R.I.P A20A3-T #2
 

Installed my built A20A3 and got her to run but ran into MAJOR issues, the car started up and ran with great oil pressure, got the temps up, everything looked/felt great. We took it out driving, the new turbo is working pretty good, but no WOT pulls, still breaking it in, 10 ish psi Only for a sec or 2), no big rippers. We were doing 50-75 pulls on the highway in 3rd, accelerate slowly to 75 then engine brake back down, but then it started to sound funny (felt a funny vibration we thought maybe was an axle) and the oil pressure was a little less so we checked the oil, looked ok, so we started our way back and by the time we got off our exit (15 miles on the motor) it went to a full blown bad knock. So we pulled it back to the house and rolled it in but it looks/sounds very bad at this point, thinking at least 1 or 2 spun rods but we have no freaking clue as to why. If it spun a bunch of mains as well im not sure if im gonna start over at this point, i might just part it out and give up. Its gonna get pulled apart tomarrow to see WTF happend. Im pretty upset at the car right now, everything was checked and spec'd out torqued and everything was checked and rechecked. Oil pressure was always on the decent side so we really arent sure what the problem is even though everything points to bottom end DEATH. Pics coming tomarrow when i yank my oil pan. Im too pissed to work on it right now

R.I.P. A20A3 #2

Re: R.I.P A20A3-T #2
 

Sucks, sorry man :(

Re: R.I.P A20A3-T #2
 

yeah ---- happens, i did a swap and forgot to add oil before it didnt even see 1 mile lol.

sorry to hear, but the good news is you get to make it bigger and better.

Re: R.I.P A20A3-T #2
 

Shitty dude.
I bet the mains are ok, and its just 1 or 2 rod bearings. If you didnt run it too long, the crank is prolly still fine as well.

Re: R.I.P A20A3-T #2
 

I did the same thing excpet to the trans.

Re: R.I.P A20A3-T #2
 

sorry about that. sounds like my luck :( pretty discouraging. clearances ok on the bearings and oil pump?
good luck man, the beast will rise again soon.

Re: R.I.P A20A3-T #2
 

Where the cry smiley, damn man. Don't give up.

Re: R.I.P A20A3-T #2
 

i hope, Dave, it still had ok oil pressure but i just cant understand it. It just felt funny and had that vibration that turned into a full blown knock more or less pretty quickly, pretty loud, ive had spun bearings before but this is at least 3x louder than your avg spun bearing. I think it might have somthing to do with the crank scraper, Im thinking if it was just that then it wouldnt have messed with my oil pressure pretty much at all. These are used good condition crower I beam rods on a polished crank and chamfered oil holes, bearings spec'd out well within tolerance and a hi vol oil pump, diamond forged pistons, everything was assembly lubed, got 60psi at 1500 rpm when cold on startup! I tried cranking it around by hand and it was HARD even with the plugs out of it after i got it home. I have a feeling either the crank scraper got sucked up into the crank or somthing or the rods are somehow seriously damaged.

:'( :'( :'(

Re: R.I.P A20A3-T #2
 

Keep at it you will recover.Sorry to hear that but being a car guy its 25% utter failure and disapointement,%50 hard work and scrounging and then the 25% that is the enjoyment that comes when it all finally comes together :)

Re: R.I.P A20A3-T #2
 

that is shitty, take a little break if you need to but dont part it you will be sorry ;)

Re: R.I.P A20A3-T #2
 

nooo, what the hell dude? thats shitty luck right there. :'(

Re: R.I.P A20A3-T #2
 

sucks to hear what happened to your motor. my motors currently in the state of a rebuild. just keep at her, some day, many moons from now, we will line up at the track with our accords ::)

Re: R.I.P A20A3-T #2
 

Update: Pulled the oil pan and it pretty much reinforced my first thought, there was LOTS of metal in the pan and the oil was dark grey with metal (worst case scenario) crank scraper was intact and looking ok. Nothing much in the oil pickup tube as far as debris. Pulled the rods and number 4 was spun to hell, bearing completely chewed away, nothing in the cap at all, #2 was scuffed a lil, the other 2 were beat and looked like they wanted to spin a little (stuck to the crank when i pulled the caps) so i checked the mains and they were scuffed but not spun so at least the block is good. Talked to the machinist today (top notch guy) says that he thinks the rods may have been overreved before, which would make the center of the caps spec ok but the sides very loose, possibly spinning bearings. The crank is most def destroyed beyond repair. At this point the motor is gonna have to be pulled, cleaned and new rods/crank at least. Hopefully the rest of the motor lived, but we havent pulled the head yet. Im probably gonna put the car in storage until next year and in the mean time buy more parts, then pull the motor in the spring and go for motor #3. Im thinking of another set of new crower I beams, maybe Eagle H beams, or maybe pauters, Post up comments guys. Pics will be on the way tonite.

Re: R.I.P A20A3-T #2
 

Sorry to hear that man, hope you get it all worked out. You're kinda scaring me because I'm going to do a ghetto build myself this winter, and you had this happen with what sounds like a well put together block.

Re: R.I.P A20A3-T #2
 

keep at it man.

Re: R.I.P A20A3-T #2
 

Pics??

Torn out that bottom end yet...

Re: R.I.P A20A3-T #2
 

:'(

Re: R.I.P A20A3-T #2
 

car is going into storage, im going obd1 and fixing the bottom end next spring. Here is the pics as requested.

http://www.fourgasmmotorsports.com/blown2.jpg

http://www.fourgasmmotorsports.com/blown3.jpg

http://www.fourgasmmotorsports.com/blown4.jpg

http://www.fourgasmmotorsports.com/blown5.jpg

http://www.fourgasmmotorsports.com/blown6.jpg

http://www.fourgasmmotorsports.com/blown7.jpg

http://www.fourgasmmotorsports.com/blown8.jpg

http://www.fourgasmmotorsports.com/blown9.jpg

Re: R.I.P A20A3-T #2
 

:-[

Re: R.I.P A20A3-T #2
 

:(

Re: R.I.P A20A3-T #2
 

Jebus. I'm surprised its that bad already with so little driving. You should have the rods checked out to make sure that was what caused the bearing failure to make sure it doesn't happen again after the next rebuild.

Re: R.I.P A20A3-T #2
 

eh on second thought, its not that bad. Just get a magnetic oil drain plug and bolt that pan back up and call it a day.

Re: R.I.P A20A3-T #2
 

yeah, itll buff out :-X

Re: R.I.P A20A3-T #2
 

yeh that sux :-[
ive lost a fmic on the motorway once .. ---- happens

Re: R.I.P A20A3-T #2
 

welcome to lack of assembly lube :y :y

Re: R.I.P A20A3-T #2
 

everything was assembly lubed

Re: R.I.P A20A3-T #2
 

semen doesnt count :-*

Re: R.I.P A20A3-T #2
 

:'(that tottaly sucks all the time and monmey into it and not even a track day for it but look on the bright side you can go bigger and better

Re: R.I.P A20A3-T #2
 

isnt oiling the bearings and such the same as assembly lube? or was i taught wrong in school? of 10+ engines i rebuilt, not a single one spun anything, and i used oil to lube everything for assembly

on a side note, im looking at your manifold right now. was the flange salvaged from an old cast manifold? if so, how well was it holding together?

Re: R.I.P A20A3-T #2
 

initial startup on a torn down and rebuilt engine is hella hard on it, high viscosity stuff like high weight oil and oil stabilizers help with dry start, i pulled my valve cover earlier today and after 72k and you can't tell that it's ever been ran outside of oil and such. aluminum rockers and not one single mark on any! :8

Re: R.I.P A20A3-T #2
 

well, if it helps, for my buildup, ill be using an oil pressure gauge and cranking like 20 times of 10-15 seconds to make sure oil flows through everything

Re: R.I.P A20A3-T #2
 

yeah, it's fine. i've just seen too many trashed oil pumps and such from people not priming them. same goes for rods, i've seen people use no lube and crank away until it starts, like 20 seconds of metal to metal contact :S :S :S

Re: R.I.P A20A3-T #2
 

No the flange is a BMC racing 1/2" stainless weld flange. Yeah we primed it pretty good, we were getting over 60psi oil pressure before we actually tried to make it run.

Re: R.I.P A20A3-T #2
 

good numbers, anything harder than 70mph highway in my ford with straight oil stabilizer in there sees 18psi at any rpm. 20w50 oil gets me 4psi :l

i think i need some new bearings, i replaced the oil pump when i got it, primed it as much as possible, prev owner never changed the oil.