Okay, now what? (sperry's motor tear-down thread)

[cody]

Awesome!

[Kevin M]

And just in time for the Solo event! Oh wai...

[sybir]

If you come down this weekend, let me know. I'm gonna be at Paul's shop tomorrow.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by sybir

If you come down this weekend, let me know. I'm gonna be at Paul's shop tomorrow.

I'll be driving down and back on Saturday. Gonna try to leave before 10am, so that puts me in Sac around lunch-time.

[sperry]

The motor spun another bearing during break-in. My season is over before it even started. The car is for sale:

http://www.seccs.org/forums/showthread.php?p=117330

[van]

Damn Scott, I'm sorry. I can't imagine how pissed you are right now.

[WRX06TR]

Sorry Scott...

[Nick Koan]

Damn Scott... I'm sorry to hear it man.

[cody]

Man, that really blows.

[van]

Sorry, I meant to have a frowning smiley, not a smiling smiley.
If you want a new car with reliability and a warranty I would stay away from subaru, Try an audi or something buddy.

[doubleurx]

Originally Posted by van

Sorry, I meant to have a frowning smiley, not a smiling smiley.
If you want a new car with reliability and a warranty I would stay away from subaru, Try an audi or something buddy.

Since when is Audi more reliable than Subaru?

Sorry to hear it Scott. That has got to be frustrating beyond belief!

[van]

Originally Posted by doubleurx

Since when is Audi more reliable than Subaru?

Sorry to hear it Scott. That has got to be frustrating beyond belief!

just trying to make light of the situation, a little dumb humor usually helps...
and obvious sarcasm

[sperry]

Well, the only car I can think of that's fast and fun enough, not too expensive, that I could autocross and drive daily ('cause if I'm getting a new car, I'll probably unload the SVX too) is a new STI. Sure there are a few other cars I'd consider (used Vette, used 911, used S4, new A5, 135i, 335i) but they're either all too slow and too expensive to make them STI fast, or too impractical as a DD. Plus, I sorta want the familiarity of a Subaru... learning to drive another car fast would be a good learning experience, but I don't feel like I'm missing out too much not knowing how to drive a Vette.

Anyway, if it looks like I'll be able to sell the WRX (I'm not holding me breath, I'll probably have to put a new motor in it just to sell it...) I'll start a "what should I buy thread". Right now, I think I'd rather just worry about selling the WRX, or sorting out some way to make it reliable w/o spending so much money on it my GF leaves me.

[Dean]

Don't you have most of a 2.0 block left? Throw it and the stock ECU back in before selling?

Just a thought.

Sorry to hear about the spun bearing.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by Dean

Don't you have most of a 2.0 block left? Throw it and the stock ECU back in before selling?

Just a thought.

Sorry to hear about the spun bearing.

Actually, that was something Aaron and I discussed (me, Aaron and Tyson were hanging out in Roseville right after I got the news of the motor). I think the effort of getting that 2.0L up and running will be just about the same as tossing a stock STi motor in the car, even if the cost may be less.

Really, I just want to get rid of the car as-is. If I'm going to have to work on it a bunch more, I might as well fix it and race it myself. Hell, even if I just put the 2.0L in there, I might as well race it... 250hp is pretty slow compared to the 450 the car had, but it'd still be fun. But I bet I break it again... it's just the nature of racing, shit breaks, and it's just too much work to keep up with, and it's too expensive to pay someone else to do the work for me... just in fuel alone it costs me nearly $300 to tow the car down to the Bay and back.

[MPREZIV]

Damn dude. Damn.

[A1337STI]

Sorry to hear the bad motor news

someone recently told me, "if its got boobs or wheels its going to give you problems" seems quite true in my life

[100_Percent_Juice]

^So your saying that you should never date a woman who has a boob job and is in a wheelchair?

[k-dogg39]

Sorry to hear about this. Good luck with the sale.

[A1337STI]

Originally Posted by 100_Percent_Juice

^So your saying that you should never date a woman who has a boob job and is in a wheelchair?

well just expect mad problems if you do !

[sperry]

Just a quick summary, because I don't want anyone getting the wrong idea about blame for this issue:

Mike Warfield tunes, what, 20 Subarus a week probably? I'm sure he knows what he's doing. When the motor failed, he was about 400 miles into the break-in, and was just starting to get into the boost and rpms... the car was running 11:1 AFRs and no timing, so the chance this was a detonation issue is pretty much nill, unless there was something else wrong with the motor (fuel pressure, injectors, etc) in which case the failure is my fault since I did the assembly of all that stuff. It's Mike's opinion that the bearings on the motor we size incorrectly and clearanced out during break in until failure as the car behaved similarly to a new race motor he had a bearing issue on. Now, Mike's pretty much an expert on this sort of thing, so he opinion means a lot to me, but at the same time, no one can diagnose this just by listening to the motor. We need to pull the motor apart to figure out what happened.

Now, AIMS built the shortblock, so if there was an error in the bearings (i.e. they put in something they didn't intend to put in there) then hopefully they'll take responsibility for the failure. However, there's a very good chance that they put in the correct stuff and "shit happened", as it sometimes goes. I just got off the phone with Robert at AIMS about the motor, and he's interested in taking a look at things. So, I'm going to pull the motor for him and strip it down to the long block so he can take a look at it. Maybe the bearings are the wrong size as Mike thinks, maybe the crank just didn't polish up as good as we thought... But at the very least, we'll know what failed, even if we can't figure out why it failed.

But ultimately, unless we can sort out specifically what went down, the blame for this failure is on me. I'm the one that assembled everything aside from the shortblock, and it's the 1st time I've ever put something together like that. The chance that this is the fault of one of the pros is far lower than it is that I botched something along the lines.

I just don't want folks getting the wrong idea. I don't want to be one to assign blame or stir up animosity over crap like this unless it's warranted. So far both Mike at GST and Robert at AIMS have been very helpful and professional regarding the situation.

[Tahoe C5]

WOW! I'm totally bummed to hear the news. I was hoping to see you raising the bar at Fernley. I'm still learning the whole race prepped gig, I'm three meets (5 track days) into the new motor I put in my RX (blew the first one at THill in October), and I almost hold my breath everytime I head out onto the track. I dynoed the RX7 on Saturday and was pleased with 173 RWHP! Hope you come out to Fernley this coming Saturday. BTW my 2006 C6 vette is on auto trader for $35K, but I understand your feelings on sticking with a Subaru. I'll be shopping for a DD/AX Subaru after the vette sells.

Mel

[sperry]

Originally Posted by Tahoe C5

WOW! I'm totally bummed to hear the news. I was hoping to see you raising the bar at Fernley. I'm still learning the whole race prepped gig, I'm three meets (5 track days) into the new motor I put in my RX (blew the first one at THill in October), and I almost hold my breath everytime I head out onto the track. I dynoed the RX7 on Saturday and was pleased with 173 RWHP! Hope you come out to Fernley this coming Saturday. BTW my 2006 C6 vette is on auto trader for $35K, but I understand your feelings on sticking with a Subaru. I'll be shopping for a DD/AX Subaru after the vette sells.

Mel

Man, I'd love a Vette for the track, but it's just so impractical for real life. $35k for a C6 is a pretty nice deal too... but that's what a new STi costs, which while it wouldn't be a Track Trials car, I could autocross and Club Trials race it, and daily drive it even in the winter. If I'm buying something new it's gotta handle DD duty too, 'cause my SVX won't last forever.

[Kevin M]

Scott, sub-$5k Subaru daily drivers are everywhere, and reconditioning them is a cinch. I would think continuing to seperate your DD from your track toy would be more of a logistical issue for you than a financial one.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by Kevin M

Scott, sub-$5k Subaru daily drivers are everywhere, and reconditioning them is a cinch. I would think continuing to seperate your DD from your track toy would be more of a logistical issue for you than a financial one.

I have a really nice sub-$5k Subaru daily driver. It's the reconditioning part that I'm sick of!