As usual, I was plagued with mechanical issues at the event. On Saturday I only got one timed lap before I had to retire.

Just before this event, I had added that new valve cover with the big vents. One of those vents was routed to my exhaust using a Moroso crankcase evacuation system.



However, during my first session the exhaust check valve failed and allowed exhaust to blow up through the hose and into my valve cover. From there the exhaust pressure traveled out the other vent on my valve cover, through the line into my oil catch can, then through the return line into my intake pipe, taking lots of oil with it. When this happened the engine started sputtering and blew a HUGE cloud of blue smoke. Actually several people told me that it shot a big flame out the exhaust pipe as well.

Following the incident I pulled off the track fearing the worst... a blown engine. Once I determine that wasn't the case, I slowly crept the car back to the paddock for further diagnosis.

In the end, the exhaust check value line had ripped apart and melted, and hot exhaust was blowing directly at my motor mount / intercooler pipe coupler / plastic radiator fan shroud, so I dared not drive the car home like that.

A fellow competitor came to my rescue and offer to trailer my car home.

Once I got home Saturday evening, I ran to the hardware store and found a metal pipe cap in the plumbing section (Ha!) that was the right size to cap off my crankcase evacuation exhaust nipple. Then I blocked off the valve cover line and was ready to go for Sunday!



However, when I started up the car Sunday morning to go to the track, I could still hear an exhaust leak. So I jacked up the car to take a close look and discovered a hole blown through my O2 sensor housing. Ugh! At this point I was completely disgusted and just went back to bed. So I missed Sunday's event completely.

It's quite ironic that this past Winter / Spring's upgrades were focused mainly around maintenance & improving reliability, yet this year has been my worst yet. Of the four events I'm managed to get the Talon to this season, only one has not ended in mechanical issues.

By the way, my one hot lap was a 1:21.619.... Quite slow. I would have had 11 more attempts on Saturday (and 12 more on Sunday), but I doubt I would have beat my personal best this weekend. The track was pretty hot & greasy.

Here's a video clip of my first & only session, complete with numerous annotations:

A few weeks later, after the disgust from the failure had worn off, I picked up the wrenches and went to work repairing the car. My plan was simply replace the busted O2 housing with my stock one, and leave the crankcase evacuation exhaust nipple capped. At least it would get me through the rest of the season.

However, in preparing to replace the O2 housing I removed my WBO2 sensor and found it to look like this:





Next to come off was the O2 housing. Initially I thought that it had got too hot and the exhaust blew a hole though it, but these pics tell a different story.



Obviously something hit it hard and punch a hole through it. Wonder what that could have been?

Hmmm... So lets take a look at the turbo and see if anything is missing.



Yup, definitely something missing. Turbine wheel snapped clear off the shaft. What could have caused that??!

Looking though my ECMLink log, notable things are that my coolant temperature jumped from 184°F to 240ºF in only 2.5 minutes. I also got about 3.5° knock at one point, perhaps attributed by the high temps. I have been battling overheating issues all season. Temperatures are fine on the street, but creep up fast on the road course.

Oh, I should also add that my AC fan fell victim as well. I had it turned on the whole time so I'm not sure why only one blade is missing. My guess is that while my car was sitting with the engine off between sessions, the radiant heat soften up one blade, and once I got going again, the centrifugal force sent it flying. I actually found the missing piece of the fan in another part of my engine compartment, and there are little bits of melted white plastic peppered throughout.



Next I performed a cylinder leak down test. This was on a cold engine with no oil nor coolant in it.

• Cyl #1 - 18% mostly from exhaust port
  Cyl #2 - 19% mostly from oil pan, partly from exhaust port
  Cyl #3 - 43% mostly from exhaust port
  Cyl #4 - 20% mostly from exhaust port

I didn't do a compression test as there's no oil in it, but when I did it a few months ago I got...

• Cyl #1 - 195
  Cyl #2 - 192
  Cyl #3 - 167
  Cyl #4 - 192

Now that I look at those compression numbers, it seems kinda odd considering that the standard value for 2G is 178 psi. *shrug*

Note, this is on a stock engine with 240K kms on it.

In any event, cylinder #3 is hurting. From what I've read, any leak down > 30% is cause for concern.

So that's where I'm at. It's always been a dream of mine to rebuild the engine into a 2.3L stroker and put a FP HTA DSM76 on it, but I'm broke. So it's more likely I'll just rebuild the head, and throw the stock T25 & O2 housing back on it until I can afford a complete build. Or maybe find a cheap E16G. In any event, my 2011 season it over.

Is this a question you want us to try & answer or do you already have the answer, that will be posted in your next post

Have you looked at your turbo, I'm guessing turbine wheel?

Beat you to it...

Guess it took me a few min to read through your post

Yep you were right when I commented about your luck in a previous post, that was only the start of things