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Melted upper timing cover

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Evan K.

Evan K.

20+ Year Contributor
155
1
Mar 7, 2003
Bay area, California
Went out with T.E.A.M. Racing at Thunderhill on Monday the 26th. Managed to run some 2:10's in the cold and wet. I should easily have that down to the 2:07 range once it warms up a bit. Normally I can carry ~95 mph through turn 8, however in the conditions we had I was doing ~80-85. Even at that pace I was starting to run a bit wide. Had a good time until I heard an exhaust leak. Car ran ok but was a little down on power. After the session I pulled into the pits and found this :tease: :rolleyes: Time for the 2.4 to go in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3fhhnU88bA
 
SlowOldPoop had that problem except his ended in a cut timing belt and bent valves. His turbo to manifold bolts would loosen up and he'd leak exhaust. The exhaust melted the timing belt cover until it puddled down, resolidified, and made a knife that cut the timing belt. We installed a CarbonTrix hood vent, an underradar gasket, installed a bracket on the downpipe, and safety-wired the bolts to protect his new 2.3 motor and head. The fixes worked great all last season.
 
stealthTT said:
SlowOldPoop had that problem except his ended in a cut timing belt and bent valves. His turbo to manifold bolts would loosen up and he'd leak exhaust. The exhaust melted the timing belt cover until it puddled down, resolidified, and made a knife that cut the timing belt. We installed a CarbonTrix hood vent, an underradar gasket, installed a bracket on the downpipe, and safety-wired the bolts to protect his new 2.3 motor and head. The fixes worked great all last season.
Click to expand...


Mike didn't tell you about the ultra-modern, space-age heat shield he fabbed out of a discarded Coke can. He cut it open, and wedged it between the turbo and the timing belt cover. Worked great!

Rich
 
people always give me crap about the scoop, but hey it only cost me $10 total between the heat duct elbow, soffit vent, pop rivets and bondo to put it on. I say it is well worth saving a timing belt and everything else that gets messed up with the extreme heat.
 
It could have been worse Evan. Could have like it has been said before, torn right through the timing belt.

~Eddie
:talon:
 
Oh I'm only complaining a little. I just wanted to do one more run session and get under 2:10:cool: I drove home on it floppy belt and all.

FWIW I do have the Carbontrix hood vent. I've run at least 12 days with my previous setup which was a HK$ 3037S on a Turbonetics manifold with a Tial 38 on the number 1 runner. I'm just surprised with the new 3052 setup with it's superior wastegate location on the turbine housing that I am now having problems. Maybe because I'm driving the car just a tad harder :rocks:

Went home at lunch today and unpacked the 2.4 and put it on the engine stand. Give you 20 guesses what I'm doing tonight :D
 
Evan K. said:
Oh I'm only complaining a little. I just wanted to do one more run session and get under 2:10:cool: I drove home on it floppy belt and all.

FWIW I do have the Carbontrix hood vent. I've run at least 12 days with my previous setup which was a HK$ 3037S on a Turbonetics manifold with a Tial 38 on the number 1 runner. I'm just surprised with the new 3052 setup with it's superior wastegate location on the turbine housing that I am now having problems. Maybe because I'm driving the car just a tad harder :rocks:

Went home at lunch today and unpacked the 2.4 and put it on the engine stand. Give you 20 guesses what I'm doing tonight :D
Click to expand...

Hey, we are all entitled to a little complaining now and again. Its if anyone will listen to us is the problem. 20 guesses eh? I think we only need 1 on this one. Like to see some pics when it is in. :thumb:

~Eddie
:talon:
 
Safety wire for the win. If you don't want to drill the grade 11 bolts (I had a machine shop try and fail) they make safety wire tab washers that look like they should work pretty well. I'm going to invest in a set when I start in on HPDE stuff. Still a year or two of auto-x to do before I go that far, though.
 
Finally got the engine pulled yesterday. I found the culprit and here's a pic of the damage.

You can see the turbo to manifold gasket blew out and it was all downhill from there.
 

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This could be a good reason to upgrade to the new TiAL v-band turbine housing for those of you with GT turbos :sneaky: .

GreenGSX said:
I know I've posted this before but all of you roadrace guys need to loose your turbo/wastgate gaskets and make sure the downpipe is bolted to the block.
Click to expand...

Do you use copper spray to help seal any small imperfections in the flange surfaces?
 
Caithness said:
This could be a good reason to upgrade to the new TiAL v-band turbine housing for those of you with GT turbos :sneaky: .



Do you use copper spray to help seal any small imperfections in the flange surfaces?
Click to expand...


No copper spray. If the mating surfaces are not flat get out a file and clean them up. If that doesn't work have them milled flat. That is what I did with my O2 housing which also runs without a gasket. Last year I tried out the high temp RTV just to see what it would do. It turned to dust like its supposed to and I had no leaks. Not exactly science because there were no leaks to begin with.

Also, this isn't my idea. I called up RRE after melting my cover and complained about burnt gaskets and basically they said roadracing is just to hard on gaskets. Any little leak and they burn up. Just run without them. I was a skeptic too until I tried it.
 
GreenGSX said:
No copper spray. If the mating surfaces are not flat get out a file and clean them up. If that doesn't work have them milled flat. That is what I did with my O2 housing which also runs without a gasket. Last year I tried out the high temp RTV just to see what it would do. It turned to dust like its supposed to and I had no leaks. Not exactly science because there were no leaks to begin with.

Also, this isn't my idea. I called up RRE after melting my cover and complained about burnt gaskets and basically they said roadracing is just to hard on gaskets. Any little leak and they burn up. Just run without them. I was a skeptic too until I tried it.
Click to expand...


Yeah I heard about that years ago. I put the gasket in because FP sent it to me. A new one will not be taking it's place. I've heard that the Mitsu 7cm gaskets are especially known for giving out. I figure it's because they have no fire ring to protect them.
 
Evan K. said:
Do you have a line on such a product or just spit balling?
Click to expand...
??? What does this mean?

Well with a little fabrication anything is possible!

I thought I seen a carbon fiber one for an eclipse forsale some where can't find it right now but I did find one for the evo (not sure if it could be modified to work for us). I don't know all the specifics of exactly what is different. If there was some $$$ in it I could probably make a run of them specifically for the DSM. I have extensive experience while I was in school with composites. I actually was going to form a composites company upon graduation but my wife wasn't fully behind me and is to conservative etc... Can't own and operate a buisness with out full support of the family.

http://www.varisusa.com/products/evo8/evo8.shtml


and as far as the aluminum one I think i saw a picture on here one time where someone fabricated one. Anyone else remember a picture with an Al timing cover?
 
RusherRacing said:
and as far as the aluminum one I think i saw a picture on here one time where someone fabricated one. Anyone else remember a picture with an Al timing cover?
Click to expand...

Didn't Collier have one made up for his Laser? I could have sworn he had one on his car made of aluminium.

~Eddie
:talon:
 
Mike the Mechanic (StealthTT) made up a special, custom, state-of-the art aluminum timing belt shield to go with the rest of the protection. My car has:

o Titanium gasket made by Underadar
o New drilled and safety wired studs and bolts from AMS ($40) holding the turbo to the manifold
o And, of course, the state-of-the-art aluminum shield that Mike made at the track out of a Diet Coke can. He cut it with a pair of shears, flattened it out, and stuffed it down in there so it deflected heat away from the timing belt cover.

Wish I had a photo of it.

Rich
 
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