Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeK
I think the real question should be why did this happen (the oiling problem, not the ingested gravel). What are you going to change with your oil system to make sure the next block doesn't blow up?
And fwiw, I vote for a new shortblock, already assembled by someone else. Even a stock STi shortblock for $1800 should last a while.
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After talking w/ the Benson's, I'm thinking the culprit is my oil cooler setup. I used the right gauge tubing, but I had like 6 90deg angle fittings in the circuit, and according to Greg one 90deg fitting is the equivalent of 12 ft of hose.
Plus, my oil temp and pressure fittings were in the remote filter block, so I never had the actual oil pressure in the engine on my gauges... so even when I had good readings, it's likely I was starving the motor of oil.
So, on the new motor, I'm going with a sandwich adapter and as short as possible on the hoses, plus I've got a 12mm JDM oil pump on order that I'll shim, and I'm taking Mike W. up on his offer to source me a Cosworth oil pan. So, the oiling issues should be as solved as possible w/o inventing a dry sump setup (not even the rally teams need to dry sump the boxer motor, they should be very resilient to starvation if you've got a properly baffled oil pan). And with the fixed oiling issues, I bet my cooling problems go away too... since the heat I was seeing was only when I was turning the car hard. I could floor it on every straight and not over-heat, but as soon as I was going all out in the corners, that's when the oil temps would jump.