Another one out -

No speedster for me this year. It's all Japanese (ala Scion)! It seems I may have lost #1 cylinder wednesday night. I can't tell you how excited I am at the prospect of having to drop my engine and replacing pistons and cylinders. I will be attending Carlisle and I WILL be spending some time with Carey discussing the future. See ya all there tomorrow.

Mickey,
How did you determine that #1 cyl. was damaged?
Compression? Big Bang? Grind to a halt?
alum.out the exhaust? Hole in Case? Rods sticking out?
Isn't that a CB Performance Motor?

Greg
Too bad it's such short notice. I'd have lent you my spare 1800 cc. motor.

Greg,
I didn't really determine it, my wrench buddy did. We checked plugs (all but #1 looked good), and we checked compression and #1 was weakest. It's not very scientific but it's definite that one of em ain't working right. Pat advised me to do a leak-down to see if it's intake, exhaust or ring/piston. We'll do that on monday I guess, but my buddy feels pretty confident it's in the jugs. There's lots of blue smoke when you rev it. Regardless of which one it is it's looking like I'll be replacing all four cylinders and pistons as per Pats recommendation. I spoke with Pat today and he said the only thing that would cause this is over reving or wear. The engine only has maybe 1000 miles on it at the MOST so "wear", is out. I have a tendency to drive "enthusiastically" but I don't ever recall taking it over 5,500-6,000 rpm since I got it. I have a suspicion that it may have been beat up a little by someone else. The engine was awesome when it was put in. Something happened between then and now because engines don't just crap out like that. I guess I now understand why some people don't let other people drive their cars. The belt flew a few weeks back and Pat thinks that might have been when it happened. Long and short of it is I gotta do the work to get it running again.




I threw the cover on it today and walked away. At this point I really don't give a $hit, I'm spent. Between this car and racing my kart I'm thinking I gotta bail on one of them. I don't have the time or money to be jerking around with this crap constantly. I've put a ton of money (at least to my standard) in this car and I have absolutely NO FAITH in it. Maybe that'll change when I get the engine sorted out, but for the past 6 months I haven't felt safe to drive it farther than 20 miles from my house. I still have the ignition mystery to explore, brakes are squeaking like nails on a chalkboard, wipers are F'd, no hi beams, no reverse light, third latch for the top has to be installed, not to mention I have to fix the deck lid and have repainted, and the list goes on and on. It's starting to not really be any fun at this point.
I'll look around at Carlisle and see what options I have and go from there. I'm thinking between my speedster, my scion and my kart I could sell all three and get a brand new Mitsu Evo and be done with it.

Sorry to hear mickey

most all of us have felt like that at one time or another but when the car starts running like it should its a great feeling.
i was ready to damned near buy a new motor..mine was idling rough, poppin thre exhaust, etc. i had a buddy look at it and the one carbs main throttle body was sticking and not quite closing all the way. he did something and it runs,idles better than ever.
i oiften get thoughts of selling and getting a boxster that is all sorted out.

Mickey,

Sorry about your car troubles. Hopefully you can recharge your stoke at the show this weekend. Then come home take a deep breath and dig into your speedster. You have been working hard on it judging by your posts. Maybe the show deadline made it worse.
Now you don't have a time line to get er done.

Good luck and best wishes.
Dave

Oh yeah, this is one new/used car I would consider....
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/nissan-350z-roadster-convertible/

Micky,
We have been on the side of the road 3 times in the last 6 months. I believe my right seater thinks I'm nuts and should dump the car then I hear lets go in the little car.All the answers have been on this site and all the help I could need as well. Like any tedious project when you are like me and not mechanical sometimes you need to walk away for a little bit and get perspective. Evey time so far getting our car going again and getting on the road makes the frustration worthwhile. Stick with it you will be glad you did.....

I have to echo Richard and everyone else, Mickey. There's no way to describe what you already know. When these little guys are running right, the rest of the world doesn't matter. When they're not, little problems are magnified, too. Where's the next gut-punch going to come from?
Teresa went to the show this year in the VeeDub with the abbacus still clacking on how much it's costing us for the Hoopty's visit to a professional shop. It's all stuff that needed to be done in order to drive with confidence. The thing is, we DO beat the snot out of it, just like you do yours, and we're going to have to pay the piper for the fun we have.
It's a hobby for a reason. I don't know, with one or two exceptions, anybody here who counts on their Speedsters for reliable transportation every day. They are what they are.
Your present problem is rough, especially given the timing. When my engine garbaged a piston (remember the 2366 eating a wrist-pin circlip right after install?) I was mortally pissed. The year before that, I was ready to push it into the landfill instead of trailering it to the powdercoater. Three years before that, I was using it for daily transportation without any mods at all -- and not maintaining it even a little bit.
Nowadays, I can't imagine life without that little car, regardless of the cost. I'm glad, for my sake, that Teresa likes it as much as I do. I'm glad that your wife -- and family, for that matter -- seem have the same patience and understanding.
You'll get through this. It's a speed bump.

I know, I know.
Dave has a point with the deadline thing. Sometime last summer I set Carlisle as the finish time for the Carrera and it was/is very dissapointing to come up short. The pressure is off now and I'm in no hurry to get back to it. I've almost given in to spending another summer working on it because even after the engine is sorted out there are still a number of other things that need attention. That said, I was planning on doing those thing over the coming winter and wanted to spend the summer driving.
The future is still uncertain for the Carrera; I chatted with Carey at Carlisle for a little bit and we'll kick a few things around. I want a car I can rely on. When I say that I'm well aware that no matter what, these handbuilt custom cars will always need some attention, but some less than others. For instance, the suby engines first recommended valve adjustment is 100K miles. I kinda like the idea of that.
It's not so much the working on it that bothers me, it's the frequency of working on it thats bothering me. I've spent a ton of time and money on it and I'm not really driving it much. If I wanted to work on things constantly I'd become a mechanic. I'm more of a driver. I don't mind valves and oil every 3K. I DO mind spent cylinders, trashed wipers, cars sometimes turning off and sometimes not, etc..... and I DO mind it going on for a couple years at a time. It's not the spent cylinder, it's the 1000 things before it.
Regardless of what I decide to do the Carrera WILL be completed. I'm not the type to give up or leave something half-assed. When it is finally sorted out and I'm driving it everyday maybe I'll have a different perspective on things.

I would also like to make something VERY clear. I am absolutley positive that this engine episode has NOTHING to do with CB Performance / Pat Downs. I am pretty certain that this all started about 4-6 weeks ago when I discovered the belt was thrown. I had the car at my buddies garage for a good stretch at that time and I think that maybe some of the guys there got a little "excited" moving it around, etc.... It was around then that recall the car running a little rough, but before then the engine ran perfectly. I just didn't want anyone to get the idea that this had anything to do with anyone but me.

My car has not been the same since letting a friend take it for a 15 min. ride (unsupervised)and I'll never do that again!

Just because it's aircooled doesn't mean that it isn't reliable.. I have had engines drive 12,000 miles from the Netherlands to Beijing China in loaded down VW Buses, across the Desert in temperatures over 125F without issue.
It sounds like all your vehiocle needs is a really good sorting, some instrumentation and perhaps you'd benefit from one of my classes on tuning and basic aircooled engine orientation...

Hate to hear that you've had issues, but don't blame them on the aircooled foundation... 149K on the clock in my old 912E with an engine I built out of used parts in 2002 and I'd jump in it to head for California today without even an oil change.. The last time I adjusted the valves in that engine was February 3rd 2003, since then its logged 1740 road course miles at Road Atlanta and Roebling Road among that 149K on it's clock..

Or you could always order a Speedster or Spyder from Carey with one of our 996 engines installed... They start at 270HP and 3.6 liters :-) The 6 speed tranny and factory Motronic EFI are also big benefits, and its not boosted, nor is it powered by Rice. :-)
Just change the oil every 7K and when you want to go faster order up an ECU re-flash... Modern tuning. Modern reliability and Porsche power.

Thanks Jake, thats all I need is more candy.

I've committed to spending as much time as needed to sort out all the issues with my car and then I'll decide what to do with it after I'm done.
I'm not down on air cooled engines at all. I guess I just got in deeper than I thought when I first got this car. I've been tinkering with it pretty much since I got it and now I just want to drive it. No worries, I'll take my time and get it done when I get it done. It's pretty close right now so I should be able to get some driving time in by the end of the summer.

Mickey,
Aircooled engines are more finnicky in their initial set up and tuning than others. The initial set up is the hard partand dictates the entire future of the engine. All it takes is one glitch or missed adjustment and the engine is doomed.

Thats why I added 4,000 square feet onto my shop and no do all of my critical installs myself, to ensure the car is perfect before it leaves. The chassis dyno illustrates sub systems that aren't perfect as well.

You need to find out why you had the issue with the current engine before you can move forward without the chance of a recurrence.

Good suggestions and advice from all.

Mickey,

If one piston is down on compression, especially due to suspected over heating, you need to break the engine down to the short block and check all of them.

If you get the enthusiasm, run the engine (while it's still in the car and running) through all of the tests before pulling it and breaking it down. Check the oil pressure while cranking, cold running and hot running. The compression wet and dry and the leak down as well. Once the engine is warm check the temp at the heads and case and the oil temp as well, write it all down for later. Too much info can't hurt you like too little can.

What are the specs on your engine? Did you get a build sheet with it? Did you get a hot run test done before it was shipped? What were the specs after that?

You know, if you're gun shy at this point, you might want to sell the long block "as-is" for rebuild/repair and pick up a fresh one to transfer your carbs and top end pieces onto. Cut your losses in return for warrantied reliability. (AND put a rev limiting rotor in the distributor WHENEVER the car is out of your sight, from NOW ON ! ! !)

THEN start in on the electrics and such. Just as it has already been pointed out, all your ride needs (other than the engine problem corrected) is a degree of sorting out. One simple thing at a time. Stick to that one thing until it's cured and move on to the next.

Easy Peasy, really ! ! These are SUCH simple cars and are SO reliable once you get to know them and what the functions and systems are like.

No new car can compare, not really.


Luck ! ! !

TC

Oh, one last thing. Did the fan belt throw or come loose or break? If it was thrown. If it turned inside out. If it did anything weird other than turning the gen pulley, it was mis-aligned or the pulleys were mis matched. If the engine came complete/turn key/ready to install, the thrown belt is the responsibility of the builder. Otherwise, you're on the hook . . . just don't hang yourself, you know?

Being that I'm still in the learning stage I can only go on what my wrench buddy tells me. He was VERY impressed with the engine when I got it. Also, CB has an impeccable reputation and I have NO REASON to believe that the engine was faulted in any way. The lessons I've learned to this point is that I shouldn't let others drive my car without me in it. That I need better engine temp and oil temp instrumentation. And most importantly, patience.
I've ordered a new set of pistons and cylinders along with the other necessary parts to do the work. So, yes, I'm taking all precautions and not risking it. As Pat said, "If one is damaged from heat so are the others."
I don't care if it takes all summer to get it right. I'm gonna make sure that everything is perfect each step of the way. I feel confident in saying that it was abuse that caused the issue. Just some yahoo jumping in, crankin it up, and tearing off with the tach needle buried. I say this because one of them said in jest one day "I may need to buy you a new set of tires before the summer is over. Ha!"
I recall Cory mentioning that there is some sort of limiter in the MSD? What's the best way to set up an RPM limiter?

Thanks for all of everyones help in advance.

The "ass in the seat" thing happens WAY too often ! ! ! ! Sorry that it had to happen to a good guy like you.

The MSD box accepts pills. Little plug-in modules that limit the RPM. Different module plug-in, different RPM. It's the little white rectangle sticking out of the box. You ought to have one already plugged in.

http://www.scpraceparts.com/msd-rev-limiter-rpm-modules-9-000-9-800-rpm.html

You might want to get one of the "soft touch" modules, it shuts the engine down in a more gradual fashion, you won't be bouncing against the limiter all of the time and making that weird staccato noise that you hear the drag cars making on TV. The newer 6AL boxes have the Soft Touch control built in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwoJPwnu7zo


Hey, what are you doing with the old pistons/barrels/rings/wrist pins?
Wanna sell the to me? We're always putting together limited-use engines to test the silly turbos and weird intakes on. I could use them if you want to sell the set.

Thanks,

ForUm PrICk

I have a Hyfire 6 instead of the MSD.

It uses little switches to set the rev limit.

Should I set the limit a bit above where I will normally shift?

If so, how much more?

Thanks.

I'd sure be tempted to say something to the guy who said "I may need to buy you a new set of tires before the summer is over. Ha!" That's a pretty strong clue that he owes you a new engine. I know that you don't have a chance in hell of getting satisfaction from him, but that behavior is inexcusable.

Thanks for the MSD tip. I'll be getting one ASAP.

TC,
I'll shoot you an email and we'll chat about the old stuff.

It's a sticky situation with the garage. Cory went through a similar deal with his old wrench buddy. My friend who owns the garage (Steve) is an awesome guy. He would NEVER do that to my car, it's the guys he has working for him. It wasn't malicious in any way but nonetheless it was way uncool. I have a good set up there: I have all the tools I could ever need pretty much anytime I need them, except a lift. Steve is a wealth of knowledge and it's 2 miles from my house and work. I'll just have to be more "restrictive" with who drives it from now on.The new stuff set me back about $300 and I won't have to pay for the work to get them in so it's not as bad as it could be. The precautions in line to avoid future issues are the battery cut-off and rev limiter.