Post by Niko L on Jun 24, 2018 19:05:34 GMT
The winter 2017-2018 was gone and it was time for Spring Nationals at Motopark Raceway in the middle of May. A Lot happened during the winter, we had the engine out, and it got a new camshaft & valvetrain, plus a new set of 882 stock heads. Also we worked on the weight balance a little, stock radiator was replaced with aluminum one and stock bench seat was replaced with Kirkey aluminum racing seats. Of course the same amount of weight was added to the back of the car.
As usual at the Spring Nationals, Friday was going to be a Test & Tune day and then the race would be normally on Saturday & Sunday. We were planning to leave on Thursday evening so that we would be ready early on Friday morning, to be able to do a couple of easy passes with the newly rebuilt engine and then see how fast it goes. But because of issues regarding the tech inspection of our Race Bus, we were able to leave on Friday morning, which meant that we were pretty late to the party...
Friday:
On Friday we arrived to the pits at early afternoon, which was not good. We tried to be as fast as possible to be able to do at least some testing during that day. So we took the car out and fired it up to check the amount of tranny fluid, and set the ignition timing and fuel pressure. We lowered the fuel pressure to see if that would help with the bog issue.
We even tech inspected the car at that point, and then we were ready to go to the track. I changed my driving gear on and fired up the car, turned it around at the pit lane and started driving towards the staging lanes. But at that point the engine started spilling oil to the ground, so I had to reverse back to our pit place. Well it was easy to see that the front and rear ends of the intake manifold gaskets were leaking. And on a situation like that, we knew there was only one solution:
So we took the intake off and cleaned the old gasket remains from the heads, block and intake. Of course we didn't have new gaskets with us, but luckily the old ones survived pretty well. A friend was able to organize a new set of gaskets for us, but they would arrive on Saturday. So that meant, our Friday was over before we even got to the track...
Saturday:
On Saturday the weather was good, so there would probably be a good number of Qualifying rounds too. That would be very important for us, as we had zero chances to test the car yesterday. After breakfast we decided to put the intake back together with the old gaskets and lots of gasket maker. The new gaskets would arrive later on that day, so they would be a good back up if these didn't work. So while doing that, and while waiting for the gasket sealant to dry, we missed the first Qualifying Round.
Our first run was on 2nd Qualifying Round at 12:34 PM. Our plan was to do an easy run and not let the engine rev over 6000 RPM. I did a burnout with lower RPMs, but I launched normally, just shifted gears "too early", and lifted before the finishing line. I left with .057 RT and had a decent 60FT time, 1.646. Despite shifting at 6000 RPM (normally the shift points are at around 6400), the split times showed pretty promising numbers. I lifted the throttle before finishing line, so my ET and speed were only 12.934 and 124.44 KM/H.
Before our 2nd Qualifying Run, we changed the carburetor needles and modified the rear shocks a bit stiffer. Now I was going to go full throttle, so it was very interesting to see what the car would run. Now I did a regular burnout and went full throttle. I left with a small -.018 red light but my 60FT was a bit slower than on my first run. Anyway, the car ran pretty well, 12.344 & 170.28 KM/H, even though we hadn't done much tuning on it yet, it was still pretty much straight from the trailer.
We couldn't make it to the 4th Qualifying Round, as the engine started leaking oil again in the staging lanes. I had to turn around and go back to the pits to check it out. It took a while to figure out where it was coming from, as the engine was still a bit oily from yesterday's intake leak. But after a while we figured out that it has to be the oil pan. We tried to fix the problem, but always some oil was coming through the gasket. At that time Saturday's Qualifying was also over, so we were left with the one and only full throttle run...
As usual at the Spring Nationals, Friday was going to be a Test & Tune day and then the race would be normally on Saturday & Sunday. We were planning to leave on Thursday evening so that we would be ready early on Friday morning, to be able to do a couple of easy passes with the newly rebuilt engine and then see how fast it goes. But because of issues regarding the tech inspection of our Race Bus, we were able to leave on Friday morning, which meant that we were pretty late to the party...
Friday:
On Friday we arrived to the pits at early afternoon, which was not good. We tried to be as fast as possible to be able to do at least some testing during that day. So we took the car out and fired it up to check the amount of tranny fluid, and set the ignition timing and fuel pressure. We lowered the fuel pressure to see if that would help with the bog issue.
We even tech inspected the car at that point, and then we were ready to go to the track. I changed my driving gear on and fired up the car, turned it around at the pit lane and started driving towards the staging lanes. But at that point the engine started spilling oil to the ground, so I had to reverse back to our pit place. Well it was easy to see that the front and rear ends of the intake manifold gaskets were leaking. And on a situation like that, we knew there was only one solution:
So we took the intake off and cleaned the old gasket remains from the heads, block and intake. Of course we didn't have new gaskets with us, but luckily the old ones survived pretty well. A friend was able to organize a new set of gaskets for us, but they would arrive on Saturday. So that meant, our Friday was over before we even got to the track...
Saturday:
On Saturday the weather was good, so there would probably be a good number of Qualifying rounds too. That would be very important for us, as we had zero chances to test the car yesterday. After breakfast we decided to put the intake back together with the old gaskets and lots of gasket maker. The new gaskets would arrive later on that day, so they would be a good back up if these didn't work. So while doing that, and while waiting for the gasket sealant to dry, we missed the first Qualifying Round.
Our first run was on 2nd Qualifying Round at 12:34 PM. Our plan was to do an easy run and not let the engine rev over 6000 RPM. I did a burnout with lower RPMs, but I launched normally, just shifted gears "too early", and lifted before the finishing line. I left with .057 RT and had a decent 60FT time, 1.646. Despite shifting at 6000 RPM (normally the shift points are at around 6400), the split times showed pretty promising numbers. I lifted the throttle before finishing line, so my ET and speed were only 12.934 and 124.44 KM/H.
Before our 2nd Qualifying Run, we changed the carburetor needles and modified the rear shocks a bit stiffer. Now I was going to go full throttle, so it was very interesting to see what the car would run. Now I did a regular burnout and went full throttle. I left with a small -.018 red light but my 60FT was a bit slower than on my first run. Anyway, the car ran pretty well, 12.344 & 170.28 KM/H, even though we hadn't done much tuning on it yet, it was still pretty much straight from the trailer.
We couldn't make it to the 4th Qualifying Round, as the engine started leaking oil again in the staging lanes. I had to turn around and go back to the pits to check it out. It took a while to figure out where it was coming from, as the engine was still a bit oily from yesterday's intake leak. But after a while we figured out that it has to be the oil pan. We tried to fix the problem, but always some oil was coming through the gasket. At that time Saturday's Qualifying was also over, so we were left with the one and only full throttle run...
