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gmendoza

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Posts posted by gmendoza

  1. The fact you replaced the head gaskets on the new engine is a huge red flag. See my thread about head gaskets.

    Check for combustion gases in the coolant through the header tank connector for the hose to the overflow tank when the overflow tank is bubbling, If you do, then head gaskets are the issue. 

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  2. Who built the car? Any idea what's been installed?

    Even if your car was running perfect, shifting hard enough to make the tires break loose at 140mph is just begging for trans issues.

    2nd, MLS headgaskets need a perfect surface to seal correctly. The surface needs to be like glass basically. If you can see machining marks, like a vinyl record, it'll leak.

    3rd, rumor has it that the Esprit has a tendency to lift heads at very high boost with stock head bolts. Were ARP studs installed?

    4th, how do you know its a head gasket issue? Overheating after WOT run? Water mixing with oil?

    Like others have said, I'd check your boost first and get that under control.

     

  3. I second what John said about best pictures since Mike S.

    Real quality engineering Gonzalo - Oh for half your ability!!

    I do not know the full background to your car at all and make no mistake I love my V8, but thinking aloud, I was wondering what made you pick on the Lotus V8 to get loads of power out of as is it not fair to say that it could be considered a little fragile for much development?

    I know the failure was caused by an external component of course but would love to know if you think it would have happened to a different motor. (say Audi V8 or perhaps Nissan Skyline engine).

    That may miss the point of it all i guess and I dont wish to be hung out to dry for these comments - just wondering!!

    Mark

    Sorry I didn't see this earlier. You are right Mark. There are much better cars to get huge power. A 996tt, Supra, even a Corvette come to mind. I never picked the Lotus because I wanted to make huge power, it just happened. I decided I wanted an Esprit because I wanted something turbocharged and unique.

    My car was already slightly modded by the previous owner as project for Modified Luxury & Exotics magazine. I thought it was perfect. Being a guy that can't leave well enough alone, I started playng with the car in a attempt to make it slightly better.

    Well one thing led to another and slightly better became more than the car could handle. And that's what led to this thread, and the Holloway thread.

    As for my failure on another car, I think it would have still resulted in some engine damage. Maybe not as bad, but some damage would have still been possible.

    Thank you, thank you, thank you, Gunter for your post creating page 2 of the thread. As much as I enjoyed the Gonzalo V8 "family album" pics, each time I returned to page 1 the download time was causing the house lights to dim, and threatened a global shutdown of the internet.

    Just kidding, Gonz...keep 'em coming :lol:

    :hrhr: Sorry about that. lol. It was alot of pics.

  4. Thanks guys. Actually it was almost 4 months from the time it blew to the time I fired it up again. It was alot if time waiting for parts, machining, checking etc. As for the assembly itself, that did take about a week on my spare time.

    Gunter, the block was actually used purchased from JAE. The belts, studs, rods and misc parts were also JAE. Liners and pistons were actually one of sets purchased directly from the manufacturer. If some one was interested in either the pistons and liners, I get you the info needed.

  5. Thanks guys. Yeah, I know it was going to happen one day. I just never thought it was going to be this bad. :huh:

    Hi Gonzalo,

    What type of boost controller were you using, and what was the nature/cause of the failure?

    Rebuild is looking good!

    I'm using a Blitz SBC-id. It appears the solenoid got stuck on. I've seen two fail this way before. Now this alone wont cause your motor to fail. The Blitz has an auto and a manual setting. If you are in manual and the soleniod fails, then it will fail at whatever setting you had with no additional boost, you'll just hear the buzzing from the soleniod. I had it on auto. While convinient, it can put you in a bad spot if the solenoid gets stuck because the controller is constantly varying the setting to give you the boost you want. So if it fails, you can get less or more (like me) boost depending on what the controller was doing at the time of failure.

    Will you run this one in , or is that a silly question

    There are two schools of thought on run in. Run it like it's meant to be driven from mile one or baby it for thousands of miles. I'm in the middle. No very heavy load for 500 mi or so but plenty of varying PRM and some load to help the rings.

    On to the pics:

    more rod caps:

    DSCF9445.JPG

    lube'ing & installing oil pump

    DSCF9451.JPG

    DSCF9452.JPG

    DSCF9453.JPG

    DSCF9456.JPG

    intermediate shaft bearings installed and lubed:

    DSCF9459.JPG

    DSCF9462.JPG

    DSCF9463.JPG

    replacing chain tensioner blocks

    DSCF9464.JPG

    Chain & gears installed

    DSCF9468.JPG

    Tensioners installed before adjustment:

    DSCF9471.JPG

    Lotus alignment tool installed:

    DSCF9473.JPG

    All done:

    DSCF9478.JPG

    Sealant for front cover:

    DSCF9481.JPG

    Front cover on with intermediate seal installed:

    DSCF9484.JPG

    Sealing for oil pan:

    DSCF9490.JPG

    Oil pan on:

    DSCF9495.JPG

    crank seal on (notice key way for intermediate shaft pulleys, see other thread for details)

    DSCF9499.JPG

    Crank pulley on

    DSCF9501.JPG

    top cover sealed & installed:

    DSCF9506.JPG

    oil filter mount installed:

    DSCF9510.JPG

    rear cover sealed & installed

    DSCF9512.JPG

    DSCF9515.JPG

    Flywheel on (sorry no pcs of rear main seal)

    DSCF9517.JPG

    Sensors installed:

    DSCF9527.JPG

    Head ready for cams:

    DSCF9523.JPG

    Followers in:

    DSCF9528.JPG

    cam caps layed out in order ready to be installed:

    DSCF9532.JPG

    Cams in & locked with setting pins:

    DSCF9537.JPG

    cam seals in, pulleys ready to be bolted

    DSCF9549.JPG

    Sealant on cam bolts:

    DSCF9554.JPG

    DSCF9555.JPG

    cam pulleys loosely bolted ready for belts:

    DSCF9557.JPG

    belts in:

    DSCF9562.JPG

    DSCF9566.JPG

    dab sealant on front cam caps ready for cam cover

    DSCF9583.JPG

    Cam cover ready to be installed:

    DSCF9585.JPG

    cam cover, injector housings, thermostat housing, exhaust manifold & dip stick installed:

    DSCF9586.JPG

    Starter and coil packs in

    DSCF9588.JPG

    Bosch Gen 3 injectors in

    DSCF9589.JPG

    Wiring loom in:

    DSCF9592.JPG

    Plennum ready for install:

    DSCF9595.JPG

    Then the camera card got full and we forgot about more pics, sorry. :(

    The car is back on the road and it feels great. I havent done any WOT high boost runs but part throttle feels good. It's very responsive off boost, not laggy at all. It actually feels natrually aspirated. I don't know it that's due to the lighter rotating assembly, rods are about .25lbs (~115gm) lighter than stock, better atomazation of the injectors, port work on the heads around the valve seat area or a combination of everything. Whatever it is, I am very happy.

    Now to put some miles on it and turn the boost up again. :)

    Holy smoke Gonzalo, when Alan said the failure was spectacular he wasn't kidding! Nice job and let's catch up soon

    Paul

    lol, Thanks, sounds like a good idea

  6. As some of you know, my car has been pushed to the limit since basically day one. A few months ago, I was at the track when my aftermarket boost controller failed, I got who knows how much boost and my motor let go. There wanst much warning, it blew at the same time I realized th car was making more power than it should.

    Here's the carnage:

    Hole in the block & damaged liners:

    DSCF9230.JPG

    DSCF9231.JPG

    DSCF9232.JPG

    DSCF9233.JPG

    pieces of piston in oil pan

    DSCF9234.JPG

    Snapped timing chain

    DSCF9235.JPG

    Worn chain tensioners

    DSCF9236.JPG

    DSCF9237.JPG

    DSCF9239.JPG

    Many bent valves, broken valve guides and 1 damaged combustion chamber

    DSCF9247.JPG

    DSCF9248.JPG

    2 damaged rods

    DSCF9249.JPG

    DSCF9250.JPG

    DSCF9253.JPG

    piston pieces that entered the plennum and back down into other cylinders

    DSCF9254.JPG

    Oil pick-up bolts snapped

    DSCF9255.JPG

    More head damaged

    DSCF9265.JPG

    DSCF9266.JPG

    DSCF9267.JPG

    Damaged lobes in 1 cam

    DA325071-85C2-4173-9A10-61056FD94F49-1535-0000038E8488D752.jpg

    Custom Mahle forged pistons vs stock cast pistons that will be installed.

    DSCF9278.JPG

    DSCF9280.JPG

    Now for the rebuild:

    Custom Darton liners:

    DSCF9285.JPG

    Measuring liner stand in

    DSCF9296.JPG

    DSCF9294.JPG

    Double checking bearing clearances with Plastigauge (appox 0.0018")

    DSCF9299.JPG

    Checking ring gaps (old ring used for illustration only)

    DSCF9281.JPG

    Rings installed and gapped per Mahle's recommendation

    DSCF9282.JPG

    Underside Mahle piston with JAE Saanz H-Beam rods

    DSCF9289.JPG

    DSCF9291.JPG

    DSCF9292.JPG

    New block cleaned ready for assembly:

    DSCF9376.JPG

    Oil squirters installed:

    DSCF9378.JPG

    Upper main bearings installed and lubed:

    DSCF9380.JPG

    Upper thrust bearing installed & lubed:

    DSCF9382.JPG

    Crank in:

    DSCF9383.JPG

    #4 Main cap with bearing & lower thrust installed:

    DSCF9384.JPG

    Main caps installed:

    DSCF9385.JPG

    JAE ARP head studs installed (right hand liners, pistons & head already installed):

    DSCF9424.JPG

    Adding Hylomar to liner with piston & rod installed

    DSCF9423.JPG

    DSCF9428.JPG

    #8 psiton/liner installed

    DSCF9429.JPG

    Installing #7

    DSCF9431.JPG

    #7 installed:

    DSCF9432.JPG

    #5-8 installed:

    DSCF9433.JPG

    Head gasket installed:

    DSCF9436.JPG

    Head cleaned ready for install:

    DSCF9437.JPG

    Both heads on:

    DSCF9440.JPG

    Ready to install rod caps:

    DSCF9441.JPG

    DSCF9443.JPG

  7. An update... The thrust washers that came out and the new ones both had the same measurements. But he replaced all of the main crank caps (that hold the crank in place) and he reports that it is much much tighter now.

    So either there was some difference in the main caps or just the process of taking it all apart and putting it back together had some effect.

    Either way, things are tighter now so hopefully it will get reassembled today and we can see if there are any noises still present. I am hopeful that the end is in sight and I can start driving this car!

    WTF!!!!1 Either you misunderstood or this guy has NO f'n clue what he's doing. The main caps are matched to the block and only go in one slot. If a cap is replaced, then all caps must be line bored due to a chance the journals will be out of round and the axis will be off. Then oversized bearings will most likely be installed . No, that block cannot be linebored in the car. Here's how you do it:

    Also, 1/2 the thrust bearing rides on the block, 1/2 rides on the cap. Just replacing the cap will create a mismatch on the surface where the thrust bearing rides

    When an Esprit engine grenades for whatever reason, the metal bits would tend to circulate throughout the oil system which includes the oil lines running to the front coolers. It's almost impossible to clean all the metal bits out of the lines and coolers which usually necessitates replacement. Unless they were replaced, or at the very least flushed with a high pressure flushing system, I'd suspect residual shrapnel from the original breakdown.

    Did your mechanic take any steps to make sure the oil passages were clear when he had the block stripped?

    Just thinking out loud here. It apprears oil flows from the pan, through the pump, to the coolers, to the filter, then the oil galleys. So if there is debris in the oil coolers, wouldn't they be caught by the oil filter?

  8. Most V8 timing belt failures I've heard about are from the bolt on the intermediate shaft (IMS) backing out causing the pulley to slip resulting in crunched valves. Very few failures from the belt actually snapping or even skipping teeth. Also, most failures I've heard about/seen are on 97-99 V8's. While reading the service notes, in the section on torqing the IMS bolt, it mentions to make sure you have the newer style bolt. It also makes no mention of applying locktite to the IMS bolt while it does mention applying locktite to the cam bolts.

    Now this sparked a few questions. When did Lotus start using the new IMS bolt? If having the IMS bolt backing out is a common failure, why no locktite? Lastly, in the section that addresses adjustment and also the section on replacement, it makes no mention of re-torquing either the IMS nor the cam bolts. Is it good practice to do it anyway?

    Thanks in advance

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