Hi Everyone, hope this story proves to be somewhat entertaining/informative...
I bought my MPS in Jan 2018 after owning a BK N/A sedan (seemed like the next logical step). The car was 100% stock, 150,000km's on the clock, but it had a full service history and drove well. Soon after buying the car and enjoying it for a few weeks, I had to make it mine. I started by replacing the blown front shocks with Koni streets and lowering it with Kingspring SSL's from my previous BK. I made a custom intake using stainless tubing retaining the factory MAF sensor and housing, installed a HDI gen 2 FMIC, Autotech HPFP internals all in preparation for a custom dyno tune. Also fabbed up a custom exhaust from the axle-back for a bit of note.
After picking up the car from the tuner, I was blown away. The responsiveness on the factory K04 was fantastic and pulled strongly all the way to redline. The factory torque limits by gear were removed, making the car a bit of handfull in low gears, but with some finesse it was fine. That very evening, after a spirited drive through a local back-road, the dreaded turbo seal smoke made itself evident....
I ordered a Corksport TD05-18G straight away and after 4 weeks it arrived. I installed it over the weekend and then got the tune touched up on the Monday to accommodate the new turbo. Response was reduced, but car did make more power and provided the "turbo surge" that is synonymous with larger turbo's. I was happy. Three days later, after a pull through 1st to 4th gears (having a bit too much fun), the car developed an aggressive misfire. Blown spark plugs perhaps? (The nightmare begins here...)
Inspecting the spark plugs showed cyl 2 plug with cracked porcelain hanging off the ground electrode, and cyl 4 plug with a piece of porcelain missing and no ground electrode at all. The porcelain was not in the cylinder so it must have made its way out the exhaust valve. Compression test showed 160psi across cyl's 1-3 and 0psi compression on 4! A leakdown test was conducted to determine the results, with air from the compressor going straight out the exhaust - BLOWN EXHAUST VALVE - great...
I put the car on a float and took it back to the tuner (also a workshop). They tore the engine down and found a burnt exhaust valve (at this stage). I decided to get the head reconditioned and the pistons re-ringed and new big-end bearings, while it was all apart. A few weeks of waiting later, and they had removed the pistons and rods to find - A BENT ROD on cylinder 4. Can't get much worse from here.
I then decided to go all out and recondition the engine with forged components and upgrades where necessary. That's where we're up to now. Still waiting on the machine shop to finish the head and block machining/assembly. List of mods below:
Manley H-Tuff rods, Manley 2618 pistons, ACL Race bearings, ACL rings, Supertech exhaust valves, Supertech dual valve springs, Supertech titanium retainers, ARP head bolts, ACT stage 2 clutch kit SMF conversion, JBR balance shaft delete kit, JBR sump baffle, ATP 3" downpipe.