MY04 Liberty GT - FrankenStien - EOI welcome / FS

[bigBADbenny]

Got aos or catch can?

[dr20t]

Got aos or catch can?

Yep - a phat special edition one

A catch can wouldn't stop the problem i had though

[Kekotic]

Got aos or catch can?

Yep - a phat special edition one

A catch can wouldn't stop the problem i had though

Can you explain greater detail what you think happened?

[dr20t]

Sure thing kieren I'll do my best

The standard sump on our cars does not contain a proper baffle.

This means hard cornering and lateral g's applied to the car will cause oil to slosh around and make it's way out of the sump, and back into the "block" or crank case

Because of the unique design of the boxer motor, the crank case actually encompasses ALL the rotating assembly (crank, rods, main caps etc). The crank being in the centre of the case halves here

So cos of my "awesome" driving at the track yesterday, oil has managed to find its way into the crank case, in relatively large amounts.

Now consider that the crank case breather pipe (which would ordinarily connect to a hose running back to the inlet tract, but in my car runs to the catch can) - consider that this breather pipe regulates the amount of oil in the crank case. Usually this would only be equivalent to I dunno say 20-100ml of excess oil being sprayed up from the sump or through the various galleries. In fact most of the time this would be a mist. If you undo the hose on this pipe you will see it spurting "pulses" of oil mist (not streams or flow of oil). This is because as I said it shouldn't have loads of oil to vent, and thus with the combustion chamber pressures which escape the lower piston oil control ring (which again shouldn't be much in a healthy motor, but enough to vent the excess oil mist buildup ), it pushes a spray of oil out

Now in my instance, all the oil splashing up from the sump has been spraying up into the catch can. Thus why it wouldn't have done anything to prevent what I saw today. The breather was still going to get rid of that excess oil that shouldn't have been there

Could the excess oil have caused damage - short answer yes. Did it? Well I hope not

Reason it could cause damage is oil getting to places it really shouldn't (remembering what I said above that the crank case should only see a film or mist of oil every now and again). Also, if enough oil came up so as to reach the rods / pistons, then it can be whipped up and thus pressurizing (not good for oil flow and lubrication), and also could've damaged oil control rings in the cylinder, thus making them ineffective in future and causin the motor to chew oil or worse still, stuff a ring (bye bye motor)

Thus why catch can wouldn't have helped

Good news is as follows:

- the oil has stopped pissing out of the crank case breather hose (for now)
- this tells me it was just doing its job and getting rid of excess oil
- the motor doesn't seem to be chewing oil (butthat will need monitoring and it's too early to tell yet)
- the remaining oil in the sump has not been "whipped" (it would've changed colour)
- motor still runs fine (and scared the shit out of a 04sti wrx onthe way home top )

Sorry for the long post

I'm an insomniac and did my best to explain

Mick

[Kekotic]

Thanks for the detailed post Mick.

So are you saying it's almost a design flaw of the boxer engine that allows for that much oil to pass in to sections it shouldn't be getting to under driving conditions that you put it under?
Or is it because of the mods you have done that have allowed it to get there?

[dr20t]

You can't really say it's a design "flaw" as such. I'm sure Subaru never intended for everyone purchasing a Gt lib to be trying to push it as hard as possible in unopened form around a race track

And its not due to the power as such, but I guess because of the power it's making, it allows me to go out of a corner alot harder so therefore it's placing more lateral g force on the body which is causing the oil to slosh around.

So basically it's not spitting oil out because of the power, more because of the physical positioning of the car around corners

Solution? I have a few but they will all be revealed around.... Feb 2013 I reckon

Mick

[Kekotic]

Solution? I have a few but they will all be revealed around.... Feb 2013 I reckon

Damn kiks has convinced you to put a V12 in it hasn't he!

Look forward to how you go with the 2.5. Are you still sticking with the auto for that? seems strange to do so after you spent all that money buying all the parts. Is it not a good fit or something?

[dr20t]

Yeah 2.5 it will be

No issues with fitment of the box or anything like that. It was more so due to me thinking well it's a good bit of kit but if I'm not using it yet then what's the point of having sit around and chew up cash-flow

But yesterday scared me enough to want to get the rebuild done ASAP just in case

And yes will be throwing the 6 speed in too

[jaydece]

Hello Mick,

Just played catch up on all the messages above? Phew!.....Hope all is well and nothing major has gone wrong ...and must say that is a VERY DETAILED report request from kieren.....noice

Going to ask a stupid question?

With whats happened? when you have a instance like this? are you supposed to "baby" the car until it supposedly settles down? or drive it "hard" to force out any residue? or neither?

[dr20t]

Thanks Justin

Probably safest to drive normally, as you don't know if it's consuming oil. however babying it may just mask the problem

So if you don't really want to know if your motor is gone or not, then I guess you could baby it and not find out for a while (although if the blowby is bad enough it may happen anyway)

But driving it flat chat is probably not a good idea until you know exactly what it was

[bigBADbenny]

Since we're going in depth...
How could you tell so much oil was venting via the cc pcv?
Was your oil full or over for the track day?
Will you try the fuel additive and upper engine cleaner as a safeguard?
Considering enlarged baffled sump in future?

[dr20t]

Itssti pointed out that it was leaking at garage88 yesterday (yes best place to find a leak)

Checked where it was coming from - top of the block and under manifold was covered in oil

Pulled the hose off the breather (clear hose that goes to phat's catch can) and found a small split in it

Thought that was the problem at first. Checked the dip stick, was just under half way mark. So it had lost a fair bit of oil.

Then fired up the engine with the hose off and breather pipe was still squirting out excess oil

Let it run for 20 mins and the oil stopped coming out.

[dr20t]

Oh and as for future lubrication, I've got something pretty special in the pipeline so you will have to just wait and see

Mick

[rooby]

Oh and as for future lubrication, I've got something pretty special in the pipeline so you will have to just wait and see

Mick

Dry sump or not so extreme? I guess we have to play the waiting game

[Rome_BRZ]

Oh and as for future lubrication, I've got something pretty special in the pipeline so you will have to just wait and see

Mick

KY jelly?