M271: hole in piston

[taylor192]

Looks like I'm getting a used M271 with 3600 kms to replace my engine.

Had a mis-fire, no compression on cylinder #3, found out it was due to a chuck of the piston that had broken off the side, scoring the wall.

Not sure what may have caused this, it could have been several things. My car has had the CEL lit for nearly a year as the "oil in harness" issue was mis-diagnosed and I refused to keep replacing expensive sensors when no other fault was observed.

So running rich with a slight mis-fire on idle for a year may have finally caused the engine to let go. I have the Renntech pulley with no ECU tune, so maybe more boost combined with this caused detonation. Lots of people run these pulleys without issue, yet the combination of problems may have done me in.

Who knows, who cares, I'll have a low mileage M271 and hopefully get another 5.5 years out of my car. Sucks though, $5600 CND hopefully invested in this car lasting a long time.

 

[recycled]

sorry to hear.
why was it misdiagnosed? it is a fairly simple and easy process and please take all warning lights seriously next time. especially the red ones.

 

[taylor192]

sorry to hear.
why was it misdiagnosed? it is a fairly simple and easy process and please take all warning lights seriously next time. especially the red ones.

Cause the dealer wasn't aware of it, so they suggested replacing parts and when that didn't work there was no further course of action except to continue replacing the same expensive parts, which outside of warranty I wasn't willing to do chasing an unknown problem.

The CEL is yellow BTW

 

[R2D2]

Oh No!! I'm really sorry for you. Is repair impossible? Could this be to running to high a compression ratio for the boost given by the pulley??

 

[recycled]

The CEL is yellow BTW

i know it is

 

[Adam230K]

sorry to hear.. so ure gonna replace it with the M271 engine? which is the 1.8K right?

 

[R2D2]

sorry to hear.. so ure gonna replace it with the M271 engine? which is the 1.8K right?

I guess it will be the 2.3 (1.8 M271) with 192 bhp and no pulley upgrade!

 

[taylor192]

I guess it will be the 2.3 (1.8 M271) with 192 bhp and no pulley upgrade!

Yep.

Looked at the C32 engine, yet it doesn't mate the the manual gearbox. The only options for easily mating to the manual gearbox is the 2.3L M111 or 1.8L M271. For the M111 I'd need all the wiring too, and it'd get expensive fast.

 

[R2D2]

There was a new M271 engine went on ebay for £400 and I saw a C180k one for £400 locally last year.........

 

[taylor192]

There was a new M271 engine went on ebay for £400 and I saw a C180k one for £400 locally last year.........

I'm across the pond, so that'll be expense to ship.

I'm going to part out the blown engine, the new engine comes with a complete intake including SC and TB.

Hopefully I can recover $1-2K selling the used cylinder head, SC, TB, water pump, intake manifold, ... I know some people have wanted to port and polish the SC or bore the TB, yet didn't want to lose their cars for days doing so. Buying a cheap used SC or TB would allow them to do it, then they could sell their own.

 

[R2D2]

Sounds like a good plan then. Was it definately compression ratio that did the damage?

 

[taylor192]

Does anyone think the knock sensor could have failed?
The symptoms I had when this first started seem similar to descriptions I've read online. Limping the car home with a bad knock sensor may have causes the damage.

Does the knock sensor throw a code when it fails? I had 3 codes I could not cross-reference.
P2023
P2014
P2005

I originally thought it might have been simple as the crank sensor (CPS), since I had code P2058. Yet a bad CPS should cause the car to stall then not to start. Mine was down on power and mis-firing.

I would kinda like to know what went wrong before putting all the old wiring and sensors on the new engine. Maybe I'll buy a new CPS and knock sensor anyways.

 

[taylor192]

Sounds like a good plan then. Was it definately compression ratio that did the damage?

I wish I knew.

Where is the knock sensor on the M271? Is it above the exhaust manifold?

I noticed that the wiring had become destroyed going to the sensor above the exhaust manifold and repaired it. The heat combined with oil leaking into the wiring had started to destroy the insulation on the wires to this sensor.