Glad to see that you are able to finally enjoy your car Chris. Here's to a great summer.

-Chris

 

A quick update. I went on a mini cruise yesterday with jtgli and saw some concerning things with regard to oil pressure. We were cruising back roads with some spirited driving mixed in, oil temp never got over 220*F and was ~200*F most of the time with 75*F ambient temps, but my pressure at idle steadily fell over the drive.

My normal idle pressure was ~14psi and I was seeing as low as 6psi. I took the car out for a little test drive today and saw only 70psi on cold start and was seeing 80psi, the pressure dropped very quickly down to 20psi after appx 1 minute of idle and was ~6psi when I completed a 5 mile circuit. The oil seemed to heat up very quickly as well, its 60*F here today and the gauge broke 100*F much sooner than usual.

I only have ~1500 miles on the Brad Penn 10w30 oil, but the car will stay parked till I can swap in some new heavier oil. These pressures I am seeing are very alarming as this is what has happened every time I lost previous motors. Best case is that the oil is not up to the task and some heavier weight will make things right, worst case is the car is done again after a month of driving and then I am done as well

 

I would try a heavier oil. I have a older Skyline with a FJ20ET motor ( iron block turbo motor that gets hot) in it, if I run anything lighter then 20w50 (amsoil) the oil pressure drops, especially after running the engine hard. I know I am comparing apples to oranges here, but maybe it means something.

 

Take an oil sample and send it to blackstone Chris, see how it comes back.

Oil pressure will drop with temperature, but shouldn't drop from use, unless something is wearing or the oil is being contaminated with fuel/coolant.

 

Try 20w50 or 10w60 oil and report back please.


p.s. I will start my new engine for the first time this week ."fingers crossed"

 

I will try and get a smple pulled today or tomorrow and get it out to Blackstone. This really sucks though, looks like I will miss ZdayZ and a few other meets, but I gambled last time I saw this and lost everything. This car is sucking the life out of me... and my wallet

 

I might have missed it this time, who built the motor this time?

 

I AM DONE... SPUN ANOTHER BEARING

I drained the oil and found a small amount of material left in the pan. I am so over this, the engine only lasted 1500 miles.



So this is 5 engines that haven't lasted past 4000 miles, all with the same failures. This is most likely the final nail in the coffin and I will just part out now and be done for good.

 

This is brutal... I dont't understand how you got so many bad engine, and all with the same issue. Can you please share the engine builders, so that others don't end up going there, and have the same results.

 

This engine was machined and shortblock, rear timing cover, heads and cams assembled @ Justice Racing.

This time I had installed Defi gauges to monitor oil pressure and temp. The oil temp never got over 220-~230*F and when it hit 220 I would just cruise till it got back to 200*F. I had jtgli right behind me in his car running higher boost than me and his brother Mike, who is a mechanic by trade, in the car with me and assures me I was no where near beating on the car and was monitoring temps and pressures throughout our ride.

Extensive part out list coming later this week most likely. If you have a blue Z then Christmas just came early.

 

Sorry to hear Chris.

A long time ago (after the 3rd motor failure IIRC), I recommended that you ditch these local shops you were dealing with and go to Sound Performance instead for your next build. I wish you had taken my advice, cuz I sincerely believe that you wouldn't be in this situation today if you had.

 

This is a total failure on all shops involved, Justice & Hills Garage. In no way, I mean NO way should this have happened. 5 times now are you kidding me??!!?! What are you guys doing? Chris I know we have chatted in person & on the phone about this but I believe action needs to be taken against these shops. They have now 5 times taken your money only to deliver a faulty product. Each time the failure is the same reason (someone obviously cannot build a motor right). This is horrible business and to continually charge to customer to repair the shops mistakes is outrageous. Sorry for the rant, Im done. However I think this should be a forum wide acknowledgment to avoid all shops involved with this failure.

 

Wow, completely unacceptable.

 

Who tuned it this time around?

 

I remember Eric, but finances play a role and then rrmedicx parted out and shared his experience from SP with me. Plus, I called them like 3 times and they never returned a call.

Franz Diebold of Diebold Autosport. He is a VERY competent tuner that works with multiple race teams in the US and Canada. He knows the ViPEC in and out. I was actually in the room with him watching every step of the way as he tuned. None of the failures have exhibited signs of detonation that would lead to bearing failure. They all just show wear consistant with massive oil starvation.

Frank Hill assembled the timing chains, front timing cover, accesories and turbo kit. Again, I was in the shop with him while he did this. He and I are friends and he took the utmost care as he knows the path I have been down.

I am just numb to this situation... not angry or upset. Its happened so many times that honestly every time I took the car out I expected it to fail.

 

Damn.

 

Hmmm... Dunno the backstory with rrmedicx. But SP has always answered the phone promptly every time I called to consult with them on my project. I've had many lengthy discussions with Larry and Reid over the past couple years. I've also chatted with Larry numerous times on AIM. Sorry to hear that you didn't have the same luck getting in touch with them.

 

FML

 

This deserves a new thread.

 

WOW chris Im soo sorry to hear all this happened

I can feel your pain from here. Let me know if you need help with anything at all man.