Well as some might know my car is dead in the water. At first it was thought to just be a sensor problem and a poor manifold install but now it's looking much much worse. The mechanic did compression tests on the cylinders and it was not good, 0 for cylinder one and like 15 for the rest. Currently he thinks my valves might have floated for one reason or the other and smashed into the pistons. Now then what I'm wondering is what can I do to stop this from happening again? If I need new pistons, valves, whatever what should I go for? I'm not looking to run huge boost or anything like that but at the same time I would much rather get cheaper and better aftermarket parts if I have to replace stuff.

 

buscher has a set of pistons that are 10:1 and forged for 300 bucks. rods are hard to find cheap... rrm sells them for 800 bucks but if you gott the combination you could have a killer engine. I'm running stock ecu and no management with my rebuilt engine on the forged pistons. The compression isn't too high and I should still be able to run 8-10 psi on the stock rods with these higher comp. pistons.

 

do they still have some of the pistons in stock?

 

david should... i think he ordered 10 and sold 4 or 5 if that... e-mail jarrod@buschurracing.com

 

You can always pick up RPW's set of their pistons. They are not forged but stronger than stock pistons and cheaper than Buscher.

 

I don't want to up the compression at all, I want to keep it stock in that sense. I just got a call from the mechanic and the valves are cracked and the pistons may be dead as well. He also said there is no point in putting on my bored out manifold as I won't make any power since the gaskets are the same size. I disagree but at the same time I could simply get the stocker put back on, keep my warranty somewhat more intact (since a bright red manifold would be a dead giveaway) and sell it for some money. Anybody have any advice on the matter?

 

bump

 

Buy rpw's pistons, they sell them for a good price and you can keep stock compression + stronger material. Mitsu will never know unless they would want to take the motor apart. You can have bored out manifold just send it out or something so they will be no paint.

 

I got some slightly better news, the pistons are fine but 4 valves were bent, meaning 1000$. After talking to the mechanic I found out part of the problem as per his previous comment; he was unaware I had a bored out throttle body. He's gonna go ahead and put on the new manifold since he already has the head out. He was under the assumption that I was more or less stock and I was attempting to add a new manifold without opening up either end.

 

you can get a new head cheaper than a grand...

 

Unfortunately university starts in 5 days or so so I can't afford to wait 2 weeks for the head to get here from the states, plus import fees, plus install fees, its simply not a feasible option right now.

 

Just to comment on the usefulness of the IM, your mechanic is slightly wrong. The manifold is gasket matched, meaning the runners aren't ported bigger than the gasket (but still ported a significant amount). Same with the throttle body side, so it DOES yield nice gains.

I don't know what to tell ya on the rebuild, seems like your in a hurry so I'd say pay what you gotta pay to get it done. If you could wait a little bit, find a used head and then have the mechanic do it

 

Yeah I'm still gonna get him to install the manifold, I paid 300$ for it, I rather not use it for a beer bong. With the damage being what it is, I might as well just get it fixed by him, if the pistons we're dead on the other hand I would have done things a little differently.

 

You are getting robbed if you are paying 1 grand for a valve replacement job.

 

it's Canadian money.... so it's like US$125 Just kidding a grand is pricey. The only upgrade available is going to be valve springs, but it's not gonna help a heckuvalot. And getting stuff from RPW is going to be slower than getting a whole new head from the US.

Keep us posted