I've known that improperly torqued plugs can run a heat range higher. This plug was so loose that the insulator was bright white.

What I don't understand is what the affect of this would be in the cylinder. If it's running that hot, shouldn't I have experienced detonation? And if there was detonation, I should have felt timing being pulled back. None of that happened.

The only way I could have noticed the problem is if I had EGT probes on all cylinders - not very practical.

 

You would think that there would have been detonation. But my question is how did the plug back out with the plug wire on it? They fit pretty tight, I do not think that the plug could even turn. The car may have been tuned with the plug loose to begin with.....

Anyway, what head bolts did you use? Stock or ARP studs?

 

The mechanic forgot to tighten them.

They were ARP studs torqued to 65lbs. They were tightened according to ARP's recommendation of 5 tightening sequences to final torque.

 

Regardless of what you're doing, when there is a tight deadline things tend to happen when otherwise they would not (i.e. someone forgetting to tighten the plugs).

 

Little problems can happen like the one you had when you do a rebuild. You forget a "little" thing and you screw the engine.

was wondering if Shiv ever recommended waiting 1000 miles before tuning just to feel out the engine rebuild???

 

That's why Shiv tuned the car with lower boost. He suggested that I wait at least 1,000 miles before turning the boost up. I've been a believer of hard break-in's to seal the rings but Shiv says that oil tests in these engines show gasoline wash past the rings even up to 5,000 miles. Hard to believe but I guess it really does take a long time to break-in these engines.

 

One thing that I didn't mention is the combination of SMART and the AMS 3071 is just awesome. The guys in the shop were amazed at how fast the thing spools up. 3500 rpm gives you full boost. Throttle response is instantaneous. This is going to be a great track car once I get it sorted out.

I'm going to remove the BR upper IC pipe and cone filter inlet and go back to stock. Shiv says that the IC pipe really doesn't add much HP and the stock filter is better at smoothing air past the MAF.

 

You're going to make me cry, man ... my 3071 starts to spool at 3500rpm ... waaaah! ...although it makes good power all the way to redline once it spools

Would you mind listing exactly what mods you have and how your block and head were built? If you don't wanna list here, pls send me a PM.

l8r)

 

I can't wait to see the beast .

 

Here's the mods:

AMS 3071R turbo kit with tubular manifold, downpipe, lower IC pipe, intake with cone filter, 1.4 bar WG spring.
Kinetic Engineering FMIC
Custom 3" cat back with test pipe and magnaflow muffler (looks like Vishnu's)
264i 272e cams, no cam gears
680cc injectors
BR upper IC pipe, greddy RS BOV
Walbro 255
Vivid fuel rail
Xede with SMART
The short block and head are stock. That's about it for engine mods. I heard the 264/272 combo will even pass smog in CA.

 

Hey EricR, any update on your car?

 

Damn Eric - I just now found this thread and I'm floored! I'm really sorry to hear about all the troubles you experienced. I mean I had my own challanges trying to get the car settled in a good configuration, but nothing close to what you went through. Hope things came together in the end and are running well now!

 

I went down a little over a week ago to pick up the car.

They found that it was indeed a small hole in the head gasket that blew into the coolant jacket. That was what blew the 3 freeze plugs. Luckily, there was no other damage.

I had concerns about the tune that was done with the loose plugs. I was afraid that since there was probably pre-ignition, and possibly detonation, that the knock threshold could have been too high. Shiv retuned the car for 91 and 100 octane but left the boost a few pounds lower than optimum in consideration of the new short-block which had 300 miles on it.

I left Union City at about 4:00pm and made it back to Seattle early afternoon the next day. The drive was thankfully uneventful. I'm sure Shiv and the guys at Full Function were happy not to hear from me. All-in-all, the car had been there almost 3 months.

I still have a few things left to do to the car. Last week, I added 2 Magnaflow 4" round mufflers to the cat-back. The turbo kit with the tubular maniflold made the car extremely loud. The 2 extra mufflers make it sound like a normal cat-back now.

I also ordered a Forge RS BOV. The Greddy RS which Shiv's shop added does not recirculate and makes for a rough idle. I'm going to put the stock air-box back in and get rid of the Buschur upper IC pipe. Our local shop, Pina Motorsports, is going to make a custom IC pipe for me which will clear the stock airbox. After that, I'm going to put another 1k miles on the car and then bump the boost up to maybe 23 pump and 26 race. After that... I'm done.

Eric

 

Good to hear things are getting back to normal. Because of another member with bad luck recently with a car with your basic set up, there are a bunch of us wanting to know more about your idle with the 3071. Is it rich? Details please...

 

You could just get the recirc kit for the RS. IIRC, lancershop.com has it for a reasonable price.

l8r)