The results of the white laser investigation

[Raptor]

I finally got around to tearing the motor out of the white laser that was such a big question a month or so ago. The one Charlie (TurboDomestics) bought from John of HORT fame.

The car was in pretty rough shape overall, the condition I am told was not due to HORT and after looking at it, I do believe them. They never had the engine out, but someone did at one point. The shortblock likely was re-ringed in some backyard mech's garage, the cylinders showed definate signs of it and the pistons were stock. The pan was dripping with excess RTV and every fastener holding the engine in place was mismatched SAE and Metric that never came on any DSM. Rusty castle nuts everywhere.

The timing covers came off and as expected, the balace shaft belt was torn up and the timing belt was slipping on the crank. These things were however not the cause of the failure rather they were byproducts of the frozen rear balance shaft (turned out to be bent). A little further into things found the piston remained in the same postion regardless of the crank postition. Broken rod. The valves somehow escaped any serious damage however so now the pan comes off and the destruction is obvious by the piles of scrap that emerge. The number one rod is in worse condition that I would have guessed, I will post pics later today. Impressive damage . The shortblock is definately scrap.

Now the interesting thing is that there was probably less than a quart of oil in the engine but it wasn't leaking anywhere seriously, it wasn't getting past the turbo seals and the engine wasn't burning any from the looks of it. Didn't go out the dipstick tube either. So I don't know where the oil went but it was definately gone, The rod that went was seriously over heated before it died and the rest were okay which makes me believe it probably had spun a bearing and lost it's oil supply. There were a few small oil leaks but nothing that should have dumped 4 quarts in 70 miles. The lack of oil and some above normal RPM driving probably accounts for the spun bearing and resulting rod failure. I can definately say this was not Johns fault, or Ryans fault (the timing belt didn't stand a chance). So that should end the speculation. It would be nice to know where the oil went if it was full when delivered. I will do what I can to post pics later.