My engine failed while autocrossing

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by Clipdat

GRANNY SHIFTIN, NOT DOUBLE CLUTCHIN LIKE YA SHOULD

No Dom meme? I am disappoint.

[Desertnate]

Originally Posted by cmiovino

There are soft and hard limiters. These ones are soft, meaning you hit it and instead of hitting a wall and literally feeling the car kinda jerk you forward, it just keeps you going at that maximum speed for 2nd.

In other cars with a hard limiter, usually cable driven throttles, the limiter cuts fuel and other weird things.

E

I wonder if this is a FA20 vs FA24 difference. In my gen 2 car, I hit the rev limiter several times this weekend and it was a noticeable cut in power which, due to the location of where I kept hitting it on course, actually upset the car. It did actually lurch me forward a bit.

After the first couple of runs I knew where I would hit it and backed off just a touch so it wouldn't happen. There was a transition immediately afterwards, so shifting at that point, or even near it, made no sense. I was giving up plenty of time elsewhere on course, so it's not like this was the one thing keeping me from taking home a trophy.

I normally have the audible notification set for 6500 RPM in order to give me enough time to shift or back off a touch to avoid slamming into the rev limiter. In all honestly, this is the first time I've hit the rev limiter on course. I come close all the time, but never it in. Our courses are usually quite long (nearly a mile) but have so many turns there isn't an opportunity to really run out 2nd. This one had a series of elements that were *just right* and allowed smaller cars to get through them perfectly straight and flat out.

[jflogerzi]

Originally Posted by Balefire

My 2017 BRZ engine with only 36k miles failed while autocrossing last month.
It's prepped for DS.
Car has never seen the track.
No warning prior to failure.
Oil leak at crankshaft, smoke after autocross run.
Car and Engine still ran but immediately shut off car and towed to subaru.
Just received car back yesterday with my engine rebuilt.
10k repair from subaru.
Out of warranty, but no help provided due to autocross prep??
Besides bent crankshaft, subaru found rust in cylinder walls.

Bought the car used in 2020 with 27k miles.
Driven 3k miles annually.
Oil changed annually by me.
Oil checked seasonally.

I'm obviously aware of BRZ 86 failures on track but never suspected it for autox.
I've autoxed for more than 20 years in a variety of cars. Never had an issue prior.
I've heard a variety of other BRZ / 86 have failed while autoxing including this past summer but no thread tallying this disheartening drama.
So i just wanted to start a thread for those with similar engine drama while autocrossing.
Sad for me and my son who really loved autox until this.

And if anyone has any suggestions how to get some help from subaru, I'm all ears. I'm pretty sure autox didn't cause rust in cylinder walls.

who knows what the previous owner did. Super sticky tires+ Lateral G's are hard on these cars.

[ka-t_240]

I still want to see pictures of the internals on this engine!