HPF Warranties Richard Otts Blown Stage 3/4 Motor! - PICTURES

HPF Chris · #1 12-30-2009, 05:33 PM

Richard Ott hasn't had much time to drive his HPF Stage 3 M3 since he was in Afghanistan. He has also had a TON more work done to his car since we last saw it. We installed our full motor build and stage 3 turbo system back in May 2009. Since then, his car has had a stereo system installed and more recently was upgraded to our HPF stage 4 turbo system by Lutz Performance. After the stage 4 upgrade his car was reported to be down on power and we were unable to fully diagnose the issue over the phone. A couple weeks ago, Richard decided to drive his M3 to us, and drove from Florida to Oregon in 3 days!! We were hoping it would be a simple tuning issue that we could resolve quickly and he could drive his car back later that day. Instead we found his engine was damaged beyond repair.

Symptoms:

#1) Car down on power
#2) Compression test yielded: #1) 145, #2) 137, #3) 140, #4) 115, #5) 150, #6) 150
#3) Leak down test yielded: #1) 13%, #2) 14%, #3) 17%, #4) 50%, #5) 11%, #6) 6%
#4) Head gasket blown between #3 and #4 cylinders
#5) Injector #5 flowed 599cc (supposed to be 1200cc)
#6) Injector #1 leaking
#7) All 6 pistons damaged
#8) One connecting rod bent
#9) Motor and head warped
#10) Cylinder #4 scarred beyond repair
#11) Original ARP head studs in car, not L19's.
#12) Missing exhaust tip
#13) Missing carbon fiber duct fastener
#14) Missing 2 coil cover nuts
#15) PCU leaks at valve cover
#16) Missing upper and lower check valve
#17) Missing rear brake line holders
#18) Earlier style methanol fittings
#19) Downpipe dented and O2 damage
#20) Missing right fan shroud
#21) Missing core support clips
#22) Missing belt tensioner dust cover
#23) Passenger motor mount damaged
#24) Wrong lower intercooler fasteners
#25) Intercooler outlet bent
#26) Lower motor mount bent
#27) Lower and upper chain guide damaged
#28) New oil pump needed
#29) Oil squiter broken
#30) Brake system incorrectly mated
#31) Methanol pump bad
#32) Lower intercooler brackets were from earlier version
#33) Carbon Fiber intake pipe cracked from heat

Potential Causes for Engine Failure

#1) Rich's Head may have lifted after the Stage 4 turbo was installed as the original ARP head studs were installed by us and not L19's. This caused the head gasket between cylinders #3 and #4 to break apart likely causing the damage in cylinders 3 and 4.
#2) Lean conditions existed at some point for an unknown reason. This caused the pistons to scrape the cylinder walls on one side causing the very low leakdown results for nearly every cylinder. This ruined the pistons and scarred the engine block beyond repair. We don't know if this was from a fuel starvation issue, or a tuning / boost issue when the turbo was swapped.
#3) A bad batch of gas was run in the car at some point which may have caused the pre-ignition that likely bent one of the connecting rods.

In Summary... We do not believe that Lutz Performance was responsible for these issues.

Solution:

#1) HPF flew both Rich and his friend back to Florida at HPF's expense. HPF had them on a plane heading back to Florida within 3 hours of their arrival in Portland.
#2) HPF did a series of tests while the engine was in the car to determine the cause of the problem - FREE
#3) HPF removed the engine and transmission from the car - FREE
#4) HPF disassembled the motor and head and documented the extent of the damage - FREE
#5) HPF determined the block was bad and gave Rich a new engine block - FREE
#6) HPF paid M&B to deck this new block, deck the head, torque plate, bore and honed the new block - FREE
#7) HPF supplied and paid M&B to install all new rod and main bearings - FREE
#8) HPF supplied and paid M&B to install 6 new pistons - FREE
#9) HPF supplied and paid M&B to install 6 new connecting rods - FREE
#10) HPF paid M&B to clearance the engine - FREE
#11) HPF fully assembled the long block - FREE
#12) HPF supplied and installed new ARP L19 head studs - FREE
#13) HPF supplied and installed all new gaskets including the head and wastegate gasket - FREE
#14) HPF installed the engine and transmission back in the car - FREE
#15) HPF fixed the methanol pump with a rebuild kit - FREE
#16) HPF upgraded all the methanol fittings - FREE
#17) HPF sent all 6 injectors to RC engineering and installed (and tested in house) 6 new RC Engineering 1200cc injectors - FREE
#18) HPF supplied and installed a new carbon fiber intake pipe with heat shielding - FREE
#19) All remaining components listed above that were not part of the HPF turbo system were fixed by HPF and paid for by the customer.
#20) HPF broke in new motor, tested, and will finish up dyno testing the car before it ships - FREE
#21) HPF is paying Angels Transport to ship Richard Ott's car back to Florida - FREE

Taking Responsibility:

Not once did Richard ask for us to fix his car for free. Richard brought up that maybe some bad gas he put in the car might have caused this. He also didn't ask for us to fly him home. He also didn't ask for us to pay for the transport to get his car back to him once we fixed it. After the compression and leak down numbers came in and we knew the motor was likely toast, I took him and his friend out for lunch and said, "Don't worry Rich. You've spent enough with us that I will make your car whole again and ship it back to you. I will also fly you and your buddy back to Florida so you don't have to wait around. Just do one thing for me. When you get your car back, please spread the word that we take care of our customers." And of course he said "I sure will!"

Motor Coming Out

Motor Out

Engine Issues Documented

Other Issues Documented

Laidback · #2 12-30-2009, 05:45 PM

Congrats on another stage 4 bradah! and glad everything is fixed

Quote:

Originally Posted by HPF Chris

Everything Fixed, Running and Dyno Tuning

We're waiting on the new CF intake pipe for Richard to arrive. Once the pipe arrives we will dyno tune Rich's M3 and ship it back to him in Florida. There will shortly be another stage 4 beast alive and well in Florida.

Chris.

mbox · #3 12-30-2009, 05:51 PM

wow.....amazing service!

xixicemanxix · #4 12-30-2009, 05:59 PM

very niiiice!!

HPF Chris · #5 12-30-2009, 06:21 PM

Everything Fixed, Running and Dyno Tuning

We're waiting on the new CF intake pipe for Richard to arrive. Once the pipe arrives we will dyno tune Rich's M3 and ship it back to him in Florida. There will shortly be another stage 4 beast alive and well in Florida.

Chris.