My car's transmission recently died 14 hours away from home, which was then followed by a huge ordeal to get it fixed and then back home, but I got it back this week, and it was up and running again, well, sort of...

For the first while back I hadn't ran the piss out of it, but I ran it hard. I started running it harder and harder, and then I began to notice that it was cutting out at higher boost levels. At first it was more or less, "WTF? Something's not right, let's see if it goes away." Yeah, lesson learned...

I started checking everything over system by system. First off, fuel. Decided to take my Innovate Wideband controller out of the glove box and recalibrate the sensor to open air. I then grabbed a friend and had them keep an eye on the AFR while I drove. While he read out the AFR output, I damn near crapped my pants. The whole time I was back, from the crossover into boost and onward, unknowingly, the AFR was in the neighborhood of 17:1-18:1 (the 18:1 would explain the cut). There was probably a total of 20-30 punches done at this ratio. The valve on the FMU must have got knocked, bumped or adjusted when the car was out of my possession. F me.

There's no "noticeable" damage to the motor, it didn't misfire, and it runs fine, but that's still far from comforting to me. I always run 94 octane fuel (the highest we have around here) with one bottle of octane booster added to every tank, the turbo is intercooled, and the pistons ceramic-coated. All that would have helped to some extent to battle the heat, but the motor only has 7000 KMs (about 4500 Miles) on it, hence the reason I'm sleepless and up in the middle of the night right now.

I'm going to have a look at the plugs tomorrow (I will most likely have to replace them) and check the compression as well, so we'll see how that goes. If everything's good, well, I'll be pretty frickin' happy, if it's not, I think it will take me to my breaking point with this car lately, and something's getting kicked, punched, smashed or body-slammed.

So, if your car is ever in someone else's hands for any amount of time, check everything over twice before you drive it.

*Note to Self* Thanks

Luckily you have forged pistons. they can take a pretty big beating but are NOT bulletproof. same as with the rods.

Had this been a stock motor the first time you would have hit boost it would have went BOOM!

I would pull the plugs and check compression. See if you can get your hands on a boroscope and peak in the cylinders. Also check your oil for any metal shavings at that much detonation can toast the bronze bushings on the small end of the rods.

Im not ever buying a innovative WB. i do not want to EVER have to pull it to calibrate it like that.

Alright, so I just pulled the plugs, and all plugs showed the exact opposite of what you would see in a lean burn scenario. The same held true for all plugs:

-noticeable carbon deposits covering entire tips (characteristic of a rich mixture)
-no gap deformities
-no burnt or melted electrodes
-no oil on tips
-no cracks or chips

That's only Step 1 though. I'm just letting the car warm up right now, and then I'm going to test the compression. It's like I just told my girlfriend, "If something's wrong, I'm going to snap, just so you know, but if everything is good, I'm taking off for the next hour to drive around with a big-ass smile on my face."

Cross your fingers folks.

best of luck man, hope all is well.

Well, the verdict is:

I will be out for the next hour or so driving my car around with a big-ass $hit-grin on my face.

Measurements of 210 across the board (with zero deviation amongst cylinders) when the stock adapter was used, 180 with the 14mm thread adapter (current plug thread size).

So, thanks to all.

Next up to potentially cause problems, methanol injection (should be here by Friday).