Sounds like you're right, but I worry most about the folks who won't hear about this issue until after their installation is complete, and of course those whose installation is already complete. They will have more cost involved than just freight: disassembly/reassembly and any repair or replacement of damaged parts due to contact of pistons to squirters, for starters. That's assuming any broken bits don't contribute to a more general, cascading engine failure.

Again, good luck to all, including Arias!

 

I really feel for you. I pulled my HKS supercharger after deciding that the problems were just too much of a pain in the butt to deal with.

There is a simple reality here:

The deeper you get into all this ****, the deeper the **** you can get into.

I decided to cut my losses and bailed on the whole FI thing.

 

well they pulled the lower oil pan off to look for the squiters but are having a hard time seeing them. no debris in the oil pan and after talking to the machine shop they said nothing looked out of place and that clearences were normal. they have put about 30 pulls on the dyno, drove it around the town and even in the begining there wasn't any type of noise that was suspect. then or now the car sounds fine and runs great, as i've been told. talked to arias on the phone and the case that they are aware of during the initial start-up after assembly they could definately tell that something sounded wrong. with mine there wasn't such a sound. they are going to look more carefully in the morning to locate any signs of wear and see if this could be a problem. anyone who can help me with proir knowlege on who would be suspect let me know. i'm so close to getting this finished i would hat to start over again. hope thats not the case.

Dustin (no more hair to pull out of my head)

 

At this point I don't beleive Arias has made any offer to the customer whose oil squirters broke off and is looking at several thousand dollars in labor to fix the problem.

 

Regal...who are you...and how the hell would you know this????

If a customer has a claim against Arias, they will negotiate it one on one. Arias has been extremely cool about this so far...given them a chance to fix the problem. They are a family owned business, and they have making pistons for over 30years...they arent going anywhere.

 

Deleted

 

Does any one know why its only the drivers side oil squirters ? Why would the passenger side oil squirters be in a different spot [ slightly lower ]

 

From what Arias, and now what Z1 has posted, it is the driver side only. Maybe they can comment on this further, but maybe the squirters are positioned at an angle. Either way, it appears to only be the driver side that is affect.

 

Another question....Can the cleaarance be checked from the bottom of the block with out the upper oil pan on ? And what would be a safe measurement of clearance be ?

 

hey dustin,
when are you gonna come back to cali?
we gotta **** off some of those newport/laguna beach guys again

 

The driver's side oil squirters are at a flatter angle and have less clearance than those on the passenger's side.

 

there is no way to measure the clearance (unless you were gonna use clay), the crank and rods and girdle are blocking your reach in a bad way and its difficult enough to even SEE the oil squirters once the rotating assembly is put in. With the upper oil pan still on, I would highly doubt that you have any visability to a single oil squirter.

 

The upper oil pan is still off on my block . Im going to the shop today to see if you can see the squirters . The cyl. will come out and notched reguardless . Just to be sure

 

Are these oil squirters that spray at the bottom of the piston? I haven't worked on a VQ yet so I have no idea. But if they are just spraying the bottom of the pistons you don't need them anyways. Forged pistons love heat! lol

 

I was thinking the same thing. The oil squirters spray upwards towards the underside of the piston. They are deisgned to keep the stock cast pistons cool.

I have talked to a few people on this topic...much more knowledgable than me...and there is seems to be an ongoing debate on whether oil squirters are even necessary with forged pistons. Many people dont like them, surprisingly , due to clearance issues, and becuase they can get clogged up.

One person on the board that built his motor himself, actually just bent the driver's side squirters slightly, so lay are flatter and out of the way of the piston skirts.

one last thing. Arias isnt really putting a notch on the pistons, they are just shaving off some of the skirt...essentially smoothing it down just slightly, so it will clear the oil squirters.

 

Unfortunately, even if you don't "need" them, broken off peices are a bad deal all the way around and if the break is not clean it will continue to shave peices of the piston off, giving your oil that nice glitter effect.

Our machinist just made a jig and cut these clearances so both the driver's and passenger's side have .080 of clearance.

 

Lorca...your machinist removed quite a bit of material. Is that much really needed?

I havent seen the clearance, but It is my understanding that at most...1/8 inch is all that is needed to maintain clearance.

 

He wanted to remove enough to provide .080 clearance so there would definately not be an issue with expansion. Also, by making a jig to do it he is ensuring that each piston will be cut the same.

 

What suprises me is they didn't know about this before hand. I know a guy that had this happen to his motor last winter with the Arias pistons... may 2004.

from Nick at ntechengineering.com


<quote>
Also, it should be noted that we had to clearance the pistons to avoid contact with the oil spray jets the spray oil onto the underside of the pistons.
</quote>

 

Yep, no real need for em. Some stock turbo cars use them, Like the SRT-4. But the srt-4 uses a semi silicone compound. Either way the squirters won't hurt, but you really don't want them broken! Most squirters have a valve built in to turn them off at idle to keep the oil pressure from dropping too much. And depending on where they break you could be loosing a lot of oil pressure too.