terefic181
15+ Year Contributor
- 471
- 7
- Mar 3, 2004
-
Riverside,
California
Preparation
We started working on the cars shortly after finishing with Cal Speedway in March. David's Laser, the one that we found in Las Vegas the 1st of the year, had a turbo, that was shot. So we pulled the setup off my car and installed it on his. Meanwhile I ordered a Big 16 G, an EVO, manifold, O2 housing, a 2G maf, and 660 injectors. I spent some time porting everything with some input from Bruce, "Oldman". (Thanks a bunch Bruce!)
I got mine put back together with a week or so to go. Starting on the Sunday before the event weekend, I started to dial in the new equipment and in the middle of this we discovered I had some P/S fluid on the floor. All the connections looked good and it took a couple of minutes to discover, that the variable steering, grounding plug had completely blown out of the pump. So on Monday we ordered a new plug. It took till Thursday to arrive, but in the meantime I plugged the hole and tried to do some more tuning on Tuesday. Unfortunately it was still leaking quite a bit, so I didn't get much, dialing in, done. On Wednesday, I tried again to do some dialing in, without much success. Thursday the grounding plug came in and I replaced it and was able to dial things in, well enough to get started on the track. Everything was good!!!
The Day Before
When I got to the shop on Friday morning, to pick up my car and load up. I was informed by David, that my car was leaking P/S fluid again. Upon inspection, the brand new grounding plug, that I had just put in the night before, was again (2nd time) missing from the front of the P/S pump
. So I debated whether to order up a complete new pump or call off the weekend, for my car. Well, I decided it had to be the pump at this point, and made the decision to go ahead and install a new one. We ordered one up, it came in, within the hour, and I got it put on. I got all the essentials assembled and loaded up about 5:30. As we were getting David's car loaded up, I tripped over the front rail of the trailer, fell backwards, and damn near broke my leg. It got caught up in the tongue of the trailer, with my leg ending up as a lever and the tongue of the trailer as a fulcrum. We finished by 6:30 or so and didn't end up getting away for Willow till about 8:00 PM. I had planned on being there by 1:00 PM that day, to get teched and set up the tent, etc. Anyway, we got to the track a little before 11:00 PM (Track closes the gate at 11:00) and only had time to drop the cars off, unloaded the truck, and head for the hotel.
Track Day "Saturday"
We got up early on Sat. and were at the track gate waiting at 6:30AM. We needed to tech both cars. I pulled my car off the trailer and I heard a sound I'd been hearing, off and on, since the Sunday before. The groan of a power steering pump low of fluid. Yep there was a puddle of P/S fluid on the trailer floor and upon further inspection, there was no grounding plug to be found anywhere, including it's niche in the front of the P/S pump
. (This was the 3rd one to be spat out of two different pumps). Well this was a new one for me, being broke before I could get the car off the trailer. I must be going for some kind of record here!!! David and I decided it must be the rack I replaced at the 1st of the year, or a plugged P/S hose, or the like. With the grounding plug being a special order item, even if it turned out to be a hose, I was dead in the water at this point. Later that day, Mike Welch was over at the Horse Thief Mile and I went over to talk with him about the situation. RRE was there doing a film shoot of some sort . Anyway, I asked him about the problem I was having and he told me he had never seen anything like it, before. We discussed it for some time and, both agreed that it had to be an enormous amount of pressure that could shoot that plug out with the force of a 22 cal. pistol round.
Directing our efforts to David's car
So we got David's car up and going, teched, and he prepared to make his 1st ever track run in the car. Things were looking good as he made his way around the 9 corners of Willow Springs big track. There were a number of pretty quick cars there, several Porsches and the like. As Ginger and I were pulling back into the pits, after circling the perimeter of the track, taking pictures, David and his instructor were talking inside David's car and I noticed some smoke coming from his car. It looked like it was probably brake smoke, but nothing was going to be that easy this weekend. When he made his way back to our pit, and I popped the hood, it was apparent. There was coolant everywhere. He went for his post session meeting and I took a look at the car. I found the 90 degree rubber hose connecting the two metal coolant lines for the turbo, had erupted with a huge crack. I pulled the one off my car and found some small cracks in mine also. So I borrowed some soft braid line (from an SU/Trans Am Mustang friend) and got it all connected back up. We put water back in, cranked it up, and discovered that the waterpump was now leaking. So off we go to find a parts store that had a pump, found one, picked it up, and back to the track we went. We spent the afternoon exchanging the water pump out. We got everything back together, and the engine timed, about the time, the evening enduro was starting up. Well, we put water back in and checked for leaks and there was a dribble coming from the area behind exhaust manifold. We couldn't see exactly were it was coming from, so we filled it back up with water and turned over the engine.The coolant shot out with great force from behind the exhaust manifold, and there was the distinct sound of a cylinder laboring. It's a head gasket we were pretty sure.
So that was it, for our weekend. We went out to eat that night and got back to the track about 9:00 AM the next morning, loaded my car, winched Dave's car back on his trailer, got everything else packed up and put back in order, and It was homeward bound.
Synopsis
David got some lap time in and really enjoyed it. I was at least, at the track enjoying myself, a bad day at the track is still better than being at home doing chores.
So it's on to another weekend of track time, most likely in July, and we energetically look forward to it.
As always, we thank everyone, for their efforts to keep us going. A special thanks to Dr Haiavy and Inland Cosmetic for his and their relenltless help. Allied Automotive, in Upland, for use of their facility and parts ordering etc. Also to David and Ginger, thanks for everything.
We started working on the cars shortly after finishing with Cal Speedway in March. David's Laser, the one that we found in Las Vegas the 1st of the year, had a turbo, that was shot. So we pulled the setup off my car and installed it on his. Meanwhile I ordered a Big 16 G, an EVO, manifold, O2 housing, a 2G maf, and 660 injectors. I spent some time porting everything with some input from Bruce, "Oldman". (Thanks a bunch Bruce!)
I got mine put back together with a week or so to go. Starting on the Sunday before the event weekend, I started to dial in the new equipment and in the middle of this we discovered I had some P/S fluid on the floor. All the connections looked good and it took a couple of minutes to discover, that the variable steering, grounding plug had completely blown out of the pump. So on Monday we ordered a new plug. It took till Thursday to arrive, but in the meantime I plugged the hole and tried to do some more tuning on Tuesday. Unfortunately it was still leaking quite a bit, so I didn't get much, dialing in, done. On Wednesday, I tried again to do some dialing in, without much success. Thursday the grounding plug came in and I replaced it and was able to dial things in, well enough to get started on the track. Everything was good!!!The Day Before
When I got to the shop on Friday morning, to pick up my car and load up. I was informed by David, that my car was leaking P/S fluid again. Upon inspection, the brand new grounding plug, that I had just put in the night before, was again (2nd time) missing from the front of the P/S pump
. So I debated whether to order up a complete new pump or call off the weekend, for my car. Well, I decided it had to be the pump at this point, and made the decision to go ahead and install a new one. We ordered one up, it came in, within the hour, and I got it put on. I got all the essentials assembled and loaded up about 5:30. As we were getting David's car loaded up, I tripped over the front rail of the trailer, fell backwards, and damn near broke my leg. It got caught up in the tongue of the trailer, with my leg ending up as a lever and the tongue of the trailer as a fulcrum. We finished by 6:30 or so and didn't end up getting away for Willow till about 8:00 PM. I had planned on being there by 1:00 PM that day, to get teched and set up the tent, etc. Anyway, we got to the track a little before 11:00 PM (Track closes the gate at 11:00) and only had time to drop the cars off, unloaded the truck, and head for the hotel. Track Day "Saturday"
We got up early on Sat. and were at the track gate waiting at 6:30AM. We needed to tech both cars. I pulled my car off the trailer and I heard a sound I'd been hearing, off and on, since the Sunday before. The groan of a power steering pump low of fluid. Yep there was a puddle of P/S fluid on the trailer floor and upon further inspection, there was no grounding plug to be found anywhere, including it's niche in the front of the P/S pump
. (This was the 3rd one to be spat out of two different pumps). Well this was a new one for me, being broke before I could get the car off the trailer. I must be going for some kind of record here!!! David and I decided it must be the rack I replaced at the 1st of the year, or a plugged P/S hose, or the like. With the grounding plug being a special order item, even if it turned out to be a hose, I was dead in the water at this point. Later that day, Mike Welch was over at the Horse Thief Mile and I went over to talk with him about the situation. RRE was there doing a film shoot of some sort . Anyway, I asked him about the problem I was having and he told me he had never seen anything like it, before. We discussed it for some time and, both agreed that it had to be an enormous amount of pressure that could shoot that plug out with the force of a 22 cal. pistol round.Directing our efforts to David's car
So we got David's car up and going, teched, and he prepared to make his 1st ever track run in the car. Things were looking good as he made his way around the 9 corners of Willow Springs big track. There were a number of pretty quick cars there, several Porsches and the like. As Ginger and I were pulling back into the pits, after circling the perimeter of the track, taking pictures, David and his instructor were talking inside David's car and I noticed some smoke coming from his car. It looked like it was probably brake smoke, but nothing was going to be that easy this weekend. When he made his way back to our pit, and I popped the hood, it was apparent. There was coolant everywhere. He went for his post session meeting and I took a look at the car. I found the 90 degree rubber hose connecting the two metal coolant lines for the turbo, had erupted with a huge crack. I pulled the one off my car and found some small cracks in mine also. So I borrowed some soft braid line (from an SU/Trans Am Mustang friend) and got it all connected back up. We put water back in, cranked it up, and discovered that the waterpump was now leaking. So off we go to find a parts store that had a pump, found one, picked it up, and back to the track we went. We spent the afternoon exchanging the water pump out. We got everything back together, and the engine timed, about the time, the evening enduro was starting up. Well, we put water back in and checked for leaks and there was a dribble coming from the area behind exhaust manifold. We couldn't see exactly were it was coming from, so we filled it back up with water and turned over the engine.The coolant shot out with great force from behind the exhaust manifold, and there was the distinct sound of a cylinder laboring. It's a head gasket we were pretty sure.
So that was it, for our weekend. We went out to eat that night and got back to the track about 9:00 AM the next morning, loaded my car, winched Dave's car back on his trailer, got everything else packed up and put back in order, and It was homeward bound.
Synopsis
David got some lap time in and really enjoyed it. I was at least, at the track enjoying myself, a bad day at the track is still better than being at home doing chores.
So it's on to another weekend of track time, most likely in July, and we energetically look forward to it.As always, we thank everyone, for their efforts to keep us going. A special thanks to Dr Haiavy and Inland Cosmetic for his and their relenltless help. Allied Automotive, in Upland, for use of their facility and parts ordering etc. Also to David and Ginger, thanks for everything.
Last edited by a moderator:
. My thought regarding the original failure, was that we bumped it while putting the new alternator in at the track, in March. I just hope the elimination of the pin takes care of it, and as Kyle mentioned, I don't have any new problems associated with it, (ruptured lines etc.).
