TWS, race recap

[michaelmosty]

Well, what has happened so far?

[ShadowBolt]

Well, what has happened so far?

I'm at home pulling the motor again. Melted two plug grounds. No compression on number four. Vacuum leak. I got the top ready tomorrow I will pull the trans and engine and see what the Fu%@ happened. Guess what I need to borrow again?




JJ

[RichardP]

Well, what has happened so far?

Some dude with a hangover didn't bother to show up for a "really early" 2:00 pm Sunday race start time and the racing at the front of the CMC pack suffered for it...


:-)


Dan won 3 of 4 and got both poles. He was leading on the last lap of the other race when the engine coughed and Proctor zoomed by. There were some good battles and passes at the front but in a straight up fight, Dan had Proctor's number (mostly in turn 1). If there was a third car in the mix, I bet it would have been more interesting and the results could have been much different.


Looking forward to more racing excitement at Hallett...


Richard P.

[GlennCMC70]

Off the top of my head we had 21 AI/CMC cars. Lost some on Friday and some more from Sat practice to Sunday R1. Nice turn out.

Well I showed up w/ junk rear tires. Ended up dropping 25lbs of spring rate in the rear. Should have dropped 50lbs. I had nothing for the other two. Never dropped below 2 seconds all weekend. Had fun running w/ the mid pack guys. I hoped you guys did as well.
Last race I rolled out on track to discover my belts were not all latched (correctly). I struggled for a few turns and waived everyone by. Took two trips through the pits to get it fixed. Fell into the rear a lap down and raced w/ those guys. I hope you guys were OK w/ that.

Thanks to all who provided parts (Francis) and troubleshooting assist (Morgan and Casey). Had a coil fail in Q2 and only got one lap before it bit the dust. DF - I'l get your parts back to you.
I had fun all weekend. I was very worn down mentally from work the week before and I had been out of town all week prior to race weekend. I just didn't have alot of drive this weekend.
Congrats to Dan and James. I think there are a few Mid-pack Slackers who have been promoted to Trophy Queens. Congrats to Frank for the enduro win.
More later.

[AllZWay]

It was definitely Dan The Man weekend. I didn't have much for him all weekend. We had a good battle in R3 for sure until his car coughed on the last lap.

Thanks to Randy for allowing me to drive his car in the Enduro. 888's are terrible....but it was fun anyway.

Congrats to Frank for the Enduro win.

[Fbody383]

Woo Hoo, didn't hit anybody or anything. Got there later than desired on Friday waiting on the boy-child and friend to get out of school. Chased some brake issues on Saturday including rears down to the backing plates. Shameless plug for the pressurized brake bleeder that I borrowed from Ole English ~ gotta get me one of those. I had lowered the car a little and put some shock back in the front and the car was at least driveable. Continued to make minor changes in front height and tire pressure and almost had a decent car.

Went so far off in 8 in race 2 that turn 10 called it in.

Ben was rolling around with no camber so we worked on that. WWR kept changing panhard mounts because of that awesome rule.

On Sunday the car had puked a little water in the garage and then was showing 'warm' on grid for qual. I went out and once I hit the hot pits, the temps came right down. Added a little water and it was 'warm' for race 3 but nothing that hampered my mad driving skillz. Topped it off for race 4 and all was well until the last lap when it got hot enough to pull a bunch of power and give up 4 spots limping in. Car died pulling into the garage and proceeded to puke whatever water was left when it blew the cap off the over flow tank. Let it sit a while as we all loaded up and got some help (John 'The Sandbagger' Lingle and Dr. Frank) pushing it onto a trailer/truck combo. Tried to start it when I got home and the starter won't turn the motor over.

Can we postpone Hallett a couple more weeks?

[cobra132]

Wow, what a weekend. I really needed it. Showed up with no crew but a really cool fuel rig and squeaked out an enduro win for AI/CMC. Thanks to Jerry, Eddie and everyone who helped out, that was the key to beating those miatas. For the sprint races, I had a blast mixing it up with Casey and Jim. Nothing but fun. Could not keep up with Casey, he drove perfectly. Even tried the Patterson mind meld, but that didn't work on him. Congrats for the wins, that was a lot of fun. Found a big bug splat on my camera lens so I don't know how the video will turn out. Sorry about all the mechanicals with Eddie, Mike, Jerry, Jim, Randy, et al. I feel your pain, I hope everything works out. Time to start planning for Hallett. FMR

[smitty328]

What a great time, met lots of good folks. Thanks to everyone for helping out a newbie.

Singned up for Hallet last night.

Bryan, thanks for the contortion act to fix my ground wire.

[Casey_SS]

Whew! Yeah, awesome weekend :) Pulled a bunch of all-nighters last week to get the car ready, loaded up on Friday feeling completely unprepared and expecting to get there and find a bunch of crap I forgot to tighten. Apparently I do my best work on autopilot from no sleep. Car did great except for some minor alternator and power steering issues. Had some really tough battles with Jim and Frank which were an absolute blast. Thanks for the kind words Frank. You were putting some serious pressure on and forced me to run 110% each lap. I was yelling at the start/finish guy to throw the flag after 3 laps :) Your car is amazing - to come out and ironman (much less win) an enduro followed by a full weekend of sprint races with no issues is just phenomenal. Inspirational to say the least. Great job!

I found my camera gremlin and it's name is Johnny. Downloaded 15 videos, all of him playing in the car, turning the camera on and off. I got race 3 and race 4 but the image is all washed out. Need to find a better setup...

Jim is getting scary fast and a lot of fun to race with. It's a shame power steering issues put a dent in his weekend. He was running very strong.

Congrats to Mark on a great rookie weekend! From everything I saw, he was fast, clean, safe, and a great addition to the group. Awesome to see AI growing and I talked to at least 4 others who are planning to race AI soon. This is getting serious...

Thanks to BL for running with us and helping with car count. Very cool of you to do...thanks man.

[Tilton]

Another fun and eventful race weekend in the books. I was able to run a 2:05:xx which was my goal for the weekend.

Had a rock puncture my radiator at the end of race 1 so much loving wife drove up with my old stocker. Since I wasn't going to make race 2, Wade sto...er, borrowed a rear brake line off the car when he noticed his was leaking after race 1. Car was put back together and ready to go that night.

Sunday, after driving to grid for qual, I popped a 150 amp fuse when attempting to start the car with 1 min to go. Though we had fixed the issue, but popped my spare. Eventually we found the start button was touching the metal dash structure behind it and had a nice weld keeping them together. Cut away the offending structure away and with Wade's gold plated/diamond encrust spare fuse, the car made it through the rest of the day with out issue.

A big thanks goes out to Dan, Richard and the rest of the #82 crew for helping with an alignment change and radiator ducting; Wade for all of the I told you so's and the spare fuse; and Randy and Laura for pushing me back to the pits.

Looking forward to Hallet.

[Al Fernandez]

Awesome weekend! Where to start... Lingle has already pattented doing over/under switcharoos through the carousel and 11. The corner workers are on a first name basis with Francis. A 302S in AI?? You guys are all in trouble! That is a beautiful ride, Mark, welcome aboard. Some very interesting and unusual mechanicals this weekend, but super clean racing on the track. I think the only bad part of the weekend was Glenn's failure to find the bottle of Sippin' Hooch!

[GlennCMC70]

If I recall, your legs were fine. It was your lazy ass that failed to find what I made an effort to locate but didn't. Frank said he was bringing it to Hallett.

What is the law about crossing state lines w/ homemade hooch? Don't know, I'm only educated in the recless driving laws you can violate while hauling a 24ft 12000lb trailer.
I'm sure the RM guys can get us up to speed?

[cobra132]

Officer, thats just special racing antifreeze.

[jdlingle]

That's why he doesn't label it Glenn! :cool:

[Fbody383]

Post TWS Update

Good news: was able to push the car into the shop with very little strugge
Ok news: didn't break the damper bolt turning the engine over
Bad new: bolt didn't break because I stopped trying to break it while trying to turn the engine over

** FOR SALE ** LT1 paper weight/door stop kit, local pick up only

I think I now know why they call it a "lump." More to follow.

[jdlingle]

How bout that low cost CMC racing?! ;)

We have been hell on equipment lately.

[GlennCMC70]

Post TWS Update

Good news: was able to push the car into the shop with very little strugge
Ok news: didn't break the damper bolt turning the engine over
Bad new: bolt didn't break because I stopped trying to break it while trying to turn the engine over

** FOR SALE ** LT1 paper weight/door stop kit, local pick up only

I think I now know why they call it a "lump." More to follow.

Pull all the plugs and see which ones squirt water out when you turn it over.

[BryanL]

How bout that low cost CMC racing?! ;)

We have been hell on equipment lately.

Not saying this is a reason but it always seems to surprise me how little people seem to warm their cars up before they hit the track. I always try to get my oil temp up to 140 sitting on grid.

[BryanL]

Man it was great to get back on track only to find out I think I've gotten slower while everyone else is faster. Enjoyed seeing some new guys out running well, too. Hate to see all the carnage though. Rock-what happened-you left pretty quick but thanks for leaving the waters. JJ-take a look at the LM1 air/fuel guage.

Huge thanks to Ole English for the seattime during the Enduro-man you gotta check your brakes out for the wheel hop. Also thanks to English for staying up and helping me put the last minute touches on my car Friday night-I owe you. Car didn't have a single issue all weekend-all I did was plug my water pump (thanks to Frank for the socket extension) and added some ballast from Frank/Glenn. But I learned a lesson about not checking over the car as I never put a jack under it all weekend. While loading the car I noticed a rear swaybar bracket was missing one of the bolts on the u bolt while the other was about to come off. The swaybar seemed pretty loose so even though I don't know if that made much of a difference that is my excuse that I am rolling with along with old rear tires. Thanks to Procter for letting me try his old front shock/spring setup-I'm thinking turn in was more crisp as I seemed to hit the curbs more than normal and it didn't push which made the rear seem looser, too. Should have had Randy working with me more on tire pressures.

Luckily I dodged a bullet on my way down when I found a chunk of tread missing from a trailer tire and was able to nurse it in for the last 30 miles. That was a big reason I left early on Sunday as I anticipated having some tire trouble with the old spare I put on. Didn't have an issue as I slowed down to 66 per Frank's recommendation. I could only check the tire temps by my hand but the tires facing the sun sure were a lot hotter than the other side?

[David Love AI27]

FYI... I put the 3 car on a reliable Dyno, Friday morning.... Average for 3 pulls 207HP/287TQ... I was driving the crap out of it to turn sub 2.05s in the enduro... Everything was old and worn out including me... The tire that broke its belts was from 05...

[mitchntx]

I'm at home pulling the motor again.
JJ

Dude ... I would go kick your engine builder's ass! :D





surprise me how little people seem to warm their cars up before they hit the track.



And how little they do BEFORE getting to the track

[BryanL]

And how little they do BEFORE getting to the track

Ouch. One day that isn't going to be me.

[ShadowBolt]

Dude ... I would go kick your engine builder's ass! :D



Looks like the #8 intake valve tuliped and that is why it had no compression. I just read about several 4.6's in trucks having this issue. Any idea what would cause this?


JJ

[rpoz27]

Looks like the #8 intake valve tuliped and that is why it had no compression. I just read about several 4.6's in trucks having this issue. Any idea what would cause this?


JJ

lack of cooling at the back of the heads... google "crackpipe" for the mod motors and you will see what I did to my 2V....and why it runs at 180 and why it has lasted 6 years.

[edrock96GT]

Just finished my crackpipe mod, but did mine on the intake rather than the head since I had the part to take from the old PO intake. Gonna tee those two outlets together and run them to an auxiliary cooler and then back to the stock heater inlet in the valley behind the water pump.

[rpoz27]

Just finished my crackpipe mod, but did mine on the intake rather than the head since I had the part to take from the old PO intake. Gonna tee those two outlets together and run them to an auxiliary cooler and then back to the stock heater inlet in the valley behind the water pump.

actually T them together and run back to the upper radiator hose. The water in the back of the heads just needs somewhere to go. No need to introduce additional points of failure....

[jdlingle]

I had a great time this weekend racing with everybody. I was able to knock 4 seconds off of my lap times over the course of the weekend. Saturday was pretty rough as I had an exhaust hanger break in race 1 and foudn out that I had a spot welded bracket shaving my aluminum driveshaft, then in rtace two the car wouldnt pull above 4000 rpm and was starting to cut out on me. But thanks to my official electrician Wade ;) I was able to get the car ready to go for Sunday.

I will try to post video of my turn 4 doughnut practice as soon as I can learn to better edit my GoPro footage.

Feel like I am really learning a lot racing with you guys. Unfortunately I think I am probably done for the season unless I can get a reprieve for the wife, but that's highly unlikely at this point. I expect quick video posting from Hallett from you guys. I will be living vicariously through you for awhile so dont let me down!

[Dulaney]

Jim is getting scary fast and a lot of fun to race with. It's a shame power steering issues put a dent in his weekend. He was running very strong.

Thanks for the kind words. I damn near wrecked into you in turn 3 trying to reclaim the lead. I wanted that win so bad! New T1 pump/pulley arrived yesterday, cooler is on order. Car goes back to transmission shop next week. It's super hard to find 3-5 sometimes, and difficult to stay in reverse all the time. They claim that they'll honor the warranty, even though it's a racecar. We'll see.

[Casey_SS]

Thanks for the kind words. I damn near wrecked into you in turn 3 trying to reclaim the lead. I wanted that win so bad! New T1 pump/pulley arrived yesterday, cooler is on order. Car goes back to transmission shop next week. It's super hard to find 3-5 sometimes, and difficult to stay in reverse all the time. They claim that they'll honor the warranty, even though it's a racecar. We'll see.

Heh...yeah, I remember thinking you were a little further back than I thought you could make up under braking so I just setup for my normal line through 3 and all of a sudden, there you were. I was surprised you gained that much ground under braking but don't remember it being a close call or anything. Looked pretty well controlled in Dan's video too. ABS? In any case, great job getting it whoa'd down and keeping it clean :) That was a really fun battle the 3 of us had going.

My Turn 1 pump (w/ a big cooler) was puking fluid all weekend. Sprayed the firewall enough that fluid seeped past the HVAC cover and into the car. Pulling it out tonight to find the leak and decide whether it needs a rebuild. Surprisingly, I never lost power assist though, which was odd for me at TWS. I've lost all ps assist in the middle of turn 1 twice so far, 2 years in a row. Exciting stuff. Both were O'Reilly's pumps with a small cooler and Redline fluid. TWS just hates power steering pumps and alternators. I've had some degree of trouble with one or both every time I've been there.

Didn't know you were having tranny issues as well. Hopefully they'll honor the warranty and do a better job this time. Shouldn't be having problems like that with a reasonably fresh T56 at our power levels...sometimes shops "forget" to replace all the synchros, shift forks, and blocker rings they charge you for on a rebuild. Sucks but it happens. If you have any leverage because of the failure, see if you can work a deal where they install bronze fork pads, a steel 3-4 shift fork, and carbon blocker rings. Maybe split the upgrade cost or something?

[Dulaney]

It was a pretty scary moment for me. I dove in deep, but then couldn't find my gear. I actually looked down at the shifter for a moment, then remembered I was pointed right at you. On my fourth attempt, I found third and got it turned around. It doesn't look that bad in the video. Yes, I run factory ABS.
I'll chat with the tranny shop about the upgrades you suggest. It's really strange. Sometimes third gear is completely locked out (much like reverse from forth/6th gear). It seems to get worse when it's hot. I suppose I should wrap my exhaust to keep it cooler.