The last 12 months have been....interesting? to say the least I am talking about every day life, it has been a difficult time for everyone. We have gone form asking if anyone knows of anybody having this dam virus to just about all of us knowing a few people that have had it, both my youngest sons and their families have had Covid. As for racing well who thought we would see any last year? Well done Santa Pod and crew, Steve managed to attend a couple of the events and somehow managed to get the car to go faster and quicker than ever before whilst being held together with jubilee clips, sticky back plastic and duct tape, and using borrowed parts.
Not too shabby considering the team was not going to race at all last year a decision taken before Covid raised it's ugly head. So as usual during the so called "Off Season" the team have been busy. As already stated in the previous update we had to sort out the valve train so new bigger stronger springs have been ordered and have arrived along with the spring cups the retainers are on order and should arrive soon along with the setting tool.
So just waiting for two more bits to arrive then the heads will be removed form the engine and taken to have the spring seats enlarged to take the bigger springs once this is done we can then remove the rev limiter from the engine which is and has been set at 7000rpm since Dragstalgia 2019. We have had to special order the head gaskets from Cometic as the ones we use are 80 thou thick they are also on their way along with new inlet gaskets. While doing some investigation work Steve also came across another problem or two, the first being that we have been using the wrong coil.
We have been using the one on the left with our MSD 6 ignition system and it produces around 40% less power then the recommended unit which is on the right, so the new coil is now on order also while reading up on all this Steve found that we have been using the wrong plug gap for our engines compression ratio in fact we have been gaping the plugs to twice the recommended size, new plugs on order as well.
The replacement fuel pipes for the injectors have been delivered along with a new three fuel way shut off valve the rest of the fuel pipes are going to be checked soon and replaced if necessary. and we have a Hans device ready to use.
That lot along with the replacing the body panel retainers with more substantial items that want keep falling off on the start line and a replacement screen as I keep cracking ours with my knee getting out of the car and new puke tanks that's about it for the car.
The trailer need work the rear end needs a few more supports and we still have to re seal the body to stop water ingression one of the things we really really need to do is already in hand as a diesel night heater is on the way and the solar charging system for the leisure battery is nearly done, and for the truck an air assist system for the rear suspension has also been ordered and is on the way.
So as you can see a lot of work is in progress or has been completed on the race car and the trailer and truck, I am looking forward to seeing the car perform so much better this coming season both Steve and I have only one concern..can we keep her on the track and pointing in the right direction??. This coming race season Steve will once again be doing double duty as crew chief and driver for most of the season with Dave crewing as always, and hopefully our back up girl Diana will also be on track with the team I am still hoping to get over and drive at Dragstalgia but there's is a lot of buts!..Covid permitting, vaccine certificate's, travel etc etc we will see. Lets hope this year goes ahead without any more problems and we get to race without any more problems.
