Draco-REX

Can confirm, from New England. When you guys are clearing out supermarkets, we finally think it's time for umbrellas.

That looks horrible in red.

Have to turn in my stock heads for cores or it's $1500 more (even more evidence that stock heads are unicorns). Installation labor is a wash, but there would be additional labor to have a shop build a head. It would cost a lot more. Motor swaps are 10k+, what few there are. I might as well sell the car, and move to a Vette, Exige, or NSX. I really like where the car is with the stock engine and blower. Really, I just managed to encounter a perfect shit storm. Rare issue, excessive damage, rare used parts, expensive new parts. I rolled the dice and I lost. Never bet what you can't afford to lose. When I bolted the supercharger onto a stock n/a engine, I was prepared to write off the engine. At least this way I get a set of built heads instead of just a replacement stock engine.

Yup. One was listed twice, and turned out so bad they wouldn't sell it to me. Another was the FA20DIT head I mentioned above. And I can't get a hold of the last one. EBay is a bust too.

Performance Auto Spa

That would work. But I don't see a demand for a stock short block or individual heads on ft86club. If I'm going to sit on 3/4 of an engine for a long time, I might as well get the race heads.

I've been trying to get a used head for the BRZ. Unfortunately I've had either no luck, or bad luck. Thought I finally had found one, but when the head showed up today, it was for a FA20DIT engine, despite the salvage yard trying to convince me otherwise. :dumb: I have only one more shot at a used head, but I'm not confident. If that falls through I'm looking at building a new head. I thought I could assemble it myself, but the more I looked into valve lapping the more it appears that simple hand/drill lapping doesn't cut it when it comes to modern engines; especially boosted applications. So I have come to two options: 1. Have a shop build a new head. I'm looking at roughly $2000 in new parts, plus labor to have the RH head assembled and the LH head's springs swapped. 2. Buy a set of built race heads. Full Blown Motorsports heads with upgraded springs AND valves, and are P&P'd. $3250 in parts, but no labor. What's killing me is that most yards won't break up one of these engines, and I've got quotes on whole used engines between $3500 and $4000. Everyone else that had this failure got away without much damage. I managed to luck out and get a fucked head out of the deal. :fuuuu:

Going to try and make it.

Stuff like this is really making me want to make a track rat out of an old Miata.

Plus, you get the bonus of beating cars that are much faster on paper and more expensive.

Potentially, pretty well. If you haven't AutoXed before, don't worry about classing. Just show up, have fun, and get some seat time. To be regionally competitive, you just need all the seat time you can get and a well-prepped car. To be Nationally competitive you'll need to pick a class and then build a car.

So we went to COSI yesterday. It's was fun and there were some neat displays. Reminded me of when I went to the science museum when I was a kid. But we were wandering around and came across this: I looked closer and saw: It's hard to see, but there are a lot of small dots that are people milling around the cars. You can just make them out at the original resolution. And sure enough: So C&C has a permanent display at COSI... sorta.

Yup. ZB's the man.

Fit? Pretty much. Bolt up to the transmission? No. EJ swaps are few and far between. I think most shops feel that if they're going to go through all the work needed to make it work, they might as well make something more original fit.

Supercharger and ECU tune kinda killed that. Even though they weren't the cause, I'm sure it would take a day in court to convince a dealership of that. I'd probably end up paying more. And that still wouldn't address the weak springs.

That's the plan. Used head, aftermarket springs, and a handful of new rockers to cherry pick from. I just need to talk with an engine builder to figure out which springs to buy.

Glad to hear she's ok. Hopefully the insurance companies make everything right.

While Vorshlag is working on one of their LS swap kits for the BRZ/FR-S, I think a Vette would be a better choice if I were to consider that route.

I'm being told on FT86Club that the valve springs are considered too weak and that is the cause of failures like this. If so, stronger springs are all that's needed to prevent this from happening again. The thing is, the engine was far from being under stress when this happened.

The engine is out. The Carnage: Some Disassembly Acquired It took a big bite out of the head along with nibbles here and there. The lifter hiding in shame I'm blaming this guy, and you'll see why later. There was scarring along the side of the lifter, but I can't be sure if it was the cause or result of the failure. The home of the lifter It's difficult to see, but there is damage around the lip of the hole. Dun-dun-DAA! The Rocker Note the pin, while starting to walk, is still in place. The roller spins freely too. I have two theories. 1. The lifter failed somehow. Either it somehow wasn't supplied oil (there are no other signs of oil starvation in the head) or it somehow bound up in its seat. This let it retract into the head far enough to let the rocker come free. 2. The walking pin in the rocker allowed the roller to bind up and overheat, locking the roller. But the roller isn't discolored like it would be if it overheated, and the cam doesn't show signs of that it was grinding against a stuck roller. I'm leaning towards #1, a lifter failure of some sort, as the cause. The question now becomes. How do we prevent this from happening again? And is it worth doing, or would it be more practical to just get a replacement head and hope it doesn't happen again? I love this car, and the last weekend I had it it was brilliant. But I wonder if an outside observer would think it unwise to stick with this car...

Can you get it on demand? I'm rarely able to catch the events live.

ATS-V coupe is nice. But after driving a new SRX with the CUE system and touch-sensitive controls, I would HATE to live with it. CUE wasn't bad, but have no buttons for anything was just annoying. If GM had incorporated some haptic feedback, it wouldn't be so bad. But I was constantly wondering where I was supposed to touch (on the silver bar? On the word? Doe touching on the crease work? or only the flats?). I'm sure GM is trying to jump ahead of the Germans in interior tech by trying to incorporate touch technology, but it just isn't implemented in an intuitive manner. Still thinking I'm going German once the Caddy's run its course. But the ATS V Coupe looks sweet. I wonder how well that 6 will handle turning up the boost..

I've thought about cutting the cord, and I can find almost everything I want to. But where's a good place to get Formula 1 practice/qualifying/races?

No kidding. Looked like it was on a catapult.

Wait wait wait.... "The pot calling the kettle black" is racist? I'm going to assume there's some post history that would indicate that interpretation in this instance. There's no way I can accept it's a racist statement.