okay.. this is gonna be a one probably, but bear with me...
The other night I drove my 'vert to a hold 'em tourney (no, not for money in case any of you works in the attorney general's office) and had NO problems on the way. Car ran just fine and worked perfectly. When I came out and got back in my car, it barely started. It turned over a bunch and wasn't starting so I floored the throttle and got it to start, but it ran like sh*t. It had very little power and barely got me home. I wondered if I had lost my ignition to one of the rotors or something because it really felt like I was running on only one, but I assumed it wasn't a problem with the compression because who's ever heard of compression problems developing while a car is just sitting still turned off? Anyway, some ignition checks and troubleshooting revealed that spark was not my problem, so I checked the compression in the rotor housings, and much to my dismay, I have ZERO compression in my front rotor... i mean NONE... not a blown seal with one good compression spike (blown apex seal).
Now I'm left wondering what went wrong and what to do about it.
The car has just under 90,000 miles on it and I had already been considering a TII swap, but given the relative scarcity of s5 TII parts, I was rethinking that decision.
Now I have a dead rotor, no idea what happened to it, and MAYBE $2500 to do something with it. Fortunately, this is not my daily driver so there's no time rush, but I would like to get it running again one day, and while I'm at it, it might be nice to see some serious HP gains. There are a thousand ways to do this though (rebulid, swap, swap AND rebuild, turbo or supercharge an NA engine, etc...) There are a thousand variations, all of which you all prolly know. So my question is...

What should I do?

Thanks in advance for your input and ideas.
-Aaron

 

You'll get answers from a lot smarter peeps than me here, but.. Maybe when you checked compression on the other rotor, the inj fuse was still in. If what I've read is correct, you may have flooded it. This could result in 0 or low compression. I would try a bit of motor oil or atf in the plug hole and try is again. But thats just me...

 

Flooding will yeild LOW numbers but not a zero. Plus, a car can;t be flooded if it's been running. Finally, flooding affects both chambers, not just one.

IT's uncommon, about a 1/100 shot, to blow one apex seal but not the other 2. This is because the one breaks, pieces fly around and take out the next 2 on consecutive sweeps. At their closest point, the rotor and housing come about 1mm close to each other, yet the seal is 2mm wide, so there isn't much chance that even a small piece can come off a seal and not damage the others. This is normal, and I see this type of damage on about 95% of blown apex seal motors I disassemble. You'll likely need a rotorhousing, and a rotor, since these are damaged and usually not repairable.

IF you want to do a turbo swap, now is the time. Budget $2-5k for the swap depending on whether you're doing your own labor or not, and what sort of motor you start out with (clean, running one, or one needing a rebuild right off).

 

u dont need an s5 tii motor swap, you can get an s4

 

Sorry man tuff brake I have never heard of one going like that :-(

If you have the time and cash I would rebuild and mod IE "TURBO" and do it right. Or order a new motor from a race company who has a moded crate you could pick up.

 

Well, the good news in the way of a TII swap is that to my understanding, since it's a Vert, I wouldn't have to replace my ECU or wiring harness, but I'm still unsure of all of the specifics. I've seen so many posts on this with conflictin information, it's hard to tell what's right anymore. I would be more than willing to invest my own time and labor into the project, but I'm also aware of my limitaions and know that my skills are prolly not enough to, for example, rebuild the thing myself. I'm confident I could do most things up to that point, however... so maybe that will give some of the more knowlegable of you ideas as to what I might be looking at in cost.

 

I would say you are probably qualified to do the swap. Yes there is alot more involved then what evryone has ever posted. Umm I am no ware neer the point of how I would of liked to do my swap money and time was lacking but I have $4,900 into this swap and the motor has 56k on it. I added what I would consider to be necisary or should not be without on any turbo car and that added alot of money but hey thats how I do it. If you hunt and do with the bare minimum you could probly get away with $2,500. If your like me and you add stuff like FMIC controllers guages RAD new brakes pads braided lines spend the time removing emishions and so on price goes quickly I sware my formula for budgeting is right on. estimated cost x 2.

 

I think that is only true for the S4 convertible. So only 1988 models. I am sure somebody will correct me if I am wrong.

 

I didnt know N/A convertibles came with Tii ECU's?

 

The 88 vert came with the N338 ECU which will run the S4 13BT.