79 replies to this topic

[Taz]

Not entirely sure what the root of the problem was. Spat a rocker and the cams were bound. Which then shredded the belt. Couldnt find an obvious cause to the failure through inspection but im due to pick up the old motor sunday and start tearing it down completely so ill hopefully know soon enough

[bazeng]

Good stuff on sorting it out without any fuss.

Please keep us updated on what you think the root cause was.

My guess is possibly oil supply to the head?

[murmylo]

Damn move to Victoria taz lol,
Very good of you

[Taz]

So tore down the old motor tonight.... Found the source I think. That is the balance shaft journal. Looks like it starved for oil? How that happens with the sump just below it is beyond me but I'm going to say balance shaft starved, seized shredded belt when it locked the oil pump and threw all the valves. The photo doesn't sldo it justice though, every valve like a banana and one broken off.

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[Taz]

So tore down the old motor tonight.... Found the source I think. That is the balance shaft journal. Looks like it starved for oil? How that happens with the sump just below it is beyond me but I'm going to say balance shaft starved, seized shredded belt when it locked the oil pump and threw all the valves. The photo doesn't sldo it justice though, every valve like a banana and one broken off.

[White Knight]

Whoa!!! Poor guy. That sucks massive.

[jack be nimble]

I bet the guides are broken too. You cant just put new valves into it, you need to do guides also.

That sucks. Hoping the new one is a good one

[BodenM]

Can confirm it's running like a dream. As for the cause of death, one theory is that it looks like the balance shaft geared off the oil pump heat seized, which in turn stopped the oil pump which shredded half the teeth off the timing belt, which in turn bent all the valves and threw the rockers. With the head, timing belt and balance shafts removed the engine spins freely, but at this point worrying about it too much isn't going to unfuck it so I'm not too concerned about it, none of the signs point to it being caused by another part on the car. In other good news, I got some new wheels for it, a set of Evo 5 stockies, the OZ Racing F1s, I've been sanding those back and prepping for paint, and I've also picked up an Evo 8 ECU, just need to get a patch harness to cut up and turn into an adapter harness, and an OpenPort 1.3U cable to flash it with.

[Taz]

Shes now a bare block in the truest sense, not another bolt or stud to undo. Turning it into a coffee table after digging deeper yet again and finding some ~delightful~ sights. 

This is a better look at what happened to the balance shaft, and whats left of the bearing. 

 

 

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[BodenM]

More fun things, had a mate fabricate a 3" catless dump from stainless for me on the weekend, makes a big difference to how the car drives, boost now really kicks in about 300RPM sooner and I've picked up an extra 2psi as well, should go nicely once it's got the E8 ECU and a tune.

 

The downpipe out of the car:

 

And fitted:

 

And a quick sound clip, I'll try and get a better one with the engine under load soon.

[leon r]

Balance shafts spin twice the speed of our engines, so at 8000rpm, they see 16000rpm and such failures are somewhat common.  I consider them a liability, if you are not required to keep them (as happens in some competitive racing classes), always get rid of them!

Edited by leon r, 24 April 2018 - 03:07 PM.

[BodenM]

So two little niggling issues have cropped up on the RVR, nothing insane just annoying and not really surprising for a 21yo car.

1. ECU and/or IACV have caught the dumb and forgotten how to idle properly - recently it's started idling really low for reasons I'm unable to determine, often around 500 RPM, and occasionally when clutching in as I come to a stop the car can't catch the idle and the engine will stall. It fires right back up and settles into a smooth idle at about 900 RPM, but the next time it returns to idle it will do the exact same thing. Occasionally after idling for more than about 15 seconds it will suddenly realise it's not supposed to be idling that low and it will come back up to ~900 RPM and happily stay there. It seems to occur regardless of whether I have the A/C on or not as well.

 

2. Took it for a nice long fun drive out to Kenilworth with a few mates a few days ago, unfortunately the rear suspension didn't like my enthusiastic driving and has decided to protest in the form of a knocking noise over bumps on the driver's side, I suspect a bushing somewhere has decided to kick the bucket. Is there any source for poly suspension bushes for our cars? If I'm going to refresh the rear end I might as well give it an upgrade in the form of poly bushes.

[BodenM]

And now to add to my frustrations, something part of the clutch system inside the bellhousing has decided it no longer wants to work correctly as I can no longer get the car into gear with the engine running. I found that the master cylinder was leaking around the boot at the firewall, so I took it out and rebuilt it, and fully bled the system until no more air came out, then I did an additional gravity bleed just to be doubly sure there was no air. No dice. Readjusted the master cylinder rod to ensure maximum piston travel in the master cylinder. Still no dice. Check the slave cylinder throw, definitely throwing more than far enough for it to work correctly, and it was not leaking any fluid. Tried rocking the car back and forth with the clutch pedal in and starting it in gear with the clutch pedal pushed in just to see if it was the clutch disc being stuck to the flywheel, still no dice. This leads me to believe it's likely going to be something fun like a bent clutch fork, or a flogged pivot ball clip, or broken pressure plate fingers, or something along those lines, all of which require pulling the transmission off to fix. (and there was much rejoicing).

 

So, in order to prevent me from having to pull the box off again in the near future, I'm going to take the opportunity to do as much work as I can afford to in one go. Forged clutch fork, new pivot ball, new clutch, new throwout bearing, and some kind of center diff upgrade, as that's much easier to do with the box out than box in. If anyone has any leads on someone selling either a Cusco Tarmac Gear center diff for an CD9A/CE9A (long shot, I know), or a 4-spider converted stock center diff, I would much appreciate the heads up.

[evo-gsr]

Exeddy clutch?
If so...most likely a spring has fallen out in between pressure plates fingers.

[Ian91]

I had the same symptoms in my car and it ended up being the clutch fork had bent, so I felt like you where putting the clutch in but really it did nothing because the slave wasn’t contacting the fork. I replaced the clutch while it was all apart. Also as per evo-gsr post exedys are bad for dropping the springs out of the plate.

[BodenM]

Exeddy clutch?
If so...most likely a spring has fallen out in between pressure plates fingers.

Not an Exedy as far as I'm aware.

[Taz]

Clutch pro brand not exedy correct

[evo-gsr]

Sounds like a quality part......

[BodenM]

It's an Australian brand, nothing amazing but not exactly a no-name Chinesium brand.

[White Knight]

Not to belittle you mate, but have you tried adjusting the clutch up at the base of the pedal? I replaced a clutch in my RVR that didn't need it once before....