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.

Rusty cylinders

The top two photos show some of the wear from last summer's racing at Iowa Speedway. The bearings from one inner axle tripod are gone, which must have made for some serious vibration for the later drivers. In addition, the rubber bushing for the upper a-arm is pretty trashed.

Tore the race engine apart yesterday. The cylinders do not look very good, which you can see in the other two photos. When the engine overheated at Iowa last summer, it apparently warped the head because water was getting into the cylinders. We knew that at the time. However, I was not able to get to the engine tear down until lately, so rust was able to form in all four cylinders over the winter. That rust extends to the valves in the head. The head gasket held up, so the head itself must have warped due to the heat. Don't know yet if it is salvageable. I'm hoping that it can be cleaned up with a little honing.

I did not disassemble the gearbox, but several gear teeth came out when the lube was drained. We know that 3rd gear went away early in the Iowa race, so that will need to be replaced.

Did some cleanup in the engine compartment of the racer on Sunday, so it isn't quite so gross. There was a lot of oily sand in most of the usual collecting places, and a bit of engine degreaser followed by a high pressure douche got rid of most of it. Followed up with several cans of brake cleaner to get much of the rest.

Also tried to do some work on the engine out of the parts car but did not have the correct size socket to remove the crankshaft pulley (27mm).

Looks like the right side engine mount is bad, but the one out of the parts car may suffice as a replacement.

Less than three weeks to race day and there is a lot of work to do.

Grime & slime, rust & crust

Finally got the drivetrain out of the parts donor today. Spring has been slow in arriving this year, so I have put off the final plucking of the engine/gearbox unit in my unheated garage until it warmed up a bit.

Rust and other corrosion were a serious problem, as were years of oil and other fluids dribbling throughout the engine compartment.

The donor car is back on its tires and has been rolled out of the garage. Mark Strohm stopped over to help remove the racer from the trailer and it has been rolled into the garage for a similar extraction. Hopefully it will take less time to remove as there is no rust nor slime to deal with.

The Parts Donor

Spent much of the weekend attempting to remove the drivetrain from the parts donor 900 (pictured in its former rusting place). Did a leakdown test of the cylinders to see if the engine was good as is. It is not.

#1 - 32%

#2 - 48%

#3 - 68%

#4 - 56%

And the #3 spark plug had some whitish deposit on it, so there are issues. The engine did run, however, and there were no banging noises within, so hopefully it just needs a valve job, head gasket and rings. It has over 220,000 miles, so it is due.

Removed the grille, headlights and turn signal lights to sell. They should be worth at least what I paid for the car. The radiator looks good, though it could probably use a good flush, so it will be kept as a spare. Disconnected all of the electrical stuff and removed the air conditioning condenser from atop the engine.

In order to remove the engine/gearbox assembly, you must first remove the axles. Here is where I ran into trouble. First of all, the car sat in a field for a couple of years before I bought it last fall, and it was not driven any distance, just moved around the yard a few times over the winter. The lug bolts that hold the front wheels on were pretty rusted and took a lot of effort to remove. The nuts that hold the axles to the hub were also slow to remove. Then came the stopper: I could not get a couple of the ball joint bolts out on the right side. I was able to remove the nuts, but one upper and one lower bolt are rusted into place. I tried pounding, I tried the impact wrench, I tried the air hammer, all to no avail. I will try heat from a propane torch next, but I don't have a cutting torch to melt the bolt heads. I do have some cutting wheels and an angle grinder, so might have to resort to that, but there isn't much room to work in that area.

The front calipers came off pretty easily and seem to be in working order. The brake discs, however, are rather rusted from their years of disuse. They might be salvageable with a bit of machining, but machine shops don't like them in that condition because it's hard on their cutting blades.

Menards had fire extinguishers on sale this week, along with the CCWS required metal mounting bracket, so there is a new extinguisher to mount in the car.

Brought my MP3 player out to the garage and was able to plug it into the "Tape" input on the 1960s vintage RCA Solid State console stereo out there. None of the music on the MP3 player is newer than about 1965, most is Big Band from the '30s & '40s. BTW, "Tape" in those days meant reel-to-reel, as cassette tapes were not popular until a few years later.

Lists

Ten weeks to the first race at B.I.R. on June 4-5.

Didn't get a lot of work done on the racer this weekend. Made lists of what needs to be purchased and the work that needs to be done. The engine/gearbox remains the largest job.

Two of the six tires from last year are not usable, two are nearly worn out but would be OK in a pinch, one has pretty decent tread left. We'll need six to eight tires per race weekend at about $100 apiece.

I would like to paint the car. Nothing fancy, but for many years I've wanted to have a race car painted USFS green, a sort of mint green shade. Maybe some dark green stripes on the sides. I've seen several Chump Cars painted with rollers; that would be fine with me.

The race car is back home.

Fetched the race car from Hogdal Turf in Ham Lake on Saturday. Denny McGinn showed up to help me load it on the trailer. Made it as far as the driveway. The borrowed 2WD Ford F-250 diesel could not get enough traction to make it up the icy driveway, so I had to back the trailer down the hill, through two curves, and parked the rig on the road.

Izzy came over on Sunday and secured the use of a 4WD Chevy Blazer. Made it up the hill with the trailer, so the racer is now in the yard.

Once I get tires, glass and parts out of the racer, it will go to SVS to remove the drivetrain for repair. It needs a head gasket and starter, and the gearbox needs a new 3rd gear. Maybe more.

BTW, there is a chance we could still enter the Iowa race at the end of April. All it takes is some hard work and money. Interested?