A bit of an update: looks like not too much damage was caused to the engine. The center threw an apex seal. The housing will need to be replaced but it appears everything else is fine, including the big ticket item, the turbo.

I'm going down to Kilo Racing on Tuesday to go over the car with Jesus and to finalize a plan for completing the car. The objective will be to fix the obvious issues (electrical, boost creep, etc.) and then to simplify the car for reliability. Will take pics and post up the plan.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

 

Sweet...

 

Good News Happy T Day

 

glad to see it's going back together.
good luck

 

good to hear David. I hope you'll start a new thread for the new build. Best of luck.

 

Thanks for the notes guys. Off tomorrow morning to Orlando to spend a few hours with Jesus discussing the plan to finally get the car on the road. have the camera charged up so I'll take pics of everything and post a summary tomorrow/Wednesday.

The overall strategy is to simplify and make things as reliable as possible. Sent a lengthy email to Jesus last week documenting every issue I could think of regarding the car. After speaking with Jesus we're going to call Steve Kan and let him know what's up. Also spoke last week with Alex, the other Gotham owner, and he seemed willing to participate in "making things right".

 

So the trip to Kilo Racing went well. Spent several hours with Jesus assessing the damage to the engine and developing the move forward plan.

First, the damage is minimal. Two ceramic apex seals cracked and took out the brand new center rotor housing. Other than that, not much else was damaged. The rotor got slightly dinged but Jesus is going to salvage it so we don't have to go thru the rebalancing process again.

Pics of the seals. Top two broken, bottom one good:



Rotor Housing - nice gouge:




Rotor (most of what you see is dust/dirt):


The damage to the rotor is the small, square ding on the upper left hand section of the rotor. Jesus plans on salvaging the rotor and doesn't feel it will be an issue.

Outside of getting the engine back together, I am taking Jesus' lead on simplifying the car. He's going to remove the Jacobs Accuvolt unit and capacitor, the MSD Ignition Amps, and the ecutout. He's also going to remove the Aquamist water injection system but I am going to save this for reinstallation later. Finally, as he is a Microtech guy, he's removing the Haltech in favor of the Microtech with the promise if I do not like it, he'll swap back in the Haltech. Check back soon for a blowout sale on the above electronics or let me know if you have an interest in any of the above!

The exhaust system/downpipe design and craftsmanship is, putting it nicely, a mess. Now way proper flow can work with the current setup so we're going to redo the pipe to simplify matters . Part of this replacing the 46mm Tial unit with a 60mm one so if you need a 46mm wastegate, let me know

The overall plan is to have everything back together by the end of the month. I've asked Jesus to think about this and to commit to a timeframe.

That's it for now.

 

You might want to consider one piece NRS ceramic apex seals?

thewird

 

That's is what the seals are, one piece NRS grays.

 

Are you sticking with those seals? Considered the ALS seals? Seems like more and more people are having great results with them.

Also, hopefully a lot of people will look at this thread and see that these rotors can be reused. I dont think many will argue with Jesus and the decisions he makes

Glad it is coming together David

 

Jesus wants to replace the NRS ceramic seals with Superseals. He likes that the seals don't detonate but warp. We'll see. If so, then the NRS seals will be up for sale. As two got toasted when the engine blew, I have seven of them so I'll most likely sell them as a 2 rotor set with one extra as a spare. Mt NRS seals have a whopping 2,500 or so miles on them. Damn.

 

What about the machine work on the New housing you will need? It does need to be machined for the 12.7mm guru stud kit..right? Who machined the block? I assume a fixture was used so that if you later had to replace a part, you could have it machined by the same person to insure it will go back into the assembly without issue..

 

What a nightmare this has turned out to be -- I do not follow this thread closely but I can not help but notice when it gets bumped up to the top ever so often --- I would have scrapped this project years ago and gone for this car =) I think it is the only car that actually looks good with a flat black paint job, simply because it looks like the bat mobile but better

 

Thanks for that utterly useless post!

 

haha, i needed a good laugh today.

Looking good David. Hopefully Jesus gets everything simplified and the Microtech works better than the Haltech. Also, i hope that the simplification process produces the results you've been looking for. It almost seems like because you've had to go to multiple shops, there is a little bit of each one in the development and complexity of the car. Good to see that Jesus is getting it up and driving so you can work on complicating things later (e-cutout, water injection, ignition amplification, etc.). Good luck. Hopefully you get everything sorted out by the end of the month and you get an amazing new years present.

 

sorry i don't feel like sifting through 103 more pages of posts to find the answer to this question, BUT...

what caused the middle rotor apex to blow?

 

I feel like it was related to the AI injection cutting out? Dont take my word on this, been a while since I read through the last 500 posts

 

AI fuse blew, went lean and hot, boom.

thewird

 

Thanks for reminding me of that - completely forgot about it. Hmmn...

 

You are correct sir. The AI system was supposed to shut down boost if this occurred but, because of the downpipe design, the car had uncontrollable boost creep, thus no turny offy of the boost. End result - boom!

 

Might be a big problem....

 

David.. Is Jesus going to tune the microtech or is Gaby Skern going to set it up? Be fun to see it get tuned when he is done. I'll stay tuned and good luck. G

 

I don't think so. Any competent machinist should be able to crack this nut.

plan B idea (just throwing it out there):

Required:

• 3 graduated bolts
• 2 regular bolts

Machine shop makes two graduated bolts which are machined to the proper bore diameter for each housing. Installing the bolts effectively centers the smaller holes of the new housing over the larger holes of the machined housings. 2 regular bolts are also made with diameter equal to stud kit bore diameter.

1. Tighten 3 graduated bolts to align housings
2. Once aligned, remove 1 graduated bolt to expose 1 hole
3. Securing housings in place, machine hole to new diameter
4. Insert regular bolt to secure housings together through machined hole
5. repeat process until all holes machined.

Keep up the good work.

 

I just noticed this post. Ah, I didn't notice! The cracked apex seal looks like a 2 piece and got me confused. Damn, that was some bad detonation to crack a one piece ceramic.

thewird

 

hi david, sorry to hear about everything. got your call, wanted to call you back on your joyful journey back home but i read this instead.

right now, my car's at my friend's garage to be worked on. in the first few months, i just left it there for him to figure out some stuff on his own and work on it at his own pace, but things just started going backwards instead. he started moving around perfectly fine oem stuff stating there's no room when there was plenty. in the end, i was apparent to me that after being through this for >2yrs myself, it's much better for me to take control of the build personally and tell people what to DO, rather than tell them what I want. i guess what appears so simple in my head isn't usually what my mechanic always has in mind.

i must say though... car isn't a rocket science and certainly is less complicated than any commercial software you may have written, and 20b isn't much of an exception as much as many vendors want us to believe. brackets are just alum pieces welded together, and if you lack any knowledge, there are plenty here on this forum and on google. i ask endless questions, and while they're all elementary questions for many such as what is this hole in this rear iron? do i need to use any crush bearing for these bolts, etc. etc., with some vendor advices on this site, those are the only questions that needs to be answered to get 20b up and running.

you have everything ready to go.... i think it may be wiser and more therapeutic for you to drag it home after giving jesus the last chance, and do it the way you want it even if it may mean starting with some free wires, soldering irons, and some insulation tapes.

i'm not saying you should've done this and that. i believe you did everything so far very reasonably and logically. **** just happens as i found out the hard way myself. besides, i believe you have more than enough support here to get this done quickly. and i think we can both agree if anyone worked on a car for the amount of time we think about our projects, it would've been ready to be driven. and when things go sour, just address it separately then.

good luck david. in the end, i do hope jesus brings your fd from the dead for good.