Tom M'Guinn

Just kidding of course. But in case you are ever on a game show and the question is:

"How many miles does a 205/55R16 Michelin Energy MXV4 Plus last?"

The answer is 93,962.

ehall

I wasn't sure if I should say Wow! That sucks! or AWESOME MAN!

Tom M'Guinn

Those were my thoughts too. It's not every day your rear tire passes you on the inside corner while going 65.

A.Wayne

Heavy decel is a no, no, on new rings ...........3-5 lbs of boost occasionally in the lower gears will help to seat the rings ......

333pg333

That was my point. Some backoff is fine. I mean cruising along in 4th and just coasting down in that gear up to the lights. I'm not saying downshifting to 2nd and dumping the clutch. As I said Heavy is Heavy. No one is suggesting that's a good thing. I find it very hard not to heel and toe on all my downshifts anyway. As for boost, you can just turn off your ebc and run it on the spring. It is almost like starting a discussion on politics or religion. How to break in a motor. Funny thing is that if we do it on the road we are often told to do it in stages over many miles with different oils and lots of oil changes etc. Where as it's fine to run it in on an engine dyno or DE day. That makes me curious. Think I might just start another thread as someone hasn't done one for a while about this. I still get very conflicting opinions.

Tom M'Guinn

Well, I'm up to almost a thousand miles now, and am now running 15psi and taking it all the way to red line. Holy Cow, this thing feels very strong at 15psi. The extra cc's (and perhaps the VR5 turbo) give it a bit more of a V8 feel -- but with plenty of turbo kick still. Feels fantastic. Can't wait for 18psi, then 22 (on 100 octane of course). Without jinxing it, I have to say -- with all the little things that could have gone wrong in the process --the motor feels as good I ever hoped it would!

Unexpectedly, it's getting great gas mileage too -- well over 25mpg still. Go figure.

cas951

Man I have to see that thing.

Gator_86_951

Sounds very nice Tom. Although no where near your level of perfection my 2.5L is coming close to completion. I am hoping to have it *in* the car before the Sebring race I am working next weekend. At the moment my car will be basically a vitessee chipped turbo S with a good suspension.

dand86951

Tom, really great to hear everything is breaking in nicely and the engine running great. Out of curiosity have you done a compression check and for having as a reference as the engine breaks in?

nick_968

Tom

What RPM do you see 1 bar?

lejams

Tom, It's really impressive how you did this build with such an extreme amount of patience. Looks like it is paying off and you deserve it. Your clean engine bay is one thing, but the performance of you new build is quite another.

I am in the process of compiling parts for a similar build and so far have accumulated the following:

• 968 Block
• 3.0 Crank to likely remain stock
• Mahle 104.5 8:1 pistons & Carrillo Rods
• 2.7 Factory head - plan to refresh & install large exhaust valves
• SFR 3" full exhaust & plan to add 3" DP
• 2.5 factory intake
• Fidanza Alum. Flywheel

So when will you do a write-up on how you put it together

Tom M'Guinn

Thanks for the kind words. It was a long time in the making for sure. Truth be told, I started a write up as I collected/assembled parts, but getting around to finishing it has taken me a while. Stay tuned on that.

Tom M'Guinn

I'll have to run a log and see. I'd be surprised if I don't have 15psi by 3000 to 3100 rpms. I tend not to floor it until at least 3k rpms anyway, and the boost builds immediately.

Tom M'Guinn

Well I drove the car to work today and thought I'd give a long-term update. The motor now has almost 20k miles on it and -- knock on wood -- it's doing just great. No oil usage or weird noises and pulls like a frieght train.

I went through a spat of HG problems a few years back but seem to have that fully solved now. The original cam I was using has given way to a stock 951 cam, after the first one self-destructed. I have a few replacements to try, but honestly I'm enjoying the factory-smooth idle of the stock cam. I also tried several clutch packages before settling on the KEPI/Cup combo, which has a slightly stiff pedal but otherwise factory smooth engagnearement. (I'm convinced there is no better clutch south of 500rwhp.) Also tried several ignition arrangements and am now using the MSD6 box/coil with the stock cap and rotor and it's doing just fine.

The Vitesse stage 5 package (turbo/chip board/maf) has performed flawlessly and gives me full control over fuel and spark, for a factory smooth motor from idle to redline.

Went through a transaxle or two until finally having an LSD unit built with hardened gears by Kevin Gross. That seemed to do the trick, as I have about 10k miles and all seems good.

In light of all the little things that could have gone wrong, I had to take a moment this morning and relish in the fact that this motor was still going strong. The cold dry winter air helped give it a little extra pep too.

333pg333

Great to hear that you've had a pretty uninterrupted experience with your build Tom. Apart from a few teething problems which I'd say most of us have faced. I bet it's a hoot to drive and should give you years of satisfaction knowing you've done a great job putting it all together. Good for you.