Alex hasn't been running his cooler for couple months though,after he split a pipe at oulton park .

I see...

Just to bring this thread back from the dead...

 

Joe came to see me today for me to fit a new head gasket, due to him having head lift. All was well, until the head came off...

 

Piston no. 2 - cracked! The crack is in its early(ish) stages, but still noticeable and can't be left like that. If I'd have put the car back together, then Joe would've no doubt been left with a knackered block like the others and I. For comparison, Joe was running a Darkside GTB1756 at about 230-240bhp. Standard nozzles, but the output is obviously a fair bit lower than our 2260's were putting out.

 

I've already removed the pistons, ready for re-honing and new rings & piston. Sort of lucky that we caught it now, even if it still is a lot of work.

 

Hopefully Joe will be over with some pictures soon. Once he has gotten over the shock of seeing his entire engine torn apart in a day!

 

So, more GTB engine failures...  :peek: 

Edited 1 June, 201610 yr by alex_e3

Just to bring this thread back from the dead...

Joe came to see me today for me to fit a new head gasket, due to him having head lift. All was well, until the head came off...

Piston no. 2 - cracked! The crack is in its early(ish) stages, but still noticeable and can't be left like that. If I'd have put the car back together, then Joe would've no doubt been left with a knackered block like the others and I. For comparison, Joe was running a Darkside GTB1756 at about 230-240bhp. Standard nozzles, but the output is obviously a fair bit lower than our 2260's were putting out.

I've already removed the pistons, ready for re-honing and new rings & piston. Sort of lucky that we caught it now, even if it still is a lot of work.

Hopefully Joe will be over with some pictures soon. Once he has gotten over the shock of seeing his entire engine torn apart in a day!

So, more GTB engine failures... :peek:

Sorry to hear that for joe :( who mapped it and was it running really long durations? Must have been at about 2.2 bar to get those numbers, and stock nozzles again..... ...

John mapped it. I think he runs less advance than most mappers as it happens!

 

Stock nozzles again yeah. But far less power than the 2260's that we blew up. It seems this 'safe' limit is going down by the day!

 

I'll be rebuilding it as soon as I get the parts. I've also managed to persuade Joe to get the pistons ceramic coated. So hopefully, there'll be no more issues!

Edited 3 June, 201610 yr by alex_e3

It's my car that was the latest to go....

BLT engined Fabia with GTB1756vk turbo running 2.3 bar of boost for the last 40k miles. Milage is 121'000.

I'm not changing the Pistons, the cracked one (number 2) is just being replaced with one of Alex's spare ones.

That saves a bit of money which is going towards the ceramic coating (£200)

The car hasn't been running quite right for some time. It was intermittently producing lots of white/grey smoke under boost. It will be interesting to see if that persists after the re-build.

Thankfully Alex caught this one before it damaged the block...

Edited 3 June, 201610 yr by vRS Joe

Has anyone looked into the possibility of using ARL pistons? There are quite a few big power Mk4 Golf ARL's out there including Bobby Singh's old 2260 that didn't suffer cracked pistons. Just a thought, they may be completely incompatible...

Edited 3 June, 201610 yr by Matt.

Has anyone looked into the possibility of using ARL pistons? There are quite a few big power Mk4 Golf ARL's out there including Bobby Singh's old 2260 that didn't suffer cracked pistons. Just a thought, they may be completely incompatible...

 

...or they may be exactly the same pistons but with big injectors and suitable mapping.

Fitting my 1756 today ...

Wish me luck. And luck for the turbo's future too!

JRJG

I thought I read somewhere that the ARL had a slightly lower compression ratio so the bowl may be bigger in the piston maybe?

Just searched ARL piston on google and found this link, might be handy for some of the people on here with the 2.0 builds etc...

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=393314

 

some great pictures showing the pistons side by side, you can clearly see the deisgn is different over the models.

Edited 4 June, 201610 yr by hutchysrs50

Just searched ARL piston on google and found this link, might be handy for some of the people on here with the 2.0 builds etc...

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=393314

 

some great pictures showing the pistons side by side, you can clearly see the deisgn is different over the models.

 

That's because BHW pistons are from the 2.0 16 valve engine, they have a completely different crown shape and are for a larger bore.

 

ARL, ASZ and BLT pistons are all the same part.

Are the all cylinder 2?

For those who haven't seen my project thread, I stripped my engine fully yesterday. This is the damage to the piston...

The brass insert has been rotated round. The bore is also scored. Underside of the piston has since cracked through as well.

Rest of the engine is in fantastic condition I might add! You really wouldn't think it had covered 135k miles.

That piston has overheated

Are you all still running standard "Skoda recommended" oil?

My 2p worth I think damage is probably back pressure and oil overheating causing the Pistons to run hot and the back pressure cracking the Pistons.

Edited 4 June, 201610 yr by Mikek3111

Was down at unit 18 today and mentioned this to Ali. He said any fabia running over 220bhp or 1.9 bar of pressure will at some point crack a piston unless you up rate them. He said he mentioned it years ago on here when he was tuning and mapping lots of fabias.

He properly knows more than most when it comes to these engines too.

crack a piston unless you up rate them.

Where from and what brand are these uprated pistons did he say?

Was down at unit 18 today and mentioned this to Ali. He said any fabia running over 220bhp or 1.9 bar of pressure will at some point crack a piston unless you up rate them.

Let's hope my 220 target isn't quite reached and the pistons have a lot of life in them then ... !

JRJG

Taken a while to get them back, but received Joe's ceramic coated pistons through the post today...

 

 

 

 

 

Fingers crossed there should be no problems now

 

Now... to start piecing it back together      

Very good.

So... Are you also altering the remap once it's built back up also or building it back up with the new pistons and hoping that cures the issues?

I'll be getting a low-boost map from John to put on it for now. Then I imagine Joe will go back up to boost once it's run in properly.

Have all the cars that have failed with this been egr deleted?.  Maybe that is causing the extra heat?.

Have all the cars that have failed with this been egr deleted?.  Maybe that is causing the extra heat?.

 

It won't help, that's for sure.

Egr wouldn't be happening on high throttle loads anyway and I don't think light throttle is going to be causing these problems so I doubt it really.

Egr wouldn't be happening on high throttle loads anyway and I don't think light throttle is going to be causing these problems so I doubt it really.

Exactly that