Money Down The Drain

[265kw at the wheels holmes]

Hi all,

This is a long story but it all comes together.

I bought an r33 II bout a year and a half ago. It had PFC, FMIC, AVCR, fuel pressure reg, exhaust, hi flow turbo etc. this gave me 265kwATW at 16psi.

I wanted more response and power out of it so i thought of a plenum. I consulted some mechanics and found the right price. All sweet. While waiting 4 the plenum to come over from japan my car developed a horrible misfire so bad that i was beaten by a ford territory. We decided to put a set of spitfire coils in it. It was still missing but we lowered the spark gap to 0.9mm and that fixed the problem.

The car was only meant to be there at the shop for a week, but it was there 4 three.

At the second week he leant me his car to take to work but that weekend he needed it back and gave my car back to me missfiring, tps stuffed, not able to accelerate over 23% and with now 128kwatw. It was rooted but he seamed to feel bad cause he had no intention of giving it back to me this way. I got it back the next week.

What i got done was plenum, cam gear, bigger injectors, 80mm TB and a new tune. During this tune he said that my avcr or boost controller had broken and he had supplied me with a manual one. this didn't bother me cause he said that he will read up on it and see if it can be fixed. It also did a strange thing that none of us could work out. When the A/C was on the tps switch would act faulty. He said that it would looked at in the next tune.

The next week at tafe, learning cooling systems I put a pressure test on the system to see if it held pressure. It did. Until i went back to the shop and noticed that the water pump was stuffed. The old seals had been blown out, just old age. He said bring it in on wed the 22nd to get it fixed, fix up the A/C problem, make it run a bit leaner, get more power out of it and so on. He told me just to keep toping the radiator up with coolant as it leaks. My car didn't go over half way on the temp guage all week.

On friday when i went to pick it up and he was doing a compression test on it. He said that it had a little missfire and he wanted to check it. On pulling the spark plugs out he noticed that they were burnt and we had replaced them when the coil packs got done. I said that I had put some octane booster in it and the mystery was solved. He did the test anyway.

We found out that piston 5 had NO compression. We ran air through it and it blew straight out the oil cap. MELTED PISTON

He was shocked cause the plugs wern't white from running it too lean and that it had been running fine.Could he have caused this?

I have decided to rebuild the engine, pistons head gasket rod bolts etc. What else can i do. he has not taken responibility 4 it.

I am confused and worried. NEED HELP.

What should i do?

What do i need?

Was it his fualt

Just need some advice asap

Edited October 25, 2008 by 265kw at the wheels holmes

[GT-R LM]

Hi all,

This is a long story but it all comes together.

I bought an r33 II bout a year and a half ago. It had PFC, FMIC, AVCR, fuel pressure reg, exhaust, hi flow turbo etc. this gave me 265kwATW at 16psi.

I wanted more response and power out of it so i thought of a plenum. i consulted some mechanics and found the right price. all sweet. while waiting 4 the plenum to come over from japan my car developed a horrible misfire so bad that i was beaten by a ford territory. we decided to put a set of spitfire coils in it. it was still missing but we lowered the spark gap to 0.9mm and that fixed the problem.

the car was only meant to be there at the shop for a week, but it was there 4 three.

at the second week he leant me his car to take to work but that weekend he needed it back and gave my car back to me missfiring, tps stuffed, not able to accelerate over 23% and with now 128kwatw. it was rooted but he seamed to feel bad cause he had no intention of giving it back to me this way. i got it back the next week.

what i got done was plenum, cam gear, bigger injectors, 80mm TB and a new tune. during this tune he said that my avcr of boost controller had broken and he had supplied me with a manual one. this didn't bother me cause he said that he will read up on it and see if it can be fixed.

Nice story mate, the ending baffled me a bit though.

[265kw at the wheels holmes]

sorry fixed it now. hit the wrong button ,lol

[skylinecouple]

I have been around cars all my life from building speedway cars to classic chevs and in recent years, Skylines. If you want to play be prepared to pay. I to have been in your position and after spending a few dollars with solicitors can tell you to just put your car on a flat top and take it to one of our many people here in the forums. When a mechanic has your car and it was fine before you gave it to him you can assume in most cases he has had a good time driving it up the shops to get the lunches.

Don't under any circumstances spend money chasing him but never ever go back. Ever. It costs not much more than time for a decent mechanic to build an engine with standard parts. I know the kind of person I am and if I thought my tune or missuse of someones pride and joy was the reason for it breaking I would rebuild it, after hours and better than it was. The reason ? Simple, you will tell everybody what a great bloke I am and my business will double in the following months. Mechanics aren't that smart business wise. It's the latest invention, it's called good will. If I sound a little down on mechanics or tuners believe me, I have a right. Not all are bad mind you so like doctors, when you find a good one, stick to him or her. Oh, and by the way, I don't think the central coast would have many decent tuners as they simply don't tune the amount of cars Sydney tuners do.

I will now wait for the flaming to start.

[WARLORD]

go to dart and get it fixed

[some_cs_student]

It might help people if you post up the AFR ratio's from your last dyno tune, just to check the tune itself wasn't anything too unusual....

[265kw at the wheels holmes]

here it is.

[skylinecouple]

Trying to diagnose a problem like this is next to impossible. Go to Dirt garage or try Up Garage in Ingleburn. Call Luis on 0404081116. He builds great engines. He is in the same complex as Otomoto so if you decide to replace the engine with stock then they can get you a good one. He also did my turbo conversion as he a wizz with alloy or any fabrication work. Builds drift cars for a living. Look, I'm having trouble accepting your kws with the lack of injectors or with that turbo. Everything would have been pushed to the max or over it. The end result is obvious. When he tuned it did he push the car on the dyno with continued runs to check for heat transfer and the need to reduce timing ? Or did he do a 4th gear run with a bit more load on the dyno to simulate road conditions ? He may be a good tuner, I don't know but he broke your car, that's all we know, walk away. How far are you from Sydney ? Could you tow it to one of the many people here that could fix it right ?

Think about this. Rebuild: $6,000. Install: $1,000. But still same turbo, no injectors.

Low k engine: $2,000. Install $1,000. Injectors $400-800. Decent turbo $2,000-4,000.

For a little more you could really make something special with reliability. Go the second hand engine, you know you want to. There is a Skyline in the Drift Series that has been making over 300kws for the whole season. It's all in the tune. Go for it.

[jeffworld2]

those afr arent so bad not fantastic but not too lean except maybe right at the top, but i bet you dont drive around at full throttle so they are a bit useless if it didnt fail at high rpm. you could have been really lean at idle/cruise/etc. you sure its a melted piston? have you pulled it down?

[joeyjoejoejuniorshabadoo]

While waiting 4 the plenum to come over from japan my car developed a horrible misfire so bad that i was beaten by a ford territory.

when you say misfire... did the car miss in the upper rev ranges but was fine down low, or did the car just suck all the time and sound like a wrx?

if its the second option i'd say cyl 5 was already dead.

[265kw at the wheels holmes]

They are the genuine kws. When the plenum went on i also put 550cc injectors in it.

we put piston 5 at top dead center and ran compressed air into it and it blew straight out the oil cap. it's getting pulled out and stripped this week.

it missed only in the upper revs but when the coilpacks were put in the problem was solved.

i am giving him a chance to rectify the problem. like skylinecouple said decent mechanics would want to fix it.

should i be putting in any money though?

[jeffworld2]

i would stop wasting time and put a replacement engine in. if the bottom end is gone, rings/piston/whatever, if you are only after high 200's i would just shove a *new motor in rather than wait a few months for a rebuild

[joeyjoejoejuniorshabadoo]

+1 ^^^

[NickR33]

it was running 265rwkw without injectors? so it must have been running a fair amount of rail pressure... my bet it was stuffed when you got the first miss

[DECIM8]

If cyl 5 is pinging its nuts off because the plenum you put on delivered 90% of the air into this cyl then your knock sensor wont pick it up. It will only pick it up when its excessive in quite a few cyls.

Those plenums may not be tested for flow (im not sure) but may be .. my friend is expencing such a problem in his s15 now..

[joeyjoejoejuniorshabadoo]

what his sr20 is missing on cyl 5?

[zebra]

what his sr20 is missing on cyl 5?

Mine always misses on 5 and 6...cant figure out why??? lol

[265kw at the wheels holmes]

Is there any legal action i can take?

cause it feels like i,m getting rawted.

[bored33]

Don't you wish you kept you car stock haha I feel like that when I start modifying. Should have just saved up and bought a R34 GTR with all the money I have wasted. Thats what I worked it out to be! A R34 GTR!

[joeyjoejoejuniorshabadoo]

yeah, i too have spent 34 GTR money on my 33gtst....

i just console myself with the thought that if i DID get the R then i would have just modded that anyhow and spent 100k by now