As previous stated we missed most of this season due to breakages,the team decided that it might be a good idea to find someone who knows these engines inside out to have a look at it and see if they can find out what the problems are that keep us from getting through a whole meeting without doing damage. through a friend of a friend we found our guru Simon who doesn't live too far away from where our car is stored.
The engine was left with him and it wasn't too long when he got back in touch with Steve to give a list of the problems he found. It was a long list!!!! first of all the valves were too big for the valve seats so once the new valves turned up the chambers were opened up and the seats re-cut to suit the valves, we asked him to port the heads properly for us this is when he found the heads were mis-matched, they were the same numbers but there was probably a length of time between them as the internal castings were different, this probably explains the temperature difference between the two, so after a lot of machining we had matching heads again, The main bearings were too wide and had been catching on the crank, there was no end plate and shims or bearing on the end of the cam shaft to stop it "Walking" the timing marks were way out and the top of the bores had been chamfered to aid piston fitting the problem being that this left very little meat for the head gasket to seal on so the block was decked to rid us of the chamfer and a thicker head gasket ordered. We also needed stud girdles on the heads to stop the studs being pulled out under stress...phew! So a lot of parts were needed and a lot of machining to get the engine to a usable state, this is why it has taken so long to get the engine back.
A couple of weeks back we got a message and picture to let us know the work was done, shame it couldn't have been a couple of weeks earlier and we could have run at Shaky one more time before it shuts for good. More on that later.
Simon must have been bored as he also cleaned the motor up and painted it for us. Anyway after a lot of phone calls and txts we managed to arrange to pick the engine up a few days later and it was put away in the trailer to be fitted in the car later..or when the weather gets a little better.
We have our fingers crossed that the car will go a lot better and be one hell of a lot more reliable for the future. The plan for this season was to try and run a 7 second blast and then at the end of the season to let other members of the team have a go in the car to get used to it as next year I will be leaving the Country,As I am no longer the owner of the team just the team Capitan it is my job to get Steven comfortable in the car so he can take over the driving for msa events by the end of next season and maybe Dave for the RWYB type events, we will see.
Having read recently all the info on what is happening at Long Marston Airfield (Shaky) it would appear that the deal is done and racing has finished now it is a great shame in fact it is a tragedy but there is not much anyone can do about it.
Last weekend was the annual Wild Bunch end of season Christmas "Do", which as always was a great event and very well organised I didn't expect to win anything as we hadn't run much but there were other prizes that I thought we might be in with a shout with like the persistence award as we had blown the motor up three times but not given up and rebuilt it every time on top of which we had also turned up at some events without the car to support the Wild Bunch, and there was the "Big Bang" award and seeing that we had blown our motor up three times I thought we were in with a shout for that as well but sadly no we came away empty handed. But we did have a good time.
So still lots to do for the team, the engine has to go back in ad the car needs to be checked over ready for running on the brand new super smooth and very fast new concrete track at the Pod,
Above photos courtesy of Santa Pod Raceway
Safety gear has to be checked and I think it's about time we got the tag put on our car, so one way or another next season is going to be interesting and exciting...bring it on!!!!!!
