Endgame setup- BW s257sxe

Thanks man. I appreciate it a lot. I'll take you up on that offer! My turbo does not have the t51r mod. I considered it, but couldn't stomach the extra money or thought of that constant whine for a daily. The s257sxe is definitely quieter than my s4v1 was. I could hear that turbo in low load most of the time. Then again, I wasn't running EWG back then. Once the hypergate opens up and screams, you can't really hear much of anything else haha

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I have never experienced an ewg even in someone else's car but wish I could get the chance to. I honestly love hearing my turbo really well but also think it would be crazy to put an ewg dump peeking out my hood to see fireworks at night lol

 

Pulled the motor today. It went really good. Tomorrow I'll be stripping it down and prepping for shipment on Tuesday. During the removal, we did not find anything abnormal or failures with any parts installed (i.e, fuel system, exhaust, and intake sides)

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Seperated the transmission from the engine and got it ready to be shipped back to New Orleans. Jordan is paying for it to be shipped this Tuesday.

However, I did discover the rear main seal to be leaking just as I thought. I have been complaining about an oil leak since day 1 to him. He claimed it to be the oil pan, so I gave him the opportunity to fix it. I ended up driving to his home here in Southern California so he could reseal it.

The oil pan still leaked and he claimed he would try again at my next oil change. Well, I never quite made it to that point, with cylinders 2 and 3 now gone.

Brand new ACT clutch has definitely been wet this whole time, but not slipping.

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Any updates on this?

 

Nothing yet. The motor arrived at his shop on Wednesday. I fly out this Friday to New Orleans to tear it down with Jordan on Saturday. I'll be taking a whole lot of pictures.

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Man sorry to hear this happened to you but that being said.....in my opinion you’re a lucky guy that he is even considering any type of warranty. I don’t mean for that to sound nasty but I build performance engines for a living (Harley engines not this platform) but after 8 months and 7k miles I wouldn’t warranty it. There are way to many variables that more than likely caused the damage. It probably happened way before your last run. Your last run was probably just the straw that broke the camels back. Detonation on 30 psi of boost and having to back it down to 25 would be my guess when it started. Any detonation at pressures that high could weaken a piston and more than likely did. It’s hard to warranty a performance built motor when you don’t know how it was heat cycled. Was the oil system primed before initial start up. Was it ever over heated? How was it broken in? How was it treated for however many miles it was ran? I’m not taking sides here just trying to give my .02 cents. I don’t know Jordan other than he cleaned my injectors. I don’t know Will other than he tuned my car. I know that they both done a great job for me and their reputation speaks for them. He will be able to tell you what happened when he tears it down but I doubt piston damage is going to be the builders fault. I do hope everything works out for you and all parties in the end.

 

I appreciate the feedback! I'm definitely not here to bash Jordan or his business. Or to influence any other people on their decisions with choosing him to build their engines. And you're 100% right. He is definitely helping me out with even considering the possibility of warranting it. I think me documenting here for everyone to read just shows how well he is handling the situation. And how well I'm handling it too! We're working together on finding a solution and I really can't complain at this point.

To answer your questions on the life of the motor. I followed Jordans break in procedure with the break in oil he provided and changed it at the correct intervals he suggested. The engine was never overheated once and never experienced cooling issues. I drove back and forth to work 40 miles a day in little to no stop and go traffic (because covid) The only time I was on it, was for WOT datalogging. Enough revisions to finish the 91 tune on my previous bnr s4v1, revisions for the 91 tune on the current BW257sxe, and some of the e30 tune before pistons 2 & 3 melted.

Let me ask you this? Although unrelated to cylinders 2 & 3, is a leaking rear main seal from 1st startup of the day I installed the engine enough to warranty it? If you paid "that" amount of money to someone to build your engine, how would you feel? I can't help but feel if something as easy as the RMS was rushed, what else may have been with the whole assembly process?

Time will tell. I'll be shooting the shit and drinking some beers with him. I needed a weekend away from things at home, so I'm very much looking forward to it this weekend.

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Sorry about the confusion. Those questions were not directed at you I was meaning there are a lot of variables that can lead to problems. If someone called me and said my engine blew up those are the questions that run thru your head. That’s why you can’t just say yeah I will warranty that. I’m just guessing from the pic of your piston that it’s not a builder error or defective part. If the skirt broke off or something like that then you would have to question it. Was it a bad part? Was it a bad bore? Etc.
As far as the oil leak goes , yes that’s unfortunate if it’s been leaking since day one. However that doesn’t mean it’s leaking because it was rushed. Could have just been a defective seal or maybe it did get snagged while installing it. The engines I build all get Cometic gaskets and seals. They are the best there is in my industry. I inspect all seals gaskets and o rings before they go in. I’ve still had them leak even though they appear perfect. Biggest advantage I have is that we install 99.5% of the engines we build so if there is a problem I know before the customer gets the bike.
Trust me I really do feel for ya and this post makes me cringe because I’m in the process of building my engine right now. Even though I know it could blow up at any time for any reason it still makes me cringe reading and seeing your motor.

 

Regardless why the RMS failed from the start, how would you handle that situation with one of your customers engine builds? How should an engine builder like Jordan handle that? The transmission, clutch, and flywheel would have to be removed for it to be replaced. Who's time, effort, and money is responsible for that? Don't mean to push back one bit and I hope you don't see this that way. I'm just letting all the feels flow haha

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I guess it would have to be handled the same way my dealership would handle it in a warranty situation. If it leaks within a certain amount of mileage then we would do a warranty claim against the engine supplier or in an house warranty if it was supplied by GM. In your case as soon as it started leaking pictures should have been taken and I know this sucks but the trans and clutch should have been pulled to show evidence of the seal leak. Your time is money and so is a shops time. If you had a shop do it they would have charged you X time to remove Y components to inspect the seal. It would have been up to the engine builder to reimburse you for that time.

If it were me, as an auto technician I would have generated a bill at the labor rate I charge to do side work. You had no idea the seal would leak and installing the clutch, flywheel and transmission isnt going to cause that so it isn't on you.

However he is being flexible and willing to inspect/possibly warranty an engine that he knows was pushed beyond the limits of stock usage and it was driven aggressively when many people wouldnt do that.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I read thru the thread and didn't see a mention of a wotbox for ignition cut. It's a bit sketch to run port injection without it, IMO. you can burn the pistons on the rev limiter, or between shifts in certain scenarios.

 

The problem with my oil leak has been documented through photos and conversations between Jordan and myself since day 1. So at this point he has been well informed about that situation. He attempted to reseal the oil pan with no luck and wanted to give it another go to reseal the pan a 2nd time.

In my opinion, the motor was not pushed beyond its limit and Jordan agrees. From what he told me in the beginning stages of discussion, the motor should have been able to hold 600 "all day" so that's what I expected out of it. I posted a vdyno previously that put me around 550hp during the e30 tune. Bottom line is i'm simply an unsatisfied customer of his and the transaction got off to a rocky start with the oil leak. As long as both parties involved are satisfied then i'll be more than happy with that.

 

I have a wot box, but never got around to installing it

 

Oh yeah. I would fix the oil leak. I can’t speak for Jordan or how that works with fixing it. Luckily (cross my fingers, knock on wood, say a little prayer,) I’ve never been in the situation with the customer being that far away

 

Made it out to NOLA last weekend and Jordan showed me around the city. We had an awesome time. We tore the engine down together and it's pretty clear signs that cylinders 2 and 3 were running leaner than 1 and 4.

Now for the pictures you have all been patiently waiting for

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Damn man. That’s my worst nightmare

 

So I'm assuming cyl 2 and 3 running lean is a "tune" issue. What intake and exhast mani did you have?

 

I'm running the ST intake manifold and CS exhaust manifold. I sent my SS controller to Split Second for inspection and test. I also sent my speed performance PI harness to Eric to be inspected and tested. I really don't know what else is left to check out. Not sold yet on it being tune related.

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We did find the RMS folded during teardown. That's about all he is accepting responsibility for.

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