The Turboturtle: GTX3576r // Varis // Racecomp // Volk //

Damn that's odd. I wonder why AEM just stopped development at the GD STi.

 

MoTeC M800 PnP ECU

http://johnreedracing.com/subaru-ecu-kits/11-13-subaru-sti-motec-m800-pnp-kit/

 

The MoTec is considerably out the question right now; too expensive. I may not even be able to go with the full Element long block now. Some unforseen circumstances have come into play and I may be royally -fucked- as far as the car is concerned. I honestly don't see it getting finished by may and I may not even be able to finish it this year unless I can do some creative financing OR I'm only looking at a head gasket failure. if the block is cracked (I'm pretty sure it is, it's a 704, 26psi, over 400whp) then I don't know that i'll be able to, responsibly, replace the engine.

 

What head studs?

Any reason for the element block? I am selling my block and considered his because its easy peasy, just write him a check and install it.

After looking at it, its just not what I want. I'm still fixated on this long rod stuff. My block is the 2.3, but the +2mm 2.5L is awesome too. Less of a crank angle and lighter reciprocating mass is AWWWW sum!

Head games did my heads and they won't do larger valves like the element block has. He said there is less seat to valve contact which does two things. Smaller area to disperse that 70psi spring pressure across and less area means less heat transfer.

Point is the element long block looks cool, and I'm sure it is a badass OE configuration, but some of the other setups are pretty wicked.

Micah 3MI is trying to sell me on the turn in concepts honey badger kit. Thats the 2.5 long rod I believe with 300m lightweight super strong rods and some higher compression pistons that speed up the burn across the bore ( a problem with the 2.5)

 

arp

 

Stay positive man. Whether the car gets finished in may or not. Sometimes life deals you shitty lemons. Still have to make lemonade with them.

 

maybe you should be more concerned about a proper oiling system than the +2mm rod builds

 

I've never met a Hydra owner that was happy with the ecu. Call any tuner that isn't Phil and ask them about it.

I would a stock ECU with a Cobb AP. Frankly there are other people I would have tune it besides Phil as well. There are better options out there. For instance Doug at Topspeed and Scott Siegel is still doing a limited number of cars at Forged.

 

I'm not concerned about +2mm rod builds.


Right now I'm hoping to just have the car running by summer time. TopSpeed is on my radar but the only reason to have Phil help with the tune is because my tuner only knows Cobb and AEM. I'm already on Cobb SD, I just don't like a few features on it.

At any rate, a stand alone ECU is out of the question for now.

 

Big power Subaru.... Doug at TopSpeed should probably be one of the very few on your radar.

High Horsepower Subarus are hard to tune and Doug has a very good track record with them.

 

I'm aware of this. As I said, TSM is on my radar and I'm weighing options right now.

 

:| last activity don't mean crap, still love you though

 

Bottom end is cooked, unfortunately. Time for engine #3. Going with new case halves this time and I'm going to have the deck pinned and o-ringed. I'm tossing around the idea of some billet case halves as well.

 

how many track miles / total miles did you get out of each motor?
was engine #1 the "stock" one?
if so, you are ahead of me by one lol

 

nmind yes #1 was your stocker, and #2 was your first build.
how many miles did you get out of this one? Clearly not many since you had just put it together earlier in 2013.

Just wondering since i'm in the same boat, how long mine will last whenever it's finally together and working well...

 

It's a race between you, me, justin and Al Friedman in stamford. Summer is coming!

 

Hoping to get my engine sent off this month. I think I had about 6000 miles in it but it failed due to poor cooling.

 

Any updates bro?

 

Engine is on the way back from ERL in Indiana. The shop is up at Summit Motorsports park right now though defending their ESA title at the Buschur Shootout. We're nearing completion though!

 

So we're still waiting on ERL to get the engine back to us. I will, hopefully, know tomorrow on what the hold up is (it's been about a month). Once it's back everything will (again, hopefully) move along quickly and we'll get some E85 running through the car for a drag night and a (...hopefully......) 10 second pass in the quarter and then never to be seen on the strip again.

 

It's been a while. Little update for everyone.

My heads are thrashed, cams were ground down (custom grind, woo woo!) and are completely unusable. The block from ERL never ended up going in the car so the turtle is still gutted and sitting up in North Carolina while I figure out what I'm going to end up doing with it.

I have recently relocated back down to Georgia (LaGrange, specifically) for the time being. Maybe one day I'll have the car back in race trim and see some of you guys at the Atlanta SCCA PDX or AX events.

 

Glad to hear you are back in GA!
Sad about the car.
What happened to the heads! Oil starvation? Bucket problems? You were running GSC cam's right?

 

fairly certain it was headgasket related. cooked the oil in the heads is my best guess. Cam journals are scored pretty bad, cam lobes are...gone. Buckets are a little chewed up.

 

crazy what a gasket can cause.

What usually causes this? Gasket not seating properly?

 

If I were to put money on it then I'd wager that heat caused the initial failure. I had a very slight overheating issue on VIR that I believe put a small hole in the head gasket. It later suffered a catastrophic failure on the interstate which is where the bulk of the damage was done.

 

MLS Gasket I presume?

Were you using ARP head studs? I think you said so in your build details.

edit:

Doesn't look like it. If you were using stock head bolts that would explain a lot unfortunately. They are pretty soft and stretch quite easily at your power level and heat production. Heads would lift and gasket would get scorched and deformed.
If you get the car to georgia there are so many of us that would gladly pitch in and help pick up the pieces. Obviously if you have sponsors involved elsewhere to foot the bill that is an obvious reason not to, but if those deals have dried up and you are on your own let us know as you most decidedly aren't on your own.

I built mine minus the machine shop work, Justin-V built his (and several others) so there are a few of us who have built high hp setups on our own that would love to help.

 

We were using ARP head studs. There were a few things that I mandated any time the engine was taken apart:

1) ARP Head studs (unless the old ones were re-usable)
2) New timing belt/tensioner etc
3) New water/oil pump

All my deals have pretty much dried up as well, unfortunately. Not being in NC anymore means SOM will be unable to help me out like they used to. They're attempting to get the car running again whether it be with a crate engine or finding a suitable set of heads but I'll more than likely end up trailering the car down to Georgia and figuring out a new way forward.

 

Roger that, let me know how I or anyone else in the community can help.
I have an engine hoist, engine stand, jack stands, ramps, air tools, cam tool etc from my builds as well as two partial gasket kits lol.