerJason is now the head North American rep for Link ECU. The first thing they did was pull the logged data off the Link ECU (kind of a black box feature) to see what the engine was doing, and right up until the failure at 2,700 rpm everything was looked perfect. As soon as the engine started showing a problem the ECU shut the engine down to limp mode and three seconds later it stopped running. So as the engine was pulled by Kyle's shop here's what they found.

 

 

 

 

It was at that point that the hot potato started getting tossed around. Ken wasn't thrashing the car bouncing off the rev limiter. All the plugs other than the #5 looked perfect coffee drown color, so the tune was spot on. Something in the head spontaneously failed and since all the valve train parts were new it came down to the head itself. Either a guide started sticking and the valve got slapped, or a seal fell out. I believe it was the latter because I recall there being a slight issue with the CAS gear not perfectly aligning with the cam. I believe the engine may have overheated as some point and warped the head. Resurfacing would not repair any cam journal alignment issue. If the head got that hot, it could have also damaged the bond of the valve seals to the aluminum head. No fault other than the dickhead who didn't disclose the full history. Just my theory. 

 

The engine was sent back to Ray's shop (the builder) and here's what he found.

 

 

Cam and upper valve train are fine. Lower, not so much.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 22, 2019 by paradime

[datzenmike]

Head and one piston. Valve seat fell out. Would the data logger show over heating? Maybe the seats were replaced? Usually this is the reason for them falling out, not done by professional shop. Debris jammed in one of the exhaust valves forcing it sideways or holding the door open so the piston could, snapping off the protrusion (guide) shown. Long enough and the valve head would have come off just like the two intakes. Damned shame I hate seeing precision machinery damaged. It is fixable though and though trite sounding, could have been worse.

 

Oh... how did the chips end up in all the other cylinders? During tear down??

[thisismatt]

[paradime]

2 hours ago, datzenmike said:

Head and one piston. Valve seat fell out. Would the data logger show over heating? Maybe the seats were replaced? Usually this is the reason for them falling out, not done by professional shop. Debris jammed in one of the exhaust valves forcing it sideways or holding the door open so the piston could, snapping off the protrusion (guide) shown. Long enough and the valve head would have come off just like the two intakes. Damned shame I hate seeing precision machinery damaged. It is fixable though and though trite sounding, could have been worse.

 

Oh... how did the chips end up in all the other cylinders? During tear down??

 

The data didn't show any overheating, but that's not to say something might've caused excessive heat in the #5. The oil looked pretty black to me, and it had been changed less than 400 mile earlyre. The machinist who did the valve job and builder both say they were factory seats. I agree, totally heart braking to see such things, but even worse when it's this up close and personal.

 

All other cylinders looked perfect, no scoring whatsoever. In fact the #5 would have been fine had it not been for a small but deep ding near the top. Indeed it could have been far worse though.

 

Not sure how the stars aligned but we found a brand new OEM head and block for $2,200. So yeah, one new piston and possibly a rod, new bearings, and the bottom end is ready to go. The head will need some modification opening oil drain passigese and mild porting. We're keeping the stock exhaust valves put upgrading the intakes. Possibly Tomei stainless, but not sure yet. The entire upper valve train is still like new. 

 

I really have to take my hat off to everyone who worked on the car. They've all stepped up and put their back into getting it back together. Ray, Jason, and Kyle are damn good folk.

[datzenmike]

9 hours ago, datzenmike said:

 

 

Oh... how did the chips end up in all the other cylinders? During tear down??