Thread: Got Rod Knock at the convention? Post it here...

interesting.. I'll have to look into that.. was there a price listed?

Yeah, so you're still not listening. FYI I spend atleast one weekend a month at BR, Mid-Ohio or Nelson Ledges. It's not that it has right hand turns, it the type of right hand turns. M-O doesn't have any long sweeping right handers, they're all short duration. Nelson has the Carousell (sp?) but it's not nearly as fast as T8 at Roebling. (Nelson has eaten a motor under my car also, ironically in the carousell.... hmmmm). And FWIW I chew up the insides of RF tires faster than kill LF.

No prices, but I'll have to dig up where I found the link to d/l it.

Another fellow track junkie.. woot! We are at the track at least 2 weekends a month and sometimes every weekend between April and October (heck, this month alone the only free weekend we have is easter weekend! doh!)

Anyway..

Okay.. Road America is faster speeds still and has the big sweeper as well and 600+ miles later no sign of trouble for our sr20 motor is what I was getting at in my one post... I'm at a point were I very much look forward to seeing how many people cry 'track at fault' next year when they get engine problems and I can say, okay? Then how come I put over 'x' amount of miles on my sr20 motor at the SAME track without issue? ..and if I'm there at the same time, we can compare traqmate data for the same car at the same date, same weather conditions, etc!


I just find it difficult to believe a specific track can be blamed for sr20 rod knock failure is all. Unless someone can prove it with accurate data, I just see it as excuses (the same type of excuses drivers make when they aren't the fastest, how the car wasn't set up right, or the tires were too old, or the car wasn't tuned right.) Hell, I know damn well I'm not the fastest and openly admit it. I also know darn well when I'm driving like ass and don't try to blame it on the car or the track either.. lol I bent a tie rod going off track once but didn't blame it on the track! **** happens people... stop trying to say it's all because of the track when every damn year people seem to have rod knock/spun bearing problems at these things and always seem to have an 'excuse' as to why.

Will I spin a bearing and get rod knock at a track? Possibly and law of averages will eventually catch up to me anyway. Maybe I'll finally miss a shift but I'll be sure to admit it instead of trying to say it was the track or overlooked a bent oil pan or god knows what else. Sometimes **** just happens and that's track life.. Heck, race engines get rebuilt constantly because of the abuse they go through and that's just something you have to factor in if you go take your car to the track often! ..and like I mentioned earlier, why I retired the 993 from track duty after 10 years because I knew it was only a matter of time before needing a rebuild and I'd just rather buy a replacement cheap SR20 motor ($500 max for used) than have to spend $18k on a proper rebuilt porsche 993 motor is all!


I knew when I started tracking the p10 in April last year that I was pushing the limits by using a 110k mile old engine and was just so pleasantly surprised and pleased over 5k track miles later that its still going strong. I'm not a noob to the track so I tend to run in open passing HPDE4 w/NASA, Instructor Group or Advanced groups when I'm not w2w racing so I'm not exactly EASY on a car when running out at the various tracks.

I have only tracked a 993 at Roebling Road so far and eventually hope to be back there again but we shall see how it goes! I would probably run a race with my miata there before the g20/sr20 though so I can't easily disprove all the 'Its the track' people here since I don't live down the street either. Oh well, such is life..

The bottom line is you will go on believing what you want (aka, it was the track) and I will continue to believe it wasn't the track is all. Its almost gotten to religious belief like of if you believe in global warming or not at this point with this thread and its downright comical!

I really could care less what it is, I'd just like to know so I can avoid it the next go-around. I take full responsibility (not sure if you were saying I wasn't) for stupidly showing up with bad, thin, gasoline tainted oil, a dented oil pan, etc.

Sadly, I'll probably never find out what happened to my engine. I'm kicking myself for not replacing the exhaust lifters when I had the chance. (I ran the engine with no valve cover though, and it didn't sound like it was coming from the head at all!) Good thing I didn't fix the tick though. I would be running around with some bad pistons and a slapping #2 at that.

Glad to hear you aren't blaming the track for the failure... I'm no expert so I can only venture to guess and would look at some of the obvious along with some of what you already mentioned.

Seriously, I just thought of a fun analogy, If 40 people drink the same water but 4 people get sick, does that mean the water must be bad and the cause of the illness? I just keep going back to how all the SR20 motors didn't fail on that track or at least 50% to 70% failure rate (then I would really start to wonder about the track myself as one of the investigation areas to be honest).

I would focus on the basics like:

- Dented oil pan?
- Oil temp
- Water temp
- Oil pressure
- oil change and type of oil used and what version (15w50 vs 5w30, synthetic vs. regular, etc.)
- properly tuned?
- any issues before going out on track? good compression, etc?


and more I'm probably forgetting....
- Advanced timing? --then are you running proper premium fuel?

I'm with Ben, it's not the tracks fault, it's either our own or the 10+ year old engines we whip to death.

Regaurdless it gives us the chanse to fix things and address new issues with our engines. I for one am going to finally get that Koyo I've been meaning to get, and since I get to rebuild my bottom end I desided to also get a windage tray and crank scrapper too, just for kicks (I got a deal from the guy since I also got my RB engine resently fitted for a crank scrapper and windage tray).

How much are those crank scrapers and windage trays? =]

Ishihara-Johnson Crank Scrapers

Ours are about 1/3 down the page. Only VEs and the RWD SR20s are wide blocks, just FYI. Kevin is an awsome guy and makes amazing products.

Dan took the rest of the head apart tonight. Both intake valves on cylinder #1 are bent. (Odd, since they seemed to seat just fine). Anyway, that'd be the source of my ticking I'm sure. No clue why they bent. It's not like I over revved it or anything and they seemed to have bent while the engine was off (cooling down from maybe 230*F heat).

Mystery solved.

Funny how I had everything but bearing failure. I'm sure if I'd not been taking it easy I'd have seen that too though.

=/