Death of my Motor

Another bad weekend, this time it is engine failure. Only lasted 5 laps in the 1st session on the first day. My driving is junk, first session so I was only running 7/10ths -- and I still don't have many laps in the Lotus. Ugh!!!

The car feels like it has some impressive potential, just NO engine reliability. One of these days I hope to actually complete a full session in it so I can start learning the car.

Anyway, car is off to the shop that just dyno tuned the motor -- they have promised to "fix" whatever went wrong -- but I'm thinking lots of oil in all 4 cylinders is NOT a good thing.

That sucks Rob, tough luck. The footage looked great up until that point. Funny how I can get caught up in it, I actually thought "Yes!" when you finally passed the Evo in front of you :) I also instantly recognized the exhaust note from GTR2.

And yes, the motec-y dash does look great!

Head gasket? :-(

Sounded f'ing great up until then.

Hoping just a head gasket, not sure, could be valve train. Scoped pistons, they looked OK, but hard to see everything with a scope.

How'd you come up with an issue? Find a vibration, noise, (didn't listen too closely) or light? Just didn't rev like usual?

Your footage was great fun to watch. Looked like the corvette was holding everyone up....figures :-)

How many engine rebuilds will this be then?

Sounded like misfiring on lap 5 entering turn 1.

If the valvetrain went, the engine would have quit right there. Is the supercharger oil-fed? If a seal broke and dumped oil into the intake manifold... That will soak the cylinders real quick.

Don't think the SC has oil lines to it.

Need to check my catch cans to see if those have oil in them. No froth in the oil and no oil in the coolant. From what I've heard there is only one other place for oil to enter the cylinder chamber and that is via the valvetrain.

It does have a oil cooler and I'm running a 7 QT moroso oil pan (9QT total). There is no drop in oil pressure and oil temps are fine as are engine temps.

So I'm sorta boggled as to what it could be.

Data logging shows NO drop in oil pressure and max RPM for the entire session was only 8100 (rev limiter is 8500). So I doubt it is a bent valve.

Like I said, I was only running 7/10th effort, the car has plenty more but it was the 1st session of the day and I was just getting the car and myself warmed up. Oil temp was max 217 which isn't too bad.

This is the first engine on the Lotus, but yeah, I've done many engine rebuilds in the past when I was racing. But this was just a TT event (Time Trials) and I was there just to have fun, not win anything.

Anyway, car goes to ForcedFed in Livermore on Sat -- they have offered to diagnose issue for free (since it was their install/mods). I've ordered some ARP head bolts and a new gasket as I'm sure that will need to be replaced regardless.

Yeah lap 5 turn 1 was when things started going wrong, odd since that is not a likely point for oiling issues, T2 is more a oiling issue turn.

Log Book pic 1 of car

Log Book pic 2 of car

Couple of pics of the car before the event, used in my cars Log Book. I was running TTU class.

This is right after the repaving, right? How did they do on it?

Repaving was good, except everyone kept going off and dragging dirt/dust on the track. As you can see in my video. By the end of the day it was a dust bowl.

My buddy Steve ran a 2:02 flat in his Mustang Cobra (stock motor just big tires and suspension work). I've run 2:03 in a street legal lightly modified STi on stock tire size but with Hoosiers prior to the repave. Ran a 2:02 in my old race Mustang Cobra pre-repave. I'm guess the Lotus should be in the sub 2's - 1:55-1:57 range -- if I can ever get it to run for a full day or two.

But the track is much faster now, they've extended curbing in a few areas and the pavement has more grip, just about everyone was breaking their personal best lap times.

Wow that is a bummer Rob, hope it isn't too much damage.