Gutted

[karldavies]

Can't believe it ! I spent 4 months getting my tubby track ready using up all my weekends. Swapped over the nackered CT26 for a CT20b, de catted the down pipe, changed the hose from hell+earth, new long life coolant, rev2+ caliper upgrade, new vented discs all round, new goodridge hoses, new pads,dot 5.1, new alloys with r888's on, stripped out interior. Was running lovely, nice and smooth on the way to my first track day.....

Took it to Cadwell on Friday, got 9 laps out of it before a massive engine fault. At first i though it might have been the heat shield rattling, but it got louder and deeper tone, (over 20-30 seconds). It then cuts out so I coast off the track to a safe location. I leave it for a few mins and then decide to turn over the engine and see if it will start. It takes about 20 seconds to fire up and sounds like a right mess. I can hear metal banging against something else inside the engine. I immediately turn the engine off to prevent any more damage. That was my first track day over after 10 minutes !!

I am just so gutted, as its taken me a long time and a fair bit of cash to get it ready and now its dead.

I have no idea how much its going to cost to get sorted and its not something i want to attempt myself.

Don't know what to do

[Martin F]

Bad luck but all is not lost, you need to find out whats wrong first but even if it's bad parts are very cheap at the moment, i sold one complete bottom end for £100 recently for example .
Firstly you have to find out whats wrong exactly but you should be able to swap an engine over in a weekend if needed, not all bad

I do feel for you Btw, gutting after all your hard work but there will be light at the end of the tunnel

[RobCrezz]

Sounds like it got starved of oil. Did you give it an oil and filter change recently? Did you check the oil level before going out on the track?

[karldavies]

My oil was topped up. I did check it before i went.

I have receipts from a garage that it had an engine rebuild about 15 months ago. The lad said he run it in properly but i can't help but think something wasn't done right. I put a few hundred miles on it before the track day as well.

Without the engine coming out its hard to tell whats wrong but I'm wondering if it'll be more cost effective to get another engine (maybe a rev3) and where is the best place to take it...rogue??

[cantfindausername]

That is a gutting story. Have to agree though that it sounds like oil starvations. Could be a number of factors though that caused it.

Quickest route, source a replacement engine and jus whip it out. If you're just tracking the car I wouldn't bother with the hassle of changing to all to Rev3 stuff.

[karldavies]

Well i'm not planning on using the car until March time now so I'm not in any mad rush to get it done. I was only thinking about a rev3 engine as my future plans were to get a rev3 conversion, apexi fc or the likes and give it a boost increase to circa 300bhp. (with supporting mods)

What do you think?

How much would a rev3 engine (minus the turbo) be including loom etc. I would also be replacing the gear box with a rev3 lsd version. Or if you think it would be best to stick to a rev 1/2 i would be happy to listen to your thoughts

Thanks again

[cantfindausername]

Still can't see a really valid reason for spending out the extra on a rev3 set up on a 300bhp track car. "supporting mods" will be the same on a rev1/2 or 3, as in I/C, boost controller, filter, exhaust etc. If you're going to lengths of getting a PFC on there you might as well consider all the other gubbins to go along with it like injectors, rail, pump, larger/more efficient turbo and have the ability to hike the power up, or give you the option to see more later on.

A stock fuel/ecu set up will see circa~300bhp all day long (with supporting mods). Yes it will be over fuelling, but I wouldn't really worry about fitting a PFC just to drop a bit of fuel out, and you certainly don't need to go that far just for increasing the boost. You might get a few more hp from leaning the mixture to something more "spot on", but would you notice it? I doubt it personally.

My advice would be:
If you're going for a stripped out, up to 300bhp set up, stay rev1/2 engine and get all the add ons to see that power.
If you're going for more than 300bhp, then stick with the rev1/2 engine for now, addons, then ECU/fuelling/turbo later on and do it as a conversion. I wouldn't particularly go looking for a rev3 lump for this path. Probaly cheaper to pick up an early engine and convert it.

As for the gearbox, stick a proper LSD in your current box if its in good shape. Stock diff's are crap, and can't really be called a diff by any techincal meaning of the word.

Which ever way you go it will be fun when its done. (thats what i have to keep telling myself)

Ant

[Marf]

Given it was fine on the road but then died on track, could the lack of a baffled sump have killed it?

[tonigmr2]

I wouldn't have thought so, the cars in the MR2 Championship (albeit not turbos I know) are put through repeated stresses with 'normal' sumps. I've done many track days in turbos with no problem. I suspect an underlying fault, any weakness will be amplified when you're thrashing a car around.

[bobhatton]

What fuel were you using?
What boost did you run and what inter cooler do you have?

I would think your big ends have gone from the engine detonating.

Strip this engine down and see how bad things are. You may only need replacement crank, rods and pistons

Bob

[karldavies]

Hi guys, thanks very much for the comments and advice.

The car was standard all the way other than the CT20. It still had the stock rev1 ecu. No boost increases at all and I ran tesco super 99.

As i said a little earlier, the engine had a rebuild a short while ago. Apparently the lad who owned it before me ran it with no oil and nackered the engine. He then had it rebuilt, and on the receipt it states that the crank was nackered so had it all replaced and fixed. Cost him £2k !! I just think to myself that either he didnt run it in properly or the job wasn't done very sufficiently.

As for my performance gains I definitely don't want to go any more than 300bhp as i know its going into forge teritory. Plus i would still like my car to be fairly reliable. As for my box its crunching so my aim was to pick up a rev3 lsd box.

I've never taken an engine apart before so would be a little aprehensive. Saying that I don't mind having a go, there may be obvious signs of damage which i can identify.

So do I take it out and have a look or just get another rev1/2 engine?

Thanks again, I really appreciate the help

[loudandproud205]

from my previous experience (all be it french cars) id quite possibly say its spun the bottom end and shot all baring possibly down to the oil pump failing/blocked.

unfortunatly as said you cant really tell till you have the engine out, personally id be fitting a fresh engine in it, and then take the one you have to bits try find weak spots possibly fix them and rebuild it to the spec your looking for,

[bobhatton]

You can take the sump off after draining the oil. Once that is off you can remove the big ends and check the bearings, that will tell you how bad things may be.

If it is very bad then get a secondhand Rev 1 or 2 engine. If you want to change to a Rev 3 that will be a lot more work and cost and no need to as you can get the 300HP from the Rev1 and 2


Bob