951_RS

So I blew the head gasket on my car last week.

Unfortunately when taking apart the head #4 cylinder has been pretty ravaged.

Looks like it had air in the coolant passage by #4 (a rare occurrence, I know)

I believe it caused some slight detonation which the cylinder did not agree with.

This was not helped by the fact the car crept up to 21psi in fourth gear before I could get off the gas fast enough.

So at this point, I'm not sure what I should do. I originally intended to sell the car soon, but clearly that is not going to happen now.

From doing research it appears I have a few options:
1. Rehone the cylinder walls and recoat
2. Rehone and sleeve
3. Used short block (probably more work and hassle than its worth)

Any advice?

I'd like to avoid buying new pistons as I'm not trying to invest more money in the car than is necessary to get it running reliably for someone else.

I will be installing the Lindsey Racing Steam vent kit though to alleviate the #4 cylinder coolant problem at least.

Here are a couple shots of the #4 Cylinder. The remaining cylinders actually all look really good for 98k on the odometer. I would have them refinished since the head is off, but that is about it most likely.





And here's the headgasket:


Some info on the car (small list of power related items that lead to the demise of my cylinder wall I'm sure):
Speed Force Racing Stage 1 turbo - T04E 0.50 trim
LR 3" turbo back catless exhaust
LR adj FPR set to 3 bar
MBC set @ 18 psi (supposed to be anyways!)
LR 72# injectors
LR chipset

Fara

Personally, I'd get that block off to 928 motorsports for nickasil re-coating or wet sleeving.

Nickasil coating comes at around $1k + new pistons and rings.
Wet Sleeving is around $2.2k + cheaper forged pistons using a standard size

Or, if you're looking for the less expensive solution, a new block will end up being cheaper than the above.

951_RS

Hmm thank you for the response I'm going to look into those three options.

Carl Fausett

Thanks, Fara.

Drew: we can Nikasil it back to OEM bore, or install dry liners to OEM or slightly larger, or wet liners to even larger.

The differences are explained here:
http://www.928motorsports.com/services.php

Please call if you have any questions. 920-485-0928

Carl

Mueller944s2

It's probably cheaper to buy a running take-out, then maybe rebuild this one in your spare time. That's kinda the track I'm on. I pulled one from a wrecked S2 and dropped it in mine and I'm gonna rebuild my other one so I have a spare engine....since I'm on #3 in 4 years...

Carl, do you have a rough estimate on finishing all 4 cylinders back to OEM? My crankshaft snapped in half and scored the block pretty good. Also ground the #3 bearing to dust so the journals need some intense flushing.

951_RS

I will call you Carl on Tuesday.

At this point however I may be selling the car as is. My original intentions were to sell this car and my elise get a cayman s and turbocharge it so I have a good mix of both worlds.

It appears fixing it and then selling it will just put me further in the hole as opposed to selling as is.