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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.
got like 76 k on my Dunlops now. with the exception of one of the rear tires that i rotated over to the weak side and may soon be showing threads, seems theres almost no end to them.
Thats great new Tom, always good to hear of a reliability success story in the 3.0 turbo world. You are doing what those of us with the same engines still in the R&D phase are hoping for. I hope to join you this spring when I put the finishing touches on mine!
Is that the standard MSD6A or one of there upgraded units?
Glad to hear she is running great
To be honest, I'm not 100% sure on the HG. There is a very slight chance the head was hanging up on the alignment dowel. The bore looked like it had a lip inside where the dowel was hanging up. I ordered new dowels from Porsche and was curious to see that the replacements were a few mm's shorter than the originals. Coincidence? I dunno.
I'm fairly sure the actual cause was detonation, however. The Mahle/Andial pistons claim to be low compression, but cc'ing the motor shows that they are about 8.7:1 (if memory serves) with an uncut block and head. Of course, both my block and head were decked when I built the motor, so the compression started off pretty close to 9:1. When the HG first started leaking (after high boost dyno's etc.) I had the head skimmed again while I chased the problem, which only served to increase the compression ratio more and more. At that point, I re-wired the piggyback so I could control the timing, and installed a knock counter/monitor, and concluded that I was running 6+ degrees more advance than the motor could really take under heavy boost. Once I backed off on the timing (and torqued the racewares to 100ft lbs, and installed a steam vent, and went to colder plugs, and watched the knock counter, and added stronger spark, etc., etc.) I have not had any signs of HG problems.
The MSD unit is just their basic 6A. I had no need for the features on the more expensive units because the Vitesse piggyback does all that stuff and I did not want another thing I had to hook up to my laptop to tune the car. Made a custom braket and installed where the factory air filter goes. I don't have a picture of the underside of the bracket, but I had to tack some spacers and nuts on the bottom to make it easier to install/remove. It was also the first thing I powder coated with my new powder coating gun.
I found myself running 12.5 without getting any detonation, which I have put on the account of my stronger-than-stock spark. Just curious if you would be able to lean it out to a similar extent with your MSD set up.
I have it tuned for 11.5. I've never noticed more power by leaning it and figured the extra fuel acts like expensive water injection. I may try edging it up a bit now that I have things under control and see if the knock count changes any. The MSD unit creates a plenty healthy spark -- no need for reduced gaps anymore...
Hard to believe it's been 10 years and 31k miles since I first fired-up the 3 liter motor. It's still pulls like a train under boost, with no sign of aging. Nothing quite like these cars and their all-at-once shove in the back! With any luck, watch this space 10 years from now for another update.
In the meantime, 10 years later I find myself breaking-in another motor. I'm up to 250 miles and can't wait till this one is broken-in too! I'll attempt to compare the two once I can, but suspect it's like comparing chocolate to calculus -- both incredible but completely different things.
Incredible! Such a wealth of information and images. So much inspiration. I'm getting a little dizzy taking it all in at once lol
I can't believe you can take the motor out without pulling the heat shield next to the brake booster.. the same shield I had to take off during an AOS seals job? Funny
12-14-2012, 09:41 AM
