The reason I wasn't on Targa Rotorua

Euen · Post by **Euen** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 5:22 pm

Heading down the southern motorway out of Auckland on Friday enroute to Rotorua when the dreaded death rattle hit me around the ears. Towed the car to a friends place in Mt Wellington to see if there was any chance of fixing it but when we couldn't get number 1 spark plug out we decided it was terminal. Towed the car home, parked it in the garage and headed off to Rotorua in the Subaru. Joined the Narva Tour for some of Saturday then dropped out to help a friend who had bent his BMW 320. Rejoined the Narva on Sunday and had a bit of fun on the stages. A bit of compensation I guess.

Got home today and pulled off the head and this is the mess that I found. The head of one of my nice new +1mm inlet valves embedded in No. 1 piston. The reason we couldn't get the plug out was that the valve head had smashed the electrode and the tip. The earth electrode was bent around and caught under one of the exhaust valves.

All in all, Friday was not a good day, and it wasn't even the 13th, that comes in a couple of weeks.

Ian · Post by **Ian** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 7:53 pm

Bugger!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Euen · Post by **Euen** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 9:13 pm

Agreed, although my language was a little more colourful. Now my mood is just one of resignation to the fact that it has happened and starting to look for the part numbers for those 2001+ 10:1 pistons.....

Psycho_Dad · Post by **Psycho_Dad** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 9:41 pm

ok how pretell did this happen? cambelt break or something?

PEace
557795

Euen · Post by **Euen** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 9:49 pm

I wish I knew. Just cruising down the motorway at about 100Kph and it let go. The break on the valve stem is very clean and almost flat. Will discuss it with the suppliers and the guy who built the head but not sure if we will really find out why.

Ian · Post by **Ian** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 8:28 am

Euen.......

FM (and others no doubt) have some rather juicy 11:1 pistons....with an overbore from memory.

Ian

Euen · Post by **Euen** » Tue Jun 03, 2008 10:40 am

Hi Ian

I know. They also have that delightful looking stroker kit .......... and while it would be nice, I need to consider the $$. This rebuild is unplanned and unbudgeted.

Cheers

Growler · Post by **Growler** » Wed Jun 04, 2008 7:35 pm

Bugger!!
I have never seen a valve embed itself into the top of a piston before!

Growler.

MN · Post by MN » Mon Jun 09, 2008 9:13 pm

So the Dunlop Targa is still on Euen?

I've put my entry in for the final day ie Targa Wellington.

No "5's" out on the Taranaki Tarmac rally either. I'm not sure that the red Wanganui 5 was rebuilt from his extensive roll last year and I had other plans.

Euen · Post by **Euen** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 11:34 am

Dunlop Targa NZ is definitely on. Looking forward to doing Paekak Hill and Moonshine again (oops, did i say that out loud??). We didn't totally miss out in Rotorua. We joined the Narva Tour in my Legacy wagon ...

Not quite the same though.

Update on the cause of the disaster, I sent some more detailed photos back to FM who passed them on to Supertech who made the valves. It seems that I may have knocked the valve slightly when fitting the head, causing a slight bend in the stem. With the running of the engine, this fatigued the valve stem causing it to break.

With the very narrow engine bay and wide front guards on the TG, fitting the head is not easy. It is necessary to have the inlet manifold fitted when the head goes on as it is such a PITA to get at the manifold nuts. This makes the whole unit quite heavy.

The safest way that I have discovered now is a 3 man job (having 2 sons still living at home does have a few benefits). Firstly, the cam bearings are released so that all the valves are closed. Then the head is slung from a long pole that can be held from either side of the car. The 3rd person carefully guides the head onto the locating spiggots from the front.

Ian, an update on the pistons. I'm going with the FM 11:1 +2mm Wisecos.

Cheers
Euen

Ian · Post by **Ian** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 3:39 pm

Euen...good for you! More capacity plus more HP....so BP 98 it will be then? Can't remember what block you have, but I understand my 93 is in fact only 8.9:1 (not 9:1 as the factory claim)....in which case 11:1 should be noticeably perkier, esp with the modded 99 head you have. Hope you will dyno it when you have it all together. Are you doing rods as well? With the Link you have, are you still running 7,200 rev limiter or can you reset it as part of the Link package?
I ordered a RB hollow front sway bar from the US, with support blocks, so looking foward to that in the transitions........

Cheers, Ian

Euen · Post by **Euen** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 4:16 pm

Block will be a 96. The debris managed to leave a few scratches on the bores so it needs boring anyway. Have been running the Link at 7500 with the solid lifters in the 99 head. Could potentially go higher but it is over the power and torque peak so possibly not worth it. We were getting 84Kw (112 rwhp) at the wheels @ 5800rpm with the new head with the bent valve and 9:1 pistons so with all valves sealing properly, a few more ccs, VICS working properly and 11:1 I will be looking for a "modest" improvement on that.

Edit: I know the rear wheel hp is not earth shattering (equates to about 160 fwhp) but the torque curve is really interesting as it is almost flat from 2500 to 5700. It sits at about 130 lb-ft from 2500 to 3000, dips to about 123 at 4000 then climbs back up to 130 at 4700, peaking at 132 at 5200, dropping to 120 lb-ft at 6000.

The reason I wasn't on Targa Rotorua

The reason I wasn't on Targa Rotorua

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