Day 10 | Index | Conclusions
1996 Camry 5S-FE Turbo Install |
Day 11 |
Today's the big day! I Went back to Martel Racing in Manchester to do my second dynamometer pull to see what gains I got from the turbocharger.
The only hesitation on my part was that this past Saturday, I was out pushing the turbo a bit and I noticed the power was a bit off and I thought it was idling a bit rough. But I put it off thinking maybe it's just my imagination.
Shannen from Martel and I took some time to finally install the aircraft wire to reroute the oxygen senor wires behind the engine. Then we got the car up on the dyno. After getting it all strapped in and settled in, we noticed some oily vapor coming out of the blow off valve while he was applying a load and I was running the car at 45 - 50 MPH. Shannen decided to take a look around the engine while it was slightly boosting and under a load. Finally he pulled the PCV and oil was immediately sprayed all over the windshield.
We decided to shut things down and perform a leak-down test. It showed that cylinder #4 was not compressing very well any more. At 60psi, it was holding 15% of the pressure.
We pulled the car from the dyno and called it a night.
The next night I decided to do a compression test and to see if I could determine if the head gasket was leaking or the piston rings. After taking initial readings, I put some oil in the cylinder and checked the readings again. Here's what I found:
| Cylinder | Initial PSI | PSI after oil | PSI increase | Percent change |
| 1 | 208 | 263 | +55 | +26% |
| 2 | 194 | 235 | +41 | +21% |
| 3 | 215 | ~320 | +105 | +49% |
| 4 | 99 | 210 | +111 | +112% |
It's fairly obvious that the rings in cylinder 4 are shot. The second reading on cylinder 3 is way off I thnk because too much oil was put in the cylinder for the test. But the results are still conclusive.
Next I start the hunt for good pistons and rings. Then find a supplier to buy them from!
UPDATE: Pistons & rings were found from JE through Flatlander Racing in Plaistow, NH. The pistons are going to be custom made and dished to reduce the compression ratio to 8.5:1 from the stock 9.5:1. Now we start the engine rebuild...follow it here.