Post Mortem from Arse-Freeze and Moving Forward

Well...   50% checkers at Are-Freeze with all of that coming from the D.  Steady Eddie, just keeps going.  I do want to thank all for the nice weekend.  We did well with what you were given.  Also, would like to thank our Paddock neighbor, Dan with My Fairlady Mopar.  Sorry about your troubles, but look forward to racing with you again shortly.

As for our jalopies, today we had a crew that was able to evaluate the aftermath of the Arse-Freeze race.  A quick check with the D and it is no worse for wear.  Engine compression test was:

        1: 180 psi, 2: 180 psi, 3: 170 psi 4: 180 psi

Which after 14 races is starting to be quite impressive.  Additional work included an inspection of the brakes, which resulted in a pad change.  So, all is well and the D is ready for the punch list for  the next race.

The Z, well we have some work to do.  This shot tells the tell of distribution of work on the two cars:

The biggest trouble on the Z was exploring the source of the water in the exhaust system.  It became clear when we pulled the exhaust manifold, that cylinder port number 6 was the trouble.  Then looking in that port, there was a, "well, there's your problem" statement.  There is a hole in the exhaust port, that exposes the coolant chamber around cylinder head as a result of over exuberant porting work.   Here is the grizzle shot.

So, now we are exploring the option to TIG weld the hole in the head.  (If only holes in heads were this easy to fix)  To do that we definitely need more room, so the engine was pulled out.  We now move on to the more difficult part which is  finding "friends" that might be able to help us.  

This also does not mean our work with the Z is limited to just this problem.  We have rear suspension, front sway bar adjustments, power steering to add, and a full list of other items that we need to look into.

For now we will start with the hole patching and go from there.

Sun is down

I think there are 20 min left in the day.  We have packed up the pits (and the Z). 

The Miata has run well all day. Since we gave everyone a chance to drive today, too many pit stops to really improve our standings. Each pit stop we fall back to mid 40th place (out of 180) and but the end of the run we are usually around 37th. Lugnut is out there now putting down very nice times and hanging with some quick cars. 

Check that. Race over early.  And yes. 37th place with no issues today. 

Day 2

The Miata is running great. We are starting our second driver change with muddy going in the car. Sun is out but so is the wind which drove us to pull the awnings before we had to chance them across the paddock. 

Trying to keep the video running, will reset with each pit stop.

Day 1 summary

Day 1 wrapped up with one car running and one car not. Here is the butcher's bill.

The D ran flawlessly all day, and we are now doing the standard checks for the end of the day. 

The Z however is done for the weekend. 

Lugnut came in towards the end of his session with the car overheating. The track workers came by as well to let us know that steam was coming out of the car. Hmmm we now know where the water was going. 

I ran to the store to get some guaranteed head gasket repair. We all cracked up at the way the measure the size of the whole and wondered what it means if we are loosing gallons per minute. 

However when we went to use it, it was obvious that the hole has grown in size and wasn't going to be patched easily.

We were loosing water at a out the same rate we could put it in.  There is some suspicion that the porting work on the exhaust before we put the engine may have cut away too much material instead of having a head gasket issue as we don't have water going anywhere else.

So.... The Z is parked for the rest of the weekend.  It was a glorious start to the engine swap and I don't think we will go back, just go forward and work out the issues that this one has. 

The D has been running flawlessly and we will prep it to carry us through tomorrow.  

Driver changes

Muddy came back in with high temps. We were very low on coolant, so refilled him and sent him out. Everyone of course very worried about where the water went as there was no visible leak nor anywhere that we could see evidence of a leak. 

So we filled him up and sent him back out. 

20 minutes later, we cycled both cars through the pits and changed drivers. 

Queen is out in the D and Lugnut is out in the Z. 

We were a little low on water, and the thinking was the radiator cap. So we refilled, changed the cap and send Lugnut out. 

Back on track

We have a new right rear suspension and alignment done. Queen is back in the track. The car wouldn't start without a jump, so the mornings starting issues are looking more and more like a dead battery.  Could also be a fuel issue where we need to get some fuel in the intake. 

On the D, Picasso had a clean run and Torch is now out on the track driving.

Hoped for driver order for the day as well.

Broken parts

So there's your problem...

At least it isn't an electrical problem

Queen got tagged in the rear in the chicane. And the car now has at least an extra 5 degrees of camber.  A quick inspection shows that she was hit on the rear tire and the top control arm bent.  Lugnut is now removing the suspension and we'll put the spare parts on the car.

Race day

The cars are ready to go, that is the good news. 

Also good news, the car is fast. Plenty of test day stories generated yesterday of what Marc Donahue describes as the joy of the high horsepower pass. We'll see if the drivers use that power wisely today ...

The Z yesterday had the worrying tendency to cut out from time to time and it chose right after the track was black flagged to not start for Torch. 

We have a suspect crankshaft sensor.  Suspect in that the original sensor was sheared off when we got the motor.  Since we didn't have a proper connector I had rigged up a connector from misc parts that sort of worked together and it was the source of not being able to start when we first tried the engine in the car. So a trip to oreily was in order and I picked up a new sensor. We still don't have a proper connector so a dremmel, solder and epoxy were used this time to create a much more solid connection. If it continues to be a problem, it isn't the electrical connection today!  It might be electrical interference however as the wire run is a lot longer given the changes needed for converting from RHD to LHD.  I have my fingers crossed that is starts and runs today. 

Oil came out in great shape.

The rear diff is geared from the 300 transmission vs where the engine came from. So we are driving 3rd, 4th and 5th gear instead of 2nd,3rd and 4th and the shift points around the track are a good bit different from where they were. I'm sure everyone will sort that out today. 

We seem to be consuming brakes faster than usual. Not a huge surprise given the engine changes, just hoping pads will last a day, and that we don't have have to swap them at mid day both days. 

Sun is up and waiting for the crew.

Race Video

We are hoping to keep the video running on the car all weekend (while the car is on track anyways).  To that end we have upgraded the phone we use the to drive the system.  The video can be found on the recast.me site under the 24 hours of lemons, but this link should work to get you directly to our car.  https://live.racecast.me/profile/577185b358bc560ca359e803

Time to test

Test time is limited today so we are focusing on making sure all the work on the Z actually does work.  Muddy is waiting inline for the stewards to declare the track hot. Then we plan on one lap at a time testing. I for one am delighted the car even starts and hoping my work continues to provide electrons in the right places at the right time. I'm sure whatever I missed will be obvious once we find issues, but I have crossed fingers for now. 

Paddock Spot For the Weekend

We have land in the area west of the grandstand.  Now onto the weekend. 

Welcome to Sonoma Raceway

We had a little rocky start.  This morning we went to start the RV and nothing.  So after trying to get accesses to the batteries up front was blocked, so access to the system through the generator.  After some bonding time with Daws we were up and running. 

We have now landed, set up camp and headed to tech.