So somehow I managed to mess up the timing chain in my 06 MCS, and it started a-ticking. I drove carefully home, and to the shop the next morning... but I didn't make it to the shop. With a mile to go, the engine makes a small pop (bang, if you will), and dies. I tried once to restart, with no luck. Called for a tow, got to the shop, "we'll let you know what we find." OK!

Well, what they didn't find was a piston or rod in #1 cylinder. Those were found in pieces in the oil pan (awesome! ). Possibility of needing a new crank and/or block. (More awesome! )

So now my question is this: Should I upgrade to a stronger piston/rod setup since they are going to tear the motor apart anyway? Or just go stock until a later date when I have bigger plans. It's my only car (luckily on a month long work trip starting next week), so I would like to get it done quickly, but forged pistons and rods sound tasty, and I wouldn't have to worry about them later...

Really just looking for some opinions/insight...

 

Does anyone know if the Tritec is an interference engine? I assume it probably is. Make sure your shop checks the head and the valves over to make sure the none of the pistons hit them when the timing chain went. That can be quite damaging to the valves, valve seats, and the piston itself.

 

It just depends on how far you think you might go with your performance mod's, the simple answer is if you have the cash and think you might want to crazy one day, by all means yes.
But that being said if you decide no keep this in mind, basically the weakest part of the internals are:
Rod Bolts
Rod's
Piston's
In that order, at the very least if you're doing a rebuild the ARP rod bolts are a must.

Good Luck.

 

Well, looks like I'm going to need a new motor... I'll have to talk to the guy, but this sets me back to square one with the plan.

 

OOOOOH how awful! Makes me sad to hear that these cute little cars are mishaps waiting to happen! Good luck with getting your mini fixed hope it doesn't set you back too far! YIKES!!

 

Every car is a mishap waiting to happen. Cars are designed and built by people, so therefore they have flaws. It can't be avoided.

 

Hate to be the bearer of bad news here but, when an engine goes out the way you are discribing, the whole thing is pretty much junk.

 

It's possible they might be able to bore the original block, and then I can use bigger pistons!

But if not, I think I can find a block for kinda cheap. They quoted me $8,000 for a new motor installed, but if I'm going to spend that kind of money, might as well bore out an old block and use the original accessories.

Thoughts?

 

Call D/T or WMW they sometimes either have or know of good used engines.

Just remembered seeing this:

http://www.waymotorworks.com/john-co...53-engine.html

 

Thanks, BlwnAway!

Actually just got off the phone with Way, and I think he seduced me into a new JCW motor... I'm getting excited just thinking about it! It's a good investment in the long run, I think, since I had big plans for the car in the near future, just not this soon!!

 

I'm impressed with your optimistic enthusiasm.

Motor on!

 

Considering my latest endeavor that price is a steal!

 

Sorry to hear this. You might want to check out www.car-part.com. They've got some reasonable options for used engines.

 

Just got off the phone with my local shop. They got the JCW motor from WMW this morning! Plus all the extra goodies! Should be ready in the next few days, just in time for me to get home next week!

 

Glad to hear your nightmare is about to have a happy ending. My motor met a similar demise last month after installing an aftermarket supercharger. I was fortunate to have found a low mileage JCW complete motor locally for a too good to pass up price and jumped on it. Still assessing the damage to my original motor and will decide which motor gets the next round of upgrades. I spoke to WMW during this process and they were very helpful and informative. Keep us posted.

 

What aftermarket supercharger did you have?

 

Sprintex - but we have yet to determine what caused 2 pistons to burn. Motor is currently being forensically torn down to determine whether it was hardware/SuperCharger/injectors, software/tune or something else. We have our suspicions, but thats all they are until the facts are in.

Finding this additional JCW motor was the key to being able to take a step back and methodically investigate what exactly went wrong with my first motor. In the mean time, all I can do is accounting. Since I started this S/C project, I've spent approx. $8K and am currently down about 20whp from where I was before I started. Kind of ironic...

 

Sounds like my 401k.
I hope they find the real cause of your failure and give you some compensation (whoever was responsible)

 

I'm just about the opposite! I'll be (hopefully) about 50-70hp up from where I started. Then again, who knows? I'm interested in your findings w/ the sprintex (thinking about getting it).

New JCW motor
15% pulley
aFe CAI
550cc injectors
Schrick cam
MYNES FA53 tunage (eventually running E85)
Alta header with "test" pipe (no cat, loud as hell)
Invidia exhaust
Boost gauge (good for 10hp, right??)

Hoping for 200 whp at 6000ft elev. We shall see...

 

They got her running!!!

But here is my beef... I rushed home from out of town to get to the stop in time to get her for the week, only to find out they had problems with the Craven speed short shifter, even after I told them how to do it! So I'm stuck driving a 10 year old Corolla loaner until Monday. Glad they got her up, too bad it was a a day late and a dollar short. Oh well, c'est la vie...

 

NEVER bank on ANY mechinc's late-Friday work! You're better off with the 'yota. Glad this tale had a happy ending!