Originally Posted by Flash68
I am not even sure where to start here... first, as many of you know, I've been battling some off and on fatigue and health issues for awhile now and it has kept me from making 3 track days since September. But I was determined to give it a shot at RTTC and do as much as I could. Well I not only made it through, I felt pretty good the whole time and still feed good now that I'm back. It is quite a medical mystery if you ask me, but I will just call RTTC exactly what the doctor ordered!
Now, on to car stuff... I'll start by saying Badmotorfinger now has a bad motor... literally. Something happened mid morning on Friday on the road course. Not sure if overheating caused the problem, or a yet to be identified problem caused the overheating. Water temp was over 240 as I was pulling off the course and the coolant was empty. Not cool. First tow of he day back to the pits.
After a full body cavity search could not find an external problem so it's likely internal. Excessive blow-by is now occurring at this point at an alarming rate.
Button it up and head back out and see what happens. Power is down a bit but not terribly. Oil pressure a little low but acceptable. Make some more runs and see what happens. Went to the autoX and knocked over some cones. Man I usually don't hit an excessive amount of cones but I was on fire this weekend.
Back on the road course later in the afternoon and ran a short session but didn't get my clutchless rev matching downshift right and got the tranny stuck between gears. Tow #2 back to the pits.
Quickly got back out on track and went again.... it got a little hot and I came back in to cool and oil pressure was down to about 4 lbs. Yes, 4 lbs. Not cool again. It was mid afternoon now and decided to shut it down for the day and put some thicker oil in it for Saturday. Found some straight 50 at AutoZone and that was the life blood for another day. Oh and the battery was now dead. Add that to the shopping list.
Got back out Saturday and surprisingly the motor held its own for most of the day. Still down on power but pulling pretty good and would stumble a bit a times (also related to the float bowl adjustments for that speed stop dealio). Blow by is borderline hilarious at this point and I am getting texts and strangers coming up to me asking if my car is okay. One asked if I saw the smoke coming out of the engine... How could I not?!
After the motor injury, I was just wanted good clean runs in all 3 events and try to make the shootout. My car is terribly setup for that speed stop squared event so I knew I wouldn't make it far but I just wanted to make it, and I did. We are all anxious to see how we stack up and hopefully they post times soon. I've checked my videos and I have to say I am pretty happy with my estimated times based on my motor problems. The road course was and should be my best event and then the autocross and then I stunk up the speed stop drag race slalom deal. Was a blast though.
First report on recently installed mods:
Corbeau seats - fit great, feel great
Oil cooler system - TBD... oil temps reached high 280-290 when water temp was hitting 240+. Need to figure that out.
T101A trans - AWESOME. By the end of Saturday I was getting pretty decent at downshifting while left foot braking and right foot rev matching. Did experience some wicked wheel hop when timing was off on downshifts, but the car would stay straight as long as I was aimed straight.
Boom Tube exhaust - love it. Not too loud surprisingly due to the car chemistry inserts and it drew a lot of attention for both looks and sound. The GoPro captures the sound pretty good but definitely louder in person.
Carbotech brake pads - great pad when they are hot. They shined on the road course. Really liked them. Not sure if they helped a whole lot on autoX. Didn't feel like it even though I tried to drag the brakes quite a bit for that event and the drag/slalom/brake deal... oh yeah, as I drug the brakes people kept checking and asking what's wrong with my car again. LOL
Hotchkis front sway bar - maybe the best mod in past year. Made the turn in excellent and felt like 100 lbs were removed from front of car. I am actually excited to do the Goodguys Peanut in 2 weeks... if the motor cooperates with some oil pressure.
Ok, enough commentary already. On to the videos. These look like my best times. I never put together a super clean road course lap and I think I look slow in this vid, but the time seems to be decent from what I've seen.
And an AutoX run on Friday. Starts at about :58
We had a blast of a weekend and I can't thank enough my good friend Rich Bermea of Road Touring Customs and his sidekick Frankie Judd for their track support and good times. These guys are great guys with big hearts and make it possible for me to do this stuff. And that Frankie can drive too.
Looks like it's time to start finishing my new motor plans that were not ready yet.... good thing I already started collecting parts
Dave, look! you were once sort of capable of bringing the tech! although statements like, "Excessive blow-by is now occurring at this point at an alarming rate," really sounds more like something Ron would get in trouble for writing about on CC.
This thread is getting way too techie for me. Can we go back to the way it used to be?
And what happened to the Rontourage? Did they abandon ship?
That little 377 was the engine that could.... until I killed it. I blame Rich! He pushed me to the edge! "let's throw some 20w50 in it... she'll be fine!"
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