Yeah it'll all be ok. It's just racing... not what you want to happen on a new build, but it happens.

Biggest concern is the bore. My machinist buddy is going to come over and take a look at it. See if it'll clean up with the portable hone real quick, if so I'll put it back together... if not it comes apart. Neither of the pistons pinched the rings, skirts look fine... and I do have one more spare piston so even if one of them is junk I have that going for me.

Depending on what my buddy thinks, we'll either just re-cut the head, or weld it up. The chamber itself looks ok, its really just the quench pad that looks bad. Obviously we'll take a look at the seat when we pop the heads apart. Bearings looked fine.


Honestly I have NO idea where that washer (or at least what looks like a washer) came from. It definitely didn't come from the turbo clamp because the nut was still on the T-bolt. Bothers me that I don't know where the other 1/2 of it is too! It's sort of a pain in the butt, but I think I'll take the hotside off and make sure it's not in the crossover. I looked at the turbine wheel, no signs of it exiting the motor. So it COULD be in the downpipe/exhaust too I suppose. Just need to carefully look at everything, and get it back together. Sucks... but that's racing right!

I find it amazing that the car got ~15 street miles on it before we heard the noise at Milan. It's strange because the #7 plug was hit and closed the gap up. But it must have happened VERY early in the new build because it doesn't look like it's ever been fired at all. ZERO HEAT. So that washer had to be in there from the beginning, hit the plug, and then disappeared back into the intake? Not really sure. I have no idea where it started from. The only thing I can think is that maybe a washer got into the air filter. But you'd think the turbo would show signs of eating something that big through the compressor wheel. Hard to say...

Leading contenders among my friends where the washer came from was...

Ryan did it - So he could come over and drink more of my beer putting it back together.

Dave did it - So he could get more of my money for machine work.

Obama did it - Because he was mad that he missed out on this car the last time cash for clunkers came around.