Voltage regulator in the alternator died, which caused the Haltech to RESET ITSELF while I was driving.

WTF.

Got to where I was going and car wouldn't restart....luckily had my laptop with me, pulled up an old map and it fired right up....but was idling lower, acting weird....I drove it home and tried boosting the next day...it was missing badly and I finally figured out the engine went.


So, pulled it, yanked the back cover, and this greets me:


Herro broken side seal.







Two broken corner seals:






Broken baby seal:





The small piece here was in my oil pan....and is probably representative of the size of pieces that went through my turbo :/ The rest were still in the seal groove.



So, good news, its definitely blown, but probably the cheapest possible fix I could have hoped for. Housings and irons look to be perfect stilll...not sure how the front one is yet, but no reason to doubt it.


Bad news, I'll probably order all new side seals....I reused those from engines with unknown mileage...and one broke. They were in spec, but this is still my fault for cheaping out.

Bad news for my wallet: As long as the engine is out and coming apart more, why don't I stud the block and replace the rear iron...that would allow me to max out my turbo for power without fear of the block letting loose due to power constraints.



Anyways....would you reuse that rotor? You can see the two small grooves in the side between the side seal and the face. I'm not sure if the side seal groove is damaged or not.

 

You have to clean up the rotors to get a better idea. You got lucky though it was only that tiny little side seal. I wouldn't say you got this for cheaping out. If the side seal fits and is in spec, re-use it! It's the apex seals that everyone replaces. On my engine I re-used everything if it was in spec. No mechanical problems, but I've had loads of electronic problems (another story entirely). I look at your corner seal though and see it looks cracked?


That's a scary thought that the haltech wiped itself out while driving. I run a haltech myself.

 

I mentioned that I found two cracked corner seals in my writeup above. I have the rotor out of the engine and cleaned up, but it doesn't look much different. Two grooves as you can see above.

Yeah, not sure what happened with the Haltech. Nobody I've spoken to has heard about this happening...but I'm positive it did. I can only blame the alternator giving it dirty voltage.

 

Happens all the time. Most people in the car scene are just too stupid to realise.

Take a long hard look at your grounding strategy. The way you route your wiring looms. Your ignition system. Your alternator. Your selection of leads, spark plugs, ignition coils...

I would not use that rotor. There is damage in the slot. I'm sure it would work but I'm a fussy bastard.

PS get your tips or entire sides clearanced. Start at around 1.5-2 thou.

 

Check injector latency settings are set up correctly as this can cause these sorts of problems.

 

the only engine i have seen with a side seal failure was caused by mis-matched rotor housings with different spark plug timing. S4 USDM is the only rotor housing with different spark timing than the rest.

 

You're going to have to elaborate on that for me.

Most of this engine is S4 USDM. The housings are not. I think they might be S5 N/A.

 

If the side seal slot has been deformed I would not use it