Lead up to NJMP
Ok, it's the end of May and the Glen PCA race is rapidly approaching, so I guess I need to fill in what happened earlier. Right after the NJMP weekend, I had enough time to race prep for the Glen and then immediately left for a week and a half in India for work. Once back in the US, right back into the grind without a letup. Enough with the prologue, on with the race report.
When we last left the car needed a few last-minute items: new belts and window net. In fact, all my safety gear needed updating except for my suit. New helmet, gloves, shoes, belts, it was a very expensive winter getting ready. I put new Schroth 6-point harnesses with the smaller HANS shoulder belts. The next prep item was getting the fresh motor dynoed. I took the car to John Behe at Behe Performance just outside of Baltimore. John is a friend of the 944Cup series and an experienced tuner. His shop is doing the certification of DME's for the cup series. John took the 44 and ran the motor in on the dyno for about an 1/2 hour, tuned the car and burned my chip. The car was running lean as presented, and after fattening up the fuel ratio we picked up almost 20 hp. Now that's tuning!
Once back from John's shop I had one more update for the car. I had bought a Lindsey Racing oil breather kit. This takes the oil vapor from the air/oil separator (AOS) and routes it to a catch tank instead of dumping it back into the intake. That's all well and good for pollution control on a streetcar, but that oil doesn't do my motor and its power output any good.
To get to the oil separator, the intake (and plugs, and fuel rail, etc) had to come off. By now I can do this in my sleep, and must have done so, since I don't remember doing it. The top of the oil separator gets drilled out and a new higher flow connector is added.
Once that is done, all that crap gets put back together again. You can see the top of the AOS just under the light.
All that crap is an appropriate term. After I put it all back together the car ran like crap. It felt like it was dropping a cylinder. After trying a bunch of items, including the application of Dominion Oak Barrel Stout to the chief mechanic, I gave up and went to bed.
The next morning, I took a fresh look and eventually discovered that an intake gasket had slipped out of place while reassembling the bits. I put a dab of grease to hold the gaskets in place while reassembling since you need 4 hands and the dexterity (not the looks) of a monkey to get it all assembled correctly. Once the errant gasket was warned - a note was placed in its permanent file - and positioned correctly, it all went back together, and we had a happy motor again. A few strategic applications of flat black spray paint completed the preparation, and it was rolled into the trailer.
A new racing season was dawning, 2011 and NJMP here we come.
When we last left the car needed a few last-minute items: new belts and window net. In fact, all my safety gear needed updating except for my suit. New helmet, gloves, shoes, belts, it was a very expensive winter getting ready. I put new Schroth 6-point harnesses with the smaller HANS shoulder belts. The next prep item was getting the fresh motor dynoed. I took the car to John Behe at Behe Performance just outside of Baltimore. John is a friend of the 944Cup series and an experienced tuner. His shop is doing the certification of DME's for the cup series. John took the 44 and ran the motor in on the dyno for about an 1/2 hour, tuned the car and burned my chip. The car was running lean as presented, and after fattening up the fuel ratio we picked up almost 20 hp. Now that's tuning!
Once back from John's shop I had one more update for the car. I had bought a Lindsey Racing oil breather kit. This takes the oil vapor from the air/oil separator (AOS) and routes it to a catch tank instead of dumping it back into the intake. That's all well and good for pollution control on a streetcar, but that oil doesn't do my motor and its power output any good.
To get to the oil separator, the intake (and plugs, and fuel rail, etc) had to come off. By now I can do this in my sleep, and must have done so, since I don't remember doing it. The top of the oil separator gets drilled out and a new higher flow connector is added.
Once that is done, all that crap gets put back together again. You can see the top of the AOS just under the light.
All that crap is an appropriate term. After I put it all back together the car ran like crap. It felt like it was dropping a cylinder. After trying a bunch of items, including the application of Dominion Oak Barrel Stout to the chief mechanic, I gave up and went to bed.
 |
| Catch tank on the right, with fat silicon hose to the AOS |
The next morning, I took a fresh look and eventually discovered that an intake gasket had slipped out of place while reassembling the bits. I put a dab of grease to hold the gaskets in place while reassembling since you need 4 hands and the dexterity (not the looks) of a monkey to get it all assembled correctly. Once the errant gasket was warned - a note was placed in its permanent file - and positioned correctly, it all went back together, and we had a happy motor again. A few strategic applications of flat black spray paint completed the preparation, and it was rolled into the trailer.
A new racing season was dawning, 2011 and NJMP here we come.
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