vRSy's Mk2 Fabia vRS project and build

[Jabozuma]

It was me just making a "light" comment - I have no clue what happened :( but I am as curious as anything!

[vRSy]

So ring land cracked rather than ring broke?

Here you go

We got the pistons today and the engine is being built as we speak.

Basically the hypothesis of the low compression and misfire for which it was taken to the dealer back in July when the dealer blamed on wrong oil—was wrong.

As we suspected the OEM issues with 1.4TSI ring failures was the case but the dealership brushed it aside as if it didn’t exist, which only compounded after we continued our progress resulting in a damaged ring and ring landing on the cylinder 1 piston. The new pistons should eliminate all possibility of this in the future.

[Jabozuma]

So we have both, piston ring landing damage and ring damage. One would assume damaged bits didn't simply evaporate. Did APR comment on/answer such question?

I am not surprised dealership brushed it away ...

[vRSy]

no damage to anything else

[Jabozuma]

no damage to anything else

Brilliant, good news all around then!

Yu are not tempted to change con rods by any chance while you at it?

[vRSy]

No mate. Not bothered about upping the power any more. It wasnt lacking straightline performance when i last had it at silverstone so don need rods. The pistons were a necessity and will guarantee no more oil or low compression issues so thats piece of mind. Now i will just enjoy it a for a few months before selling it.

[Richf]

Mmmmm ring land damage? Had to suspect that whenever an engine lets go during mapping

Think APR should be offering support rather than the manufacturer

[vRSy]

I'm more than happy with the support ive had so far. Judging by your post you suspect APR damaged the car during mapping? When an engine lets go during mapping its normally bent rods or melted pistons. MIne has suffered neither, instead its rings and ring landing thats gone. Ive not heard of these going during mapping (except in REVOs demo development Ibiza cupra) It would be a very tough one to portion all the blame on APR here. Its not as if the engine is without well documented evidence of failings on the older engines with respect to the pistons, and in particular the piston rings and its not as if this is the first map i've had on the car, its the third. Shark, jabbasport and APR developed on my engine.

Also my car isn't running high boost either, its only 1.48Bar peak (With the shark Performance map however it was running 1.6 bar although it was requesting alot more than that). 1.48 bar is only stage 2 levels of boost, but with the extra flow capability of the LOBA it equates to more power so i can make more power with less stress to the engine/turbo.

What i think has happened, is that a combination of poorly designed/spec pistons, the shark map running mega boost and then further APR stage 3 map development,have all compounded and left me in this position.

If you read back on my build thread and other posts in the Fabia II section about the reasons i swapped to a jabbasport map. One reason was to get rid of the heatsoak/high boost but the other was that the car had been frequently putting out BIG plumes of white/grey smoke( These never returned with either the Jabba or APR maps) One of the things I had checked when trying to diagnose the smoke was a leak test and compression was within limits, but i think the piston rings could well have been on their way out. If i had of been stock this might have taken another 20k+ to surface. But since my car has been a development mule, i guess its had a harder life than most and the mapping has forced the issue. But ultimately I dont think APR would have been 100% at fault. They offered to supply all the labour FOC which is a HUGE relief. Its a known issue on stock engines, the cars been a development mule for three companies. Personally, i think im lucky. If this had happened outside of any development i would have not only been supplying the pistons but also the labour and that would have been a couple grand easily.

[BossFox]

In your situation and having read the history of the car, I'd have been happy with APR's offer on the labour too.

Waiting to see how it goes next year...

[vRSy]

In your situation and having read the history of the car, I'd have been happy with APR's offer on the labour too.

Waiting to see how it goes next year...

My thoughts exactly.

Looking forward to getting it back. Knowing my luck with this car, something else will develop an issue to stop me collecting it on friday. im just starting to come around to the thought of keeping the car for a bit longer, but thats based on everything being hunky dorey

[Jabozuma]

Could you please link to the pistons you bought. I'd be interested to see the crown design

[vRSy]

Could you please link to the pistons you bought. I'd be interested to see the crown design

Cant find any pics. Even the websites dont show these as available to buy, which isnt exactly the best marketing ploy. The only reason i know of these is a guy of seatcupra net had his engine do the same as mine, so he had these developed for his car. His was the same issue. Piston rings failed, no damage to the bore, hence no overbore required so stock size pistons, but hi lso had an issue with the cran as well, so he fitted an uprated crank, rods and pistons!!

TSR performance, who i bought these from might have some pictures. Send them an email.

[VRS-Powered]

Shame you are going to sell up mate

[vRSy]

Shame you are going to sell up mate

Im going to be out the country a fair amount next year leading up to summer from what i gather after this week in work, so i might keep it as a cheap runner until im then. Being away was the main reason i bought it Plus from february i will be commuting long distances on the motorway so this is pretty handy for some good eco runs with this car. Didnt make sense to waste money on a car that requires £400 a year to tax with horrendous insurance to boot until im a bit more settled with my job and travelling. To be fair this has been modified way beyond what i originally planned to do, but thats always the case

[Richf]

I'm more than happy with the support ive had so far. Judging by your post you suspect APR damaged the car during mapping? When an engine lets go during mapping its normally bent rods or melted pistons. MIne has suffered neither, instead its rings and ring landing thats gone. Ive not heard of these going during mapping (except in REVOs demo development Ibiza cupra) It would be a very tough one to portion all the blame on APR here. Its not as if the engine is without well documented evidence of failings on the older engines with respect to the pistons, and in particular the piston rings and its not as if this is the first map i've had on the car, its the third. Shark, jabbasport and APR developed on my engine.

Also my car isn't running high boost either, its only 1.48Bar peak (With the shark Performance map however it was running 1.6 bar although it was requesting alot more than that). 1.48 bar is only stage 2 levels of boost, but with the extra flow capability of the LOBA it equates to more power so i can make more power with less stress to the engine/turbo.

What i think has happened, is that a combination of poorly designed/spec pistons, the shark map running mega boost and then further APR stage 3 map development,have all compounded and left me in this position.

If you read back on my build thread and other posts in the Fabia II section about the reasons i swapped to a jabbasport map. One reason was to get rid of the heatsoak/high boost but the other was that the car had been frequently putting out BIG plumes of white/grey smoke( These never returned with either the Jabba or APR maps) One of the things I had checked when trying to diagnose the smoke was a leak test and compression was within limits, but i think the piston rings could well have been on their way out. If i had of been stock this might have taken another 20k+ to surface. But since my car has been a development mule, i guess its had a harder life than most and the mapping has forced the issue. But ultimately I dont think APR would have been 100% at fault. They offered to supply all the labour FOC which is a HUGE relief. Its a known issue on stock engines, the cars been a development mule for three companies. Personally, i think im lucky. If this had happened outside of any development i would have not only been supplying the pistons but also the labour and that would have been a couple grand easily.

You'll be unlucky to bend or break a rod on a dyno the load is lower than on the road , high boost kills rods and you aren't running high boost.

broken ring lands are commonly caused by det that's just a fact not always and perhaps not in this case but has to be the likely cause, any mapper would suspect it

Of course the risk of failure increases the more you push but you can't blame the manufacturer and aftermarket pistons come with their own issues

Not a lot inherently wrong with Skoda pistons the land speed record Octavia has stock ones.

[vRSy]

Of course the risk of failure increases the more you push but you can't blame the manufacturer and aftermarket pistons come with their own issues

Not a lot inherently wrong with Skoda pistons the land speed record Octavia has stock ones.

You seem to have neglected to accept the fact that skoda had to produce revised pistons/rings for this engine due to problems with the older ones. They have even gone as far as to change that much on this engine that it now has a completely new engine code.

Im not blaming the manufacturer, its a combination of many things, as i have mentioned many times, but the root of the problem starts is IMO poor pistons from the factory. The question is would this have happened on the CTHE engine?

[Jabozuma]

We shall see after mine is done

[vRSy]

Well im moving house upto the north coast of Scotland next month, so i thought id best get a set of winters for the car, so todays newest purchase:

4x 205/45R17 Nankang Snow SV-2

Had them on my last car after using vredestein wintracs for many years, and i was pretty impressed. Never got stuck once.....

Bloody expensive month this is turning out to be

[Jabozuma]

Do you know any good surce of cheapo rims for those tyres? I am not very keen to keep paying £40 twice a year for swapping tyres...

EDIT: I am about to change my beemer's tyres for a set of Vredestein

Edited 10 December, 2012 by Jabozuma

[Ad Lav]

Jabo - vrsrs had a set of 16's you could buy

[vRSy]

Do you know any good surce of cheapo rims for those tyres? I am not very keen to keep paying £40 twice a year for swapping tyres...

EDIT: I am about to change my beemer's tyres for a set of Vredestein

Ebay. I reckon there will be loads of VAG oem 16&17" rims for pennies. These winters will be going on the stock rims, and the semi slicks will staay put on the TD1.2s. The vredestein wintracs are awesome, but bloody expensive.

[sharkrider]

Well im moving house upto the north coast of Scotland next month, so i thought id best get a set of winters for the car, so todays newest purchase:

4x 205/45R17 Nankang Snow SV-2

Had them on my last car after using vredestein wintracs for many years, and i was pretty impressed. Never got stuck once.....

Bloody expensive month this is turning out to be

I've got them , in that size on my OE alloys, second winter on them, they work a treat

[Jabozuma]

Does the "45" measurement change the circumference? I suppose it does. MAXIDOT has a setting for winter tyres, +5% and -5%, which I think is cool. I suppose that Nankang tyre would be +5%?

[H17YD_L]

I've got these too! But in 15" on steelies. I find them terrible in wet conditions! Twice the back end has come out on wet roundabouts and I mean at 10-15 mph, one good thing is the TCS does a good job at straightening it back up, but I suppose if I was doing 30mph it would be a different story lol

[H17YD_L]

It's not to adjust the speedo/ tyre size difference, it's a speed limiter incase you winter tyres are a different speed rating it's +5mph / -5mph