Very Very Worried My Fresh Engine Is Not Right

[Roy]

Condensate in catch cans is not surprising, quite common.

Easy thing to do is get a clean oil pan, remove the drain plug and see exactly how much oil comes out and what is in the oil.

Get some fresh Castrol Edge 10W60 and throw 4.5L in there. Turn the engine over, make sure there are no noises, you have strong oil pressure etc then shut the engine down.

Then go get new clear hose for your catch can, remove and clean the catch can then re-install with new clear hose.

Then go do your normal day to day driving but dont thrash it. Just drive the thing normally under some load and see what the oil pressure is doing, you lines to the catch can and the level of oil n the sump and catch can.

Dont panic, just be methodical about what it is you are doing. Odds are the miss is fine and not related. Lazy coil pack, faulty igniter or perhaps normal. My thing has a very small miss at idle its no biggie.

But i have never lost a sump of oil before.

Real silly question but when checing the oil were yo doing it in good light. I mean are you sure the dip stick wa going all the way in up to its shoulder when you were checkign it? Either way dumping the oil will soon confirm how much is in there

[Italiazr1]

i just topped it up today with roughly about 2.5lt worth of oil so its gone through that amount in about 4500kms

but i have driven it fairly hard???

what do you guys think?

the mechanic said he will do a leak down test to show me but he said he is not worried at all

he said "dont worry you have forgies and everything"

he said he was more worried about the last time i brought it to him.....

cause my fuel reg shit itself he put it on the dyno and it was leaning out

he backed it off straight away and fixed it but he said hopefully it will be all sweet???

i wish i knew more about this crap mechanics is not my specialty

[STATUS]

whats this about the dipstick????

should i get a longer one or is that some joke???

cause its not so funny when you just spent 15k on mostly the engine

blow by on a street car should be nearly zero, the bigger the hp the bigger the ring gap etc so some blow by is inevitable but on a streeter it should not breath.

if you do a lot of stop start driving condesation is also inevitable in the catch can.

Edited March 21, 2009 by URAS

[VSPEC-Boy]

I assume that your rebuild included forged pistons? If this is the case it is quite normal to use/burn more oil than a standard RB20.

Although this also means you need to check our oil level regularly too. At least once a week or whenever you fill up at the station and top up accordingly.

Sounds like you should be fine, but as others have suggested, get a compression test done, for piece of mind.

Good Luck mate.

Edited March 21, 2009 by VSPEC-Boy

[Italiazr1]

thanks guys it probably is nothing hopefully..........

and yeah roy i did check it with a flood light on in my garage a few times even burnt my arm on the floody

the miss in my car is intermittent it sort of happens on second startup when car is warm

sometimes on first start when car is warm

but sometimes not at all??

[Italiazr1]

well the car is going back to the mechanic anyway on tuesday/wednesday he finally got my wastegate spring

and now he can finish off my tune

and fix the rest of the problems now until then i suppose ill just keep praying heaps and checking oil

[Brockas]

you built an rb20?

[Italiazr1]

yep build an rb20 mate

reason was i didnt wanna have the head ache of ripping motor out again and swapping if i was ever EPA'ed

[Italiazr1]

if this motor blows im buying a stock V8 even though most guys on here will hate me for saying it

as a stock car the power and low down torque is good im sick of head aches when you got your own house money is hard to come by just to keep the toy running

i love turbo's but yeah shit does go wrong alot and often

but i must admit i love the look on a comi drivers face when you fly past him partly sideways in a drag

and before he has tried to race you he's thinking hahahaha its an r32 ill chomp him easy

i wanna get a sticker on the back of my car saying.

"YEAH AND ITS ONLY A 2 LITRE"

[Tangles]

sounds like maybe you gave it some too much, too early, and didnt look after her

[R31Nismoid]

No such thing as too much too early if the motor is built right.

[Tangles]

if it aint been checked for oil, or been maintained - then of course there is !!

[Get EPIC]

No such thing as too much too early if the motor is built right.

Yeah thats what ive heard as well.

[R31Nismoid]

if it aint been checked for oil, or been maintained - then of course there is !!

Again, nothing to do with it if the motor is build right.

Maintained or not isn't the issue here far as I see it. Simply because you don't mince 2.5ltrs of oil on a very fresh motor if its put together right

That's not to say the turbo isn't stuffed and letting oil pass of course.

You could also look @ a crack somewhere, but there is no oil in the water, so that cant be it.

Only other option is it wasn't filled right @ last service... and I would cry if that was the case because running around 2.5ltrs down for a reasonable set of kms (more than out the workshop door) isnt good

[Italiazr1]

Again, nothing to do with it if the motor is build right.

Maintained or not isn't the issue here far as I see it. Simply because you don't mince 2.5ltrs of oil on a very fresh motor if its put together right

That's not to say the turbo isn't stuffed and letting oil pass of course.

You could also look @ a crack somewhere, but there is no oil in the water, so that cant be it.

Only other option is it wasn't filled right @ last service... and I would cry if that was the case because running around 2.5ltrs down for a reasonable set of kms (more than out the workshop door) isnt good

yep you have it spot on there bud....

its not like i havent maintained it i just didnt think it would be that low after 4500km

when in the first 5000km it did it seemed to be fine everytime i checked it

anyway it never lost comlete compression lowest it was running was 2kg per m2

but that was enough to have no oil on the end of the dipstick

i always thought if it was that low the oil light would come on anyhow obviously i was wrong and now i know this

[CRoNic...]

whats this about the dipstick????

should i get a longer one or is that some joke???

cause its not so funny when you just spent 15k on mostly the engine

I could have had a RB26 built with big-brand everything for that amount of money...

Yet you chose to blow 15k on a RB20?!

[James_03]

So the mechanic put it on the dyno when you took it back and it was leaning out straight away with a bad reg yes?

and prior to this you where driving the car pretty hard?

That's not a particularly good thing, especially on a new build. I would be very suprised if it has not sustained some sort of damage, misfire is probably caused by burnt plugs running on poor afr. Did he replace the plugs after the next run with the reg issue fixed?

As others have mentioned I would be doing a leak down test straight away. I thought rb30 twin cam conv first too when you mentioned nothing on the dipstick lol.

[Beer Baron]

just chucking 2.5 litres of oil in there is a bad idea and a waste of time and money. and it tells you nothing.

do it properly and actually discover if there is a problem. troy has told you how to do it. get a clean oil drip tray and drain ALL the oil. measure how much comes out, and what state it's in. then give it a nice 4.5l of new oil and a new filter. and do what he said about cleaning the catch tank and lines and using a clear line from the breathers to the can. why ask people here for advice if you don't plan on taking it?

[R31Nismoid]

^^ ye i spent around the 15k mark for my RB26 setup for over 300rwkw