Greg Collier
20+ Year Contributor
- 1,258
- 15
- Mar 8, 2003
-
Diego,
California
First Id like to take this opportunity to publicly apologize to my sponsors and all the people that support my road racing efforts by filling you in with whats been going on
Its not that Ive been sitting on my ass for the past month, but do to circumstances beyond my control (ok, I caused a couple of them) I wasnt able to race this weekend as promised.
Four weeks ago on Mothers Day I went to the local park with my family to have a picnic. As I remember it, somebody brought a football, I went out for a long pass and I ended up in the hospital emergency room until 5:30 AM the following morning. After an x-ray, CTC scan, MRI scan, and lots of intravenous pain medication I was informed that I had a slight tear to my right rotator cuff. With my arm in a body sling my wife and I waited in the orthopedic surgeons exam room. When the doctor arrived my wife jumped to her feet and said, Greg has to race in three and a half weeks, how can we fast track this thing? In a painful stupor my bottom jaw dropped wide open and I thought, I dont even have a frigging engine in the car and shes got me racing!
On that note the doctor stuck a four-inch needle down into my shoulder and pumped 30 seconds of cortisone into the inflamed area. I spent the next three weeks going to physical therapy every other day, being twisted like a pretzel for an hour and a half each session. When my arm is up to fighting condition Im going back and kicking the physical therapists ass! (Just kidding) So far the bills for the hospital, scans, doctor, and therapy are around $8000.00!
My arm was feeling pretty good, but I still didnt have a full range of motion when I got a call from Mitch at Engintecs saying the motor is on its way. He shipped it 2-day Air Freight so it should have arrived last Friday morning, which would have given us plenty of time to install it. YEAH RIGHT! Checking the tracking number on Friday the engine had arrived in LA. We called UPS and asked the about the status and they said it wouldnt be in San Diego until Saturday morning, and that I could come pick it up at the local freight office. YEAH RIGHT! When I called the freight office that morning they had no idea what I was talking about. When I checked the tracking number it showed that they had sent the motor back to Chicago on Friday night. To make a frustrating story short the motor arrived at my garage on Monday afternoon, which still seemed plenty of time to get it in the car by Thursday.
Working like feverish scratching rats we had the engine completely installed by Wednesday night. This included re-fabrication of a lot of parts to avoid some of the problems we had incurred at California Speedway. It was 11 PM after our second fifteen-hour day so we called it quits until Thursday morning. Piece of cake YEAH RIGHT!
Thursday morning I pre-lubed the oil making sure every component of the motor had plenty of oil for its first start-up. With the oil topped off I began to fill the cooling system with water, when just before it was topped off I noticed water peeing out of the lower part of the timing belt cover. After 20-minutes of pulling the belts, crank pulley, and TB cover off I discovered water was coming out of the A hole of the water pump. Wed used the same water pump, as it seemed fine because there was no wobble or shaft play whatsoever. All we can assume what happened was that with no water in the system and the high temperatures the other motor reached, the shaft seals were no longer doing the job. Fortunately I was able to get a brand new water pump within the hour. Unfortunately I had to drain the water, pull the radiator/fans, wastegate, alternator, power-steering pump and cradle, front motor mount, and raise the motor up to get the water pump pulley and alternator swing arm bolt out. Then it was the tensioner and tensioner pulley arm to access the water pump. I removed the old pump and installed the new one. I depressed the tensioner and put in the temporary pin and installed it. Just before I pulled the pin I heard a snap from the tensioner. I pulled it off to find the cold steel shaft had broken. How in the hell that happened I had no idea but thank God I had a couple of spares. It was about 2 PM in the afternoon and I had the car all back together again and full of water.
Time for the big start up, warm the engine to temperature then shut down and change the oil. Power on, ignition on, fuel pump on, starter switch down! The motor cranked but nothing. I cranked it again but nothing. I felt like ripping my eyes out!
I climbed out of the car and double-checked all my electrical connections. I could smell gas so that didnt appear to be the problem. I had removed the coolant temp sensor putting a water pressure-warning switch in its place. Id cut the wires to the temp sensor up at the harness so I had to re-open the harness and rewire and solder it, which took some time. I also relocated the pressure-warning switch and was good to go. I tried to start it, but still, nothing. The car cranked like there was absolutely no spark. I called Scot Gray on his cell phone. He just happened to be in Bombay India at the moment where it was 13 hours ahead in time. He told me the water temp sensor wasnt necessary to start the car up on the AEM EMS unit. I was totally baffled.
After pulling the plugs to absolutely verify I wasnt getting any spark I changed from the coil-on-coil pack to my old OEM coil and wires. NOTHING! Just for the hell of it I went to check the EMS connections where I discovered the MPI relay was unplugged. DAMN IT!! We had unplugged it at Cal Speedway to check compression after the engine melt-down and I forgot to plug it back in. By this time it was 7 PM Thursday night. I pushed the starter and the car-fired right up. It was rough but it was running and I kept it under 1800 RPM. I got it up to temperature then shut it down. I let it cool and drained the oil and changed the oil filter. It was almost 9 PM and I figured wed leave later on Friday and skip testing at the track, so I called it a night.
Friday morning I pre-lubed the oil again and went to start up the car. It fired right up but sounded really rough like the night before. I gave it a couple of quick revs and it sounded like it was running on three cylinders. I shut it down and checked the plugs. It was running really rich so I decided to play with the CAS. Unfortunately the ISC was going bad so I couldnt keep it at a steady idle. I checked the injectors and all was functioning properly. I changed back to the coil-on-coil but no difference. It was yet another mystery
My son Josh showed up and it was back and forth and back and forth checking system after system with no luck. We tried a different CAS but no luck! We couldnt time it because the timing marks were all over the place. It started to get dark so I knew it was about 8 PM. I was tired, frustrated, and ready to torch the damn car
Saturday morning, race day, I changed the throttle body over with a spare that I knew the ISC was good. I pulled the plugs for the 50th time and cleaned them. I started up the car and it sounded better but it was still only running on three cylinders. I sat there for an hour pondering my quandary. I thought the only thing I havent done yet is to change the plugs. I mean it was a brand new set and thats too simple. I opened up a new box, gapped them, then screwed them in. I pushed the starter down and the frigging car purred like a frigging Ferrari OH-MY-GOD!
It was a bad set of brand new plugs the whole time. If I had just plugged the MPI in and changed the plugs first thing on Thursday Id be at the track.
At that moment I wished I were double jointed because I wanted to kick my own ass so bad it made me sick!
I was so exhausted there was no I could drive 7 hours towing my car to the track, race all day, then drive another 7 hours back home.
Bottom line is the car is good and well be racing with NASA at Willow Springs in 4 weeks. Im also gonna try and get some races in with TCRA (Touring Car Racing Association) to make up for my lost track time. It wont make up for the points Ive lost with NASA but its something.
Sorry guys
Its not that Ive been sitting on my ass for the past month, but do to circumstances beyond my control (ok, I caused a couple of them) I wasnt able to race this weekend as promised.
Four weeks ago on Mothers Day I went to the local park with my family to have a picnic. As I remember it, somebody brought a football, I went out for a long pass and I ended up in the hospital emergency room until 5:30 AM the following morning. After an x-ray, CTC scan, MRI scan, and lots of intravenous pain medication I was informed that I had a slight tear to my right rotator cuff. With my arm in a body sling my wife and I waited in the orthopedic surgeons exam room. When the doctor arrived my wife jumped to her feet and said, Greg has to race in three and a half weeks, how can we fast track this thing? In a painful stupor my bottom jaw dropped wide open and I thought, I dont even have a frigging engine in the car and shes got me racing!
On that note the doctor stuck a four-inch needle down into my shoulder and pumped 30 seconds of cortisone into the inflamed area. I spent the next three weeks going to physical therapy every other day, being twisted like a pretzel for an hour and a half each session. When my arm is up to fighting condition Im going back and kicking the physical therapists ass! (Just kidding) So far the bills for the hospital, scans, doctor, and therapy are around $8000.00!
My arm was feeling pretty good, but I still didnt have a full range of motion when I got a call from Mitch at Engintecs saying the motor is on its way. He shipped it 2-day Air Freight so it should have arrived last Friday morning, which would have given us plenty of time to install it. YEAH RIGHT! Checking the tracking number on Friday the engine had arrived in LA. We called UPS and asked the about the status and they said it wouldnt be in San Diego until Saturday morning, and that I could come pick it up at the local freight office. YEAH RIGHT! When I called the freight office that morning they had no idea what I was talking about. When I checked the tracking number it showed that they had sent the motor back to Chicago on Friday night. To make a frustrating story short the motor arrived at my garage on Monday afternoon, which still seemed plenty of time to get it in the car by Thursday.
Working like feverish scratching rats we had the engine completely installed by Wednesday night. This included re-fabrication of a lot of parts to avoid some of the problems we had incurred at California Speedway. It was 11 PM after our second fifteen-hour day so we called it quits until Thursday morning. Piece of cake YEAH RIGHT!
Thursday morning I pre-lubed the oil making sure every component of the motor had plenty of oil for its first start-up. With the oil topped off I began to fill the cooling system with water, when just before it was topped off I noticed water peeing out of the lower part of the timing belt cover. After 20-minutes of pulling the belts, crank pulley, and TB cover off I discovered water was coming out of the A hole of the water pump. Wed used the same water pump, as it seemed fine because there was no wobble or shaft play whatsoever. All we can assume what happened was that with no water in the system and the high temperatures the other motor reached, the shaft seals were no longer doing the job. Fortunately I was able to get a brand new water pump within the hour. Unfortunately I had to drain the water, pull the radiator/fans, wastegate, alternator, power-steering pump and cradle, front motor mount, and raise the motor up to get the water pump pulley and alternator swing arm bolt out. Then it was the tensioner and tensioner pulley arm to access the water pump. I removed the old pump and installed the new one. I depressed the tensioner and put in the temporary pin and installed it. Just before I pulled the pin I heard a snap from the tensioner. I pulled it off to find the cold steel shaft had broken. How in the hell that happened I had no idea but thank God I had a couple of spares. It was about 2 PM in the afternoon and I had the car all back together again and full of water.
Time for the big start up, warm the engine to temperature then shut down and change the oil. Power on, ignition on, fuel pump on, starter switch down! The motor cranked but nothing. I cranked it again but nothing. I felt like ripping my eyes out!
I climbed out of the car and double-checked all my electrical connections. I could smell gas so that didnt appear to be the problem. I had removed the coolant temp sensor putting a water pressure-warning switch in its place. Id cut the wires to the temp sensor up at the harness so I had to re-open the harness and rewire and solder it, which took some time. I also relocated the pressure-warning switch and was good to go. I tried to start it, but still, nothing. The car cranked like there was absolutely no spark. I called Scot Gray on his cell phone. He just happened to be in Bombay India at the moment where it was 13 hours ahead in time. He told me the water temp sensor wasnt necessary to start the car up on the AEM EMS unit. I was totally baffled.
After pulling the plugs to absolutely verify I wasnt getting any spark I changed from the coil-on-coil pack to my old OEM coil and wires. NOTHING! Just for the hell of it I went to check the EMS connections where I discovered the MPI relay was unplugged. DAMN IT!! We had unplugged it at Cal Speedway to check compression after the engine melt-down and I forgot to plug it back in. By this time it was 7 PM Thursday night. I pushed the starter and the car-fired right up. It was rough but it was running and I kept it under 1800 RPM. I got it up to temperature then shut it down. I let it cool and drained the oil and changed the oil filter. It was almost 9 PM and I figured wed leave later on Friday and skip testing at the track, so I called it a night.
Friday morning I pre-lubed the oil again and went to start up the car. It fired right up but sounded really rough like the night before. I gave it a couple of quick revs and it sounded like it was running on three cylinders. I shut it down and checked the plugs. It was running really rich so I decided to play with the CAS. Unfortunately the ISC was going bad so I couldnt keep it at a steady idle. I checked the injectors and all was functioning properly. I changed back to the coil-on-coil but no difference. It was yet another mystery
My son Josh showed up and it was back and forth and back and forth checking system after system with no luck. We tried a different CAS but no luck! We couldnt time it because the timing marks were all over the place. It started to get dark so I knew it was about 8 PM. I was tired, frustrated, and ready to torch the damn car
Saturday morning, race day, I changed the throttle body over with a spare that I knew the ISC was good. I pulled the plugs for the 50th time and cleaned them. I started up the car and it sounded better but it was still only running on three cylinders. I sat there for an hour pondering my quandary. I thought the only thing I havent done yet is to change the plugs. I mean it was a brand new set and thats too simple. I opened up a new box, gapped them, then screwed them in. I pushed the starter down and the frigging car purred like a frigging Ferrari OH-MY-GOD!
It was a bad set of brand new plugs the whole time. If I had just plugged the MPI in and changed the plugs first thing on Thursday Id be at the track.
At that moment I wished I were double jointed because I wanted to kick my own ass so bad it made me sick!
I was so exhausted there was no I could drive 7 hours towing my car to the track, race all day, then drive another 7 hours back home.
Bottom line is the car is good and well be racing with NASA at Willow Springs in 4 weeks. Im also gonna try and get some races in with TCRA (Touring Car Racing Association) to make up for my lost track time. It wont make up for the points Ive lost with NASA but its something.
Sorry guys
. I really enjoy reading your stories and hopefully get to here one in 4 weeks. Good luck and hope your shoulder feels 100%. 
, you don't have to if you don't want to, but it would be an amazing gift for us to see you in action. Maybe give some of those fwd cars a few leasons on how to take 400whp of fwd furry around a turn.
