ok, so heres the run down, i built this motor about 2 years ago. It's been running great & i've been having a lot of fun with the the car. It's not a daily driver by any means, it's more of a weekend warrior & i pull out of the garage & run hard on nice nights & weekends. I take it to the local drag strip maybe 5 or 6 times a year.

Motor: B18a (stock sleeves)
Pistons: Wiseco 9.3:1 Comp.
Rods: Eagle H-Beams
Oil Pump: GSR
Turbo: Garrett t3/t4 .60/.63

The night it died, i had just finished a 4th gear pull on the highway pulling away from an STi & noticed some smoke out the rear as i was checking my mirrors, as i noticed that i began to hear some engine noise that sounded like a real faint rod knock. I looked up & was a 1/2 mile away from home so i let it rev down as i got off the ramp & my oil pressure was dropping, when it got near idle the oil idiot light began to come on so i kept the rev's just high enough to keep the idiot light off & low enough to not cause the rod knock noise & limped it the last 1/4 mile home, right as i was turning twords my driveway the noise got louder so i shut it off & pushed it the rest of the way. The car was very low on gas & i knew i shouldn't have been running it hard when it was low, especially with a walbro 255 in the tank, but my excitement about the STi got the best of me. That run was hard for about 20sec. at 18psi on a t3/t4 turbo (.60/.63).

My assumption is the fuel issue being that i was extreamly low on gas, but i'd like to know what everyone else thinks just to be sure.

*EDIT: Just an FYI, i did build this thing with soft bearings & i think thats the only thing that saved my crank, it doesn't seem to be scored.

Here are the pix.

 

Looks like an oil pump failure. I see you are running a GSR pump on b18a so that is good. Doesn't look to hard to fix, just get some polishing, new bearings, check the head, new pump and you're ready to go.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by adseguy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Looks like an oil pump failure. I see you are running a GSR pump on b18a so that is good. Doesn't look to hard to fix, just get some polishing, new bearings, check the head, new pump and you're ready to go.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I don't think the oil pump failed. Everything else is fine.
This only happened to the rod bearing on cylinder 1.

The bearing didn't even spin, it was still seated properly in the rod when i pulled it apart.

???

 

probably abit of detonation took out the bearing instead of the piston not a bad thing by any means.. clean it up abit toss a new bearing in and rock that **** till next time!

maybe check afr on cool nights though

 

Holy mother of god that bearing got hot. I would change out the pump and possible test that pickup tube. Make sure there isn't something blocking it that you can't see right off.
I would go for lack of oil.

 

lol if it got "that hot" it git flat!

 

Id say oil problem, not a fuel problem..

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Topdawgg &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Id say oil problem, not a fuel problem..</TD></TR></TABLE>

x2 and just form experiance i would replace all the bearings and oil pump just incase something got sucked some where it should go..

good set up tho looks dope.

 

did you make sure u measured for the right bearings also i noticed you said it had eagle h beams but thos rods in the pic look stock???

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by d16racer &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">did you make sure u measured for the right bearings also i noticed you said it had eagle h beams but thos rods in the pic look stock???</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yes the crank & the rods were both measured with a mic & then plasti-gauged on assembly.

They are definatly eagle h-beams, as i built this my self the winter of '05.


Thanks everyone else for your help. I just need this thing to last another few weeks anyways, i've got a dart block & vtec head that i'm going to be assembling for next season.

 

YOur bay reminds me of a watermelon jolly rancher.

What were your bearings? OEM? Just curious as to what is a "soft bearing". Thank goodness you didn't end up throwing a rod bearing like I did when I had a lack of oil pressure. Destroyed my engine completely.

 

LOL, i'm glad my engine bay is fresh & fruity! haha

Clevite had a few different options when i was ordering bearings through my machine shop's catalog.

 

It wasn't caused by an oil issue...detonation hammered that bearing out the side over a period of time and with the bearing almost wiped out...you then lost all your oil pressure through that one spun bearing

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by PHDZINE &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">It wasn't caused by an oil issue...detonation hammered that bearing out the side over a period of time and with the bearing almost wiped out...you then lost all your oil pressure through that one spun bearing</TD></TR></TABLE>

the bearing never spun, as stated above, it was still seated properly when i pulled the end cap off the rod.

Here's the timming map, incase anyone sees anything wrong with it:

 

Timing looks decent, But it was probably the low fuel that caused the detonation. I wouldn't run anything with low fuel, no matter how tempting. Its pretty much the same as running sumthing without oil.

Just clean it up and throw it back together if you only need a couple weeks.

 

needs alot more timing lol

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Running925 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

the bearing never spun, as stated above, it was still seated properly when i pulled the end cap off the rod.

Here's the timing map, incase anyone sees anything wrong with it:
</TD></TR></TABLE>A spun bearing doesn't laterally mean the bearing is spinning. You hammered the bearing...I better rephrase that before you think I mean beat it up with a hammer...detonation beat the **** out of the bearing.

 

Doesn't look like alot of timing by the looks of your timing map. Do you need to sync the distributor with the Chrom ECU like aftermarket standalone ECU? I've never used Chrom...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Running925 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Yes the crank & the rods were both measured with a mic & then plasti-gauged on assembly.

They are definatly eagle h-beams, as i built this my self the winter of '05.


Thanks everyone else for your help. I just need this thing to last another few weeks anyways, i've got a dart block & vtec head that i'm going to be assembling for next season.</TD></TR></TABLE>
What were your clearances?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by PHDZINE &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">It wasn't caused by an oil issue...detonation hammered that bearing out the side over a period of time and with the bearing almost wiped out...you then lost all your oil pressure through that one spun bearing</TD></TR></TABLE>THANK YOU


bitch was hammered flat!

noobs

 

I am definitely intrigued by this. I have never seen a bearing flattened like that without being spun/heated. I have seen bearings that have been damaged by detonation (not bad enough to crack the ring lands) that didn't spin, and they didn't look like that at all. They were loose enough to slightly knock, and had all kinds of tiny cracks. The pan had particles in it from them that would shine in the sun. I don't get what happened here. I would think it would take a lot of heat to make the bearing get soft enough to be able to squish out like that, but maybe not. I don't know how soft your bearings actually are. Why did you get softer bearings than oem?

p.s. What is the diff between the gsr and ls oil pump? I thought they were the same.

 

I've hammered a set of ACL race bearing and supposably those are hard bearing. but regardless...the crank is trying to push out the bearing out the side of the rod.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by rorik &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I am definitely intrigued by this. I have never seen a bearing flattened like that without being spun/heated. I have seen bearings that have been damaged by detonation (not bad enough to crack the ring lands) that didn't spin, and they didn't look like that at all. They were loose enough to slightly knock, and had all kinds of tiny cracks. The pan had particles in it from them that would shine in the sun. I don't get what happened here. I would think it would take a lot of heat to make the bearing get soft enough to be able to squish out like that, but maybe not. I don't know how soft your bearings actually are. Why did you get softer bearings than oem?

p.s. What is the diff between the gsr and ls oil pump? I thought they were the same.</TD></TR></TABLE>

GSR oil pump is said to flow more oil than an LS pump, due to the additional oil needed for a vtec head.

Only reason i went with the softer bearings was that i figured, they woudln't be as tuff but if they were to have a problem & i caught it soon enough, maybe the material woudln't damage my crank, which actually ended up being the case.

yes, there were many particles from this bearing in the oil pan when i pulled it off.

I hope to have this thing back together tonight. Bearings should be delivered this afternoon.

 

Did you check if the crank is straight...the last time that happened to me, the crank was bent. Again...what were your clearances?

 

I have not pulled the crank from the car because it doesn't look to be harmed & the car is going down the track tomarrow night weather it likes it or not. So checking to see if it's straight or not, is out of the question as of right now.

As far as the clearances on the rod bearings go, i built it 2 years ago & don't remember exactly what the measurements came back as but i did use a mic to determine bearing size & i did plasti-gauge them durring assembly & everything was within spec.