Early work for Sears Pointless

Rod and I did some preliminary work on the car today. It might have been more about drinking beer and talking over the issues, but a few topics were addressed.

The first major issue was to basically see how the engine is doing. The primary tests were inspect the spark plugs and then to do a simple compression test. After some messing around with the spark plug socket all the spark plugs finally came out. Carbon fouling was noticed on all with increasing amount of carbon noticed the closer to the front of the motor we went. The cause of this is not 100% known, but with that much carbon buildup we think we are still running rich. To confirm this I think using the conzult connection will help. Over the holiday Sparky and sons replaced the ECU, but communication with the ECU could not be made. Hopefully Sparky can get this sorted out and we can use the conzult tool to see what the ECU is thinking and doing. In the end this seams to be a fine-tuning issue and not terminal one, so we can at least run like this.

As for the compression testing it went well. Numbers as tested are below:

		Cylinder Number (reading in psi)
		1	2	3	4	5	6
Prep Arse-Freeze	11/14/2010	175	190	180	190	180	200
Post Arse-Freeze	01/09/2011	175	185	180	190	180	180

Reviewing the compression numbers they look even better then first tested. However, I think after the flogging at Arse Freeze, I will just leave it that it doesn’t appear to be a problem. Then after all this testing we put things back together and tried to start it. Good news, it still fires right up and runs.

After the engine, we poked at the transmission issues. We did not touch much and spent the time trying to plan our task. For now we know we need to pull the rear transaxle and driver line. We may also need to pull the transmission if the problem with 4^th gear can’t be determined. The transmission problem could be the clutch, synchronizers or something complete else. We have a second transmission, but know nothing about. So, we will need more work here to see if the problems with the old transmission can be corrected or do we risk the unknown with the new-to-us transmission. Clearly more work is needed here.

The final issue we worked on today is to address the new safety rule on roll bars. As the car is, there is definitely a problem. The rule requires the driver’s helmet have 2” clearance from and around the roll bar. As seen in this picture from Buttonwillow the white cue ball is not only at, but is above the roll cage.

Here is a picture of the interpretation of where the roll bar should be:

So, after some head scratching we think the best solution is to lower the seat and tilt it. We think we can get 5” reduction with this, but not sure that is enough. Here is the before and after.

Before

After

Even with this we may still be in trouble for the bigger drivers (i.e. me). We will have to get the seat mounted, and measure again to see if other clearance action is needed. For drivers this move alone could be a problem. This plan has all the drivers move down 5” from where you where. This is a lot. As Rod is picture, for him to see out the windshield he needs to look through the steering wheel. So, this may lead use to lower the steering wheel. But, that may make getting in and out harder. And if those changes aren’t enough, by lowering the seat, the shoulder seat belts will be mounted to high for many of the drivers. So, we then may need to add or move a roll bar to the cage hoop to be compliant. Wow, and that is what we know of right now. This rule change really hurts, but I think this will work and we can get this thing to pass tech.

Well that is what I am telling myself tonight, so I can go to bed.

Muddy