Where do I start? Me and the hoe have had a rough year. I've personally seen to it that every aspect of the hoe has been done with the utmost precision, but this car has fought back since day one. Here we go (long read).
★ Dyno Session 1, 8/2009:
Tuner: K-Falls
Setup: J36/5AT/Turbo/AT ECU/E-manage Blue
Gremlin: Third pull roasted the trans.
Failure: Slushbox 5AT
Numbers: 368whp/380wtq @ 8psi, never completed the tune
★ Dyno Session 2, 6/2010:
Tuner: Shawn Church
Setup: J35/6MT/Turbo/ AT ECU/E-manage Blue
Gremlin: MAP voltage drop causing lean conditions over 4900 RPM's
Failure: Greddy E-manage Blue
Numbers: 320whp/320wtq @ 4psi only revving to 4800 RPM due to lean conditions
★ Dyno Session 3, 9/2010:
Tuner: Shawn Church
Setup: Same as session 2, except E-manage jumper setting altered (original cause for MAP voltage drop seen previously)
Gremlin: Same as session 2, less severe. Unable to maintain any AFR's as stock ECU was overriding all E-manage changes
Failure: Greddy E-manage Blue
Numbers: 356 whp/320wtq @ 4psi only revving to 5100 RPM's
★ Dyno Session 4, 4/2011 (today):
Tuner: Shawn Church
Setup: J35/6MT/Turbo/AEM Series 2 Standalone
Gremlin: Lost a cylinder on our first 8psi run.
Failure: Not sure until I break the motor down, complete loss of compression in cylinder 1.
Numbers: The last successful run I saw was at 7.5psi and it yielded something like 388whp/412wtq only revving to 6000 RPM's. Still had another 1000 RPM's to rev and was planning to boost 9-10 PSI. Was shooting for ~420whp/450wtq at 9 psi, which seemed to be well within reach.
Today was a tough day for me. I had prepped/double-checked/re-checked every aspect of my car prior to taking it to see Shawn at Church Automotive. The first 8-10 runs were going amazing - the car was making great power, there was ZERO knock, the AFR's were super consistent, we were pulling a minimal amount of timing. Each bump up on the boost controller yeilded great gains, and at 7 psi, we were onlly at 70% duty cycle on the injectors, so there was definitely a little room for more boost.
The first 8psi run, I was sitting in front of the car, and I noticed some exhaust from the bay. Shawn saw it as well, and he asked me if I saw where it was coming from. Initially, I thought it was wastegate dump as it happened later in the RPM range, but it wasn't. He ran it again, I peeked in the bay and saw the exhaust coming from the PCV. Bad sign.
At this point, the exact cause of the failure is unknown, whether it be a ring/piston/cylinder, or all of the above. Based on the fact that there were ZERO symptoms of the impending damage, we are hypothesizing that ONE cylinder was running lean due to a faulty injector, the other five were running great so the target AFR was met despite the lean cylinder. What's crazy is that the car did not appear to be losing power on the dyno, there were no misfires, there was ZERO knock, and the car never burned a lick of oil, all of which should be present if one cylinder is fuel starved and hurting the cylinder.
Shawn was a stand-up guy today, he basically charged me nothing for 3+hours of his personal tune/dyno time due to the cato. He was completely above reproach in this incident, he did every single thing in his power to monitor/prevent an issue like this, but unfortunately at this point, it was just bad luck for me.
I'm not sure what the future is for the MoneyPit. I'll be the first to say that you gotta pay to play, but I definitely don't have time/money to continue swapping motors and going for tunes.
Only time will tell, I suppose.
★ Dyno Session 1, 8/2009:
Tuner: K-Falls
Setup: J36/5AT/Turbo/AT ECU/E-manage Blue
Gremlin: Third pull roasted the trans.
Failure: Slushbox 5AT
Numbers: 368whp/380wtq @ 8psi, never completed the tune
★ Dyno Session 2, 6/2010:
Tuner: Shawn Church
Setup: J35/6MT/Turbo/ AT ECU/E-manage Blue
Gremlin: MAP voltage drop causing lean conditions over 4900 RPM's
Failure: Greddy E-manage Blue
Numbers: 320whp/320wtq @ 4psi only revving to 4800 RPM due to lean conditions
★ Dyno Session 3, 9/2010:
Tuner: Shawn Church
Setup: Same as session 2, except E-manage jumper setting altered (original cause for MAP voltage drop seen previously)
Gremlin: Same as session 2, less severe. Unable to maintain any AFR's as stock ECU was overriding all E-manage changes
Failure: Greddy E-manage Blue
Numbers: 356 whp/320wtq @ 4psi only revving to 5100 RPM's
★ Dyno Session 4, 4/2011 (today):
Tuner: Shawn Church
Setup: J35/6MT/Turbo/AEM Series 2 Standalone
Gremlin: Lost a cylinder on our first 8psi run.
Failure: Not sure until I break the motor down, complete loss of compression in cylinder 1.
Numbers: The last successful run I saw was at 7.5psi and it yielded something like 388whp/412wtq only revving to 6000 RPM's. Still had another 1000 RPM's to rev and was planning to boost 9-10 PSI. Was shooting for ~420whp/450wtq at 9 psi, which seemed to be well within reach.
Today was a tough day for me. I had prepped/double-checked/re-checked every aspect of my car prior to taking it to see Shawn at Church Automotive. The first 8-10 runs were going amazing - the car was making great power, there was ZERO knock, the AFR's were super consistent, we were pulling a minimal amount of timing. Each bump up on the boost controller yeilded great gains, and at 7 psi, we were onlly at 70% duty cycle on the injectors, so there was definitely a little room for more boost.
The first 8psi run, I was sitting in front of the car, and I noticed some exhaust from the bay. Shawn saw it as well, and he asked me if I saw where it was coming from. Initially, I thought it was wastegate dump as it happened later in the RPM range, but it wasn't. He ran it again, I peeked in the bay and saw the exhaust coming from the PCV. Bad sign.
At this point, the exact cause of the failure is unknown, whether it be a ring/piston/cylinder, or all of the above. Based on the fact that there were ZERO symptoms of the impending damage, we are hypothesizing that ONE cylinder was running lean due to a faulty injector, the other five were running great so the target AFR was met despite the lean cylinder. What's crazy is that the car did not appear to be losing power on the dyno, there were no misfires, there was ZERO knock, and the car never burned a lick of oil, all of which should be present if one cylinder is fuel starved and hurting the cylinder.
Shawn was a stand-up guy today, he basically charged me nothing for 3+hours of his personal tune/dyno time due to the cato. He was completely above reproach in this incident, he did every single thing in his power to monitor/prevent an issue like this, but unfortunately at this point, it was just bad luck for me.
I'm not sure what the future is for the MoneyPit. I'll be the first to say that you gotta pay to play, but I definitely don't have time/money to continue swapping motors and going for tunes.
Only time will tell, I suppose.
hope it all works out for you man, I'm a HUGE fan of your car and all your random fab work. If you decide to move on from the accord I know what ever you build next will be just as good if not better. Keep your chin up man, all the great builds never go smoothly.
