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Pop goes the BRZ.


Draco-REX

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You are handling this much better than i would.

 

+1.

 

Good luck on the rebuild!

I'm not exactly happy about this, but being pissed off isn't, going to change things. And besides, I put a blower on an engine with 12.5:1 compression, overdrive the blower, and then switched fuels to E85. I only have myself to blame.

 

Even knowing the risks, I was still confident because there are numerous people using the same setup for track days where the engine will see far more stress. So I'm very curious about what went wrong.

 

Sorry to hear about your car. So what's the verdict? HG or rod thru the block?

Don't know yet. I may climb under it Thursday after work. But I'm sure it's not a rod since that should be fairly obvious (gnomes with sledgehammers).

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The guys manning ZB's shop let me put it on an empty lift so I could get a look under the engine. ..so much oil.. It's going to suck to clean.

 

Anyways, got the skid plate off and I didn't have to pull the header. Looks like someone over on FT86Club.com called it:

 

I'm going to go out on a limb here and venture my guess to be that you ate a rocker and shot it out of the valve cover. Just a guess. I'm interested to see what the actual verdict is.

19763240031_d4c6e87d7c_b.jpg

 

Nailed it.

 

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess oil starvation. The course at the event was very right-turn heavy, including a banked turn. With no downforce or slicks I didn't think I'd have to worry about this, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Hopefully someone's figured out a solution to this, or I'm just not going to be able to run at Kil-Kare again.

 

So, if I'm somewhat lucky, I just need a head and I'm back and running. When the engine comes out, I'll know for sure. But for now I don't think I'll be needing the replacement engines I've sourced.

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More news. It turns out I might have fallen victim to a rare defect effecting the pins that hold the rockers in place. If so, it wasn't an oil starvation issue, and Element Tuning has a solution.

 

Man, I really hope that's all that happened.

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Hoping for the least-damaging outcome!

 

Were those rockers the ones you pulled from your engine? If that's factory, then LOL at the quality.

 

That picture is from Element Tuning. The two pictured were brand new replacements. Ah well.

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The guys manning ZB's shop let me put it on an empty lift so I could get a look under the engine. ..so much oil.. It's going to suck to clean.

 

Anyways, got the skid plate off and I didn't have to pull the header. Looks like someone over on FT86Club.com called it:

 

 

19763240031_d4c6e87d7c_b.jpg

 

Nailed it.

 

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess oil starvation. The course at the event was very right-turn heavy, including a banked turn. With no downforce or slicks I didn't think I'd have to worry about this, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Hopefully someone's figured out a solution to this, or I'm just not going to be able to run at Kil-Kare again.

 

So, if I'm somewhat lucky, I just need a head and I'm back and running. When the engine comes out, I'll know for sure. But for now I don't think I'll be needing the replacement engines I've sourced.

 

A dry sump oil system would take care of the oil starvation problem. It doesnt allow the oil to slosh around in a pan. They make kits for the EJ motors but you may have to do a little digging to find one for a BRZ. The kits I have seen are around $3400

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A dry sump oil system would take care of the oil starvation problem. It doesnt allow the oil to slosh around in a pan. They make kits for the EJ motors but you may have to do a little digging to find one for a BRZ. The kits I have seen are around $3400

 

It's looking like it wasn't a starvation issue, but a manufacturing defect.

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Glad it wasn't major. I'm super disappointed in the quality of the new Subaru's.

 

Subaru's in a bad position right now. They're a very small car maker, but they've had the biggest growth of any. Their production is stretched to its limit, and they are having trouble meeting demand for their most popular cars. I have a feeling that their drop in quality is due to corner cutting to get few more cars out the door. If that the case, the only solution is to build more capacity or pull back production. Either way, I don't see the quality going back up in the near future.

 

ZB's due back this week. I don't know if he will jump right back into work (most people wouldn't, but knowing him I wouldn't be surprised if he did). So I may not get a look inside the engine till next week.

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  • 4 weeks later...

ZB got the valve cover off and was able to get a good look at the damage. He confirmed rocker failure as the cause. Unfortunately when the rocker came loose it damaged the head. So the engine is getting pulled and the head removed. We'll give the cylinders a good look and see if forged internals is warranted. I really wish there were aftermarket rockers available.

 

No pictures yet.

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ZB got the valve cover off and was able to get a good look at the damage. He confirmed rocker failure as the cause. Unfortunately when the rocker came loose it damaged the head. So the engine is getting pulled and the head removed. We'll give the cylinders a good look and see if forged internals is warranted. I really wish there were aftermarket rockers available.

 

No pictures yet.

 

I'm surprised at the lack of aftermarket rockers. :confused:

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