September 2019

28Sep

I've cleaned the sump pan thoroughly, removing the metal gauze filter from the oil pickup in the base of the sump, and degreasing and then pressure washing all the pipework and channels. There was a fair amount of metal in filter, all of which was aluminium, from the melted pistons.

27Sep

I've removed the intercooler, and drained the oil from it. The dry sump pan has been given a quick clean using a degreaser, and that will allow me to dismantle and clean it properly. I've drained the fuel tank, so that can also be safely removed and the smaller cylindrical tank can be designed.

24Sep

That, believe it or not, is the number 1 piston out of my engine. Where are the rings? They've been vapourised. Piston 4 is similar, and 2 and 3 have ring damage. The cylinders are also out of shape and have moved in the block. What a disaster!

21Sep

There is a hole in my piston! Cyl1 is definitely broken, I cant see very easily whats wrong with Cyl4, but with the sump removed I managed to get my phone to take a decent picture of the underside of the piston, and there is a hole in it. The cylinder liner also looks damaged. Det clearly took the piston(s) out.
Damaged piston

19Sep

Engine out

The engine is out, its taken me three evenings to dismantle the rear of the car, and some of the bolts on the front of the engine were particularly difficult to reach. The next step is to remove the clutch and the dry sump pan, and then I can take it over to Area 6 for the strip down. Hard to believe that the engine was installed in 2013, and hasnt been out since.

Here are two of my runs from Knockhill. The sunday run was from the final run off when the engine failed. Cly1 to Cyl4 show the knock ign retard which the ECU is controlling. Lam is lambda.

15Sep

EcoBang

I've run a compression test on the engine, and the news isnt good. Cylinders 1 and 4 have zero pressure, and 2 and 3 are around 75psi. The engine and gearbox will be removed this week, and then I'll take the head off the engine and see whats going on inside. Its either melted pistons, or the valves/valve seats, or a cracked block.

12Sep

Knock

On Sunday, with the oil in the air feed in to the engine, the knock had risen from 4.0 to 10.0, and the ECU didnt appear to do anything about it. It can shut the engine down, but the thresholds must have been set higher. The engine eventually failed, leading to loss of boost pressure in 6th gear (vertical line on the graph). I usually see around 4.0, with no detrimental effects.

09Sep

Turbo failure

I suffered a turbo failure on Sunday, with a very spectacular cloud of smoke at full throttle around 120mph as I passed the start finish line on my final run off run of the day. The turbo was fine on Saturday, with a good score of 10 points, and a great days driving. But Sunday morning, whilst queuing for the first practice run, suddenly there was clouds of smoke from the exhaust, and we found that the dump valve was throwing out large amounts of oil vapour, so I decided to skip P1 and Simon Waterfall helped attached a hose to the dump valve outlet so we could capture the oil, rather than it being thrown over the hot exhaust. P2 was fine, no smoke during the run, and T1 was also ok. Again, smoke when idling, but under load, no smoke. I had a spin at the hairpin on T2, and the first run off, I was pretty slow, with the engine feeling OK, but I needed to record a time. On the 2nd run off, again, just smoke when queuing, and I set off, recorded a very fast first lap, I was really on for a great time, but as I started the 2nd lap, the I felt the engine suddenly drop on to 3 cylinders, so I lifted and coasted, and was towed back to the paddock.

I've removed the turbo, and its as clean as a whistle inside. Yet the outlet from the turbo, the hose that feeds the intercooler, had a cupful of oil inside, and the dump valve is also coated in oil. No1 spark plug was wet, and all the pistons have oil on them. I shall perform a compression and leak down test to see if any of the cylinders has lost compression. If they havent, then I'll clean the intercooler of all the oil, and get the turbo back to Turbo Technics for a service. I'm hoping I havent blown a head gasket or melted a piston.

02Sep

MIRA

The round at MIRA is dead in the water. So the focus is back on Knockhill and to that end I'm getting the car ready. My Tow Van was fitted with a Leisure battery over the weekend, I bought a kit off ebay which included the voltage sensing relay and all the cables etc, and the battery is now fitted beneath my drivers seat, and the next step is to wire in the interior lights, and the 240V invertor. At Knockhill we have mains power, hopefully not at £25 for the weekend, so I can power what I need from the garages. The latest news is that Colin Calder wont be competing this weekend, which means only 11 drivers are going to be competing. I need to put on a good show as I really need good points to move up to 4th overall, and possibly creep in to the top 3 again. But that'll need some heroic driving, which if the weather isnt kind, might be a tall order.