Terry T.

I sold a 944 race car with a 968 engine conversion to Justin a couple months ago. The car had been my track car for 14 years, and had received a freshly rebuilt engine over the past winter after the previous one had spectacularly disintegrated due to a lean out condition in cylinder number 4. It was built with all the best parts: Carillo rods, lightened crank, JE pistons, Milledge cams, rebuilt head with 5 angle valve job, etc.

The engine was assembled, at great expense, by what I thought was the premiere 944 shop in Seattle. As my wife had run out of patience with my "mistress," I put the car up for sale, but received limited interest, so I decided to run it for the season.

On my fourth track day out, at Pacific Raceways, the car suffered an oil fire that was my fault--I had inadvertently loosened the accusump console during an oil change, and the o-ring had failed, spraying oil onto the header wrap. The damage was fairly contained--the car needed new wiring harnesses, a new brain and a thorough cleaning, but when all was fixed, it ran strong as ever and made no funny noises. Total time on the engine was maybe five hours.

Some time prior to the fire, Justin had inquired about buying the car. We corresponded for awhile. After the fire happened, I told him about it and and sent him pictures, expecting him to say no thanks. He still wanted the car--albeit at a "fire sale" but totally fair price. We agreed the sale would be contingent on a dyno pull. Unfortunately, the local dynos were all closed on the day he arrived (who is closed on a Monday?) with his parents and lovely fiance, so we agree to do a compression test. All cylinders except number 4 read 195, but #4 was at 175. Justin said it was not a deal breaker, bought the car and trailer, and towed it back to Canada--14 hours.

A few days ago, to my horror, I received the attached photos. Worried about cylinder #4, Justin had pulled the head. You can see the what he found from the photos. As I will remind you, this engine had only 5 hours on it, and the rebuild had cost well over $10,000.

I was literally sick to my stomach, and offered to return some of Justin's money. Here was his response:

I don't need any money back. We're 944 guys, we take these things on as challenges I'll keep you updated with my progress.

Justin

I cannot imagine a nicer, classier guy. (I have yet to meet a Canadian I didn't like, though I confess to a special fondness for Sarah McLaughlin.) As for the "944 expert" who built the car, his shop recently closed. He's in town, but will not return my calls. Not that he ever did during the entire year he had my car.

Justin, you have a free place to stay, a fully equipped shop, and all the beer you can drink if you ever come to Seattle.

Thought the board should know.

Terry

Cyberpunky

That's awesome. great attitude and very refreshing to hear about

pontifex4

That's really a shame for both of you, but I love the attitude! Justin, if you're on here, let me know if you need anything (though I'm guessing that you're on the West coast).

MN

Could someone please explain to us mechanically challenged what happened. What does the soot mean?

Thanks.

MN

P.S. I agree, shows class not to make a drama out of it.

JustinL

Thanks Terry, I really think it's important that we keep a sense of community. I'm trying to keep up and pay forward all the help that I get from the local 944 crew (Chrenan, Dand86951, AlexE, Al, etc.) We will get this car sorted and it will race next season.

944forever -The damage you are looking for is the cylinder wall. There are long gouges that run up and down. Cylinder 4 is the worst, but the others are starting to suffer too. I think it's an incompatibility between the piston and/or rings and the alusil bore. We aren't sure how it was honed or what coatings are on the pistons, nor are we sure what the tolerances were on the engine. I've been talking to Carl at 928motorsports about getting the block nikasil coated, but the next step is getting it out of the car.

chrenan

Justin was turning the crank while I was watching piston #4 drop from TDC, crappy thing to see. Like Justin said, we'll get that engine out and get it figured out. Everything can be fixed, Justin has a great attitude about these things, he is a class act for sure, and a damn fast driver.

Hopefully one of the Rennlist engine builders (paging Chris White) will take a look at the picture, I'm sure someone with deep knowledge on the internals of these engines will be able to identify the cause quickly.

fwb42

Oh heck,That'll buff right out..

kenkawai993

That looks strikingly similar to what I pulled out of the turbo motor I bought. Albet mine were deeper. Check the bearings too while the motor is apart. hopefully the others aren't as bad.

ramius665

Jesus. What a mess. But I will say this, Rennlisters are class acts!

Terry T.

An update:

The guy I should have had rebuild the engine, Monty Jarvis at Redmond European, says that JE pistons have to be very carefully fit to each bore individually, with a bit of extra skirt-to-wall clearance. That's because they seem to expand much faster than other pistons when the engine is first started up, so they "grow" in the bore faster than the water-cooled block expands, causing galling as the tolerances get too close. The downside is that you get extra "piston slap" noise on startup, because they are pretty loose in the bore. But who cares about that on a track car anyway?

FWIW, here's a video of the car in its glory days a few years ago at VIR. I'm sure Justin will have it up and running even better by spring.


Terry

JustinL

Just an update. I've been finding that the community has been really great and I've had really good experiences with the shops rebuilding this 968 race engine. I shipped the block down to Carl Fausett at 928motorsports. He took care of everything the block needed from pulling the dowels I couldn't get to having the block Nikasil coated (Nicom plating is what US chrome calls it). Arias was a bit slow with the custom pistons, but once Carl got them the whole process moved very quickly and I had the block back. The block was surprisingly easy to ship as it only weighs about 60lbs stripped of all the steel.

I just got the rotating assembly back from Bel engines here in Edmonton where they balanced everything and did a bearing check etc. Now I have the daunting task of putting the whole thing back together! The engine is now a slight overbore and will have a displacement of 3065cc.

Here's a picture of what the repaired cylinder looks like:

chrenan

Oh, and FYI Justin is still a class act. I try to turn him to the dark side but he always stays classy.