The Inevitable Happened to my Boss (Blue Power to the Rescue)

[XR_Strider_GuY]

What a weekend. So bloody ironic I made the thread recently in the workshop section about Boss Engines for the long run.

Well my car has been towed on a flatbed back home. Very gutted as I look after the thing to within an inch of its life, change oils every 5k with fully synthetic using the best oil filter. I really wanted to keep this engine factory original and its showroom clean, not a leak, not a mark, no rounded bolts no chips of the paint in the engine bay, rocker cover and all plastics blackened.

Going a nice Saturday drive, there is an all mighty noise from the engine after driving off a set of lights (very moderate to gentle takeoff as there was plenty of traffic. Ironic, I pulled up right along side New Oak Ford. Did not want to risk driving it so i got it towed from there to home. I will get a 2nd tow to Blue Power tomorrow.

From my assessment, its either a broken timing chain guide and/or tensioner or if lucky collapsed HLA which means only the rocker cover will come off.
I am optimistic the heads do not have to come off and the engine is fine.

Tomorrow it will be in the hands of the best people in the business for Boss engines and a proper diagnosis will be done.

Cheers,
Gary.

[FPV8U]

You couldn't be taking it to a better place, Chris and Theo know all there is to know about these things and more.

Hope it turns out to be nothing too major.

[tex]

Bad luck mate, sometimes stuff like this can't be prevented.

You've managed the issue very well so far, I'll be keeping tabs on what has failed. While tilt traying a car seems like the LAST resort while the car is still running - it is often the smart move and may very well have minimised the associated damage.

[Polyal]

Yeah thats sucks, sorry to hear.

I dare you to walk away from that place without a mod

edit: I thought you had a BF and that they were pretty much rock solid?

[tweeked]

Good Luck........ You have given it every chance by not trying to get home in it. Hoping for the best for you.

[XR_Strider_GuY]

Originally Posted by Polyal

edit: I thought you had a BF and that they were pretty much rock solid?

Mine is a very very late BA MKII Sep 2005 build. Should technically have all the upgraded parts, metal tensioners, revised cylinder heads for cooling all fitted. I thought it was as solid as a rock until the weekend.

[SpoolMan]

Best factory example of a Boss on the road IMO, sorry to hear Garry lets hope you don't have to dig to deep...

[Theo@BluePower]

Originally Posted by SpoolMan

Best factory example of a Boss on the road IMO, sorry to hear Garry lets hope you don't have to dig to deep...

I would have to agree .. this car you would say is over maintaned... we will be haing a quick look under the covers early today to see what has gone wrong..
We will be doing our best to keep the costs down..

[Theo@BluePower]

Ok i have a update on what has happened...

The passenger side metal tensioner has broken a mounting bolt which had let the tensioner turn and in turn not given tension to the cam chain.
Also we have found that the drivers side bolts were also loose.
The best news is that the engine did not loose timing so at this stage looks like all the valves will be fine and a cheap repair.

While pulling this apart it does not look like anyone as done tensioner to this car so i would guess that they were installed from factory..

My hat goes off to gary for turning the car off before damage was done as this could have turned out to be very $$$$

I have attached a couple of pics.. you can see how the tensioner is turned

[Polyal]

Well that could have been alot worse.

Gary I assumed BF because of Bionic (one of my fav colours), must be a very late BA.

Its a good thing the BPR airboxs look stealthy, im sure he wont notice if you pop it in when he goes for a test drive before picking it up

[gtfpv]

very interesting thread , well done to all involved , great find , great prevention , and honest diagnosis . cheers .

[data_mine]

Yeah, very lucky/prudent of Gary to one not be on the highway fanging along, and two do a quick shut down to prevent major damage.

[Theo@BluePower]

Well good news... car is finished and started.. everything seem fine ...

[SpoolMan]

Good job Chris & Theo, have you seen this happen before?

[Theo@BluePower]

First for me and chris .. and even ryan who has worked for 9 years at a ford dealership.. very strange

[XR_Strider_GuY]

The strangest things can happen in the world of cars and in this case good knowledge for Boss owners. A big Thanks for Chris and Theo for looking after the XR8.
Guess I can count my lucky stars on this occasion that I noticed this when it happened.
Hope to pick her up tomorrow all nice and well and running 100%. Once again a big Thank you to the Blue Power staff for looking after the XR8.

[tex]

Good outcome.

[GT]

I have the same model (BA MK2 GT-P 2005) and mine came with plastic tensioners and a Dealership upgraded to the metal under Warranty when they became an ugly problem. Whoever changed these in this car (if this was the case but if a GTP came with plastic, it is hard to imagine an XR8 comes with metal), has perhaps not done a super job. Would have been done in a Dealership as Warranty, I would suspect. Ford will have a record of this if it was the case. I am not sure at what point metal were fitted as a factory practice and I would be interested to hear if Ford have any record of these being changed.

Cheers
Gaela

[XR_Strider_GuY]

Hi All,

An update. Got the car back. The tensioner has been tightened and fixed. The car has developed a miss fire. Chris and myself have noted this and discussed. Best path is to wait till next Tuesday for further diagnosis. o2 sensors have been changed for a precaution and still the same. Coils were swapped accordingly and same result.

My feeling driving the car, it certainly does not feel as smooth. Before the tensioner let go I can confirm that the car never had a miss fire in its life. Feels like there is a cam in the car in the whole rev range without the power.

Cylinder heads have been revised with new cooling passages on my model to the new versions eliminating any issues with the infamous piston 8. In fact Blue power did a compression test on cylinder 8 and came up very healthy.

Path from here is to look at compression of each cylinder (just to be sure) and then from there if compression is good it must be electrics or an injector/injector wiring.

So the wait continues, but I am confident Chris and the boys will find the issue without taking a cylinder head off.

[my_gxl]

Any updates?

[Theo@BluePower]

Our final diagnosis after a battery of tests is the clutch has also suffered, and has put everything out of balance.