Sun 26th May
12:17
cold oil level at 3/4, pistons looking just damp n rough now. cold startup once again rough to clear the oily cylinders. but something doesn't sound right. It sounds like a friggin diesel transit under load?
geez checkout the oil pouring out of the sump gasket at 12:00 during high-rev deceleration
12:55
check oil level tis fine. exhaust camera didn't record. RH lower engine bay totally soaked. still smokes under load
and then at 16:30 during high rev deceleration all the electrics died!
dash off but clock backlight still on, wideband off, no lights or indicators and prob no brake light but engine still works. WTF
pulled over
checking fuses including banging the dashboard, found the engine bay 65a battery fuse had blown, good thing I carry 1 spare
13:10
resume hard break-in only for the last fuse to blow again 4mins later oh FFS. car behind, drive afew miles with no workings lights till the nearest slip road
now what, got no more 65a fuses but got a 30a green fuse block. so took awhile to pry apart the 30a fuse n stick it onto the blown 65a fuse terminals.
13:30
switch on and yes we got ignition, lets get the heck home
few secs later boof the little fuse and electrics go out again! oh FFS lets just get home, even without lights. was interesting driving with no manners
right I'm home and fed up n don't trust the girl.
compression after 130miles says 10.8 11.2 11.4 10.9bar same as the first time. piston still damp.
Stani: they're new rings, new bearings, honed block, rings gapped to spec.
totally clued cos everything was built to spec this time and yet it still gets oily smoky pistons like the other 2 times I ran this blimey forged piston before. except this time I don't have the thick sooty fairy dust particles.
I honesty just need to know from an experienced expert, is this oily/damp forged piston with slight smoke a normal sign with this much miles and will improve? or will I be wasting fuel/oil/time/money/energy and should just resort back to fixing the stock engine or get another stock engine as backup?
or worst case is abandon the turbo project
Will: I just checked the intakes incase oils getting via the PCV but nope tis all dry
Enuo: both stock and forged engine now have new stem seals
personal situation is:
- have until june 16 till moms insurance re-new, £200 for another year on top of my current £550 sky insurance
- cancelling sky insurance early will only give me back a tiny amount of less than £300 last time I checked
- busy at work and need a car for networking n meetings n events
- buying another stock used car requires extra time, effort, money, insurance quotes, fuel, etc etc
- throwing all the towels in and starting from scratch would be the easiest choice as an outsider but at a massive loss financially and emotionally. will never ever recover the investment back as a known fact.
the most logical and least stressful option I think is:
- to fix the massive leaking sump gasket (stop the bleeding)
- continue the hard break-in (continue the long recovery stage after major surgery)
- see if the burning oil subsides over the coming miles (monitor if the patient recovers health)
[thats a nice medical analogy eh]