I still stop for traffic lights, and get stuck in motorway parking lots…
Any news on your car Mike. Long time no hear…
Russ raced it a Donnington and we had overheating problems leading to loss of two pistons and three valves…
Engine is being rebuilt at Jabba.
Will go back to Emerald for a remap and hopefully stop any recurrence !!
Hmmm, and I thought it was only K’s that broke down…
Hmmmm, wondered when somebody would latch onto that 
Matts car has been racing all season without any problems at all. It has finished 4 x 1 hour endurance races which are a pretty good test of reliability. Plus its done no end of testing and track days.
Mike’s car had spark plugs fitted that were too soft for racing, it was OK in proctice but only lasted a few laps in the race due to pre-ignition. Maybe running it richer would have helped but we are not sure.
It’ll be going again soon.
Bernard
And I wondered when somebody would answer my post
Of course there are failures every once in a while!
Now I’m covered in case anything goes wrong with mine
I can’t see how slightly wrong spark plugs can melt pistons. Was the detonation that bad? If it was that bad then the other pistons must be in bad shape too?
With a turbo engine its not that hard to melt pistons if the map is wrong or if the exhaust gas temp is getting silly. In my experience its essential to have stable temps when mapping turbo cars otherwise you are chasing your tail and sh*t like melting pistons happens. I can’t see thats its possible to do this on a rolling road, at least not effectively. Why don’t you make up a proper dyno instalation with a water/air intercooler?
Do Mike’s and Matt’s cars have the same turbos?
Incandescent spark plug electrodes can cause pre-ignition which can melt valves. Two of the pistons are lightly marked, the other two are perfect which was a bit odd. We are going to check injector flows.
Fully agree with your point about RR’s and mapping turbo’s. They take a lot of cooling. The first engine on Emeralds new dyno is going to be a 1.8T
Mikes and Matts have the same turbo’s.
Bernard
Seems strange if they have the same turbos as I assume this means they have the same maps?
It could be a wastgate issue where its no wasting enough air an exhaust temp are rising too high.
They were both mapped at Emerald. Similar maps but not the same.
The wastgate is internal so they are the same.
Bernard
Wastegates can jam though, especially if things are getting hot. Ive seen it a few times on cheapish wastegates.
Nice results
To just clear up a couple of questions.
AFR’s - 14:1 is what you need a idle and in closed loop (low speed cruise) mode. This is all controlled by the O2 sensor. But under WOT (Wide Open Throttle) you need to run nearer to 11:1 to richen up the fuel mixture and prevent Knock and Det occuring due to fuel starvation. 12:1 gives most power usually but it’s urring on the side of danger…best to lose a few hp and have a working engine imo!
So it looks to be mapped spot on! nice work
Secondly, the spark plugs thing
Heat ratings are reversed. 1 is Hot and 10 is cold.
The higher you push the envelope boost wise the colder the plug wants to be. So putting in a 7 grade plugs was better than a 5 or 6. However if it’s not gapped right then it can still go wrong.
As for �600 plugs from Nissan…hmmm…well the Denso who make spark plugs for most of the Jap tuning houses (HKS, Trust/GReddy etc). They have a series of Iridium tipped plugs which are the dogs danglies in the Jap engine tuning world. They are �7.54 (ex.vat) each for IK24’s and they last 20,000km’s. Now whilst that’s an expensive set of plugs esp for my 6-cylinder car. They are not �600! lol IK24’s are the equivalent of a grade 7 plug and are good for upto 1.8bar of boost usually. IK22’s the grade 6 plugs are only good for upto 1.2bar really…(1bar = 14.7psi I think)
Using colder plugs can mess with the idle a bit but when you’ve got a highly tuned engine it comes with the turf!
I have no idea what Denso’s could fit a VAG engine, but I could find out if you supply me with the NGK product code. Denso’s also come pregapped for the application, so no worries on that score.
Hope that helps
As for �600 plugs from Nissan…hmmm…
Axle, I can’t comment on who’s right, but not sure if you knew that Randy’s Nissan is actually a prototype LeMans car, not something merely ‘tuned’.
Ian
but not sure if you knew that Randy’s Nissan is actually a prototype LeMans car, not something merely ‘tuned’.
And is a V24
Secondly, the spark plugs thing
Heat ratings are reversed. 1 is Hot and 10 is cold.
axle (and everyone else)
be careful here this isn’t true for all makes… like everything else in the world, they never reach a common standard…
Champion plugs smaller numbers are colder plugs - and our cars are Champion as standard .
As for �600 plugs from Nissan…hmmm…
Do you want me to send you a copy of the bill?
I’d love a copy - I could look at it every time I feel my cars too much to run and feel reasured.
Maybe I should post up the quote I just had for two car sets of valves, incanel (spelling??) exhaust and Ti inlet, its enough to send a shudder down the spine of even the wealthiest Sultan.
Well Ok then your application is fairly specialised so if they are �600 then that’s fine but it won’t have any real use in an engine like the VAG one we are discussing.
As for Champion not following the NGK coldness grades, how useful…you’d think there would be a universal standard :shrug: :rolleyes: Oh well.
Still the Denso Iridiums are worth looking at
Not sure about “Champion not following NGK” Who made spark plugs first? It certainly wasn’t the Japanese, therefore NGK were not following Champion