Urgent sr20 advice

[peter barber123]

In a nutshell, bought 2nd hand drift car. engine has failed 5 times, out of ideas. Pls HELP


specs of car bought:


Engine
374bhp and 385lbft
SR20DET Done 110kmla
Running @ 1.5bar of boost
Graphs attached - below
Race Engine and Gearbox mounts just fitted
Greddy Front Mount Intercooler
Standard Cast Manifold (no cracking)
Genuine Nissan Gaskets
3" Trust Elbow
DW Superlow Downpipe
3" from downpipe back to 4.25" Backbox
Greddy Profec B Spec 2Nistune ECU
Walbro Fuel Pump
Huge Air Filter
Driftworks Braided Lines to turbo
Z32 Air Flow Meter
Sard 550cc Injectors (All flow checked and tested before mapping session)
Weber Fuel Pressure Regulator (Set to 3 bar fuel pressure)
The Turbo - I have been told to tell people it is a 'Bernie Special' - I have attached the power graph of the rolling road tune when mapped by Steve Sadler. Steves comments were that it spools like a GT28RS although produces loads more power and hits harder than an RS. If anyone wants a turbo made/built or rebuilt he is a phenomal builder. This is a non ball bearing turbo, so if and when it ever smokes it can be rebuilt for around £150-200. The turbo itself has only been fitted no more than 500 miles ago and was purchased brand new

Interior
Bride Replica Recliner Seat
Sparco Rail Super Low Rail
OMP Steering Wheel with Nardi Boss
Stripped Out Interior
Trust Gearknob
Autometer Boost Gauge
Air Conditioning working properly – nice to get to events
Double Din CD Player - Jap Spec with FM band extender
No cage - just so i can get 8 wheels to a drift eventla

Chassis
17" x 9J Buddy Club P1 Wheels (ET20) Sit perfect on the standard arches with no spacers
New Federal Tyres on the front and brand new tyres on the back
Z32 Rear Handbrake Setup
GAB Adjustable Coilovers with no leaks and no knocks
Welded Diff with fresh oil inla
Adjustable Front Castor Arms
4 wheels alignment done around 4 weeks ago
Front Strut Brace
Exedy Paddle Clutch done 5 drift days and never missed a beat
Poly Subframe Bushes
Short Shifter
Apex rear camber arms - 1 event old
Apex rear toe arms - 1 event old
Spacers on steering rack with bumpstops ground so has really good lock.

Exterior
UK Glass Headlights
Aftermarket Rear Bumper
Aftermarket Side Skirts
Gandor Mirrors
Tinted Rear Windows
I strongly recommend coming to see the car - I dont mind taking anyone out in the car and feels amazingly strong with the new turbo setup.



Few mods we did straight away before first test session

Clarkey Hubs
sparco seats
sparco rails
kaz 2 way diff
meister r coilovers

Test session went well, had about 30 laps at birmingham wheels. The angles we got were much better with the new knuckles


So after the first test session we concentrated on making it look a lot better:

Full Aerokit s14.5 conversion, 100mm wider rear quarters, 40mm wider at front
spoiler
Full Aerokit Splitter kit
Rota Grids, 17 at front 18 at rear
alloy rad
regulation equipment (fire extinguisher, cut off switches,)
rollcagela
harness

Test session 1:
Drove car to Birmingham wheels, 30 laps, drove back. no issues.

So Failure 1:
Drove the car for a road test, 30 miles from base, bottom end starts knocking. car recovered bak to base.

Failure 2
As we were strapped for time we only replaced the big end bearings, put in ACL bearings.
Car fails 2 miles down road.la

Failure 3
Garage 1 puts a complete standard secondhand sr20det into car. Car is transported to Lydden Hill for demo day. Turbo goes after 5 laps. In total 20 laps done at Lydden Hill with blown turbo. Car is transported back to base. Injectors are said to be missing 1 cap. Car is driven back to garage 1 from base (30 miles) and 2nd hand power enterprise turbo is put on. car is looked over, rack spacers fitted, no obvious problems. car driven back to base (30 miles) Car then is on its way to drift all stars birmingham. 60 miles down the road bottom end starts knocking. car is recovered back to base.la

Report from engine supplied by garage 1 (2nd engine in car):
oil pump scored
metal in pick up pipe
turbo blades eroded and damaged by foreign body (power enterprise turbo)
rocker pads worn
2 hydraulic tappets blocked
number 2 big end bearing spun in rod and heavily damaged crank journal.

Failure 4
2nd hand engine which has been rebuilt 2000 miles ago with receipts is purchased from garage 1. engine is put in by myself and then driven to garage 2 to be remapped and given a check over. faulty actuator means poor power on rolling road. (311bhp) car driven 30 miles to wimbledon. car goes to Drift all stars round 2 wimbledon and competes in its first competition of the season. car driven 30 miles back to garage 2 straight after to get remapped and then few more tidy ups. car makes good power after new actuator is put on. Car driven 50 miles back to base. car is driven 100 miles to bdc teeside. no boost all the way. bottom end failure after 6 laps on track.

Failure 5
Car is transported straight to garage 3. fully rebuilt fresh engine put in. acl race bearings main and and big. cosworth metal headgasket, cosworth head bolts, baffled sump. rebuilt 3071r turbo, new nismo 740cc injectors. the whole works basically. then mapped by protuner. car makes 411bhp. car is transported to ireland. car fails after 4 laps of track

So as you can see we and everyone else we speak to are completely baffled by this. no one so far has pinpointed the issue. After so many failures its easy to give up but as we are so far into this car we just want to know what the issue is along with everyone who knows about this project. we have 10 days to have a car ready to be on the transporter for European rounds of drift all stars (hungary, romania and malta) any ideas, suggestions, help would be hugely appreciated as we are running out of ideas.


Out of the engines used 3 were built by the following
1, Steve saddler
2, gbh motorsport
3, Martin @ pure performance

The main issues we have is that the failures have been on 4 separate engines completely, the only things that are stock on the running gear side or have been swapped onto the new engines each time are

1, clutch and flywheel
2, gearbox ( whines but not rattling )
3, rocker cover
4, coilpacks ( no missfire )
5, ecu and loom

[JohnJ]

Killer of a problem.

Sure you haven't got a saboteur on the team?

[D4parts]

sounds like you have a cursed car

[JohnJ]

What are you using in terms of oil and filter?

[reeperR32]

just tell tim to buy my soarer already and be ready for europe

[peter barber123]

Fully synthetic 10/40, stock oil filter, greddy winged sump, and run very slightly over the top Mark as we was told too

[peter barber123]

just tell tim to buy my soarer already and be ready for europe

You need to take my manual soarer road car in as px and cash from me

[Brunosr13]

Oil pumps, or something related, I had a evo6 with big ends fail after 500 miles, turn up to be a oil pickup lose so pick up air insted.

[Paz]

What about front pulley on crank, is that out of balance? Or Flywheel? It just reminds me of failing 20v blacktops, the bottom ends knock because people swap an undamped 16v pulley onto the motors for RWD fitment and the delicate bottom end doesnt like the extra vibrations.. Maybe imput shaft on gearbox isnt running true?

Just guessing tho man, hope you sort it!

[Gavwan]

Gutting to see the hassles you've had this year Pete.

After my engine woes this year, I'd be getting the ECU & board checked next then going over every earth/important bit of loom on the car. Assuming the last engine failure was bottom end also and due to the turbos that keep dying I'd change your oil feed/returns and check over your vac lines.

The above might not be the cause but that would be my first thoughts mate

[kieran_e1]

Something in the loom maybe. Fuel pump dropping voltage and running lean. Not sure why it will make bottom end go but its an idea.

[peter barber123]

Will have to get that checked, we must be the unluckiest sr20 running bastards in England lol

[reeperR32]

You need to take my manual soarer road car in as px and cash from me

i may do - depends whats on offer?

[peter barber123]

Would the electrical issues if any not show on the extensive time is spent with Greg on the dyno??

[chidley]

i know this will sound super stupid, but you are letting the engine warm up and cool down before/after deathing it arent you? does seem very perculiar for 4 seperate engines to go bye bye over very short periods of time.. unless obvious oil problems :/ i guess the only other option i'd suggest is go for an RB lump and see how you get on with that instead, lot of hassle but maybe worth while down the line?

[Paz]

And i cant see how it'dmake the bottom end fail either, surely it'd just melt stuff?

[kieran_e1]

Would the electrical issues if any not show on the extensive time is spent with Greg on the dyno??

Unless he is measuring voltage at the pump while running (which i doubt anyone does tbh ) then maybe not. You might find that the motion of drifting is pulling on a plug or cable etc for a bit of loom that's too tight. Something which isn't being replicated on the rollers

[peter barber123]

Yeah it's always started 10- 15 mins before any use and left to tick over for a while after too. It's completely lost me this one

[Gavwan]

Looking at it logically, Failures 1 & 2 sound like they were pretty much caused by an unknown engine (luck of the draw).
Failure 3 -turbo shit its guts through engine

I think its after that you need to focus on

[Gavwan]

what knocked/melted in Ireland?