Trackday failure video/word of warning

[Moopig]

Hi there
I recently built myself a little track car after deciding my standard Saxo VTS just wasn't quite quick enough.
So I got myself a little 106 Rallye (almost the same car again I know but I've always loved Rallye's)
Then I sourced myself a Longman tuned, 'fully forged' 1.6 16v lump along with a close ratio, quaife ATB diff'd gearbox.
Spent the next couple of weeks fitting and wiring it in myself, then got it mapped, coming back at 173hp at the flywheel (144hp atw) which I was pretty happy with.



Then, with some amazing timing, got it on the road the Thursday before a Donnington trackday I had booked up, back when I had my Saxo.









Thoroughly enjoying myself, though finding the brakes rather lacking, so they would need looking at, decided to video some laps.
First of all with my brother following me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIBknma34OA

Then on the only onboard video that I managed to record correcly this happened

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLcaVojSlHo&fea...

My initial diagnosis of just a 'popped rad' was technically correct, but its what popped it was the problem.
Got the car recovered home, engine out and apart and discovered this:





My engine had thrown a rod, which seemed very odd.
Then pulling the engine apart discovered this:



The top end of the engine is of high quality, but the bottom end is entirely standard!?
Luckily I'm in the position where I can rebuild the engine myself, but I am still out of pocket for nearly £1000 for some forged internals.
Just a word of warning when buying ready built engines, as it's very difficult to see exactly what has been done to the engine, and the only time you'll find out if something isn't upto spec is when its too late.

[iguana]

Opps.

I was there that day, you were offloaded from the recovery truck just in front of were we were parked.

[Adam205]

You didn't ask for receipts or evidence of the work being done?

[jmb88]

sounded pretty rough even when you were backing it out from behind that TVR... Impressed with how well it goes/went though, surprise many people? be a good bit of kit when it's all back together, and actually with forged internals... what's the car weigh?

and as Adam's said above, surprised the seller didn't have receipts, I'd have wanted to see some.

[mybrainhurts]

[Moopig]

Unfortunately hind sight is a great thing.
The bloke I bought it off was (apparently) himself ripped off by the people who built the engine, as they charged him for forged rods (apparently) and never fitted them.
I have expensive recipts from the builders but reading them now nothing specifically mentioning the internals.
Unfortunately I got carried away by seeing a Throttle boddied, ported engine with a 4-1 manifold on it and and just presumed all was as described.
Luckily I've learnt my lesson, and I still have a good Longman cylinder head, Jenvey throttle bodies, cams etc along with a good story and video, so its not all bad. Lol
Drove amazingly but was struggling with brakes really badly and there is only so much grip you can get out of 'Marshall' 175 tyres lol
Can't wait to get it going again

[Moopig]

As for the noise when I left the pits, all my videos from my old VTS sounded just as bad when it was mounted in a similar position so I think it's just the mic picking up on the noise.
It certainly didn't sound bad from outside.
Also if where was any play or if it sounded that bad surely that would have not lasted the 3-4 laps it had, it would have failed instantly or got noisier as I went.
I'm 99% sure this was an instant crank nut failure

[andrewturner]

Bad luck there. I was at donington too, you pulled away from me up to coppice and I was a little shocked about the rate of knots you were going. I was in the blue supercharged mx5.

Quality day at donington though!

[wackojacko]

Ouch !

[y2blade]

Moopig said:

Just a word of warning when buying ready built engines, as it's very difficult to see exactly what has been done to the engine, and the only time you'll find out if something isn't upto spec is when its too late.

very true

it happens to the best of them


all the best with the rebuild

[Rollcage]

If you listen to the onboard and separate out the induction noise under throttle, you can hear that it sounds very noisy under load - sounds like tappets or bottom end.

Nice looking car though.

[Herman Toothrot]

Standard cars also go pop mind

My mk3 MR2 with a totally standard engine and oil level checked that morning; out on track at Abingdon on Friday with MSE and 20mins later big end bearing gone.

Worth researching how strong engines and other things are before any tracking if you are going to push hard. Its only now mine has failed I'd started to read up on just how weak they are and common it is for failure. It was supposed to only be a stop gap road car, that would do a few track days before my other one was complete.

[_Leg_]

I empathise, I bought a 10 plate Indy R with an R1 engine. It was lauded as a quality build in Complete Kit car in a specific article and monthly build diaries, looks awesome and had a Yorkshire Engines R1 engine in it.

Suffice to say it now has a new engine in it that isnt damaged and does have a baffle and other decent internals. Not to mention the suspension has been stripped, sorted and greased (it wasnt budging before) as well as a myriad of other issues that we found when stripping the car down.

£1800 on parts alone later and it's now absolutely cock on (and more importantly much more robust with various new features) and as Fenton Motorsport (based in Church Fenton) let me go down and help where I could I have learned loads!

Hopefullyfrom a negativbe experience you will see similar positives mate.