Brand new rebuild - BLOWN? HELP!
 

I'm freaking out right now.

I have 750 miles on my brand new rebuild with 2 new housings. My motor has been running perfectly up until tonight. I've been babying the hell out of it - no higher than 3500 revs, no boost, generally being really careful with it.

My engine was running perfectly all night. I pulled into a parking lot (still running perfect) and went to dinner. When I came back and started my car, my engine was running rough - like it did when it blew last time. It ran a little rough, the idle was a little rough, and my vacuum was a little lower than normal (nothing terrible).

What the hell is going on? I already checked my MAP sensor and the vacuum line - that's fine. I tried quickly reseating my sparkplug wires, I'll check them again tomorrow though.

Do you guys have any ideas? I don't know how this engine would have blown already. I haven't run any boost, I've been babying the hell out of it, and suddenly it just started acting funky.

Please help - I'm worrying myself sick here.

go for a compression test

this will answer ur questions

Con

Your plugs could just be carboned up from taking it easy during the break in. I depends on how you have it tuned and if you are running premix, etc etc.

That's what I thought. They're also the same plugs I was running since before my rebuild.

I bet you its just flooded,,, do a full unflood and clean and dry the plugs.

Ok then, just change your plugs out, then report back if the problem continues. Depending on what was used to assemble the engine, there is a lot of crap that also burns off, which can also foul the plugs (hylomar, assembly lube, vaseline etc)

edit: I need to learn to read.

Yeah, check with the easy things first. I HIGHLY doubt your motor's blown - it hasn't seen any real load yet, and it sounds like you did things right with that motor. This is also part of the reason for breaking in a motor - bugs will crop up from the installation that need to be sorted out.

Dale

I've never seen a fresh motor exhibit symptoms like that, although I always install new spark plugs on all my builds. Is the needle on your boost gauge 'ticking' back and forth at idle? I hope the motor is fine, based on how you've been driving it I can't imagine it's blown.

Agreed.

I remember pulling off some 7 month old plugs that were carbon'd the hell up because of when the car was mostly down, i made alot of short trips, no WOT runs, nothing, alot of warming up the car and idling. I cant believe how bad the plugs got in that short period of time.

Speaking of that, i need to change my plugs again.

as rich said... if your needle at low idle flickers that means you have a seal/seals problem. i would go get some new plugs and as you change do a quick compression check... what size seals do you have sometimes new 3mm's get sticky i had this happen on my new motor. i wouldn't worry my motor some nights just ran shitty as it was being broken in. get some new plugs and a compression check and report back.

Where's the pics of this new motor and turbo setup? Like most have said, I think you're fine, just put in some new plugs.

Put 4 new plugs in - didn't change a thing.

Guess I'll get a compression test tomorrow.

Sigh.

who did the build? any porting? what seals? whats your lowest vac reading and what rpm is that at?

Don Marvel of Marvelspeed.

Stock 2mm OEM seals with new OEM seals for everything.

You're not answering a lot of the questions asked. Is your needle on your boost gauge 'ticking' back and forth slightly at idle? What is your vacuum at what idle rpm? Providing more info would help us to help you better :)

The needle is pretty constant. It doesn't flicker or anything, but it does go up and down as the idle changes (which is to be expected).

My vacuum is about 15 inches at 1000rpms.

I don't really know what to think at this point. Maybe a stuck apex seal?

Ported motor? Is that why your idle is at 1000rpm? Is your standalone a PFC?

Hope its a simple fix and if need be your engine builder helps you out to fix the problem.

Shouldn't there be some type of warranty if something was wrong?

did youhttp://img511.imageshack.us/img511/1...oncheckrh5.gifyet?

I would bring it back to marvelspeed and see what they can tell you. Based on all of that information above, the motor doesn't sound blown :)

I agree with Rich. Dont listen to him that much though, he doesnt come to rotor meets on sundays. ;)

Sorry, my Eskimo suit was at the dry cleaners :D

Hey guys,

I'm hoping it might be a stuck injector (or injectors). The car has 104,xxx miles and I'm not sure the primary injectors have ever been cleaned or replaced, so we'll see in a few days.

The car also starts perfectly, warm or cold. I noticed the threads of my plugs on one of my rotors were thinly coated in oil when I pulled them out. Could that be because the OMP is injecting oil which is not getting combusted (no fuel) and just sloshing around inside the housing?

Whatcha guys think?

Check all your piping and make sure everythings secure and set right. My crossover pipe would come loose and my idle would go rough, boost gauge would flicker.

Wait, so you had an engine job done and they failed to recommend injector cleaning/new injectors on a car with 104,000 miles on the clock? I'd be concerned about what else they might have missed, that one is a no-brainer with these cars......

The injectors were never cleaned by me and I didn't see it on the spread sheet that the previous owner gave me.

If you kept the 1300's, they were brand new 850's bored out to 1300. I didn't want to chance old 850's since all the so called horror stories of 1300's blowing engines. I don't believe that's the cause but better to be safe than sorry!

Injectors are a HUGE priority. My car has 102k on the clock and the injectors appear to have not been a cause of the failure at all, but I am still going to service/replace them. other things: Spark plugs and wires. Would you replace an engine without doing such minor things to ensure proper operation? What if your last engine failure was contributed to by a drippipng injector? You would be subjecting the new engine to the exact same conditions as before. Go through and spend the extra money to have a reliable engine bay.

Reliability takes the whole engine bay, not just the engine.

I know it is off topic but things I replaced when putting a USED engine in my car:
Cleaned Injectors
New L1/2Coil Low Mileage T1/2 coils (16km)
New wiring harness
Oil Filter
Fuel Filter
Spark Plugs
Spark Plug wires
Fuel Pump

One thing not mentioned is to check for codes, the CE light does not have to be lit up in order to store a malfunction. Check for any codes, then just for the hell of it, reset the ECU and eliminate that step. Compression check follows that.


good luck
tom

Bad news.

Did a compression test tonight - front rotor checked out fine. Rear rotor showed only 2 of 3 needle bounces :\

This fucking sucks. I guess I'll be calling my engine builder tomorrow to ask what the hell is up.

The weird thing is that sometimes the car randomly runs pretty smooth - you'd hardly know anything is wrong. I'm praying at this point that it's a stuck/sticky seal and that I didn't chuck a seal through my BRAND NEW GT35r.

Ouch! :(

Sorry to hear that. Still have my fingers crossed for you!

Dave

what he said!
 

If you don't do most of these things, it can get VERY EXPENSIVE.

^

That's supposed to mean I am doing something right or doing everything wrong?

He's agreeing with you ;)

Sorry to hear of the bad luck. I hope he stands behind the build. Good luck!

Sounds like it may be a stuck side seal. Run some water or mmo through the small nipple on the back passenger side of the UIM while you rev the car to 3kish rpm to suck it all in.

Wompa, so based on your post in the parts fs section Marvelspeed screwed you? Wish you would have went to Gotham :(

keep us posted as to the actual problem and what they are going to do about it.

That's too bad. Don built my motor and it has been pretty solid. I used to recklessly run about 19-20psi on it too when it was an auto. Sometimes it would spike between shifts to 26-28 psi. I developed some of the symptoms you are describing more than a year ago, after showing off for a friend. On the plus side he now has a lifelong desire for an FD. On the minus I lost some vac, and it lopes at idle like it has a huge streetport. When I had the 5 speed swap I took it to Gotham. I asked Steve about it. Basically he said as long as the car is running I wouldn't worry about it. You might as well drive it until it quits (my paraphrasing). I know I will need a rebuild soon, but it just won't die. I beat on it pretty hard too. For that reason I was thinking of going back to Don, but your story gives me pause. What did he say?

+1 on getting screwed, he overported my motor and it was chipping side seals. I'm working on rebuild #3, and of course am getting the irons ported again by BDC this time around. Did you ever get in touch with him?

Sounds like there should be some posts in the 'bad guy' section, otherwise people will keep going to him.....

You know, Don has always had a warranty on his motors...I had one on mine, no extra fee. He wouldn't help you out? I am really finding this hard to believe.

Screw that ,i'd be taking someone to court over something like this. People think they can just fuck whoever they want and get away with it and it makes me sick the thousands of dollars that people steal or rip off from each other all the time from bum parts, shotty work, or just flat out conned someone out of their hard earned money.

Sorry, I fucking hate people who rip others off deliberately.

My theory is the motor was overported slightly, yielding a resut of part of one side seal breaking off.

B

Yep, you nailed it.

My car is at Gotham right now. Don did a terrible job of porting the motor, which is ironic considering he used to be famous for his porting work.

The irons were overported and the ports seemed very rough along the edges. One of the side seals on my rear rotor was scraped away (a ton of shavings were found in my wastegate) and the seal completely snapped in half.

Don has avoided all of my calls after the incident and I haven't seen him since he built my motor. I've left him voicemails on his home number and he hasn't returned any calls, and has since closed down the shop.

Basically, Don fucked me. I've been a very loyal customer of his for 3+ years and I always had a great working relationship with him, but he really screwed me over bad this time.

jeez, that sucks man, at least you're in good hands now with gotham.

damn, sorry to hear about this. You really hate so see this kind of thing happen but it does nothing but good things for these builders out her like bdc with great reputation. Just weeding out the bad ones, thats all. One day we won't have to worry about htis kind of thing happening.

You've got to be kidding! It's 2007, how long do you think it will take? :rlaugh: :pat:

Well unfortunatly this is the risk that we take when ameatures build engines and port them uneccessarily. Your stock ports flow more than enough to handle the hp potential of a Gt-35 turbo. People need to realistically understand what hp goals they want to accomplish during a rebuild. The rew engine has stock porting that's plenty large enough to meet most peoples hp goals. Had I done the engine, I would have recommended just a port polish and port match of the lim. That would have been plenty or that turbo.