So I finally broke down my motor. After over four years of being turboed on the stock motor with the basic FMU setup, I finally broke it down. I got my DRAG3 turbo kit from Ben@importparts in the summer of 1999. In fact, if you ask him, I think I actually got the very first production DRAG3.

Anyway... I drove around for 55,000 miles. Raced many, many, many runs down the track (to a 12.7 at 109 on 22x8x15 slicks, and a 13.3 at 110 on drag radials). And enjoyed the hell out of it for four years. Ran 12 psi the first winter thanks to the creeping Turbonetics delta2 (TiAL wasn't even around yet!). Drove several dozen long trips (over 1000 miles in one weekend). Accidentally pegged the boost gauge past 2.0-bar on several occasions....

It started smoking a few months ago (I think due to those accidental overboostings). I have been limping it around ever since. I finally pulled the motor on Wednesday after visiting Arturbo and Flamenco and getting motivated enough.

The verdict... The damage was so very minimal. I was shocked. Head/combustion chambers.... perfect... Valves... great... cylinder walls... not a scratch.... bearing journals.... flawless... ring lands...... ring lands....

Haha... not even like that.. I had a few cracks in the #1 and #3 piston ring lands. I mean, I have seen some so bad that the rings and lands almost seem "melted" together. And they crumble when you examine them. My rings were not even slightly damaged... PERFECT. Only those cracks in the lands... I was quite happy.

Ok... so now the block is all broken down. I'm bxing it up tomorrow for its trip to Benson's Machine Shop in California.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

you have always been my inspiration and will continue so....

it will be bigger and better than your CRX lol

stan

 

Good deal, hope this makes people a little less afraid to turbo their cars.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Flamenco-T &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">you have always been my inspiration and will continue so....

it will be bigger and better than your CRX lol

stan</TD></TR></TABLE>

haha.... that "(building)" suffix has been in my sig for over 2 years now...

When we making another run to Sonic in Gatesville Stan??

 

My turbo mentor MarkC. Just dont take as long as me..hehe By the end of the year for the both of us.

art

 

hehe... the day I get my block back from Benson's is the day my car will run..

[hope i am not jinxing it... ]

Oh... I thought of another tried/true part: ACT XTSS clutch. Lasted every one of those years and miles. Disk still had plenty of meat on it. Pressure plate, however, had some stress cracks. I still am satisfied with its performance.

 

A true success story, 4 years thats awesome Mark

Its sucks the motor is done, but ateast its time for bigger and better things .

 

good luck on the build

 

amazing, you must have found an FMU that actually worked. that is honestly an accomplishment to have a drag kit on a stock motor for that long and not have anything go wrong. especially your ringlands. well done, you an inspiration to us all

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MarkC &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
That's my story and I'm sticking to it. </TD></TR></TABLE>

one of the pioneers. homer says mmm 3bar

regarding the thread subject, how did the turbo look???

 

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

one of the pioneers. homer says mmm 3bar

regarding the thread subject, how did the turbo look???</TD></TR></TABLE>

as far as I know, I think that would be Mark's 10,000th turbo on the same kit lol..I know he chaged turbo setup left and right like crazy..

stan

 

o yeah i forgot he was the turbo *****.

 

Thats awsome. SOunds like just a little detonation took out the vernable honda rings, no doubt to the over boosting and the inability of the FMU to properly fuel the system at 2 bar (thats 28 psi, or roughly ~300 psi fuel pressure on top of base with a 10:1 fmu, ain't gonna happen LOL). Anyways all you really needed to do was a bottle brush re-ring job but kudos to you to pull the block and do it right.

 

55K boosted miles or total miles?

 

boosted

 

Man that's a long time on the stock block


Modified by TurboR1391 at 6:33 PM 11/22/2003

 

Thats fantastic!!

Man, I would be so scared after hitting 2bar with an FMU...or any engine management on a stock block.

I would be expecting rods sticking out of the block!!

 

thats definitly a success story Mark.

 

my built motor didn't even see boost yet and it has scratched cylinder walls damn half-assing machine shops

 

DOH!!

 

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

as far as I know, I think that would be Mark's 10,000th turbo on the same kit lol..I know he chaged turbo setup left and right like crazy..

stan</TD></TR></TABLE>

Haha... yup... I thought I was bad until I saw your guy's apartment tho!

I have had.... about 8 different turbos over those 4 years. Damn Majestic Turbo for being located so close to me!

 

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

Haha... yup... I thought I was bad until I saw your guy's apartment tho!

I have had.... about 8 different turbos over those 4 years. Damn Majestic Turbo for being located so close to me! </TD></TR></TABLE>

Why did you get different turbos? Did you use different sizes or something?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by danl &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Thats awsome. SOunds like just a little detonation took out the vernable honda rings, no doubt to the over boosting and the inability of the FMU to properly fuel the system at 2 bar (thats 28 psi, or roughly ~300 psi fuel pressure on top of base with a 10:1 fmu, ain't gonna happen LOL). Anyways all you really needed to do was a bottle brush re-ring job but kudos to you to pull the block and do it right.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Well it wasn't the rings. The rings actually were perfectly flawless. I could even re-use them! (j/k). But two of the pistons had little cracks in the ring lands on the pistons themselves (the part between the different rings).

I have been waiting to do this for so long. Man and to think I dreaded pulling the motor. It only took two hours! But I had one bad-*** friend helping me. Props to Garcia at Deepstage for speedy gonzales-ing the motor-drop.

 

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

Why did you get different turbos? Did you use different sizes or something?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah... I tried all kinds of different sizes.

Ball-bearing 46s, 50s, 57s, 60s, 60-1, .48 housings... .63s... Even a T04B Super-V...

 

And what did you end up with? Any comments about the different turbos?

Good to hear that your setup lasted so long. Hope your new setup will last even longer.