Issue Resolved
Cross posting here for visibility.
2005 OBXT 5mt, Looking for advice on what to check next before I commit to pulling motor.
Current mods: VF52, catless up-pipe, AEM AFR gage, partial tune.
Some Background for context: Bought the car a while back as a project. Clutch was shot, it wasn't idling perfect, and had an oil leak; trailered it home. Car has 125k mi but the engine had just been rebuilt after turbo went, new short block with forged sti crank. 3k mi on the engine, figured it was worth a gamble and got it for cheap. Clutch wasn't as issue, but found the engine installer missed bolts here and there, broke a few minor things, nothing I couldn't fix. Oil leak turned out to be a reman turbo that was leaking internally. I rebuilt an ebay VF52 and installed with intention of leaning to tune the car (Im an ME with professional experience tuning diesel engines). Thanks to all who contributed to the opensource projects like Romraider! After much research and wrenching getting everything buttoned up I started tuning. Idle issue resolved (vacuum leaks), Knock issues resolved with a new knock sensor and wiring. Stopped tuning while establishing the Air-Fuel relationship. Data was showing inconsistency leading me to fuel issues. I assumed the injectors were original. The fuel trims pointed to an over fueling/underperforming injector. I pulled and cleaned the injectors as best I could without a dedicated rig. Reinstalled and resumed tuning, results were good, data was looking good, car felt strong. Fuel trims were within 5 % then the following happened.
Current issues:
Leaving work car suddenly was hard to start and ran terrible, I had driven around lunch time with a little spirited driving, car was runing well.
Car ran like it was down a cyl, I limped it home and pulled it into the shop. Couldn't get to it for a few days, but Cyl 1 was definitely not firing. Plug was black and wet as expected. Couldn’t do a hot compression test. Cold numbers were terribly low with cyl 2 well out of 20% difference (60-70psi cold). But misfiring cyl wasn't out of line with the average. Quick and dirty leak down of cyl 1 sounded like all air was going past rings, didn't hold pressure except for a few seconds, didn't test other cylinders. During running there has never been noticeable blowby or excessive oil consumption to lead me to a ring land failure. I wanted a warm compression test before pulling engine. Reassembled with og plugs and coils all back in their locations. Used new matched and flow tested 750CC injectors. When fired back up, it started right up, but ran poorly, missing on several cylinders. This time Cyl 4 was dead, intermittent misfires on 1 & 2. I shut it down and haven't messed with it since. Warming the engine on 2.5 cyls seemed like a bad idea.
I think I need to check fuel rail pressure. Sounds like a fuel issue to me, or else all the coil packs need replacing. I got a new fuel pump with the injectors, but haven’t installed yet. The compression numbers were alarming, but inconsistent with the symptoms. Internet opinion was not to trust cold compression on a boosted motor. I hope the rings are not well seated yet. The motor has ~5k on the rebuild at this point. Last 1.5k miles were light driving under only waste gate boost pressure.
What would you do next?
Somewhat unrelated, has anyone pulled the motor and manual trans as a unit? I need to address a trans leak and potential front diff bearing replacement if I pull the motor.
Thanks in advance!