Mosport Bound ?

Since I haven't been attacked by the pit viper of death yet, let's update the recent garage activities. Following the Watkins Glen debacle, the motor was pulled, disassembled and sent out to the machines shop. Since the crank took a hit when the #2 rod bearing failed, I sent another crank to have that one cross-drilled. Otherwise I would have to have the old one turned and move to oversize bearings. Luckily the precious valves were only lightly zinged and the shop was able to straighten them. The plan is to get the parts back and rebuild the motor again.

Meanwhile, to keep the moss from growing in the garage, I embarked on a plan to turn dross into gold, ie spare parts car motor into the race car. Some of the trials and tribulations have been discussed in recent posts. By working nights after the day job, and all weekend I was closing in. My goal was to be ready by Thursday, so I could do a track day with Schattenbaum at NJMP on Friday. I wasn't going to tow 11+ hours to the frozen north with an untested car and motor.

A mild rebuild was done on the bottom end. Nothing was done to the head or camtower. Belts were fine and didn't need adjusting. New rod bearings were inserted. About 10 lbs of crud, mud and grease were removed. The balance shaft plugs got gooped up since they were leaking badly and I didn't have time to redo the seals. If it looked like it might leak, it got gooped. All the rest of the good parts from my race motor were installed: clutch and bell housing, exhaust headers, intake, a/c delete kit, alternator, AFM, vacuum lines, fuel rail, injectors, ignition wires, distributor cap, water hoses, etc.

The week was filled with challenges: a clutch pilot bearing that needed replacement on Tuesday - Fairwinds Porsche was able to get delivery from the distributor by lunchtime and the motor was done and ready to insert at the end of Tuesday evening.

Wed evening, the race car was rolled into the garage - it helps to have a garage at the bottom of a steep driveway: Pull it out of the trailer and launch it down the hill. The cross-member was dropped, and the motor lifted into the engine cavity.

Those who work on 944's know that the tricky part is the mating of the torque tube (drivetrain) with the motor. If you live an exemplary life; kind to kids and small animals, turn off your cell phone in the movies, etc, this will take about 10-15 minutes. On the other hand, if you're like me, this step was still in progress 2 hours later.

The pit awaits ...

Up with the lift, down with lift, up with the engine crane, down with the crane, up on the load leveler, down with the load leveler. Under the car and pushing with my feet while pulling down on something. All for naught.

 Finally around midnight, the gods took pity on me and it slid in part way. Far enough, that I could start the 4 bolts and draw it in. Battered, bloody and tired, I sprawled underneath the car, but it was in. Time to quit for the night. I took one last look around and saw ... my clutch slave cylinder. Somehow it didn't look right. A closer look and, oh no, all that banging and thrashing had broken it. It must have gotten caught in one of the pushes and shoves. I was doomed, but too tired to think about it. Only one day left to finish, otherwise Mosport was a no go. I went to bed.

Got Power?

The last time I visited NJMP I bought electricity for the weekend. I camp in the trailer AKA the Red Motel. I've got A/C or heat, a cot and flat screen TV. If I have WiFi, I have Netflix, so it isn't exactly roughing it, but neither is it the Four Seasons. Typically it's around $25-35 for camping and the power hookup for the weekend. This day however, they wanted $75 Ouch! I know they are under bankruptcy proceedings, but come on...

The next race weekend I visited Watkins Glen. We stayed at a hotel, but one of the reasons is power is hard to find there. Coming up is Mosport, which has one sorry outlet for the entire paddock. Usually with 15 power cords hooked up. Since my visit to Mosport is last minute, its looks like I'm camping out. So time to do something.

Something became a Yamaha 2400iSHC generator. This is one of those ultra quiet generators, like the Honda eu2000i. 20 feet way you can barely hear it. The cool thing about this one is the power surge capacity. When a big appliance, like my A/C compressor starts, it draws a big load to start the motor. Usually this is the killer for small generators. They can run them once they are going, but can't get them started. I have one of the standard 13,500 BTU RV a/c units mounted in my trailer. This Yamaha baby is designed to handled that start-up surge and then throttle back. Yamaha claims it can run about 95% of those RV A/C units out there. All I know, is it works with mine. Mosport, here we come!

Can't a girl get some privacy?

So I'm under the parts car, unbolting this, unscrewing that, in preparation for dropping the motor. Since this isn't a repair, but a removal I'm just cutting the old a/c and power steering belts to get them out of the way. So I have a wrench on a bound up bolt on the power steering assembly and I shift my position towards over to the left side, backing up against the driver's side tire to get some leverage. I can see the A/C belt dangling in my peripheral vision as I'm applying pressure on the wrench.

Loose belts or something more sinister?

All of a sudden, the A/C belt starts wiggling. WTF? I'm distracted, concentrating on my bolt removal job, don't want to smash my knuckles when it lets go. Next I hear "hissssssssss......ssssssss". What? I turn my head and 6 inches away, staring right at me is a 10 foot long black pit viper of death! Holy shit! I jerk back, smacking my head of course and scramble from underneath the car.

After a few seconds I reconsider my original impressions. It might not be a black viper of death, or even 10 feet long. But it definitely is a snake and not an a/c belt.

In theory, I'm a fan of snakes. They eat lots of bugs, and small varmints and provide amusement for my huskies in the yard. That said, I don't know any snakes on a first name basis. So I went to the kitchen for my bar-q-que grill tongs and removed Ms. Snake from where she was coiled up in the brake rotor. It wasn't a happy removal, she questioned my ancestry and my mechanic skills, but I persevered. I released her in the driveway and pointed her toward the bushes where I'm sure she will be lurking in the future.

Afterwards I realized why she was so upset. Rude person that I am, I had barged into her dressing room. She was changing into her new summer clothes. My bad.

I Hate Working on Street Cars

So with the current lump off at the machine shop/beauty salon where it's being shampooed and rinsed of all the rod bearing confetti, my attention turns to the parts car that's been sleeping under a car cover for the last several months. This is the wrecked 89 I bought in February with a working 2.7 motor.

I went into the Watkins Glen weekend tied for 2nd in 944 Cup North with Alan Cohen, and Bob Page in 1st. Not racing that weekend dropped me like a rock down to 8th.  Mosport is at the end of June, with 3 points races. Missing Mosport would put a major hurting on my championship run. So, while I'm rebuilding the motor again, why not drop in the motor from the parts car and go racing. The original plan was to pull the motor, and rebuild it over the off-season, and then put it on the shelf. Don't have time for that now, so lets pull it, do the rod bearings, bolt on my good auxillary parts, and drop it into the racecar. Mosport is in 2 weeks, lets see if I make it.

There's been some preliminary parts stripping so far, but nothing major. I rolled the car into the garage Tuesday, and today was the first chance to start working on it.


First order of business is to drop the exhaust. Piece of cake right? On my race car, takes me about 5 minutes once it's up on the lift.

But this isn't my race car is it? It's a street car that has sat for the last year after it got crunched. The exhaust is probably original. And nothing, I mean nothing, has ever had anti-seize applied to it.

An hour and half later, it's finally off the car. 3 snapped bolts - which were a good thing, saved me from more trouble; gnarly, rusted, rounded off bolts and more, the full gauntlet was encountered.

A short list of tools used:

multiple wrenches
multiple sockets and extensions
wobble sockets and extensions
vise grips
propane torch
PB Blaster
hammers, multiple
a very large crowbar
air powered cutting wheel
beer
bandaids

And since I'm drinking heavily now, probably more that I've forgotten.

But perseverance and a lowering of IQ points from the PB Blaster fumes resulted in another man over machine triumph in the end.

Here's what awaits me ...

The rest of the car looks pristine right? I can't wait for more fun later. But first, beer, sleep, work and then back to this.

The autopsy

Back in the garage, I drained my oil in preparation in yanking the lump. This is what was sticking to the magnet in the oil drain plug.

Not a good sign - cue the ominous organ music

A long, hot and sweaty afternoon - we're in a heat wave here, no a/c in the garage - had the motor out and ready for examination.

I think I've done this before

Fast forward to all settled on the engine stand, flip it upside down and pull the oil pan. Let take a look!

Nasty. Looks like somebody dropped a bunch of metal confetti into my oil pan to be sucked up into the oil pickup tube.

Further investigation reveals the culprit, the dreaded #2 spun rod bearing. Despite the oil pan modifications, despite the cross-drilled crank, here's what's left:

This is what it should look like:

And since the bearing failed, the piston wasn't tightly held to the crank anymore, so it was free to flop around and bang against my values. That was probably the rattling sound we heard in the car. By then it was too late to save the motor.

Note the two shiny new dents in the piston. The valves are probably bent also. Cha-ching!

So Doctor, what's the medical report? Can the patient be saved?

Hmmm, caressing his goatee (or soul-patch for the kids) "I think we need to strip the block bare, pressure clean all the confetti bits out, do a head job, and reassemble from scratch and maybe, ... maybe it will live again. BTW, cash only, I don't do Medicare"

Glen 2011

So, the Glen weekend is over and I had a coach. What did I learn?

Well, I learned that 1) as a driver, I don't suck   2) as an engine builder, the jury is still out.

After an uneventful tow to Watkins Glen, I showed up at the track bright and early Thursday morning, got registered and teched, and met Dave Scott of Racecoach.net. Dave would be coaching me and Tyler Comat, another 944 Cup driver. Dave would be riding in car with Tyler and I on Thursday in the Metro NY Drivers Education, and then do data analysis on Friday when the race weekend starts.

Tyler Comat (left) and Dave Scott

As a old guy I know I won't be fast right out of the gate, I need to sneak up on my speed. Plus I haven't been to the Glen since last year, so I left my 14 heat cycle Hoosiers on the car, planning to swap them out for good rubber the next session. Dave was charitable on my driving: "I can tell you were just knocking off the rust" ...  but he had some good observations and a plan for the next session.

The plan was based around two action points: a) smooth the transitions from brake to throttle and vice versa; less porpoising of the car and more a gentle squatting and having it take a set - not that my car is pogo'ing up & down like a lowrider, we're talking refinements here.   b) adjusting the attitude of the car entering turns by a few degrees and trail braking to the apex. I already trail brake on some corners of some tracks, but not really much at the Glen. Starting with session 2 that was going to change.

The pedal transitions I picked up fairly quickly, as I was already smooth, and once I had my attention directed to it I was able to make changes. Now the trail braking part was a bit challenging. I had no problems jumping right in and trying but it totally screwed up my timing for the corners, usually resulting in arriving early. Which stands to reason, since I'm carrying more braking into the corner, I need to brake later than I normally would. Occasionally I got it right, and Dave seemed happy with the improvement in the car's altitude in the corners.

Since this was a Drivers Education day, I was running in the Black run group where the region dumped all the club racers. So it was plenty busy with tons of 911 Cup cars blowing by me everywhere. So with lots of traffic, Dave yammering in my headset, trying new techniques, trying to critically analyze my driving and, oh yeah, manage the task of driving a race car at 100 mph around a track with blue armco just off the track surface, it was a busy time in the car. As Keith Code would put it, I was spending my full budget of $1 worth of my attention.

Coming into the Toe of the Boot (turn 7), in the back of my mind I could hear an unusual noise in the car. At the same time I had 3 very fast Cup cars on my tail and I was busy letting them by as I pushed off the apex. They put the hammer down and blew past me. They were LOUD! and the last car was really loud. I remember thinking that car definitely has an off note on his exhaust. Dave asks me "you hear that rattling?" and as he does, I realize it's not the cup car but me! I vary the throttle and the noise varies, just then Dave shouts "oil pressure" I scan my gauges and see my giant ! light all lit up and my oil pressure is zero. I kill the motor and steer to the side of the track next to the armco.

It's quiet in the country, just crickets and the occasional 911 GT3 Cup car passing by.

Finally the tow truck arrives. My tow hook is attached to my lightened bumper that had the heavy shock mounts removed and replace with some lightweight steel tubing. The bumper is solid in the horizontal plane, but the mounts are a little smaller than the original so there is some play in the vertical. The tow truck guys are concerned that my bumper is going to come flying off when they pull. I reassure them but they don't look convinced. The tow strap tightens as it loads up, everybody is staring intently at my bumper when suddenly the strap goes flying! Everybody ducks. But its not my bumper, it was the part attached to the tow truck. The guys forgot to tie off the tow truck...  After some sheepish grins, they reattach the strap and tow me back to the paddock where my weekend was done before it got started.

944 Cup paddock at the Glen