Getting Ready for the 2006 Race Season...................

[Slow old poop]

something tells me I won't make the five-race minimum requirement to participate, .

Hmmm....I didn't know about the five-race minimum. I'm not sure we even have five races in the Midwest. That might change things a little.

As near as I can tell, we have

April 15/16 at Blackhawk Farms Raceway

May 20/21 at Putnam Park Crossover with NASA OH/IN

June 17/18 at Mid America Motorsports (Father's Day weekend)

July 22/23 Autobahn Crossover with NASA OH/IN

August 12/13 Mid Ohio Nationals Crossover with NASA OH/IN

If they cancel one, or I miss one, or I am not allowed to compete at Blackhawk (It'd be my first race event), I can't get my five events in. Bummer.

Rich

 

[Greg Collier]

Hmmm....I didn't know about the five-race minimum. I'm not sure we even have five races in the Midwest. That might change things a little.

As near as I can tell, we have

April 15/16 at Blackhawk Farms Raceway

May 20/21 at Putnam Park Crossover with NASA OH/IN

June 17/18 at Mid America Motorsports (Father's Day weekend)

July 22/23 Autobahn Crossover with NASA OH/IN

August 12/13 Mid Ohio Nationals Crossover with NASA OH/IN

If they cancel one, or I miss one, or I am not allowed to compete at Blackhawk (It'd be my first race event), I can't get my five events in. Bummer.

Rich

Rich... what am I gonna do with you? It's TWO races per weekend You'll have run EIGHT races by Mid Ohio...

 

[Slow old poop]

Rich... what am I gonna do with you? It's TWO races per weekend You'll have run EIGHT races by Mid Ohio...

In the immortal words of Johnny Carson: I did not know that.

Rich

 

[Zero Bar]

Logic, Mansfield and Lexington are perfect for staying at while going to Mid-Ohio, or theres hotels on the north end of columbus that puts you about an hour away from the track.
I WILL be there, and I have a friend that will have his car running here soon that will be coming with me to watch as well, and that makes 6!

 

[Greg Collier]

Motor is in and done. Bled brakes and clutch. All I have to do is add water/anti-freeze (that will be changed to Water-Wetter and water for the track) and prime engine with oil via a "pre-lube" tank and she's ready to fire up. I've been on the car for 40 hours straight with five hours of sleep. The PWR radiaitor is stuck in customs via it's journey here from Australia, why they don't know... I'll use the Fluidyne in the meanwhile. I'm using a new breather system with a 1-qt backup for the radiaitor. Lots of vacuum and oil catch can lines.

 

[Dream On]

Damn nice Greg. Looking really good and nice updates on it coming together. Now take a break man and get some sleep. haha.

 

[Zero Bar]

That thing looks fast just sitting there!! Get some sleep Greg, then let her loose!!!

 

[steve]

Dare we say too much bling under that hood

Steve

 

[Greg Collier]

Dare we say too much bling under that hood

Steve

I have a 2G knock-sensor so it goes "blang a dinga blung"

 

[TSIfreek]

Hey looks purdy greg!!!

 

[logic]

Hey, nice wastegate. Good to see it coming together!

 

[dilbertgonebad]

Looking good
Would love to see some photos of the brake duct setup on the car (when you get there).
We are going to try and save a little on Rich's rotors this season.

 

[Greg Collier]

Thursday afternoon the engine was ready to start with all systems triple checked. Mitch made up a list of start-up procedures with a priority being a “pre-lube” tank to pressurize and oil all the motor’s internals.

With all fluids topped off the moment had arrived to start up this bad boy! I turned on the fuel pump to check for leaks and gas began spewing from both ends of the fuel rail. It turned out the o-rings were bad. Ever try to find o-rings for an AEM fuel rail? Good luck! They’re an odd size and nobody has them. I e-mailed Mike Welch from RRE and he said he’d drive down a set from Los Angeles on Saturday. What a guy!! I mean, Mr. DSM himself is gonna bring me o-rings (life doesn’t get any better than that)!

It turns out there’s a company here in San Diego called, “San Diego Seal”, all they inventory are gaskets and o-rings for just about every application that exists. I took the fuel rail down to them and they totally hooked me up. Who woulda thought?

Back to the garage I installed the fuel rail and checked for leaks. All was good!

Master switch on, fuel pump on, ignition systems on, I hit the starter switch and within a millisecond the motor began to run and it sounded good. With a deep throaty growl I kept the idle around 2000 rpm per Mitch’s checklist. I checked for any leaks and brought the engine up to operating temps. I can tell that this is gonna be one bad ass race motor... It’s cool down time and then I’ll drain the oil and pull the filter. I’ll check for any metal shavings and give Mitch my report.

We’re gonna break the engine in on the dyno per Motoman’s recipe for engine break-ins: http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

Three thousand down… and a thousand to go!

Greg

EDIT: Here's the last picture of the front end before it gets buttoned up!

 

[Zero Bar]

It's Alive!!!!!

 

[Greg Collier]

It's Alive!!!!!

Hey... guess who's coming to Cal Speedway to race against me in a couple of weeks? Yep, Dave Royce called me the other day and told me to be prepared (I think he needs to get out of the cold for awhile)

 

[mavisky]

There was a good article in the most recent Motor Trend magazine regarding motoman's break in procedure. Here's the info they got.

Dave Lancaster - Gm engines - "...he agrees that in smaller, low-cost air-cooled engines (which expand and contract more as temperatures change) such a technique might indeed pay off. But the microfinished bores, high-tension rings, and precision-build tolerances of today's automotive engines yield excellend ring sealing from new, so any change in power output attributable to such a radical procedure would be miniscule if measurable at all. He notes that power and fuel economy generally improve through the break-in period as friction diminishes on all moving parts."

"Ford's engine durability specialist Mike Herr concurs with all of the above as do the engine R&D experts at Honda."

"Motoman counters by arguing that the fine machining and high-precision build quality of modern engines serve only to shorten the window of opportunity to "seat the rings", making it even more important to do the heavy-duty accels right off the bat."

"But if his procedure works, why don't manufacturers perform it in the plant on a dyon, expecially on performance engines like the handbuilt Corvette LS7 and supercharged Northstar? They would, but Lancaster and Herr confirm the only enginers that get such treatment are those undergoing torture-testing during development to ensure that the Motomans of the world won't ring up big warranty claims."

Now I personally let the car idle much like you described and then took it out for some low boost (12psi or so) throttle accels from 30 to 50 or so then engine braking down to 30 in 3rd gear. I did about 6 of those back to back and then 6 more from 3rd gear at 4000rpm - redline. Pulled the car into the garage where I let it idle at around 1500 - 2000 for about 5 minutes to cool and then shut it off. Drained the oil and let it sit overnight to completely cool. Next morning I changed the oil filter too and took off driving it. It's ran flawlessly for the last 5000 miles, she burns a bit of oil, but I blame that on valve stem seals that are about 150,000 miles old and not the actual rings.

Just wanted to put this info out there for Greg and everyone else incase you missed the article.

 

[dnhieu]

can you post more pictures greg. pictures make me happy

 

[Zero Bar]

Hey... guess who's coming to Cal Speedway to race against me in a couple of weeks? Yep, Dave Royce called me the other day and told me to be prepared (I think he needs to get out of the cold for awhile)

From what I hear Greg you're going to have your work cut out for you with Dave!! Show him what our cars (and you) are capable of!!!
I hope maybe during an HPDE event this year I can get him to drive my car or at least ride along and give me some pointers.

 

[TSIfreek]

Greg I use a oil filter cutter from summit. It opens the filter like a can opener. I would recomend getting one and checking your filter everytime you change it.
Glad to hear everything is working out now you need to get out and beat on that thing!! Im sure you cant wait. Nice!!!

 

[wishihadatalon]

There was a good article in the most recent Motor Trend magazine regarding motoman's break in procedure. Here's the info they got.

Dave Lancaster - Gm engines - "...he agrees that in smaller, low-cost air-cooled engines (which expand and contract more as temperatures change) such a technique might indeed pay off. But the microfinished bores, high-tension rings, and precision-build tolerances of today's automotive engines yield excellend ring sealing from new, so any change in power output attributable to such a radical procedure would be miniscule if measurable at all. He notes that power and fuel economy generally improve through the break-in period as friction diminishes on all moving parts."

"Ford's engine durability specialist Mike Herr concurs with all of the above as do the engine R&D experts at Honda."

"Motoman counters by arguing that the fine machining and high-precision build quality of modern engines serve only to shorten the window of opportunity to "seat the rings", making it even more important to do the heavy-duty accels right off the bat."

"But if his procedure works, why don't manufacturers perform it in the plant on a dyon, expecially on performance engines like the handbuilt Corvette LS7 and supercharged Northstar? They would, but Lancaster and Herr confirm the only enginers that get such treatment are those undergoing torture-testing during development to ensure that the Motomans of the world won't ring up big warranty claims."

Now I personally let the car idle much like you described and then took it out for some low boost (12psi or so) throttle accels from 30 to 50 or so then engine braking down to 30 in 3rd gear. I did about 6 of those back to back and then 6 more from 3rd gear at 4000rpm - redline. Pulled the car into the garage where I let it idle at around 1500 - 2000 for about 5 minutes to cool and then shut it off. Drained the oil and let it sit overnight to completely cool. Next morning I changed the oil filter too and took off driving it. It's ran flawlessly for the last 5000 miles, she burns a bit of oil, but I blame that on valve stem seals that are about 150,000 miles old and not the actual rings.

Just wanted to put this info out there for Greg and everyone else incase you missed the article.

I read somewhere( and I am sorry I wouldn't be able to find it again) but new cobras consistanly dyno 10whp more if they have been beat on vs babied cars. I broke my car in that way. But I don't really think there is much of a difference.

Anyway glad to see it runs. Hope its trouble free for you from here on out.

 

[Greg Collier]

Greg I use a oil filter cutter from summit. It opens the filter like a can opener. I would recomend getting one and checking your filter everytime you change it.
Glad to hear everything is working out now you need to get out and beat on that thing!! Im sure you cant wait. Nice!!!

I need to look into that... I've been cutting the oil filter open with a pair of tin snips every time.

mavisky There was a good article in the most recent Motor Trend magazine regarding motoman's break in procedure. Here's the info they got.

Hey Kyle, thanks for your continual watchful eye. Don't want to screw anything up at this stage of the game...

While I was draining the first batch of oil out I noticed a small leak at the turbo oil return line connection to the new Moroso oil pan. Because of the design of the connection, oil traveled out the threads of the connecting screws. Those screws should be welded to the pan...

 

[steve]

While I was draining the first batch of oil out I noticed a small leak at the turbo oil return line connection to the new Moroso oil pan. Because of the design of the connection, oil traveled out the threads of the connecting screws. Those screws should be welded to the pan.

Greg, did you remember to use some crush washers on the bolts for the turbo return line to the pan?

Steve

 

[Greg Collier]

Greg, did you remember to use some crush washers on the bolts for the turbo return line to the pan?

Steve

It's a crappy setup... (2) loose bolts from inside the pan with a connecting rod, through the pan with nuts on the outside. A crush washer wouldn't work because there's no bolt head, so the oil travels out through the threads...

 

[mavisky]

maybe cover the bolts in rtv before passing them through?

 

[logic]

Just tack a couple of nuts (or bolts) to the inside of the pan, and call it a day.