Potential Cause of rumored GR86’s blown engine? Seal packing(RTV) was peeled off
 

I just randomly checked JDM info on Twitter and realized the rumour of GR86 blown engine has become a hot topic. I used google translate to read the report, and translate it directly “the cause is that the seal packing of the oil pan was peeled off and the strainer (oil pickup tube) inside the engine was clogged.” [Correction: The original tweet additional info: “I came to the conclusion that this seal packing was the packing that protruded from the timing chain cover and got caught by the chain and reached the strainer. In the case of this vehicle, it is not the sealant in the oil pan.”

I did find some cases on Twitter.


overall explanation with pics covered by the media, moby.jp
https://car-moby.jp/article/automobi...rge-of-recall/

The most well-known tweet
https://twitter.com/autogaragek2/sta...98245981212672

some owners just went to check their oil pan after that tweets
A JP racer Eijiro Shimizu from SHADE RACING team saw the same issue :
https://twitter.com/eijiro_5130/stat...83435098804225

- prevention method & engine disassemble
https://minkara.carview.co.jp/userid...9345/note.aspx


- case with pics
https://ameblo.jp/kurumabaka888/entry-12752811883.html
- more pics of clogged strainer
https://cartune.me/notes/Z9vHATmq3j
- more case
http://www.maruta-goya.com/wp_blog/archives/53450

- JP shop UNPARALLELLED tweet：https://twitter.com/unparallelled_1/...56222900740096

- https://twitter.com/GR86_RINA/status...01293883060225

- https://twitter.com/kakuni67174437/s...11725668098048
new BRZ: ZD8 delivered on 2021/9/1
17,500km with 6 circuit runs (7-8 hours in total)
Oil change is about 8 times in total after delivery

just find 2 more useful articles from JP that explain the situation and potential causes of the clogged oil pickup
https://www.vehiclefield.com/blog/41214/
https://www.team-mho.com/gr86-brz/

@Arash Changizian on Facebook, dropped the oil pan, with short video
https://www.facebook.com/MNIVETMX5/p...Tr8RWDfRJ3DGol

Also, there is a blogger(content uploader) on Weibo (Chinese social media), who actually have a chance to ask a dealer‘s chief mechanic in person regarding this issue on the 10th anniversary GR86 release site(FUJI 86 BRZ Style 2022)

https://weibo.com/1642346197/LDUG7AZot#comment
- Including the Racing factory team and GR86/BRZ CUP designated vehicles also confirmed sealant blockage. However, Just like the info from JP bloggers, even if the top of the filter of the pickup tube is completely blocked, the oil can be drawn from the other 4 sides because it's a five-sided/box-shaped design, not one sided (like pics below). So it is necessary to check the oil pressure frequently after intensive driving.

- No official recall for this issue. If the problem does occur during normal (non-extreme/aggressive, a further explanation of “normal" needed) driving, all vehicles with maintenance can have their engines replaced according to the warranty contract. It is necessary to pay attention that, to any failure accident in track driving, the manufacturer will refuse the warranty (you can read the Warranty Booklet for this, may just be applied on JDM).

- The design of the stock car is roughly corresponding to 90% of the driving conditions below 4000 rpm(non-intensive). It is necessary to make corresponding modifications for full track driving, such as the oil pan baffle plate. The baffle plate is to prevent the engine from oil starvation during high G cornering/acceleration when driving on a circuit. also, most of the RTV that peeled off will be blocked on it and will not fall off.

also, STI also provides the oil pan with baffle plate for BRZ CUP car(also suitable for GR86), the part number is ST11109Z2000, just google it. Or you can buy the plate from well-known aftermarket brands like Cusco/Tomei/GReddy, they are all suppliers for CUP cars, like the pic shown below.
- For potential prevention, besides the plate, you can check the dipstick regularly, since some owners suggested that the sealant may stick in the oil dipstick. And you can install an oil pressure metric gauge in advance to prevent low oil pressure.

The dreaded timing chain cover again?!

"Somehow a great response ...

By the way, as a result of verification, we came to the conclusion that this seal packing reached the strainer because the packing that protruded from the timing chain cover was caught in the chain.
In the case of this vehicle, it is not an oil pan sealant."

Arghh, it's like one of those things that might junk the engine over a long period of time. There does seem to be an over-enthusiastic application of RTV sealant shown.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

just subie things

"The filter is made of five-sided box shapes, not one side. Therefore, as long as the oil surface is secured, it is considered that it will not go to zero hydraulic pressure due to too much debris. I'm supposed to be smoking from the 5th side."

I'd also like to smoke some 5th sided strainer. it would be good for people to get an oil pressure sender and gauge to make sure oil pressure is staying high as precaution

I am going to tell a little story here.
Back 2014 and 15 (long before the spring recall debacle) there were a number of mysterious engine failures due to oil starvation. I went back through older threads and managed to collect around 30 reported cases. Of the cases that actually gave detailed info there were more than 20 that included excessive sealant in the oil pickup. Of course there would have been many many more that never got reported here but with the data we had it was statistically probable that the majority of the failures were due to blocked passages and/or pickup tubes. All of the affected cars were very early 2013s

Many people wanted to ignore the sealant and stated that "there is no way there can be that much extra and it can't possibly get into the passages." Well the later failures due to bad sealant during the recall most certainly proved it could and does get into the passages and pickups if not applied correctly.

So, anybody that works in automotive manufacturing knows just how much is done by robots. In this case the sealant on the timing cover and oil pan are almost guaranteed to be put on by robot. It is exactly the sort of task that robots USUALLY do better than humans. Robots do however screw up (often because the human that taught the task did a piss poor job) on a fairly regular basis as well though. Yes these engines had been used for a short time in the Ascent but the differences in the overall construction likely means they had their own set of programing including the sealant application. Even being out by 1 millimeter or a few extra grams of material applied can give the results seen in the picture here. This type of failure is not unknown in the early production runs of anything new.

Odds are that if that was a total undisturbed stock engine there will be more than one with the same issue. Probably not many but enough to cast doubt on any of the very early production. If indeed the oil pan (as it appears to be) this time at least it is a far easier check than the timing cover. Getting the dealer to check may be difficult unless there are several failures and instructions come down from Subaru.

And people are surprised that some say to stay away from being an early adaptor of a new model car?

Timely thread. My GR86 is at the dealer waiting on a short block. Blew up at 5500 miles.

What are the early indications that this problem is going to happen?

blowup? as in hole through the block or just rod knock/spun bearing?

Just rod knock/spun bearing, block is intact.

Oil level was at MAX mark, factory fill.

Now i am super paranoid and would like to drop my pan just to take a peek. Was your GR ever tracked? How was it driven?

I would guess none, unless you are lucky enough for it to starve just enough to trip a low oil pressure warning (CEL?) but not cause damage.

I did not track it, but did autocross it regularly. It saw a lot of rev limit time, but that should 100% be in the engine use parameters.

In a stock engine with stock tune, the owners only responsibility should be to keep the oil and coolant levels in check and I was very careful about that.