SR go Boom

The SR finally died...however in a very pathetic manner. Getting on 22 from the 33 onramp, Dave (Trans Am) gunned it, so I followed suit. Got zipping along pretty good, running the car down, but when I shifted into fourth...I lost all power...it felt like the clutch slipped. Confused, I then looked at the gauges to see that my car had shut off. I immediatly thought 'blown intercooler pipe'. So I pulled over, and the other Dave (Lightning) stopped with me. We immediatly begain looking over everything, but to no avail couldn't find the problem.

I got the car fired up again, and drove it (with a very obvious misfire) to the 191 exit, where I pulled off into the parking lot adjacent the intersection at the end of the offramp. I again looked over all the couplers, but found nthing. Dave T/A purchased some carb cleaner, and we started spraying it everywhere, hoping to find a vacuum leak...none found. I then decided to cehck plugs.

Number 1 was WET...so I began thinking 'ok, fouled plug, no biggy. So I changed plugs (yes I carried a spare) and went to fire it over....no change.

I then decided to give Ray (The Guru) a call, and aske dhim to stop down before he ate Dinner. He came down and immediatly pulled power to number one cylinder...no change in idle. We then thought it would be a dead coilpack...so I changed coilpacks...no change :(

Disgruntled, tired, and upset, I packed up the car and all my tools, went to eat, and then came home to do a compression test.

Hooked everything up...0 psi on cyl one :( Now I knew I had a problem inside. I also did a leakdown to find 100 percent leak in cyl 1...but most importantly, air came rushing out of the timing chain area...now we knew it was piston/ring related, and not valve related. Fearing the worst now, we removed the engine...and well the pictures can speak for themeselves.

The car obviously melted the piston down, which is leading me to believe the #1 injector died, or is malfunctioning. Every other cylinder looks great (both head side and block side), so it's probably 90 percent right. COuld the rings have magically aligned and made a mess...sure...could the connector come 'loose'? Sure...but those are arbitrary results at best.

So I just picked up a new block, and it should be hear next week. CP Forged Pistons, Apexi HG, and it should all be back together again....

Keep tuned!