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7 minute(s) of a 173 minute read
4-11-2014
4-11-2014
some pics Nate took at the NASA TT event at NJMP
^ thanks.
Here's video from last weekend.
12-16-2014
Well, it's been a while since i updated this thread. The first engine build at the beginning of the season didn't go too well. lasted two events. More on that later.
Long story short, we teamed up with CBRD for a new 2.2 build and got the car back on track around mid September and was able to finish the rest of the season strong with multiple wins and track records. Very excited to continue to work with CBRD next year and hopefully continue developing the car. I plan to do few events at VIR next year in preparation for East coast championship. I think next year will be a much better turn out than this year. The numbers of NASA TT participants in Northeast and MidAtlantic has been growing hugely. the last few TT events had to be capped at 30-40 entries.
I'll post up some more pics and vids later.
1-29-2015
here's the Agile Automotive built 2.3 stoker that didn't even last one event, less than 1k street miles. after the motor was built by Agile, i installed it and put about 300 street miles on a base map before getting it dyno tuned. I didn't have them tune it because i already had a sponsor tuner. I have wideband in my car and was monitoring and logging the whole time. The car got tuned on the dyno, made really good power on the dyno. we did notice that after about a dozen dyno pull, the catch can was full. i thought it as odd but just thought that maybe i forgot to drain it before i installed the motor. after the dyno tune, i still took it easy on the car and got about 1k miles on it before i did my first TT event. on my first session out at the first event, my dip stick blew out and got oil all over the engine bay (This didn't happen on my stock motor with same power level and crank vent setup, 320whp mustang dyno). so i came in and zip tied the dip stick down. went out for the second session and the oil catch can over flow after a few laps. i knew there was a bad blow by issue. i did about 15 laps over the whole event weekend. after the event. i went home and did compression and leak down test and numbers came out good. I called Agile and they told me to bring the car down for them to check. they did compression test and leak down test and bore scope. Charged me $100 just to confirm my numbers and told me it was inconclusive and to do the next event and see if anything change. I did the next TT two weeks later and same thing happens. The catch can would over flow after just two hot laps. I contact Agile again and told them what happened. They said the warranty was void because they didn't install the motor or tuned it. But they did blame the tune for massive blow by. i asked them for build specs and they wouldn't give it to me. the only thing they told me was the piston clearance was tight. So my sponsor MPG told me to take the car to CBRD and they'll take care of it. CBRD took the motor out and i was going to have them take it apart. but Agile told me that they have to take it apart or the warranty would be void (they told me it was void already before). so i drop the motor off and stood there while they take it apart. from initial assessment, they told me it looked like cylinder wall glazing, but they would have to send it to machine shop to confirm. they blamed it on the tune. my tuner Petey Turbo has tuned countless evo's in the northeast region. after a couple weeks went by, i contact Agile and asked what the status was. they told me that the machine shop confirmed that the cylinder wall were glazed and told me what it would cost to rebuild. i didn't trust them to rebuild it, so i told them i would come pick up the motor. when i got there to pick up the motor, they charged me $200 for looking at it. i was like wtf, they told me that no one else could look at or they would void warranty but then charge me $200 after denying warranty. i had to pay or i couldn't take the engine home. when i got home and looked at the block, it was already rehoned, like they were trying to get rid of the evidence, even though i told them i didn't want the block rebuilt.
the whole time they were blaming on the tune. i sent them my base map and all the datalogs. even sent them contact information of my tuner as they requested. they never looked at the maps or the logs.
you can see the wear on the piston skirt coating. it's completely gone with only 1k miles. my stock motor with 40k miles and 4 years of track has more piston coating than that. and the wear on the side of the cylinder looked worse then my stock motor with 40k miles. i know 2.3 put more side load on pistons but that seems way excessive for 1k miles. my guess is the tight piston to wall clearance had something to do with the blow by. unfortunate, they already rehoned the block when i got it back, so i couldn't measure piston to wall clearance or ring gap.
i find out later from other shops in the area that Agile does shady work and a lot of there clients have to go to other shops to fix their work. looks like i'm one of them.
this is how much oil that came out the catch can after just two laps at Summit Point (2 miles per lap)
