http://imgur.com/NQ6ot45.png
March 20th, 2016 at around 4pm EST my FRS blew a "grape sized" hole through the top of the block. It was running 11 pounds of boost.
This was the scene when I popped the hood:
http://imgur.com/SVIDYEN.png
And here is the hole better revealed after pulling the intake manifold:
http://imgur.com/e4FWKbX.png
Loaded up on the trailer on the side of the highway:
http://imgur.com/KzL9bBO.png
Initially we thought this was a piece of the block, the machining texture said otherwise. It is a piece of piston.
http://imgur.com/NLAEhw4.png
This engine is crazy easy to remove. We had the thing out and on a stand in only a couple of hours start to finish. Turns out if you leave the engine upside down on a stand overnight, it won't fix itself and all be okay in the morning :(
http://imgur.com/tgoOPhK.png
Scroll down for a TLDR...
3/11/16: Dyno tuning
I had my car on the dyno at Accelerated Performance in Toledo, OH retuning for larger fuel injectors and a new clutch/flywheel. I was looking to put down 350-400, hit my target at 351@11psi :) Happy day, the car felt amazing. A friend of mine said it felt like it pulled harder than his tuned WRX (it did make 60 more horsepower, but you can't beat that AWD!).
There was one minor (and by minor, I mean major) issue... During the dyno pulls the plumbing on the wastegates heated up, the rubber expanded, and one of the wastegates ended up blowing a line off. I never had this issue since I added a boost controller after my initial tune, re-plumbed, and had always been moving and getting cool air in there to keep everything connected. Luckily Don is a very smart man and caught a boost spike as soon as it hit 20psi. But yes, it spiked to 20psi.
My original plan was to run 12-14psi and hit closer to 370 or 400whp. After the boost spike, Don said it would be much wiser to stick around 11psi. I was surprised, as I'm sure he was too, that it hadn't blown up then and there.
3/13/16: "Injector Tick"
It was the weekend after tuning that I noticed a faint ticking (no, knocking) sound. Anyone I called in to get an opinion on the sound said "it's probably fine, don't the injectors on this car make a lot of noise?". Well yes, they do make a considerable amount of noise. However, this was reminiscent of when a good friend of mine spun a bearing in his IS300, an eerily similar sound. I brushed it off as injector tick.
3/20/16: Judgement Day
I was heading back home via the highway with a friend of mine in the car, and two more of my friends following in a Chevy Cruze. We took off in 5th gear, got to the top of 5th, and then it happened. I was at maybe 6500rpm, not really sure, but it felt like I hit the rev limiter. It was similar to the load limiter for boost that was implemented so I glanced over at my gauge which now read "0" (not accurate for a car that is running, but it was no longer running at this point). Looked back to the tach, revs had already dropped. Check engine light. Oil light. Looked in the rear view, and a MASSIVE cloud of smoke is trailing from the back of the car. It covered both lanes of the highway and all of both berms on either side. Pulled off to the side, popped the hood, met with the chilling sight of oil everywhere.
Don had me crank it to try and diagnose the problem. One of the guys with me was then able to identify the hole due to smoke pouring out of it. Trailered the car home (thanks AAA!) and started tearing it down. There is a high possibility that one of the rods actually bent on the dyno when it spiked. 2 rods were visibly bent, bad. One was not easily visible in general so we couldn't tell for sure, and then the last one just shattered. Not sure if there is any head damage, I'll be tearing the rest of it down today.
Let me just say though that Accelerated has been nothing but amazing through this whole build process. Don personally came out to my house to help me straighten out the cluster fuck of intercooler piping when I first installed the kit. Then last night he came out at like 9pm to take a look at the engine. No doubt I will be returning to them for the engine rebuild, providing we are able to work around a similar price range.
TLDR:
Spiked 20psi on the dyno a week and a half ago, PROBABLY bent a rod then. Just this past weekend the engine decided to give out during a top of 5th gear pull. Sucks.
