EQ Tuning built 2007 STI
06-04-2012, 11:44 AM
#16
The engine was broken down, inspected, and re-assembled within 2 weeks of the car arriving here. Unfortunately when it was fired up again, it was still having random inconsistent miss-fire issues localized to one cylinder. After some diagnostics, we tracked the issue down to the injector on that cylinder. At this point everything started making much more sense as the head gasket failure was also on that specific cylinder. Like I said previously, we have never before had a single head gasket failure on any engine we've built so we were all stumped as to the cause of this failure until we discovered the failing injector.
Basically this injector was getting progressively worse and flowing progressively less fuel. This caused extremely high combustion and exhaust temperatures in this cylinder which took out the head gasket and significantly warped the head and the block. If the car was running on 91 octane, I would imagine the issue would have been caught sooner as 91 is much more sensitive to a/f swings. E85 can mask issues like this because it can run extremely lean without causing knock and pulling timing. The car will appear to run fine until the excessive heat starts causing damage like this. The progressive nature of the failure also made it difficult for the customer to identify in time.
FYI, these were one of the early sets of Deatschwerks 1300's that have sadly proven to be very unreliable over the past few years. The injectors are now at Deatschwerks getting inspected. We are waiting on word from them to see what they will do in terms of replacing the injectors as well as helping cover the costs of this work. I'm very curious to see what their position is on this situation since it was their part that was directly responsible for the damage. That being said, I honestly don't expect them to take any real monetary responsibility outside of warrantying their own part. Sadly that's how the aftermarket world tends to work and in the end the individual is always taking some responsibility and risk for using aftermarket parts.
I'll keep this updated as we get more info back from Deatschwerks.
Thanks
-- Ed
06-04-2012, 11:51 AM
#17
4+ weeks is a very fast build, from experience. I've had 2 engines take 6 or 7 weeks, one 8 months, one 4 weeks, and the most recent one a few days over 1 year.
I'm assuming this tune was done on meth as well?
I'm assuming this tune was done on meth as well?
There was no meth on this car... just E85.
Thanks
-- Ed
06-04-2012, 12:03 PM
#18
Technical Know-It-All
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Sterling, VA
Posts: 2,123
Car Info: '02 WRX + '15 WRX
Whenever our customers have any issues, we always first assume that we may have done something wrong. We then go through our own work, try to identify any possible issues, and rule out anything we may have done wrong. Only then will we go looking for other possible issues that did not have to do with what we did directly. This is sometimes a painful process but this has always been my approach at engineering. You always have to check your work and prove to yourself that you did not do anything wrong before pointing fingers at other possible issues.
My meth comment was because the numbers on this car are very high for what's on it.
Last edited by Brfatal; 06-04-2012 at 12:06 PM.
08-01-2012, 02:24 PM
#22
Thanks
-- Ed
Last edited by EQ Tuning; 08-01-2012 at 02:29 PM.
08-01-2012, 03:46 PM
#23
Registered User
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Sactown
Posts: 7
Car Info: 2005 Subaru Wrx Sti
The customer did not pay a cent for the rebuild. Deatschwerks gave him a refund for his injectors and a new set of injectors and gave us a credit for some of the expenses we incurred. We ended up eating the rest even though it was not our work or product that directly caused the failure.
Thanks
-- Ed
Thanks
-- Ed
08-01-2012, 04:23 PM
#24
The customer did not pay a cent for the rebuild. Deatschwerks gave him a refund for his injectors and a new set of injectors and gave us a credit for some of the expenses we incurred. We ended up eating the rest even though it was not our work or product that directly caused the failure.
Thanks
-- Ed
Thanks
-- Ed
08-01-2012, 04:53 PM
#25
For the record, the OP was not happy about the situation and still placed blame on us even after Deatschwerks admitted to a possible issue with their injector, agreed with our testing procedure and results, and provided the refund for him. Considering the situation, the OP was asked to cover the machine shop labor and parts at our cost, but refused to do so. The car was released to him and we ate the losses.
Sadly there is only so much we can do to make some people happy and some people will never take responsibility for their own actions and/or mistakes. Like I have said previously, we stand behind our work and products 100%, but cannot be responsible for damage caused by 3rd party products and/or negligence on the part of the customer.
Did you also hear that the OP reported intermittent cold start and idle miss-fires approximately 6 months before the failure and was told that it was likely an injector issue and to either bring the car in immediately or send the injectors in for inspection? He decided to ignore this warning and eventually the injector got worse and caused the failure. If he had followed my recommendation, the issue would have been exposed much sooner and the engine could have been saved. Instead he continued to drive and track the car until it really let go.
Thanks
-- Ed
Last edited by EQ Tuning; 08-01-2012 at 04:56 PM.
08-01-2012, 05:37 PM
#26
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Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Bay Area
Posts: 172
Car Info: 2005 STI
I'm not sure if/why he showed up with the police as I wasn't personally here when he picked it up.
For the record, the OP was not happy about the situation and still placed blame on us even after Deatschwerks admitted to a possible issue with their injector, agreed with our testing procedure and results, and provided the refund for him. Considering the situation, the OP was asked to cover the machine shop labor and parts at our cost, but refused to do so. The car was released to him and we ate the losses.
Sadly there is only so much we can do to make some people happy and some people will never take responsibility for their own actions and/or mistakes. Like I have said previously, we stand behind our work and products 100%, but cannot be responsible for damage caused by 3rd party products and/or negligence on the part of the customer.
Did you also hear that the OP reported intermittent cold start and idle miss-fires approximately 6 months before the failure and was told that it was likely an injector issue and to either bring the car in immediately or send the injectors in for inspection? He decided to ignore this warning and eventually the injector got worse and caused the failure. If he had followed my recommendation, the issue would have been exposed much sooner and the engine could have been saved. Instead he continued to drive and track the car until it really let go.
Thanks
-- Ed
For the record, the OP was not happy about the situation and still placed blame on us even after Deatschwerks admitted to a possible issue with their injector, agreed with our testing procedure and results, and provided the refund for him. Considering the situation, the OP was asked to cover the machine shop labor and parts at our cost, but refused to do so. The car was released to him and we ate the losses.
Sadly there is only so much we can do to make some people happy and some people will never take responsibility for their own actions and/or mistakes. Like I have said previously, we stand behind our work and products 100%, but cannot be responsible for damage caused by 3rd party products and/or negligence on the part of the customer.
Did you also hear that the OP reported intermittent cold start and idle miss-fires approximately 6 months before the failure and was told that it was likely an injector issue and to either bring the car in immediately or send the injectors in for inspection? He decided to ignore this warning and eventually the injector got worse and caused the failure. If he had followed my recommendation, the issue would have been exposed much sooner and the engine could have been saved. Instead he continued to drive and track the car until it really let go.
Thanks
-- Ed
I had idle issues since the first tune and had a total of three different tunes since the motor was built.
My car first started over heating due to the head gasket on 1/12/12..the last time ed had it on his dyno tuning it was 12/28/11. correct me if im wrong but thats about two weeks..
Its also kinda funny that my really good friend came with me and had his 05 sti tuned on the same day juat a bit before mine. He also suffered a blown head gasket not to much long after me.
I can go into a lot greater detail of all the issues ive had with this car. ask anyone that comes to the sac i-club meets about my sti. Its kind of a joke that i had one of the fastest cars that came to the meets and yet it never ran 100%
08-01-2012, 05:41 PM
#27
I was really trying not to bring anything up over i-club..
I had idle issues since the first tune and had a total of three different tunes since the motor was built.
My car first started over heating due to the head gasket on 1/12/12..the last time ed had it on his dyno tuning it was 12/28/11. correct me if im wrong but thats about two weeks..
Its also kinda funny that my really good friend came with me and had his 05 sti tuned on the same day juat a bit before mine. He also suffered a blown head gasket not to much long after me.
I can go into a lot greater detail of all the issues ive had with this car. ask anyone that comes to the sac i-club meets about my sti. Its kind of a joke that i had one of the fastest cars that came to the meets and yet it never ran 100%
I had idle issues since the first tune and had a total of three different tunes since the motor was built.
My car first started over heating due to the head gasket on 1/12/12..the last time ed had it on his dyno tuning it was 12/28/11. correct me if im wrong but thats about two weeks..
Its also kinda funny that my really good friend came with me and had his 05 sti tuned on the same day juat a bit before mine. He also suffered a blown head gasket not to much long after me.
I can go into a lot greater detail of all the issues ive had with this car. ask anyone that comes to the sac i-club meets about my sti. Its kind of a joke that i had one of the fastest cars that came to the meets and yet it never ran 100%
but why not bring it up? Thats the point of the community and the boards, share information with personal experiences from shops. Some have seen what Ed has said in this thread and are "sold" on his services.. but when the car(s) is/are having problems, well shouldnt they know that too?
08-01-2012, 05:52 PM
#28
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Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Bay Area
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Car Info: 2005 STI
One of my favorite parts is that i was given the car back the last time with a badly warped cylinder #3 yet on the 4k invoice i received it showed that I was charged for blueprinting of the motor. Last time i checked that should have meant that every part of that motor should have been gone through and checked to make sure everything was perfect.
08-01-2012, 06:05 PM
#29
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Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Bay Area
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Car Info: 2005 STI
Another head gasket failure out of EQ when Ed was claiming they have never had one? haha wow
but why not bring it up? Thats the point of the community and the boards, share information with personal experiences from shops. Some have seen what Ed has said in this thread and are "sold" on his services.. but when the car(s) is/are having problems, well shouldnt they know that too?
but why not bring it up? Thats the point of the community and the boards, share information with personal experiences from shops. Some have seen what Ed has said in this thread and are "sold" on his services.. but when the car(s) is/are having problems, well shouldnt they know that too?
He says he never had a head gasket blow on motors hes built. Joe's car had a sotck block with just over 40k miles on it.
08-01-2012, 06:59 PM
#30
Its not like it was a fresh build.. the motor had issues and it was brought back. Should be checked out disassembled/reassembled as needed. Why would that take over a month? And im going off a month from when i heard about it.. i dont know how long the car was down before then too 