Holiday weekend progress

Izzy came by on Saturday for awhile and we knocked off several little items on the To-Do list. Lights have been installed on the front end since the race at BIR goes until 11 PM. They still need to be wired, however.

Izzy also rewired the ignition so that there is a push button for the starter and an OFF switch for the ignition. These will mount on the dash along with the gauges and very large idiot lights.

The seat was removed because the foam cushion was full of water (no drainage holes) and to facilitate access for other interior work. I am trying to get a new seat cover made as the old one is pretty rough.


Spent part of Saturday and much of Sunday prepping for paint. All of last year's decals, and the gooey adhesive that stayed on the paint, have been removed. The entire car has been buffed with sandpaper, and the bare spots have been coated with primer. (The hood for the race car is the whitish one on the black 900 in the background.)

I will be going to the annual Winker Family Picnic at Uncle Fred's on Independence Day, plus I have to work in the evening, so not much will get done. Hoping to get paint done on Tuesday and Wednesday.

I have decided that Engine #3 (see previous note) will get assembled to use as the race engine. I have a new timing chain, thrust washers, main bearings and rod bearings, so will install those when things are slack at work. That is unless Mark suddenly gets lots of ambition and quickly builds engine #1.

Engines #1, #2 & #3

Still don't have an engine to drop into the race car. All three need a bit of work.

Engine #1 - Last year's race engine. The cylinders rusted due to water left from the blown head gasket at Iowa. After the engine failure at BIR, which resulted in a damaged crankshaft, Hanover European provided a 2.1L short block which is the basic engine we ran at Iowa (block B, red), with the head and other bits from the BIR engine (block A, blue). Due to the rusted cylinders in block B, the plan is to use Block A from the BIR engine with pistons & crank from the Iowa engine (are you following all of this?).

I attempted to clean the rust from the cylinder walls of Block B in order to remove the pistons to build a new race engine. The head from this engine still needs to be resurfaced, presuming it warped after overheating. Instead, it will get the head from engine #2, which has recently had a full valve job.

Engine #2 - from the 1992 900S parts car. The cylinders in this block (painted light blue) are pretty worn, though with no scoring or scratching. It appears something once failed in the #3 cylinder as there is some damage to that piston. There is a pretty good ridge at the top of each cylinder. Ideally this engine should be re-bored and get new pistons. I will probably put it back together as is for the time being as it ran when it was removed from the car. Hopefully we won't need to use it.

The head from this engine has had a valve job and resurfacing at Midwest Engine Rebuilders in Duluth, so will go on the race engine.

Engine #3 - from the 1993 900S A/T - Good compression, so I am not removing the head from this engine. Will check the timing chain and the rod and main bearings, but expect everything will check out OK. This engine has been off the gearbox once upon a time, but not sure why. It may have already been rebuilt, or the automatic transmission may have been rebuilt.

Either way, we have two engines for the 14-hour race at BIR. The 5-speed gearbox from the '92 900S parts car will be in the race car. If I have time, there is another 5-speed gearbox in one of the cars in the yard, but it will take a day to remove it.

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.

Out of time for the June BIR race

Every race car needs a parts donor... or two... or three. Total cost to buy these four Saab 900s? $800!

With less than ten days until the June race at Brainerd Int'l Raceway, it has become apparent that the race car will not be ready. The entry has been transferred to the July 16th race at BIR, a 14-hour enduro. As the Volkswagen ad said: Drivers Wanted.

In the meantime, I continue to work on rebuilding the spare engine in my garage as time ... and money ... permit. Disassembly is down to the short block. I'll check the main and rod bearings, but will probably not remove the pistons. The cost for parts and a valve job run about $500. Pistons and rings are expensive for the 2.1L engine due to the rarity of that powerplant. I did buy some parts at RockAuto on closeout, rod bearings and a timing chain and some brake parts, so they were cheaper than wholesale.

As long as the engine block was stripped, I decided to paint it. But instead of the factory red color, I decided to use a light blue. I bought a spray can of engine paint at Central Sales, the local surplus store, for $2.99. The color was "Chrysler Blue". I shook it up for some extra time since it had probably been on the shelf for several years. When it started to come out the coverage was poor, as if there wasn't a lot of pigment in the spray. Suddenly there was more color to the spray and the nozzle quickly clogged up. I removed it from the can and cleared it with pressurized air. but it quickly clogged up again. It wasn't long before the spray was spitting something that looked like varnish beads, so I quit painting.

Picked up a can of Dupli-Color Engine Enamel at the local O'Reilly store for $5.49. The hue was Pontiac Blue, but the shade was nearly identical to the Chrysler Blue. I attempted to scrape off some of the previous paint job, then proceeded with the new paint. What a difference! The paint covered nicely, no clogs, and dried quickly. The finished product looks pretty darn good.

Sometimes it doesn't pay to go cheap.