Right, where to begin?
I've only had my STI wagon for a couple of months now and it makes a loud tappety noise
When I've looked through the receiepts for the car, there's one for a breakdown recovery, saying the fault was crank knocking There was a contact number for the previous owner, so I gave him a ring and he said that the bottom end blew up on him So I thought " oh sh*t " have I bought a shed?? But he then told me that he had splashed the cash and had it rebuilt with a 2.1 stroker kit, which includes a new shell and bearings, rebore to 2.1 litres, forged crank--pistons--and con rods, a twin layered stainless steel headgasket and uprated cambelt which explains the tappety noise.
So would all that explain the tappety style noise, and does it mean my scooby can take loads of hammer or what? I've just fitted a boost gauge and it reads 20 psi when I'm spanking it on the motorway. Is that about right or is it dangerously high or what??
I'm a bit confused by all this stroker business, so any input and advice would be greatfully appreciated
Cheers.
Dave.

 

He's upped the capacity from 2.0ltrs to 2.1ltrs, gives more room for power increases. Generally stroker kit parts are forged but I'd ask the previous owner to confirm which kit he used before doing anything else.

 

Ah right. I think I'll leave it well alone then cos the engine might be good for it but I don''t want the gearbox to go bang, or anything else for that matter!! I just hope running 20 psi of boost is safe

 

Safe as houses, most new-age cars are limited to 1.45 bar by the ecu, mine made 392 bhp in this state.

Real forged pistons are noisy when cold, more of a "slap" than a knock IIRC

HTH

dunx

 

i would be getting quite worried if it is making a loud tappity noise.its quite common to have very slight tapping from the top end on these motors,but i carnt see why there should be a loud tapping just because there is forged internals fitted.has this noise just started or has it been there since you bought the car.

 

no receipts for the build though ??

Tim

 

Well it's not massively loud, I think I only notice it because my old uk scooby never made that noise. And it has made that noise ever since I bought it innit. The guy who owned it before me said it made the noise ever since the rebuild and the noise made it really difficult for him to sell. I never noticed the noise when I test drove it because I was all giddy and preoccupied with how rapid it was and the guy at the garage I bought it from never mentioned it either.

 

Funny you should mention that buddy. Upon thumbing through all the bills and receipts that came with it, I only remember seeing receipts for the commetic headgasket and an exedy clutch. There were some for other engine bits. I'm gonna have another scan through them and see innit. I didn't but it directly from the previous owner. He flogged it to a garage and I bought it from them, so he'd have no reason to fib innit, or would he.

 

it'll be difficult to tell without pulling it apart(which of course is pointless if its working fine)so its an added 'bonus' if it is.so long as your enjoying it fella and it stays in one piece thats all that matters
if you do decide to tune the car mapping,bigger turbos etc.. no doubt thats when you will be able to tell if its got a larger capacity as the mapper should be able to tell if well experianced or dyno results hp/torque etc.

Tim

 

Really? no one asked if he checked his oil level....

back in the states we do oil changes every 3k miles, you guys do them every 10k

 

took it for granted that would of been the first thing he checked before posting.
i change mine every 3k

Tim

 

i think if his oil was low enough to make the engine sound noisy,then after he had given it as he says a good spanking down the motorway,it wouldnt be tapping it would be on the back of the recovery truck with the pistons welded to the sides of the bores.
i also change my oil every 3k.

 

I changed mine every 3.5 K i.e. 6 months...

dunx

 

my built motor with rods,pistons,cams& valves had some light tapping but this was normal for my motor, I also changed the oil on that every 2k.

 

i change every 1.5k miles,you could tip the oil straight into another its that clean

 

It's had a full service about a month ago and the oil level is fine, I check it regularly. On my old scooby I had the oil changed every 5K but it sounds like I should change it more regularly on this car, melted pistons don't sound good

 

I will be changing mine after 300 miles as it chucked most of it out over the M65

 

 

Plastic Steel ?

dunx

 

Well guys u all know what i built a few years ago,,right think u need to find out what the guy as done first of all, has he stroked it up to a 2.1 with a (79 mm stroker kit, crank, rods and pistons)..u need to find out if it's still on a standard bore 92 mm ...have u got a oil pressure gauge on your car, this would tell u if your crank had a problem showing low oil pressure. If it's tappin and making noises from start up this could be caused by the guy building it with bigger tolerances,,hope this helps...and just as a pointer when were running above 500 bhp & torque to match and racing like we did, the oil and filter was changed after every event,,,which really did mean oil changed every couple of hours..... No pillock.

Remember if it's a knocking noise and u can bring it on with the throttle it could be your big end,,if it's a tapping noise it could be piston slap,little end noise or tappets....get it to a garage before a mapper, find out what the problem is...

 

Crikey Paul, that went straight over my head lol. I'm a total novice when it comes to all this technical faeces. I've got the guys e-mail address somewhere with the all the paperwork that came with the car. So I might mail him and slip in a few technical doings that you mentioned, and hopefully he'll get back to me innit. Can anyone else think of anything tech related I should ask about the car??

Oh, and another quickie if I can please.
The car has started overboosting like crazy over the last couple of days and I don't know why. All I've done to it over the last couple of days is fit a piperX induction kit with heat shield which made no difference to boost readings. Remove the 2.5" straight through exhaust system and replace it with a 3" straight through system with the wide bell mouth jobbie and fit a recirculating dump valve. The car was fine, but then on the way down to JAE in Kettering, when I gunned the engine, the boost went up to almost 30 psi and the limiter never kicked in??? When I got to the show and got parked up on the stand I had a look and I had a split hose where I'd tapped the T piece in for the boost gauge. So I replaced the hose and went for a quick thrash on the motorway. I noticed a massive difference, I was doing 100 mph before I left the entry slip road and the boost was at a steady 17 psi all the time?? But when I was coming home today it started doing it again, boosting its **** off!! So I stopped in a layby to have a look. One of the tiny hoses that goes onto the boost solenoid thingy had come off. So I stuck it back on and tried again, but it only worked briefly and it started to overboost again!!! When I got home I checked all the hoses and there was nothing split or loose??? Could it be that I have a knackered boost solenoid or a hose come off somewhere I haven't seen?? Or could it be the garage that fitted the 3" downpipe didn't reconnect my intercooler properly after it had been off to get at my heat shield? And will fitting a manual boost controller solve all of this??

Sorry to ramble on for ages.
RGDS
Dave.

 

Less restrictive exhaust means more boost, but you need to swap all those ancient pieces of tired hose for some fresh.
You don't want it costing you a motor ?

dunx

P.S. Mine was fine a 2 bar ( 30 psi ), well for a few seconds...

 

Mate when u start to change parts u must must go and get it checked by a mapper,get it over to andy carr or someone else.This is the best advise i can give u,get it set up right every time u do something like change a exhaust or a air intake system it will tell a different story to the ECU...