That was a spectacular write up. Poetic.
That was a spectacular write up. Poetic.
In reply to mazdeuce:
Aww, shucks. blush
noddaz wrote: Whaahooo! Glad to hear this car was out there and running! And you persevered despite a few bumps... Sounds like fun!
As one of my teammates said, as we were mired in the nadir of the Saturday evening engine/ transmission bash-a-thon, "We don't ever seem to get any better at this. But, at least we bring spares."
BTW, some of the Ram Air Pontiacs had the same problem with the rocker arm/valve cover clearance issue. So Pontiac had a thicker valve cover gasket for clearance. But a lot of people just stacked two regular valve cover gaskets instead...
In reply to noddaz:
We thought about doing that, but were concerned that might leak.
In reply to volvoclearinghouse:
Oil leaking is a legitimate concern for this car. We installed wiper blades during the last race to mitigate oil spray on the windshield. 
To VCH's credit, this new engine never leaked and ran great all weekend minus the oil pump pick up issue.
Nice job on the Marty Robbins paint scheme.
In reply to Wall-e:
E36 M3 yeah. We should have done that as a theme!
tester wrote: In reply to volvoclearinghouse: Oil leaking is a legitimate concern for this car. We installed wiper blades during the last race to mitigate oil spray on the windshield.
As I recall, we'd entertained the idea of filling the wiper fluid reservoir with brake clean.
Thanks for the kudos on the engine. I still feel bad about the berkeleying pump pickup though. If I'd only tack welded it beforehand... 
In reply to volvoclearinghouse:
Who knew? We never had that failure before this race.
Finding new and creative ways to break things is part of our charm. 
tester wrote: In reply to volvoclearinghouse: We never had that failure before this race.
I'm pretty that someone has said more or less this exact same thing at every race we've done.
volvoclearinghouse wrote: In reply to oldeskewltoy: When we had the pan off to fix the pickup, I grabbed each big end bearing and moved it back and forth. None of them seemed to have any more play than they had when I'd put the engine together. Yes, this is subjective. Hoever, there was only a small bit of metal in the pan (maybe a dozen small pieces, about what you'd expect) and the oil pressure afterwards was identical- 50 psi cold, and 25 or so hot (at idle). I may pull the pan anyway, to make sure the pickup "fix" held, and while I'm at it I'll pull some big end caps and have a peek...
Sounds like at worst you inadvertently opened up the bearings to "race" clearances. If you plastigauged them on installation it would be interesting to do it again and see how if there is any measurable wear, M1 15w50 is some of the toughest oil you can buy from regular sources but IDK about "flog it around a race track for a minute with 0 oil pressure" tough.
In reply to BrokenYugo:
Yeah, the 460 in the car now was a 30,000 mile unit out of a motorhome with a hot cam and some flat top pistons in it, with new moly rings. I didn't touch any of the bearings- they're all OEM. And from all accounts the engine ran just as well or better on Sunday. So yeah, maybe we just "broke in" the engine. ;-)
When the engine lost oil pressure I eased it around the track at 2000 rpm and back to the pits. Without oil pressure, the lifters probably collapsed, which caused the loss of power. It's like a "limp home" mode.
Albeit a little noisy
I know of a trick, oh wait, that is to prevent pump up.
In 4 years of lemons our cars have never left a scar on me. Then I help out with a transmission swap and I've got a permanent C6 reminder on my leg.
This car needs an OM617 swap
volvoclearinghouse wrote: In reply to BrokenYugo: When the engine lost oil pressure I eased it around the track at 2000 rpm and back to the pits. Without oil pressure, the lifters probably collapsed, which caused the loss of power. It's like a "limp home" mode.
I was thinking of saying something about checking out the valvetrain for signs of oil starvation, but completely forgot abut that rather graceful failure mode found in engines of that era.
buzzboy wrote: In 4 years of lemons our cars have never left a scar on me. Then I help out with a transmission swap and I've got a permanent C6 reminder on my leg. This car needs an OM617 swap
Working on our very first LeMons car, for our very first race, I managed to slit my wrist (accidentally), which required an emergency room visit and a dozen stitches. I'd never before in my life needed stitches for an injury. I still have the scar.
Maybe that should have been a warning.
At any rate, Tunachuckers thank you for your sacrifice.
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