Yes, thanks!Daveyboy wrote:I can't take any credit for the car, all the work was done prior to my buying it, as for the causes of the engine failiure, I suspect a number of reasons contributed to the eventual outcome.
Mainly (my fault entirely) running the car for a two week period on the base map that came with the bodies, this would've been very fuel rich and this is evidenced by the very fuelly smell in the sump on strip down. Obviously I realise now that this was a very silly thing to do, but we learn from our mistakes, at the time I knew very very little about engines, I certainly won't be repeating that error though.
Another issue is that I was running an oil cooler that was'nt big enough to keep my oil temps down, it was a 13 row Mocal unit but driven hard the oil temp would regularly reach 120 degrees, again, I now know this is a seriously excessive temperature at which to expect oil to retain any kind of film strength or pressure. The oil itself was a fully synthetic 15-40wt oil I purchased from Halfords, again, probably not the best choice of oil for an engine that gets used hard, but hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Hope this clears up your question.
15w 40 out of my experience is not that "fit" for your modified engine due to the fact that at high oil temperatures it looses its protective qualities really fast. A proper 15w 50 could be more reliable. A good oil cooler could help, but the fact that your mixture was way too rich actually destroyed your oil very very fast.