Well-well, time for story-telling! As I said before, I was just about done testing with the GT2854R, which proved an excellent choice for a street/trackday modified 1.8T, with max 1.3bar (19psi) giving ~235hp at
under 5000rpm and ~350Nm (253ftlbs) under 4500rpm. Next test was the same engine with the more potent GT2871R, which can supposedly take 1.8bar (26.5psi). It was bolted on allright and the engine started in the garage. Fan cycled on/off, everything checked and a friend who had left his car for a clutch job, drove the 1.8T home... he never got there, as he called me and said coolant temp was ~100*C... He stopped and found no coolant in the engine so he poured in ~4liters! His house was ~2km away and when he got there, he checked the oil and sure enough there was ~12liters of milkshake in the sump... He never even got a chance to use the new turbo! I went to his place with my garage buddy, drained all the crap out and pulled the head off. I noticed the head nuts were
very easily removed, hmmm! The head gasket was a Nava O-ring type, the kind we always use in these engines. Since no catastrophic failure was immediately evident, we concluded its one of two things: lack of gasket retorquing (they thought
I had done it at home and I thought
they had done it in the garage...
) or failure of one of the lower liner rubber o-rings -for lack of another explanation until the engine is completely taken apart. Anyway, the engine is still in the car as we left it. I am currently finishing another good 1.8T for someone in the US. I built it from scratch, everything new, proper clearances, 8:1, different cams, porting, balancing, ceramic coating...the works. The 2871 will go on it and it will replace the headless engine possibly this week. I will initially run the std management with max ~0.8bar (12psi) for the break-in period, as I intend to take this car on my vacation. When I return, it will have ~1500km and will be ready for a proper map for higher boost and dyno.
Some pics:
1.3-1.4bar (~20psi) is about the max, giving 220-225hp over a reasonable rpm range. I managed to have a lot of blowby after all this engine-beating, so I'm accelerating the plan. The GT2871R will go on this week and I'll see how it does. The map says its good for ~1.7bar (25psi) at 6krpm so I should see some decent numbers. I hope to be able to do the first runs end of week. Will get back with results.
