Originally Posted by
morgans432 i went out and checked your car its all good it hailed for like 3 mins. I want to drop the oil pan to see if there is anything in there but I will wait till this weekend, im just curious to see what actually happened. I checked for oil underneath the car today and there was nothing.
Just drain the oil if you want and check for copper or any other materials in the oil. If the bearing's really shot as I suspect, you should see like copper flake floating in the oil once it's all drained. Take a magnetic pick up pen or something and drag it thru the oil and see what collects.
I don't care if you drop it or not, it's up to you. Your driveway, your house. May not have to tow it to the shop at all if you get that far along.
Originally Posted by
TrackJunky82 Did anybody have an oil temp gauge installed? How man turbo cars and how many NA cars have fallen victim to the knock? I'm thinking some of the turbo cars might have seen high oil temps since they run much hotter then the NA cars and possibly it was not monitored.
No oil temp gauge, but I did have an oil pressure gauge. Oil pressure was getting pretty low in the trip (like 35psi on a VE pump). I assumed it was because the oil was so light (10w30 in constant > 4K rev range for extended periods (over two hours)). I should have installed an oil temp gauge, though
From what I had seen, more NA cars than FI cars were damaged on the track itself.
Originally Posted by
BenFenner I checked my oil before the first beginner session and found it a bit low. I added some 5W-30 Mobile 1 (what I was running in the engine) and all was well.
I headed out on the track (I was the first car in the line) and took it very easy the first lap to warm up the tires and engine. Second lap was a little quicker but still learning about the cones and such. 3rd lap was even faster still and gave it some power in some places. Revs never really got above 5k or so unless you count the straight on my 3rd lap. After that I ran into traffic and I was stuck in traffic just getting a feel for things for the rest of the session.
Pulled off the track right before the checkered flag (no cool-down lap) and let the car idle in the paddock for a bit. I had no radiator fans, and I didn't think to put the heat on in the car so head temps got sorta high. I shut the car off because of the temps and let it rest until the next session.
Came back and started her up to hear the engine ticking. Thought it was rod knock, shut the car off and waited until the end of the day to start her again. I was cursing my stupidity for not replacing the oil pan earlier (it's had a dent in it for years) and not running with fresh oil (was maybe 2-3k miles on my current stuff).
End of day, car wouldn't start. Pulled spark plugs. Plug #4 had the tip broken/melted off. Plug #1 was gapped much too close (probable detonation). We opened the gap on plug #1 and borrowed a plug from the black/grey ITA car team. We ended up having to push start the car (my cold start tune blows goats and it's definitely AEM time). Had a couple people listen to the engine and they thought the ticking was much too slow and high pitched to be rod knock. Diagnosis is a collapsed rocker arm lifter.
I did an oil change with 10W-30 Castrol Synthetic (shіtty cold start = tons of gasoline in the oil = stupid Ben) to get the gasoline out of the engine and asses the situation. No copper what-so-ever in the oil. Sweet.
I drove the ticking car home some 150 miles without incident and I will be replacing the intake side lifters in an effort to fix the problem. I can't say for sure, but it doesn't seem to be rod knock. Even with thin, old oil and a dented pan I seemed to have avoided the worst of it. I'll be back in business soon I imagine.
Friday just wasn't my day. =[
God I hope that's what happened to mine? Sounds really loud in the head area, though sound easily travels thru the motor. The issue with mine is hearing the all familiar marble sound when revving the motor freely. Thankfully I had that 5qt oil jug in the car and immediately threw more oil in the motor, before limping it to Alex's house.