Hey guys. I'm a long time lurker of the forum because of your vastly greater knowledge as opposed to over here in the US. I posted this on Zilvia and wanted to post it up here to see what you guys think. I figure since this is my first post, I'll introduce myself and my car first.
My names Joey. I've been building this s13 for the last 2.5 years. It's been a long couple years but well worth it. The build is documented on both my Instagram @thatrhd240 and also on a build thread on Zilvia.net if you want to check it out.
Specs with the RB:
Holset HY35
Tial 38mm wastegate
Tial 50mm BOV
JECS 740cc injectors
Apexi PowerFC
Z32 MAF
Put down 448rwhp at 21psi. Currently running 17psi for my ringland's safety sake until I do forged bottom end over this winter.
Feel free to ask any questions!
"Hey dudes. I just wanted to send some things all your way to get some more heads in on this. After talking with my machinist and quite a few hours with Ricky at Raw Brokerage, we still can't really come up with a logical answer.
A few weeks back, I was turning onto a street. I had just started moving and I heard this weird tapping noise and the motor shut off immediately. After pushing it to my buddies shop down the street, I pulled off the timing cover because it sounded like my timing belt had snapped. After pulling off the upper cover, I noticed the timing belt was still in place.
After I saw that, I decided to rotate the motor by hand. I noticed the intake cam gear wobbling a little bit and noticed it was a little cockeyed. I took the oil cap off and looked down while rotating by hand and noticed the cam itself wasn't rotating.
I grabbed the cam gear and moved it around and it fell right off. It snapped right in the middle of the first cam journal. Split the VCT oil galley right in the middle. The first thing I thought of was maybe an oil feed issue being that RB's do have oiling issues.
Fast forward to the next day...I took the valve cover off and the pulled the cam caps off to take the cam off. First thing I looked for was any sort of noticeable signs of oil starvation or anything else that would have caused it...nothing. There was so blueing or yellowing of the cam journal, the cam, nothing. The cam cap had a little bit of scoring, I'm assuming from when it actually snapped and rotated all f**ky.
Prior to this happening, another random thing happened. While driving down the street, cruising, not doing anything stupid (although I wish I was so I had a cooler story to tell), and I hear this loud ass rapping noise. I pulled over and heard the noise under the exhaust side valve cover. I pulled the cover off on the side of the road and saw the rear most exhaust cam cap sitting in the middle of the 6th and 7th cam journals on top of the cam. The cam cap bolts had snapped clean off in the head, out of completely nowhere. So, instead of sourcing another cap, getting everything line honed, and all that jazz, I just got a loaded head from a buddy and got machined, cleaned up, etc.
People have told me install error, oil issues, etc. This isn't my first rodeo, especially with the RB. I know all the torque specs and sequences by heart but I still have the FSM right next to me and follow it for assurance. The ONLY thing that I knew needed addressing was the timing belt tension itself. When it warmed up, it would whir a little bit, but, it wasn't crazy loud or excessive. And a timing belt that's just a little too tight isn't going to snap a cast iron camshaft out of nowhere.
This head has about 500 miles on it. It wasn't something that happened right off start up. It actually made it 2.5 hours each way down to Staggered the day before this happening, without any issues. I have the head off at the machine shop getting the 2 bent valves replaced so I can put it back together. I just wanted to post this up to see if there was anything that maybe Ricky and I missed, and address whatever said issue could be before throwing it back together. Here's a couple photos. What do you guys think?
