Finally started to work on the FD last night.
We have discovered the cause of the loss of power on the second race day at ECR:
That's an exhaust sleeve from the rotor housing that disintegrated and shrapnel traveled through the manifold and through the Ching Chong Turbo.
The turbine housing was filled with a handful of junk and the turbine blades were jacked. Sounds bad but really, this turbo took a serious beating and continued to boost (albeit at a reduced capacity). We even set the fastest lap time when the turbo was damaged.
I hear lots of bad talking about Ching Chong Turbos but we got that one for free with a spare engine we bought. Ive seen the same turbos sold new on Fleabay for $150 shipped.
The turbo still has nearly zero shaft play.
We are not sure WHY the exhaust sleeve came apart but we suspect that over time it must have developed a crack that the exhaust heat agitated until it started to sag or come apart. Rotaries have some serious exhaust temps.
Now we are kind of torn over replacing this sleeve. There is no way to get it into the engine properly without disassembly since a roll pin holds it that is inaccessible from outside the engine. I say leave the sleeve out - we are running a non-divided manifold so any turbulence introduced wouldn't matter anyway. The down side to that is that a lot of heat can get introduced into the water jacket this way. I'm not really worried about melting the aluminum housings - they are water filled.
Another option is put a sleeve in the housing but use the pressure of the turbo manifold to hold it in place since it sits flush with the exhaust gasket.
I guess we will find another turbo first and by then make a decision about the sleeve.
Dangerous Banned Technology (NOLA 09), Judges Choice (Houston 2010), Organizers Choice (NOLA 2010), Most Heroic Fix (Dallas 2010), $100 from Jay's Pocket (Dallas 2010), Dangerous Homemade Technology (NOLA 2010), Ununhexium Legends of Lemons Status, Index of Effluency (Dallas 2011), Most Heroic Fix - (Houston 2011), Index of Effluency (TWS - 2012), Organizers Choice (Dallas 2013)
