It's a Christmas miracle!!!

 

I was right! You blew the engine!!! Errr...sorry to be excited about it....

So, you threw a rod? What buckled under the pressure? What are you gonna do now?

And if that's you, Morgi, in your new avatar....

 

 

It's some douche who likes get blown

 

Fixed.

 

in for Part 4 of a 2 part story !!!

 

Since that was only a quick snippet, Im going to consider that Part 2.5 - aka, Tyler at full throb.

I was planning on addressing the comments posted during work today, but I got to work an hour late and have been in meetings most of the day.

I will post the remainder of the story at some point, along with some more pics, but I will say that I have changed my mind (SHOCKING!) and decided to keep the car. It's just too damn fun to drive.

 

Damn, Morgan. Sorry to see that.

On the plus side, if you're keeping the car I'm really interested to see what comes next.


Also, @ the avi. Lose a bet?

 

 

 

Dizzam!!!!

 

WTF? your keeping the car now?

 

Run Morgi RUN!!! That's a creepy-looking, nasty-ass guy behind you!!!

 

 

I'll help you out...that's not Morgan, but it is someone else around here .

Oh, and judging from the looks on the faces, I'd say it's too late

 

John Smith always gets his guy.

 

And then I walked out of the shop and sat on the curb for about 30 minutes. And then I came back into the shop, sat on a stool, and stared at the engine. And then, only after 1.5 hours of silence, did the tuner finally say something to me.

I showed absolutely no emotion the entire time, which I think scared him the most.

How much we bettin'?

Almost...

9psi, fueling was spot on, no knocking or pinging, timing was on point. Verdict is still out on the last part, but I'm thinking early build defects.

All in all, I laughed about it afterwards. Shit happens, it's how you wipe - I mean overcome it that matters.

The oil coating the front of the car was an issue for me honestly.

I ashamed that I get that reference...

He covered it.

I did not throw a rod. I have girly arms. I'd probably toss it underhanded anyway.

I love you.

I'm a glutton for punishment

 

OK. See, what had happened was.......


Let me (re)paint the picture. Sept 4th, I'm at the shop getting the Vortech kit tuned. I'm sitting on a stool on the passenger side of the car, about 3 feet from the front fender. We're on the 9th run, aka the last run before we toss the high boost pulley on - after all, the fueling and timing is looking great, it's not leaning out nor is it knocking.

The tuner gets the car in gear, then slowly the boost builds. Just past 7k rpm, I see smoke or steam from the engine bay. I quickly point to the engine bay and the shop owner, who's standing on the other side of the car, makes a face. Then I see him mouth the word "blown". I'm in shock. I don't even know if the tuner turned the engine off or it died on it's own, but the shop is silent. I sit there on the stool staring at the engine bay. I was hoping that the oil from the supercharger spit out, and that's the "steam" that I saw.

Hoping couldn't change a thing.

Less than a minute later, I can see the pool of oil at my feet. It was like watching a person bleed out. I had to get out of the shop, so I walked outside and sat on the curb with my chin on my knees for about 20-30 minutes. I didn't hear anyone talking in the shop. Maybe I was just blocking everything out - this was the last thing I wanted when I'm 130 miles from home with a car that can no longer move under it's own power. I work up the energy to stand up and walk into the shop. As I walk in one bay, the tuner and shop owner walk out of the other. I sit on the stool, once again, in silence. It felt like an hour went by. In reality, it was probably 20 minutes. But after the start of the day went by so fast, this last hour felt like an eternity. I was stuck in automotive hell - a blown motor, at the hands of a tuner, far from home, with aftermarket parts on the car. That was a $5k bill that I did not want to pick up.

Finally, the shop owner came in to talk. He told me point blank that he was leaning on the tuner to do the right thing. Then retreated outside to talk to the tuner further. Finally the tuner walked in and said "ok, let me show you something." What the fuck could he show me that I didn't already know? My motor had a hole in it that would make Paris Hilton's vag blush. But I held back from flipping out, and he pulled up the logs from the 9th run. No knocking anywhere. No timing retard (or advance for that matter). The engine just.....let go. Not only did the ecu not pick up anything out of the ordinary prior to it blowing, the engine didn't even make a weird noise when it ate itself. Not a snap, crackle, or pop was to be heard. It was all very....calm.

We ended up pushing the car outside and washing off the oil from the body panels and exhaust manifold (we didn't want to chance it igniting from the heat). We looked up engines right then and there and found one from a wrecked FR-S in Florida with 8k miles on it. Then the tuner drove me home, at 7pm. Not only did this guy upgrade my kit due to the delays and pay for the install, he gave me free dyno tuning, then bought me a new motor and paid to have it installed, but he also drove me 130 miles back home, then turned around and drove right back up to Connecticut. I felt bad for the guy, I really did. The plan at that point was to toss the new-used motor into the car along with the Vortech kit and tune it again; but this time with some other goodies. After sleeping on that idea, I decided against it as I, at the time, decided to sell the car. About 1.5 weeks after this incident, I got my car back. But the story isn't over.

When I got the car back, the shifter has about 2" of side to side play, and come to find out, none of the clips were reinstalled that attached the front bumper to the under tray - leading to my passenger side fender liner being shredded while going down the highway. Oh, on top of that, they tweaked the exhaust and now it hits the back bumper, causing a horrendous rattle when I'm idling. I questioned the shop owner and his only response was "sorry". Nice.

As for what happened to the motor? When I returned to get the car, the intake manifold was off of the old motor so we could get a better look at it. Apparently the #3 rod stretched. It had finally stretched enough that it snapped, sending the piston into the cylinder head, spinning the big end of the rod around, and punching the hole through the block. I should mention that a handful of other FA20s have suffered the same fate, on the same cylinder.

Remember how I had brought the car back to Toyota due to a coolant issue?And they later accused me of over revving it? Well, I'm not an engineer, far from it actually. But if you look at the pictures below, you can see how the rod stretched at the wrist pin, and the area where it snapped is relatively clean. That leads me to believe that the rod had been stretching for quite some time, coming in contact with the cylinder head more and more. That could cause the head to lift slightly, resulting in the coolant loss. If this were the case, this could very well be the reason that the valves were bent in this cylinder, as this is an interference motor.

So, I don't think forced induction is the cause of the motor blowing, I think it simply accelerated it. Pics below, take a look at the outward cracks in the piston top, the lack of a skirt, and most importantly, the oval bearing on the rod.





























So that's where I am. I have decided to keep the car. Quite frankly, I love driving it, and anything else I would like to drive would be impossible to find, more expensive, or less useful - and in some cases, all three (I'm looking at you, Atom). So, the FR-S is currently my daily. The car that at this time last year was sleeping in a constant 56* garage, hidden from the elements, is now seeing ice, road work, bird shit, and road salt. It hasn't even been washed since September. But I still enjoy driving it. As I said, I'm a glutton for punishment.

 

Wow.

So, glad to hear they did the right thing on the engine, but what happened with the bumper and exhaust?

 

There have been horror stories like crazy on the Scion frs websites about engines just letting go, at this point, I would swap a 1uz-fe into it since you can get one for about 500 ish bucks, then you would have a 4.0 v8 still from toyota, that is damn near indestructible and if I am not mistaken it should bolt up to your trans.

 

LS2 IT and DASSS IT

 

Who DOESN'T like to get blown?



Morgan, I'm glad you finally finished the story. Your living up to your female name by taking this long

Once again I'm sorry that you've had to deal with all of this shit but at the end of the day. I look forward to what other endeavors you decide to pursue





For anyone who is wondering, that is me in Morgan's avatar. That expression on my face is from when I received a Xbox One from Morgan, Austin (Undying Dreams), Tyler (CLassy02), and another friend, for a college graduation/engagement present. Morgan said it was a large black dildo, which is why I had my mouth open, but the Xbox was nice

And FUCK YOU John Smith! You told me you were going to keep those pictures to yourself

 

I would have just removed the kit and delivered it to the closest dealer

 

Thats quite a freaking story.

So, I might have missed...with the "new" engine did you leave it stock or still boost it?

 

Damn. Sorry to hear man

 

Sounds like he decided against boosting it again. Sorry to hear about this ordeal. At least the tuner went way out of his way to help you.

What ended up happening with the shop owner? Did you have to fix the issues yourself?

 

:gheyhug: :gheylaugh:

 

That's something I have to fix (future tense, I haven't bothered with it yet). The shop owner had no intentions of fixing the issues that he caused.

Oh, on top of that, there is a ding in each door from him opening them into the two post lift uprights. I didn't want him touching my car after that, even if he were willing to fix the issues that I left with.

I have tons of options at this point, really. I'm still mulling all of my options. I don't think the stock tranny can stand up to the torque of the 1UZ-FE though. If I were to do that, I'd

The thought honestly crossed my mind. It would have been better going through Toyota, because I would have raised holy hell since the engine had issues in the past. But there was one major component that threw a wrench into that plan, and that was the ECU. The tune was on it, and if we flashed the stock tune back on, then any data in the ecu would have been deleleted. I could've pled ignorance and told Toyota that I disconnected the battery since it was "running rough" ( ), but I'm sure that would raise a red flag.

Bone stock. Not touching the motor in the stock configuration. If I do anything with the FA platform, the very first thing Im doing is building the motor and reinforcing the block. But I really don't have much faith in the motor tbh.

As I mentioned above, I don't trust the shop owner to touch my car again.

 

Fkn A, did not expect that story so quickly. I feel like your frustration and pain were tangible. I'm sure this will lead to awesome new things for you and the car. I'm sure you haven't seen, but I ended up getting an S2000 as a weekend car. Watched some comparison vids on youtube between it and the FRS and thought of you.

Talk soon,
J.

 

Wow man what a story and outcome. I'm impressed by the way you handled it. I'd be furious, but I guess if it's the engine casting/design and not the tuner/builders fault how could you be mad at them. But with that said, if I were in your shoes, I would've been so frustrated with the car I probably would've dumped it, just like I did with my EP3 after my Jackson Racing supercharger was installed by a hack shop and never ran right. All the best with the car the way it is. Hopefully down the road you can try something difference, like a motor swap.

 

Yeah, I'd stay clear from that shop.

 

I would have been SO defeated. I would have probably dumped it.

And I've been close to being defeated by my car when it was having issues that couldn't be figured out, thankfully they were...just waiting on one last piece of the puzzle.

 

ohhh there is something I didnt know....you keeping the car....

from talking to you, I know you LOVE driving the car...and from know you, I know you wont be able to keep your mitts off the car....

so when do we expect a rebuilt and boost?

 

Is this a known problem for this engine?

 

^^^That's what I gathered. I wonder if there's any difference to the BRZ motor? More robust?

 

Apparently the new Forester XT comes with a 2.0T, a turbocharged version of the FA20 in the GT86 twins. But if there are any differences between the N/A variant.

Sucks to hear the motor popped though. That's a huge chunk! I spent a lot of time on /r/justrolledintotheshop and that still looks crazy.

 

Same motor.

 

That's hilarious!....but only in words....not in an engine!!!


I find that VERY interesting that it seems to be the same cylinder.... Hmmm...

So, #3 stretched like Paris Hilton's vag?!!

The whole ordeal had to be traumatic, Morgi! I think I would've thrown up, passed out and/or had a massive cardiovascular event right there!

Although they're graphic and disturbing, thank you for posting those pictures! They're evidence! The cracks on the piston do say something wasn't right.... Has anyone else with the failing No. 3 cylinder posted pictures of the remains? That would be super interesting to delve into! I think you're on to something Toyota has kept under wraps. But why No. 3?! I'm curious to see if any of the other rods show signs of stretching.


And, Tyler....you are a little cutie!

I CANNOT believe that owner dinged not only one but BOTH of your doors, AND did a shitty job on the exhaust It kinda shows that he doesn't give much of a fuck about your pride-n-joy...I'd be hesitant to go back there!

After all that, I would not have much faith in that motor too. I'd have to go with a motor with a record of successfully handling such power...but then, that wouldn't be fun...would it, Morgi?

If you did take it back to Toyota, you'd have to have the whole thing secretly videotaped, 'cause that shit would be BEYOND hilarious!!!

 

Those connecting rods buckled under compression, not tension. The amount of tension on a connecting rod is nothing compared to the compression it sees. The elongation of the wrist pin hole is not a clear indicator of tension, because the same thing could happen under too much compression. There is also no "necking" on the rod, meaning the rod would have gotten thinner at the break point. It looks like it just sheared/buckled under compression.

My theory is that after the connecting rod buckled. The piston was free to shoot back out and hit the valves (you can see the imprints on the piston head). The piston was then was blasted back in towards the broken rod and crankshaft, shattering the connecting point for the rod on the bottom of the piston, and finally cracking the piston head outwards.

Simply put, you put too much boost through an engine that was clearly not designed for it. There's a reason people swap in forged internals before going forced induction.

Now this doesn't change what happened, but I wanted to bring this to your attention so you don't go around telling everyone you "stretched" a connecting rod. Good luck with the car. Hope everything works out in the end

Source: myself and two colleagues, 4+ years each in Mechanical Engineering field

 

We're good for something

Sorry to hear that. Blows....

At least you didn't have to pay for all that mess.