Looks like The Poetry Pad was well-received, haha.
For those who couldn't be there, my dad and I successfully made it down to Carlisle. Despite the dreary conditions, and the perpetual fear that the ricers might take over, the weekend was an absolute blast! I'm no social butterfly, but the great thing about this community is that it feels like you're just spending a weekend with old friends - many of whom you've never met before!
It was great catching up with the guys I met two years ago, and even meeting some new folks like Magellan, Matt, Mike, Ben, and quite a few others.
I didn't spend much time taking pictures on the showfield, and those I do have are mostly of Chris' Avant (I think I'm in love with it), but you can see my tails poking out if you look hard enough
Of course, I was slightly disappointed to see that Mage didn't bring along his car (aka my twin), but not terribly so, because now I have to a chance to make sure mine is faster than his by next year.
The biggest concern of of the trip, though, lay in that fact that I was relying on a very untested K24 that I'd installed two days prior. To play it safe, I didn't give it full throttle until the Saturday of Carlisle (loaded 4 deep of course), and it performed flawlessly! Or so I thought, until after I returned home. Those that rode with me can attest to the fact that everything seemed absolutely normal. Nothing at all that would indicate a GIANT gaping hole in my BPV diaphragm!
I think I can conclusively say what killed the old turbo now - a large, quarter-sized chunk of diverter valve diaphragm was ripped free of its bonds and sucked straight into the compressor. Indeed, flushing out the intercooler revealed exactly what I suspected: the rest of the diaphragm sitting in mostly one piece. Thank goodness the intercooler caught it! It's amazing; my diverter valve has a plastic bit of reinforcement where the spring sits, so when the chunk got torn off (from repeated use and/or weakening from oil), the rest of the diaphragm still sealed with the plastic part and worked as it should. Hence why I didn't catch it until my turbo started chirping like a rally car.
Anyways, with that taken care of, I was faced with a new dilemma. Evidently, letting it sit for two months right after running in the salty snow was not great for keeping the car rust-free (duh). I like everything spotless, so it's very clear what new things have started to form some surface rust. Unfortunately, one of those affected is my rear passenger caliper, which apparently had a bad piston seal as well, letting the brine wreak havoc on the piston.
The thing is doneso.
Of course, after discovering I couldn't just rebuild my dragging caliper, I had to hunt for a replacement. I could buy a reman'd caliper from A1Cardone, but I've heard less than reputable things about them. Unfortunately, my WTB ad for a used OEM caliper didn't garner much attention, so I rolled the rice.
So pretty!
And then it promptly exploded. The end!
It was picked up by UPS late Friday evening, and is set to arrive Tuesday? Grrr. Looks like I'll be driving to Nashville on Wed and have one day to test drive before we leave for Carlisle. If anything is up, I guess we'll just take the V8.
I have a (supposedly) Lehmann chip with a 2.5bar pressure transducer. I threw the spring in because you can see the boost gauge flutter around wildly while it's trying to maintain boost (goes back and forth ~3psi). After the spring, this is a lot smoother, but I think the boost onset is more rapid than than the ECU is anticipating.
this weekend?
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