Another engine, part II

Got called into work on Friday, so the engine-ectomy did not take place until Sunday. After watching the F1 race at Valencia, Spain, on FOX TV (Vettel is a truly amazing driver, is he not?), I headed in to Duluth. Mark provided me with a key to the shop, but Phil was there working on a project so helped me get started.

Shortly after Phil left, Dark Dan wandered in the door. He had been doing laundry across the street. Since his evening was without structure, he offered to give me a hand. Together we worked on making all of the disconnections, and about six hours after I started, the engine and trans were on the floor.

The biggest problem was the cable from the shifter to the automatic transmission. A call to Mark gave me the correct procedure and the cable was easily removed.

Now to remove the engine from the A/T and determine if the timing chain needs replacement. At 240,000 miles, it probably does. Then it can be dropped onto a manual transmission for installation in the race car this weekend.

Dave Steen has come up with a couple more drivers for the team, Jim Seubert and Rick Moe, some friends from the Porsche Club who have experience racing at B.I.R. That makes six.

Another car, another engine

Since none of the three 2.1-liter Saab engine blocks that I have for the race car are perfect, Mark is not too keen on building a race engine our of any of them. He proposed another possibility. His son, Phil, bought a 1993 900S for very cheap a year or more ago because it needed an automatic transmission. Phil intended to find a suitable slushbox to drop in so he could sell the car, but good automatic transmissions for the 900 are not easy to locate. I made Phil an offer on the car, and FHR now has another 2.1-liter engine available.

Got the car started with a battery boost and drove it into the shop. Planned to do a compression check and leak-down test, but the compression check came back with about 120 psi on all four cylinders. That's pretty damn good for an engine with 240,000 miles, especially one that hasn't been run in over a year and had not gotten up to operating temp yet.

The plan is to pull the engine & gearbox on this car on Friday night at SVS in Duluth. Because of the high mileage, Mark wants to replace the timing chain and guides, but I am all for just dropping it onto a 5-speed gearbox and go racing with it as is.

More drivers!

Dave Steen and David Steen, Jr., have signed on as drivers for the July 16th race at BIR. They will also provide sponsorship from Dave's firm, Teleplus Consulting.

And it looks like Herm Johnson, former SCCA Super Vee Champion (1976), USAC Super Vee Champ (1977), ChampCar driver (1979-85) and Indianapolis 500 competitor (who is listed in Wikipedia), will be our fourth driver. "From ChampCar to ChumpCar"... I can see a News Release coming.

Since this will be a 14 hour race, there is still room for a driver or two.

I spent part of the weekend working my night job, but did manage to dig through some of my spares to load into bins for the race. I've seen other teams spend hours to find parts after a failure, and would prefer that our team is prepared for most anything. I have three or four plastic bins, and two are already full.

Mark Strohm said that he wanted to get his Toyota Corolla ITB car out for the SCCA regional at B.I.R. in a couple of weeks, but he would need to get a waiver since it's been a few years since he raced it. I suggested that he should enter it instead in the Exception Class (EC) at the ChumpCar race a week later. He could get a season worth of seat time, and so could three other drivers. He is considering it.

Engine work progress

Took the head and crankshaft from the backup engine to Midwest Engine Rebuilders in Duluth Tuesday for some service. The prognosis is good on both counts. Bobby says the crank may need a little cleanup but that should be all. The head will likely get by with shaving the surface rather than a complete valve job. Good news since that means less expense.

The progress on the race engine from last season? None. Mark is pessimistic about cleaning up the rust in the cylinders, and whether the crank may have acquired some rust as well. But he has not done any further disassembly to verify anything. He is many engine re-builds behind at the shop, and since the FHR engine is not a paying gig, it has low priority.

QUICK ENGINE UP-DATE (6/16/11) Mark decided he doesn't liKe the rust in the cylinders so wanted to re-bore with oversized pistons and rings. That's not in the budget so I brought him another B212 engine block. Cleaned it up and painted it blue before I dropped it off at his shop.

Since “The Good - The Bad - The Ugly 14 Hours of Brainerd” runs from 9am to 11pm, lighting will be required. I have been pondering whether to re-install the stock headlights, or to go with a pair of driving lights and a pair of fog lights. The front bumper we are using is just the stock, very heavy aluminum bar with the plastic cover and styrofoam guts removed. It should be easy to mount lights to the bar via the stock mounting holes in that bumper.

Another driver inquiry, this from a dirt track guy in Southern Minnesota. He has to clear it with his other half, but should have an answer in a few days.