Project: Mavro Gato - 99 Turbo'd 3L

[FastCougar]

Well, I have a long road ahead of me now!

I was out again today since I haven't driven the car in almost a month. Although I finished one side of the piping with a "lip" to fasten the couplers together without coming apart under boost, I never got around to the driver's side because the angle of approach and departure don't lend themselves to seperating. I was dead wrong! At about 16.9 psi, according to the peak recall function of the AEM TruBoost guage/controller, I managed to blow my piping apart again. Luckily this time I had my wrenches in the car. Long story short ... the car ran uber rich and was spewing black smoke for about 3-5 seconds shortly before completely dying on me on the side of the highway. I pulled over, fixed the tubing and then limped the car home ... it was running pretty rough at first, but after getting into the boost again, I noticed the car was running very lean leading into boost. If boost was escaping, it should be running pig rich, but the opposite is true ... very strange.

So, I get home and run a compression test and low and behold, I have a cylinder running 150 psi and one running 165 psi ... all the others are between 172-180 psi. After building the engine and after initial breakin, all cylinders where running 180 psi. The spark plug in the 150 cylinder (front bank near radiator, middle cylinder) was fairly white, indicating a lean condition. So, it dawns on me ... the car is running lean because the extreme rich condition "washed" the cylinder walls pretty well and now fuel is escaping around the rings on the compression stroke instead of being compressed. I need to change the oil tomorrow to confirm and it should smell like gas if I'm right. Anyways, to determine if the rings are shot in the cylinder, I do a wet compression test (added 2 table spoons of oil to that cylinder) and re-ran the test. The cylinder now read 192 psi ... the rings are leaking.

For those you that don't know, John backed out of the sale on the car ... good thing I guess now considering I pretty much have to re-ring the engine :micah:

[gamiller]

My heart goes out to you, Trevor.

Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of having my turbo 3.0 installed. I've been running rich every since that powerplant was brought to life. I wonder how good my rings are at this point.

[FastCougar]

You have nothing to worry about ... there is running rich, then there is blowing your piping apart and spewing black smoke for 3-5 seconds rich! Pulling the engine will give me a chance to address a few issues that I wanted to before deciding to sell it ... I'm planing on sending all the hot side tubing out to JetHot, including the turbine housing. That should keep the temps in check quite a bit. I can then send out the cold side piping for duplication in aluminum will a nice bead roll on the coupler ends.

[fordrule]

good job trevor on the quick trouble shooting. are u still thinking of reproducing the piping at least?

[gamiller]

he's been reproducing, not merely thinking about it; his wife is pregnant with their fourth child!

Trevor, what pistons and rings have you got in there?

[FastCougar]

The engine is running Diamond 9:1 pistons with Total Seal (gapped) rings. Actually, 150psi isn't the end of the world. In fact, it's a fairly respectable number, but not on an engine with so few miles. Still requires further investigation though ... more to come ...

[fordrule]

i am thinking of a f&f quote that would work so well..







the mad scientist has to...............

[wadespencer99]

That sucks Trevor

[PREDATOR]

WOW! Sorry to hear

[FastCougar]

Not sure why the car WAS running lean under boost, but I have been driving the car once or twice a week just to keep her running and she is not smoking under boost and she has stopped running lean under boost. Today I changed the oil and it stunk of gasoline! I plan on working on the cooling issue tomorrow and will keep eveyone updated. At this point, I'm hoping that the cylinder walls where simply washed clean and there is no damage to the cylinder in question and it has simply taken this long for the oil to create a film on the cylinder walls again. Hopefully changing the oil will help in this ... she still pulls hard as hell!!!