strange major problem with c20let?

[ste porter]

ok my c20let has just been rebuilt using all new vaves steel rods arp bolts new pistons and rings ect and has been running well for about a week

until earlier i pulled out to overtake a car pulled up to about 4.5-5k in 3rd then all of a suden the engine management light came on so i dipped the clutch and it died

when i rolled to a stop i tryed restarting it and it was asif it was locked up or batt flat
it would turn about half a rev then stop so we towed it back to the work shop removed the plugs to inspect them and they all looked good so we tryed turning it over with the plugs out turned over realy easy as any engine with plugs removed should

then ran a compresion test and all cylinders are showing a perfectly identical 8 bar

so put plugs back in and low and behold wont turn over again?

anybody got any ideas as im all out

as said the only thing we have looked at so far is plugs out and compression
i will start poking around properly tomorow any ideas where to start?

ever came across this before?

any help is great help and apreciated thanks in advance steve

[ste porter]

just one other thing the compresion test was only real quick as i had to be somewhere and it was done with throttle shut and 1 full revolution on each bore i will do a propper test on it tomorrow but that seems a good indication for now that there all about even still

[craig green]

Closed throttle will bump up your readings, but ideally perform it on a warm engine.

Possible knackered starter or poor earth? It isnt bolted through a freshly painted block is it?

Will it bump start from a tow? Hope you fix it.

[John]

Eml on? what fault codes?

[ste porter]

havent run the codes yet mate but the problem is it was only on for a few seconds so it may not have even logged a fault will know more 2morrow im just loosing faith in it the amount of money i have poured into the car in the last 6 months i could have brought a half tidy evo
im so mad with it and yet i feel like curling up and crying!

[nova_saloon]

should have logged the fault but if u have hqad it unplugged or the battery disconnected for a minute or so it will loose the code. properblty a sensor try to see if the fuel pump is going and things

[ste porter]

fuel pumps no longer wired in via the let loom as im running 2 pumps and one of which has a huge current draw that melts standard relays so there all on there own circuits now so will make no difference

[Paul]

Melting relays? It shouldnt be melting relays. The standard Fuel Pump Relay should turn on and off another relay which should power the fuel pump. If you are using a high powered pump.

EDIT, thats not a dig, just re-read it and sounded a bit off.

[jimbob-mcgrew]

deffo something electrical by the sounds of it, like its got a problem drawing sufficient current, possibly the reason it konked out first time round.
mechanically its sounds like youve done a pukka job with the valves and that lot :thumb: which is a good thing.

have a good check round all the wiring in the bay, especially the gearbox, battery and inlet earth straps, and the wires to and from the starter/alternator, might find something suspect.

[ste porter]

my main pump is has the capability of pushing 380 lph at 5 bar! and is originaly ment for something agricultural cant remember what though and is 12 gauge cable from the battery into a heavy duty relay and 12 gauge to the pump. The relay is then operated via a switch on an ignition live on cranking

the second pump fills the swirl pot which is a standard gsi pump which is abit over kill but the top of the pot returns to the alloy fuel tank anyway

in regards to the relay it only melted it once and then i decided to wire it in like this to suit the rest of the car as its a road legal track toy after all


Any way i digress the problem has been found !

went back to the car today and just thought on the of chance i would try it before i started pulling it to bits and to my amazement it fired up spot on first turn of the key
BUT to my horror with no oil pressure

so checked pressure relif valve ect and the hole it goes in was near dry ect cranked it with oil feed pipe to turbo disconected and not a drop
oil pump has packed in and has started to pick up on all 4 big ends and has also filled the sump with alloy shrapnal from its guts!

so my theory is that the pump packed in nock sensor sensed the knock from the bottom end and flashed the light and when i saw this and dipped the clutch straight away as i did the bottom end nipped up

so my lovely freshly built let is now in need of another bottom end rebuild after less than 150 miles!


jimbob its had

valves
valve guides
spring seats
springs
buckets
head reworked and matched to manifolds
reworked combustion chambers
pistons
rings
steel rods
arp 2000 rod bolts
arp mains
z20let steel head gasket
casting lines smoothed out in block
new oil pump
water pump
cambelt kit
flowed body
flowed top hat
flowed turbo inlet
rebuilt k16
new turbo oil feed pipe
saab reds
adjustable fpr
standard dump valve welded up
bv baffle plate
resistors removed from rotor arm

the list goes on and thats without going into the the £500 worth of turbosmart boost management phase software and tarty bits like hoses ect

so thats why im so pissed all that money for 150 miles

[jimbob-mcgrew]

damn thats annoying, soz to hear, yeh i can understand why your fcuked off.
hopefully next time round the probs will be eliminated and youll get atleast 30,000 miles of hassle free motoring with everything being fresh as it is.