EfiniX
Well-known member
543 came to me wounded, but not dead. An 8+ year project car, it was hacked on by various mechanics and tuners and was in a perpetual state of "work". The owner finally decided enough was enough and purchased a built VR4.
Then he called me.
The deal was this: It's yours for free so long as you don't part it out. Being in save-for-house mode, I saw an opportunity to sell my truck, zero out the loan, and improve my debt-to-income ratio. I said yes, hoping for the best, but prepared for the worse.
It was rough that day in Tacoma when it rolled out of the Pina Motorsports garage, it's temporary home while it waited for me. Wouldn't hold an idle, dead 1-2 and 2-3 synchros, tons of knock under boost. The car had been in an accident. Straightened up and painted afterwards, but the tail was still wonky, the trunk leaked, and the paint hadn't been primed correctly and was peeling. The speakers were blown. The tires were bald. The water pipe behind the turbo leaked. Most of the window trim was simply missing. However the interior was perfect (no tears anywhere), so at least getting it home was pleasant.
First things first. I took it straight to English Racing for an Innovate Wideband, ETS intercooler, DSMLink v3, and dyno tune. The car made a shade under 300hp @19.7 psi through what I thought at the time was a 20g turbo (more on that later). However, the first sign of things to come reared its ugly head. Lucas explained to me that when the #3 plug came out to get gapped, it took some of the threads on the head out with it. We figured that this meant that the last person to put the plugs in cross-threaded the plug.
However it held compression and ran like an angry honey badger, so I was happy. These were the halcyon days, two weeks of boosted bliss that almost had me convinced that I was in the clear.
Then… well I had to accept when the plug came out with metal on the threads that I would eventually need a new head. I checked the records (of which the previous owner meticulously kept) and it looked like I was probably about a year from hitting the replace-the-timing belt window. In fact I could have gone a few years since the belt was the Kevlar one from Greddy and appeared in good condition. But I also knew that things can happen, so when I started to see knock at higher RPM’s, I figured… Well I figured something ugly was happening.
I started by checking the logs in Link. Lucas was great during this process, sending me tweaked fuel maps and my knock was suddenly gone again.
However, something was odd. Why was Link configured for 850cc injectors? My paperwork showed that the car had FIC 1000cc injectors. I popped the hood and after some checking with a dental mirror and flashlight, I found out everyone was wrong. FIC 950’s. But still, way was link configured for 850’s? I backed-up my Link data and adjusted the injector size. This lasted for about 20 seconds, as the car was NOT happy.
But it was running fine with the tuning tweaks Lucas provided, and I’m no expert. Then it started the steady decline that would eventually lead to a full rebuild. After a few days, it was up to its old tricks. It started with simple knock under boost. When this got worse, I decided to check the plugs, as they often tell a story.
Quite the story.
At this point, I need to introduce Evan Hale of EH Motorsports. Somewhere in the timeline of all the stuff above, I needed to replace my drive-train fluids. After mentioning this on the board (not asking for help, mind you. Just mentioning it was work I was going to do), Evan offered to lend a hand. I took him up on his offer. I drove out to his shop with beer in-hand and was immediately impressed with his knowledge and personality. He’s seriously one of the nicest people you could ever meet. And man was he helpful. The rear diff bolt was completely rounded-off. I never would have gotten it off without Evan and his wonderful air tools. Not only did he get the bolt off, he also grabbed a replacement off the rear diff from an Eclipse he had harvested, tossed it in the hot tank, painted it to keep it protected from the elements… Just above and beyond.
Fast-forward to that fateful day I pulled the #3 plug and saw the state it was in. I had plans to hunt in Bend, and since the scariest part of the process was getting the old plug out, I tossed a brand new plug in and was on my way. I knew something was wrong, but I figured I could get through the weekend. Halfway to Bend (2 hours into the drive), I was going up a hill and at 10psi, the car fell flat on its face. I turned around and called Evan.
This was it. The head was coming off.
I was already familiar with Dale (BogusSVO) from his very interesting tech posts on head and motor rebuilding. I reached out to him to see if I could get a rebuilt head and we worked it out. About a week after that call, my new head showed up at Evan’s shop and my car was ready for serious work. I told Evan my mantra for getting the work done. Rules to live by if you are working on a project car.
Do it once. Do it right.
I told Evan that being the expert, it would be his advice I would be trusting to get the car whole again. Bearing that in mind, I accepted that when the head came off, we could discover other problems and that I may need a whole new motor. I wasn’t going to cut corners. If he gave me a few options for a part, the one I would buy would be the one he would recommend.
So back to the head:
Evan got the old head off and I got a phonecall.
The #3 cylinder was scorched and warped. We were going to need a new motor. At time I was in an airport headed to China. I got Dale on the phone and asked him how long it would take to get a block, too.
Out with the old
In with the new
Turns out the old block had already been through the ringer and couldn’t be reused as a core. Props to whoever fabricated the transmission mount in lieu of the broken stock mount.
Knock sensor? More like a Not Sensor
And that 20g the PO thought he had? Not quite…
That’s my T3-T04 on the left (and Evan’s HX35 on the right). Similar boost characteristics to a 20g, but certainly not a 20g.
And now the magic starts. Since I was getting the whole tourist package, it didn’t seem right to put it all back together without adding a little something. So I got a pair of regrind 264’s from Delta Cam.
And that Forced Performance manifold is on sale? Why I’d be crazy NOT to buy it!!!
And why not get everything ported while it’s all out? Again, great work by Evan.
Let’s get started!
And this is the only time you can really clean the engine bay out.
Evan decided my valve cover could use a refresh as well. He removed the baffles and gave it some paint.
and now it’s all ready to go in
…but first…
ok. Now we’re ready
So after all of this, what was the problem? Well we sent off the injectors to get cleaned and calibrated and FIC informed us that the #3 injector was, for lack of a better word, fucked. Seems as though it was just dumping gas into the cylinder without really spraying it. Now it’s all starting to make sense. The fouled plug. The threads. Link being tuned for 850cc injectors. #3 was running hot as hell. The plug wasn’t cross-threaded; it was fused! The heat is what wrecked the cylinder and caused the glazing on the piston. Costly problem, to be sure, but in the end, I’ve got a new motor with new bits and 543 is alive once again.
It’s rolling on a street tune right now until it can get on the dyno @ English in a few weeks. I’ll post the results here once I have them! For now, the vitals:
Engine:
MLS head gasket
Back-cut valves
Vition blue valve stems
BC1100 valve springs
3g revised lifters
Oil port mod
BSE
63DT 1g pistons
.25mm/.010 rods
.25mm/.010 mains
King bearings
rings gapped for boost (.22 top/.20 second)
264/264 Delta cam regrinds
ARP studs
Greddy Kevlar timing belt
Bolt-on’s:
T3-T04 w/ .60AR
FP racing exhaust manifold
Fujitsubo Legalis R 3” complete exhaust w/ custom 2.5” downpipe
Valve cover breather tank
K&N filter w/ MAF adaptor
ETS intercooler kit
K-Sport coilovers
Poly mounts
High-flow cat
Other bits:
Walbro 255 fuel pump
FIC 950cc injectors
Hallman boost controller
DSMLink v3
Infinity Speakers
Innovate Wideband
Southbend clutch (TZ Kevlar disk/SS-Series 2200# pressure plate)
Custom fabricated short-shifter from EH Motorsports
Custom fabricated battery tray from Pina Motorsports
Custom shift knob courtesy of Racah
Then he called me.
The deal was this: It's yours for free so long as you don't part it out. Being in save-for-house mode, I saw an opportunity to sell my truck, zero out the loan, and improve my debt-to-income ratio. I said yes, hoping for the best, but prepared for the worse.
It was rough that day in Tacoma when it rolled out of the Pina Motorsports garage, it's temporary home while it waited for me. Wouldn't hold an idle, dead 1-2 and 2-3 synchros, tons of knock under boost. The car had been in an accident. Straightened up and painted afterwards, but the tail was still wonky, the trunk leaked, and the paint hadn't been primed correctly and was peeling. The speakers were blown. The tires were bald. The water pipe behind the turbo leaked. Most of the window trim was simply missing. However the interior was perfect (no tears anywhere), so at least getting it home was pleasant.
First things first. I took it straight to English Racing for an Innovate Wideband, ETS intercooler, DSMLink v3, and dyno tune. The car made a shade under 300hp @19.7 psi through what I thought at the time was a 20g turbo (more on that later). However, the first sign of things to come reared its ugly head. Lucas explained to me that when the #3 plug came out to get gapped, it took some of the threads on the head out with it. We figured that this meant that the last person to put the plugs in cross-threaded the plug.
However it held compression and ran like an angry honey badger, so I was happy. These were the halcyon days, two weeks of boosted bliss that almost had me convinced that I was in the clear.
Then… well I had to accept when the plug came out with metal on the threads that I would eventually need a new head. I checked the records (of which the previous owner meticulously kept) and it looked like I was probably about a year from hitting the replace-the-timing belt window. In fact I could have gone a few years since the belt was the Kevlar one from Greddy and appeared in good condition. But I also knew that things can happen, so when I started to see knock at higher RPM’s, I figured… Well I figured something ugly was happening.
I started by checking the logs in Link. Lucas was great during this process, sending me tweaked fuel maps and my knock was suddenly gone again.
However, something was odd. Why was Link configured for 850cc injectors? My paperwork showed that the car had FIC 1000cc injectors. I popped the hood and after some checking with a dental mirror and flashlight, I found out everyone was wrong. FIC 950’s. But still, way was link configured for 850’s? I backed-up my Link data and adjusted the injector size. This lasted for about 20 seconds, as the car was NOT happy.
But it was running fine with the tuning tweaks Lucas provided, and I’m no expert. Then it started the steady decline that would eventually lead to a full rebuild. After a few days, it was up to its old tricks. It started with simple knock under boost. When this got worse, I decided to check the plugs, as they often tell a story.
Quite the story.
At this point, I need to introduce Evan Hale of EH Motorsports. Somewhere in the timeline of all the stuff above, I needed to replace my drive-train fluids. After mentioning this on the board (not asking for help, mind you. Just mentioning it was work I was going to do), Evan offered to lend a hand. I took him up on his offer. I drove out to his shop with beer in-hand and was immediately impressed with his knowledge and personality. He’s seriously one of the nicest people you could ever meet. And man was he helpful. The rear diff bolt was completely rounded-off. I never would have gotten it off without Evan and his wonderful air tools. Not only did he get the bolt off, he also grabbed a replacement off the rear diff from an Eclipse he had harvested, tossed it in the hot tank, painted it to keep it protected from the elements… Just above and beyond.
Fast-forward to that fateful day I pulled the #3 plug and saw the state it was in. I had plans to hunt in Bend, and since the scariest part of the process was getting the old plug out, I tossed a brand new plug in and was on my way. I knew something was wrong, but I figured I could get through the weekend. Halfway to Bend (2 hours into the drive), I was going up a hill and at 10psi, the car fell flat on its face. I turned around and called Evan.
This was it. The head was coming off.
I was already familiar with Dale (BogusSVO) from his very interesting tech posts on head and motor rebuilding. I reached out to him to see if I could get a rebuilt head and we worked it out. About a week after that call, my new head showed up at Evan’s shop and my car was ready for serious work. I told Evan my mantra for getting the work done. Rules to live by if you are working on a project car.
Do it once. Do it right.
I told Evan that being the expert, it would be his advice I would be trusting to get the car whole again. Bearing that in mind, I accepted that when the head came off, we could discover other problems and that I may need a whole new motor. I wasn’t going to cut corners. If he gave me a few options for a part, the one I would buy would be the one he would recommend.
So back to the head:
Evan got the old head off and I got a phonecall.
The #3 cylinder was scorched and warped. We were going to need a new motor. At time I was in an airport headed to China. I got Dale on the phone and asked him how long it would take to get a block, too.
Out with the old
In with the new
Turns out the old block had already been through the ringer and couldn’t be reused as a core. Props to whoever fabricated the transmission mount in lieu of the broken stock mount.
Knock sensor? More like a Not Sensor
And that 20g the PO thought he had? Not quite…
That’s my T3-T04 on the left (and Evan’s HX35 on the right). Similar boost characteristics to a 20g, but certainly not a 20g.
And now the magic starts. Since I was getting the whole tourist package, it didn’t seem right to put it all back together without adding a little something. So I got a pair of regrind 264’s from Delta Cam.
And that Forced Performance manifold is on sale? Why I’d be crazy NOT to buy it!!!
And why not get everything ported while it’s all out? Again, great work by Evan.
Let’s get started!
And this is the only time you can really clean the engine bay out.
Evan decided my valve cover could use a refresh as well. He removed the baffles and gave it some paint.
and now it’s all ready to go in
…but first…
ok. Now we’re ready
So after all of this, what was the problem? Well we sent off the injectors to get cleaned and calibrated and FIC informed us that the #3 injector was, for lack of a better word, fucked. Seems as though it was just dumping gas into the cylinder without really spraying it. Now it’s all starting to make sense. The fouled plug. The threads. Link being tuned for 850cc injectors. #3 was running hot as hell. The plug wasn’t cross-threaded; it was fused! The heat is what wrecked the cylinder and caused the glazing on the piston. Costly problem, to be sure, but in the end, I’ve got a new motor with new bits and 543 is alive once again.
It’s rolling on a street tune right now until it can get on the dyno @ English in a few weeks. I’ll post the results here once I have them! For now, the vitals:
Engine:
MLS head gasket
Back-cut valves
Vition blue valve stems
BC1100 valve springs
3g revised lifters
Oil port mod
BSE
63DT 1g pistons
.25mm/.010 rods
.25mm/.010 mains
King bearings
rings gapped for boost (.22 top/.20 second)
264/264 Delta cam regrinds
ARP studs
Greddy Kevlar timing belt
Bolt-on’s:
T3-T04 w/ .60AR
FP racing exhaust manifold
Fujitsubo Legalis R 3” complete exhaust w/ custom 2.5” downpipe
Valve cover breather tank
K&N filter w/ MAF adaptor
ETS intercooler kit
K-Sport coilovers
Poly mounts
High-flow cat
Other bits:
Walbro 255 fuel pump
FIC 950cc injectors
Hallman boost controller
DSMLink v3
Infinity Speakers
Innovate Wideband
Southbend clutch (TZ Kevlar disk/SS-Series 2200# pressure plate)
Custom fabricated short-shifter from EH Motorsports
Custom fabricated battery tray from Pina Motorsports
Custom shift knob courtesy of Racah