TravisBiggie

The other day when a friend was going a compression test since my coolant system was being pressurized under boost only, he used an impact taking the spark plug out...broke the spark plug on cylinder 1.. he put another one in, all seemed fine.. drove it home (5 miles) (pictures are of cylinder 1 too, no other cylinder has scratches) I checked the head, I saw no physical damage on the cylinder 1 valves.

pull head off today, and see this. There is also a gouge in the piston.

The small scratches on the left I can't feel, but the one on the very right I can feel well.

I'm ******* livid, especially since the guy said he doesn't believe it was the piece of the broken spark plug, he said I sucked something up in my turbo.. I still have the broken spark plug with a huge chunk missing from it...

Do I need this ******* thing bored now? If so, can I still use my 81mm pistons? I think not....

Thanks

mafia

So what made you pull the head? Are you using a air filter?

TravisBiggie

I'm not using a filter, no. I'm not saying anything was not sucked in, but there has not been one time I thought anything was ingested.

Initially, my upper radiator hose was balloning, and I was burning coolant. Pulled the head because I did a compression test a week or so ago and we pressurized all the cylinders. Cylinder one was the only one to make the level of coolant move. I retorqued the head studs as a latch ditch effort, nothing different, so I pulled the head to investigate. I did torque the head gasket twice which is why I believe its the gasket.

Lets say I keep the motor as is. Lets say the scratch is small enough to where it can change something, which would be....? More oil consumption? More blow by? I need some suggestions... I'm already looking around for forged pistons... I would really prefer not to... but I want this goddamn set up going. I just bought a water meth kit today too, now this!!!

SiRCiviC94

im a cheap *** id try to just hone it out but first ask a machine shop. worst case get a new bare block?

TravisBiggie

well my friend who broke the plug can hone it for me, I rather not pull the motor if I don't have to, but its pretty much out... just the mounts left...

I found a set of SRP pistons with 10:7:1 compression with a stock ls head, for 360 shipped, brand new with piston rings. 81.5mm

I have considered finding a new block already, but I am tempting with these srp's now.

turbohatch96y7

iTrader: (15)

LMAO who uses a impact for plugs??

I would rebuild man. BUT the worst is you burn some oil, more blowby. If you don't have the funds slap the head back on and don't try and push the motor hard.

If you can feel the scratch with you nail you need a hone. Depending on how deep the scratch is you'll need to bore It out, by then your ptw gap would be too much to reuse the same pistons.

Also don't let that friend ever touch your car again.

TravisBiggie

It has 500 miles on it

I plan to run 4 -10 fittings on my valve cover to my catch can, possibly one off the back of the block, and honestly don't care about burning oil. My current catch can pissing so much oil as it is now.

I want to run it hard, by all means. I plan to add water meth and add a few lbs of boost.

a 68 yr old man -_-

motoxxxman

when you break a sparkplug, it's extremely rare that any pieces of it get into the cylinder. because when it breaks, it just splits into 2 pieces, the bottom piece remains in the threads, then you just grab it with something and unscrew it out.

the gouge in the piston does look like your turbo sucked something. and the scratches are from multiple amounts of debris getting sucked in from not having an air filter, and the debris gets caught between the piston and cylinder.

so yeah, that damage has nothing to do with the sparkplug. but tell your friend to never use an impact on a plug ever again. also tell him, and tell YOURSELF, to ALWAYS use a torque wrench when installing sparkplugs. they NEED to be torqued properly, or they will either back out or get seized and break when removing it no matter what method you use. overtorquing can also damage the plug hole threads, rendering the head useless.

find a way to run a filter when driving anywhere besides a racetrack.

the piston probably has more damage than that cylinder wall. and the rings are probably cooked too.

the gunky buildup on the piston is from it sucking and burning oil, for a lot longer than 5 miles.

those scratches are pretty deep, they can not be honed out. get a set of 81.5mm pistons and have the cyls bored/honed to match the new pistons.

TravisBiggie

the spark plug is in front of me, and a big chunk of it is missing.

What do you mean about the gunk build up? all 4 pistons are like this, all were new, with 500 miles on it (lots of pulls though)

I found a set of new srp pistons with 10:7 compression with my ls head (new for $350 shipped with rings). Would this be a good choice? I would like to go with the higher compression for the extra power. Once the motor is tuned, I'm done with the need for speed and moving onto another project. Whatcha think?

Thanks for the replies.

TravisBiggie

http://www.ebay.com/itm/290957091244...84.m1423.l2649

these are the pistons.

Today I purchased the last performance mod for this car, and I'm calling it quits. I bought a water methanol injection kit.

Would I be safe purchasing this high comp pistons and using meth? I think its a win win? I have a stock head and I intend on doing nothing with it, like I mentioned, I am losing the need for speed, the car is bloody fast enough!

Hidenplanvew

You need new rods like eagles or something to use those pistons... Maybe you had a part of the spark plug enter into the cylinder but there are also other things that could cause an issue too like to filter. There is no way you know what is on the road or being kicked up from something in front of you... It could also be install issue and caused that, but you were burning oil before hand so something was screwd before your friend got a hold of your car.

TravisBiggie

I wasn't burning oil, I was just shooting a ton of oil into my catch can (bad set up, has been revised)

"you need eagles to run those pistons"

look in sig -_-

TravisBiggie

I located a new block already locally. b18b1 81.5mm bore cp pistons manley rods for 600. I plan to buy this motor.

With peace in mind thanks to this back up block, I'm going to see how far this scratched up one will go. I know the negatives of the scratches are more oil consumption and more blow by. Is there anyway to monitor how much blow by I have/crank case pressure? I plan on running a 4 fittings on my valve cover and 1 from the back of the block. If I were to continue to run this car hard, what do you think would be the first thing to go on the bottom end? Piston rings? Someone above said the rings could be bad already, is there anyway to check with the motor in the car? I don't want to push the car like I normally do and have em fail shortly after. I do not care about oil consumption at all. This car is merely a weekend car.


What do you guys think?

bigG

iTrader: (6)

Those marks are not from pieces of a spark plug...

TravisBiggie

anyone else? Do you guys think I can run the car for awhile longer?

motoxxxman

of course you can still run it, and it will still run. though I do highly advise against it. it'll burn oil, blow oil, and run worse and worse every day. don't be surprised if it leaves you stranded at the most inopportune time and location.

TravisBiggie

well in that case I might as well pull the block since its 95% percent out.

Should I run 9:1 CP pistons or 10:7:1 SPR pistons?

motoxxxman

how much power do you plan to make? what fuel? what boost level are you considering?

TravisBiggie

i made 362 on stock compression, 19.5 psi. 92 octane.

With the new set up, I will be running water methanol injection, and will be adding as much more boost as I can. I know the 60 trim turbo loses efficency around 23 24 psi, but I will be running methanol, so I believe I can run more boost safely?

I want to get as much power as I can with my stock head.

motoxxxman

if the turbo loses efficiency, then you don't want to run past the boost level where it loses efficiency. that means power gains will be minimal because it simply can't flow as well in that range.

if you want to run more than 20psi (and get into low efficiency areas), get the 9.0:1.
if you want to make more power on less boost and have better throttle response and faster spool time, get the 10.7 and run only like 15psi. you'll probably hit 400 like that.

just keep in mind that lower compression is a lot easier to tune, and a bit more forgiving when something is a little off. higher compression is a bit harder to tune, but is much more sensitive to minor alterations, whether it be from weather, or a setting that is off by a hair.