Hanaldo

I think I'll start by doing what my tuner suggested, pulling everything off and checking for dirt or metal fragments. It might not be a serious issue yet. Once I've ruled that out then I'll start thinking about other causes/solutions. In any case, the car can now sit in my garage for awhile and think about what it's done until I have the motivation to start stripping it.

Not sure. Sean said it was only happening on one cylinder, but he wasn't sure if it was the same cylinder every time. He also didn't specify which cylinder it was.

Well it loses compression under full load, it doesn't pick back up straight away when it returns to idle or is switched off, which is when my tuner did the comp test. But after being switched off for awhile, it will get full compression back and is good to go again.

That one I would appreciate I think I've got the knife at my own throat lol. No but seriously. I did jump to conclusions. Still not clear what caused the manifold to break though, probably incorrect tightening as you said. I fcked up with that bolt at the front by not drilling the hole out, so that has probably twisted the manifold.

The lower manifold isn't an issue anymore, Allstar supplied a new one and replaced it. It's whatever has got or is getting into the motor jamming my valves open that is the problem.

Alright guys, I just need to make it clear to anyone who has read/is reading this thread that I can't and don't blame the workshop for what has happened. I was upset yesterday about the situation with my car, and I've run my mouth off a bit in regards to it being their fault. That really wasn't the right thing to do, as this could all have quite easily been my fault, and I accept that and will just get on with fixing it. Allstar have been nothing but helpful while I've had my car in there, and in fact continue to be helpful despite my comments on here. I guess a little bit of miscommunication between them and me about what exactly happened with the manifold lead to me jumping to conclusions, and voicing those conclusions on here wasn't the right thing to do. I have since spoken to them and they explained exactly what happened and what they did, and it's quite clear now that I am at fault and I apologize to them for what was said.

Yeh, it could well have been my fault. Kick in the teeth considering how careful I was installing it, I was paranoid about even scratching anything. In any case, I guess it's irrelevant who caused it. It's happened now, better just get on with what I'm gonna do about it. Unfortunately I may be a little bit out of my depth now.

I did them up as you said, starting from the middle and going around. Didn't tighten them up straight away either, I would wind each stud in a few threads, then do the next one and so on until I had them all done up. Took me a good hour to hour and a half to do.

I do hope he has managed to sort it out 6 months down the track...

I uh... I think you should read the last couple of pages of the thread

Didn't drill them. Screwed them in from the top, then put the plenum on and threaded them back up. There was definitely no gap, I did the other studs first. If I was to do it again, I would drill out the holes.

I don't know. The majority of the cost was for "diagnosing running problems and replacing intake manifold". There was a fair bit of GST as well. There is no leak anymore, it's driving fine. The issue now is that it loses compression on one cylinder under load. It won't be ready to drive once I've fixed that, because it isn't tuned under full load.

I've seen loads of cars getting around with high mount setups that haven't shielded their ABS units... Whether that means it's not an issue or not, I don't know. Ask JEM? PS lines might be, most people seem to relocate the reservoir to the radiator. But again, that might not be a choice based on function. Surely JEM will answer all those questions?

No, the issue is happening under full load. He didn't manage to do the full load tune because of the issue, so he has tuned it where it is ok and set the rev limiter to where he has tuned to. If that makes sense?

I do agree, and I would actually really like to see for myself what is going on. Except I can't, because he hasn't tuned the thing above 5000rpm. He set a 5000rpm limiter, which I could remove if I wanted to, but with no tune in the thing I really don't want to be smashing around under full load trying to get it to drop a cylinder.

Possible. But if that were the case, why would it only come good after the motor has been switched off and allowed to cool down?

I did the original work of installing the plenum, fuel rail, injectors, etc. after doing the injectors I obviously wasn't able to start the car, so I towed it to the workshop a bit over a month ago expecting that all it would need was a tune. Then the problems developed and the workshop did all work from there until I picked it up today. They pulled the whole manifold off and replaced it.

That's exactly what my tuner thinks is happening... That the valve is sticking open. But why would it be temperature related? Surely there's either fragments in there or there isn't?

Well what gets me is why they would have been tinkering with the manifold. I installed the plenum and everything, all it needed was a tune. But then this issue comes up that the car was revving itself to redline. So if there wasn't this hole in the manifold, why was it revving to redline? But if it was the cause, how did it break? Why would they have the manifold off? This confuses me... It was also never run with any load while it had that problem. It never moved because it would just rev to limiter as soon as they started it. Yeh I paid. I don't think I had any choice. What I think happened and what I can prove happened are two very different things. I wouldn't have had a foot to stand on if I refused to pay.

They also charged me $1600 to do that ^ Which I'm just ecstatic about.

So just got the car home. It has never idled or driven so nicely in the entire time I've had it. It is like a totally different car. So how can it be so broken This is the manifold: And looky looky what I found in my boot... So it definitely broke off while it was at the workshop. Also spoke to my tuner while I was there. He said it only loses compression when the cylinder temps are really getting hot. Like he could do a couple of power runs and it would be fine, it would go 100%. Then it would start misfiring and he would compression test it and it has 0psi on one cylinder. He didn't specify which cylinder it was, but it doesn't take a fkn rocket scientist to work that out. Then he would let it cool down for a bit, fire it back up and it's all good. Another couple of power runs later, compression gone again.

I'll upload some pictures of it when I get the car. Which might not be today because now the f**king workshop won't call me back to let me know how much I owe them. Dammit.

I'll check it out mate, cheers. Might be easier with pictures. The part that broke is the very front bolt in this picture: It is shattered about 1.5-2" down from the top of the inlet to roughly the top of the flat mounting plate on the side of collectors there. So that bolt is completely gone. That bolt is the only thing I can imagine may have been pulling on the manifold, but no more so than any other part of the manifold? I don't know. I can't see anyway for it to have broken other than taking a very heavy hit.

I believe it was, but with no evidence at all I won't be saying anything. But I will not be taking my car back to this workshop if I manage to fix it. The luck I've had with workshops in Perth is unbelievable. The only evidence I have is that when one of their guys called me up, he asked if I knew where there might be a vacuum leak. So I mentioned that I hadn't managed to get a nut onto the very front bolt on the plenum. He said he saw it, and even commented on how we had f**ked the bolt (we had to do it up with vice grips as it sat hard against the collector - will make more sense when I post pictures). So the bolt was definitely there then. But when they showed me the manifold, that whole part of the manifold was shattered off, he wouldn't have seen the bolt if the manifold had been like that. Absolutely no idea. I'm 110% sure it did not happen while I was installing the plenum. The manifold stayed on the engine, so it was never dropped, and I certainly didn't hit it with anything. The only thing I can think of is that it was cracked, and later gave way. But I highly doubt this as well. I was in and around that part of the manifold doing stuff up, I would have seen a problem. I was also extremely gentle with anything to do with the manifold as I didn't want to scratch the face, because ironically, I didn't want to risk causing a leak...

Possibly, I imagine when you shatter a cast alloy manifold like that there will be some debris. But I don't know which cylinder the valve problem is on, if it is only cylinder 1 then I imagine the shattered manifold was the cause. I'm just waiting for my tuner to add up how much I owe them and then I'm going in to get the car home, so I'll post photos in a few hours. Again, quite possible. Thing is, I would expect that shards of cast alloy getting stuck in the valve guides would cause more of a permanent problem than just on full load power runs, ie. bent valves?