::)
Just 592km after it's reincarnation, my CityT is currently sitting in the garage again with the engine stripped right down for inspection... >:( Here is what happened:
After the new manifol was installed everthing was going sweet untill after a few days an exhaust leak developed from the exhaust flange. So, i get under it and tighten up all of the nuts, which were loose due to the compression of the gasket material im using which is quite normal. It got rid of 80% of the leak but the last 20% or so was very annoying so i decided to remove all of the efi hardware to get to the top manifold bolts. Everthing went fine except that i dropped one of the throttle body nuts somewhere in the enginebay and couldnt find it. Got another nut and bolted it all up and got it running all sweet again with no sign of an exhast leak. Happy again, i took it for a good belting around town. Later that day, i took it out again and it developed a misfire and a definate loss of power. It was absolutly bucketing down at the time so i babied it home where i made sure it hadnt ingested a gut full of water, which it didnt as the air filter was dry. I presumed water had got somewhere it shouldnt so i let it sit for two days and let the g/f drive me around. I thought id go for a drive in it then but it still ran like crap, some of the time, and it was making a terrible ticking noise. Checked everthing with no answer. Then i remembered that lost nut...
So to cut a long story short, tonight i pulled the manifolds off and found nothing. Only thing to do was to remove the head. Did that and found a few balls of metal in cylinders 1 & 2. Pistons now look like the surface of the moon, as does the head, as does the bores. >:( In short, its rebuild time for this engine.
BUT, in my stupidity defence, if it was that nut i lost that has gone through it, how did one piece end up in one cylinder and one piece in another?!? It physically cant do that which makes me think it wasnt that nut, and was something else... ?
Good news is that the turbo wasnt damaged. Testoment to how tough these engines are is that in the uneffected cylinders, the condition is as new! Even after the tortuous 100 000kms ive put on it!
Oh well, time to drag out another engine... It'll be back, and it'll be faster than ever. Watch this space! ;)
Cheers
Glenn
