Rb25neo Failure

[Toff]

Hi Guys,

Throwing this on here to see what you think, Engine was bone stock with bolt ons.

Car had covered approx 100,000 Miles, Mix of KMS and miles so no true idea.

I ran round in the car stock for approx 10k miles my self and all was well, Super silent, Made good power, Burnt no oil etc

After the car was rebuilt i fitted a new water pump, Single turbo kit and all other supporting mods

Car was running fine, Sat at usual oil pressure on tickover (Just below middle on stock gauge)

Has it mapped gradually for 1.2 Bar of boost on a HX35 12cm with no problems, Until my brand new turbo failed. Bearing collapse.

Got a replacement sorted, And for piece of mind i flushed the oil with 4 lots of 5w-30 (Only on the 3rd oil change did i run the car gently round the block, the other times where purely tickover)

Changed for a generic 5w-40 fully and carried on

At this point the car developed a light tick, And using a stethoscope identified it was one of the exhaust lifters. Stupidly i ignored this and drove the car. Cue 50kms later and on hot tickover the oil light came on, As well as my gauge dropping to zero. Blipping the throttle and driving it the gauge read normal.

Got home, Dropped the oil immediately to find a very fine metal content in the oil. f**k,

Pulled off the rocker to find it had cracked a bucket, Shim rattling about hence the noise.

Here are some photos anyway.

Also as a result of the oil contamination, It has scored all the bearings in the bottom end (Driving the car obviuosly never helped)

Now i have a few ideas, Oil pump failed which in turn killed the lifter, Small fragments then got chewed up and killed the bottom end.

Other one is the lifter failed,, Killed the pump, Killed the bearings

Third idea is turbo bearings killed the pump, killing the rest in turn.

Or lastly the oil pressure problem was purely a dodgy sender and the rest of the problems came about due to the turbo?

Would like to note there was no over revs, Missed gears or any particular hard use. Purely a few boost runs.

Any input would be great!

I Will also be building another engine out of a stock neo, So ideas on what to go for on a 600hp street car taking to regular track days would be nice, Idea at the moment is spool rebuild kit (Rods, pistons, bearings and headgasket. Along with arp bolts)

Or do i throw a stroker in there? Surely its not needed?

And another question, Are the 25NEO Buckets the same diameter as the 26 ones? Wouldnt mind converting to shim under bucket if possible... Again if its needed!

Thanks!

[scotty nm35]

Even those fine particles will be filtered out before doing bearing damage most likely, unless your filter was bypassing.

I suspect the oil pump was faulty which caused the other issues. What caused the failure who knows, but it would have had to fit through the mesh in the pickup.

[STATUS]

pump i reckon, BUT do you have an oil cooler? remote filter etc?

[Toff]

No external cooler etc was added, All stock on that side. After initial turbo failure i flushed the car on tickover with a 5w30 semi 3 times to try clear any shite left over from the bearing on the turbo. Was told this was too thin and could cause damage but surely this is bullshit when running it on tickover?

[STATUS]

yeah 5w-30 wont damage a new motor from being too thin

[STATUS]

and tbh most break in oils were straight 30w.... and lucas is a straight 20 weight

[Toff]

Think its just a coincidence to be honest. The cracked bucket does worry me though as the next engine will be a NEO. Want to fit new springs and retainers but cant see uprated buckets anywhere. Or info on converting to shim under bucket.