I bought a Comptech SC'ed 2001 about 4 months ago. I was daily driving it, hitting boost once or twice a day in 2nd/3rd gear. The first time I drove it hard (track day) it started to make a nasty noise. It sounds exactly like Soul Coughing's car in this vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyBllnMZaLE and has the same symptoms.

Last weekend we pulled the cat, header, oil pan/filter, air box, SC/AC, intake manifold, and valve cover. The element in the oil filter had trapped tons of small metal pieces that are magnetic. We also pulled the spark plugs (Champion 9202 iridium) and it wasn't good. The electrodes on the plugs in cylinders 3/4 were almost completely white, plug in #2 looked OK, and the plug in #1 was completely missing the tip of the side electrode. I couldn't find much info about these plugs, anyone know if they are 1 step colder than OEM?

At the time, my car was 1.5 quarts low on oil. I know this is my fault for not checking more often, but I had a recent change and figured it was good. The low oil was caused by a huge leak in the SC. There was oil everwhere along the intake path.

Next up is to drop the tranny and pull the engine. Once the head is off the block I will have a much better idea what is going on. I could see the top of the pistons and there was some material build-up on 1 and 4. I am almost certain I need a new bottom end, any chance the head is still good? Better to buy a new shortblock or have my current one rebuilt?

The car had a VAFC-2 which I will be trashing. Any good engine management systems that will work with ODBII?

I know it's a lot to digest, but if you have been through this yourself and can offer some insight I would really appreciate it.

 

sorry to hear about the plugs. It seems like you had a super lean situation and things started to melt. Your head should be fine, as long as your valves didn't melt as well. I would do a leak down test and see!

I used my old head off of the block that scored a bore. I would also check the retainers to make sure none are recessed!

 

Yeah, the symptoms you are describing indicate that you were likely running very lean. Who tuned your VAFC II?

 

[QUOTE=CourageOO7,Mar 3 2008, 02:36 PM]Yeah, the symptoms you are describing indicate that you were likely running very lean.

 

It's confirmed, #1 and #4 were badly scored. Is it possible to bore the cylinders with the FRM material or better just to get a new short block? I'd like to build it up with low compression pistons to help prevent future problems.





S/C oil leak:

 

what camera are you using? I know its off topic