good day gone bad
 

I took the car around the block after I changed the oil and spark plugs. It ran fine until I decided to give it a lil boost. It went up to 5psi and then the motor just stop running. I cranked the motor but it won't turn over. After about 5 mins. of trying to get the car started I decided to push the car home. Good thing this happened around the corner of the house. Got the car home and took out the plugs. Tried cranking the motor over again and still won't turn over. I grab my 1/2 in. rachet and 3/4 socket and stuck it on the crank pully bolt. Tried to turn it over by hand but it just won't turn. That's when I knew my motor was shot. What could have cause my motor to seized? Insufficient oil going to rotor bearings? Too much boost? I have no idea. If anyone knows why this would happen please help me out.

Did you try turning it backwards? Broken apex seal can stop an engine, but you can often turn them backwards, if they aren't jambed too solid.

pull your plugs out and see if those are still intact

lack of tuning caused your engine to seize.

Your sig doesn't say anything about your fuel system and ecu?

that doesnt make sense, even if he detonated and destroyed an apex seal, it would still spin, it just wouldnt make compression, unless it was stuck like what trochoid said.

That sucks. I'm sorry to hear that.

Home made boost controller? Time for a rebuild, which means time for upgrading, which means time for big porting... :)

man that suck idk what to tell you

Make sure the sump plug didn't fall out. Its possible...

i am running a walbro 255 fuel pump and stock s4 TII ecu w/ RB FCD. I tried turning the motor the other way and still wouldn't move.

Did the wheels lockup when it quit running? How high in the reves did you have it.

Stock clutch?


Possible that the clutch came apart and has it stuck.


Just a WAG.

I won't know until I take the motor out. I was in 2nd gear at about 3K rpm when the motor stop running. Tires locked up and it stoped running. The clutch was acting kinda strange before it happened. I might drop the tranny later on tonight just for the hell of it. I'll keep you guys posted.

Wedge the clutch pedal in with a 2x4 or something, then try turning the motor over again and see if it acts any differently...

good point. its possible he threw to much boost at a used engine and seized a bearing somehow. mabey it was just the engines time to die. noone will know till you crack that thing open.

This motor is toasted guys. Instead of taking the tranny off today, I decided to take the turbo off. Once the turbo was off the motor, I found alot of metal in the #2 rotor housing exhaust port and some in the turbo manifold. The motor was a rebuild when I put the turbo and stuff on it. I put about 3-4k miles on the motor before it went out. Who would have thought it would go out so fast. It did take alot of boost before it decided to go to sleep. Hopefully my next motor would last longer then this one. Normally I would go to the junkyard and pull a motor from another 7 and just drop it in my car, but I think I have enough parts to build one. I can mix match S3, S4, and S5 engine parts right? Right now I have a S4 block minus rotors and water pump, 2 S5 rotor housings with large exhaust ports, and my seized S3 block. If the rotors is still good in my S3 block, can I use the rotating assembly from that put it together using the S4 irons and S5 housings?

im sorry for you man, thats has to be very deppressing...

at first it was depressing, but I got over it. I look at it as a good thing now. I can clean up the engine bay, get it painted, and do a real turbo swap. Tomorrow I will be taking the motor apart and see what happened inside the motor. Hopefully I can get a digicam so I can post some pics online. I found some more chunks of metal in the intake ports. Looked like a piece of the apex seal. I will post some pics of the engine tear down tomorrow.

Still haven't taken my motor apart yet, but I cleaned the engine bay and painted it black. I started some porting work on the new motor and it still needs more work. This is my first port job so let me know what you guys think.

looks clean mang yee yee hyphy yadadamean?? lol

whats the stuff ontop of the strut towers in your engine bay??

we get stories like this here all the time. the auto shop imports these s5 motors and sell them complete for $500 as is. You have no clue on the history of them. They are 90-91 spec, have probably 100k+ miles on them, have been standing in a jap junk yard for years, maybe even in the rain, then end up here in cape town. Guys throw them straight in and 3-4k miles later it blows up, just like you described what happened to yours. As a matter of course, one has to strip these motors down to check housings and to replace all seals, bearings even perhaps the oil pump. you go thru all this effort to replace the motor, might as well make sure you install a good one (unless you like pulling motors every 3 months or so)

The metal piece on top of my strut tower is for my RB strut bar. I finally took the motor apart and the #2 rotor and housing looked ugly. Everything else is fine. heres some pics of the damaged parts. The pictures are the number 2 rotor, housing, and apex seals.

Homemade boost controller and not properly tuned? That can lead to quick engine death.

Looking at the trashed housing, it appears it doesn't have the 2mm bevel it needs to protect the apex seal, may be the lighting though. Which intake porting template are you using? The top part of the port also needs a bevel so the side seal doesn't catch. There is a lot more work to be done smoothing the intake tract.

Do you have a pair of TII rotors? I would use those instead of the NA ones, makes tuning easier and less chance of detonation, (probable cause of losing this engine). As far as using S3 parts, the only part I would use is maybe the e-shaft. See if you can locate S4-5 irons, S5 rear preferably and any 2nd gen housings. NA housings wil work if you install the TII exhaust sleeves.

Get a real boost contoller and port the wastegate on the turbo. Are you running a good boost gauge, blow-off valve and fmic? Cheaping out on these items can get expensive quick if you keep blowing engines.