Finishing the racecar blog. Yes?

[Ken Potter]

I just want to throw another thank you in for all of this work. It is very interesting to see it coming together.

[Horsewidower]

Thanks Ken. One of the reasons I did this log was to encourage me to finish. Your comments certainly help. I find when I want to start throwing wrenches at the car (no Mike I didn't say wenches ) I need to step away and cool off for a couple of weeks. This is another official cooling off period. Looks like we will miss this racing season, but I'd still like to get in some real test days.

[Horsewidower]

Doh!!

Had a very productive weekend. Rog, Scott (a new recruit, full time mechanic for the fire department, great addition) Geoff and I worked on the car for about 12 hours on Saturday. Roger worked on the window installation I worked on the new crank trigger and the attendant computer changes, Scott worked on the leaking hydraulic clutch and the leaking rear axle. I've never had a hydraulic line with a pinhole leak in the middle before, really strange. We thought we would have to drop the tranny to change the line (it has a tilton internal hydraulic throw out bearing) but with the purchase of a mirror (couldn't find ours) a crows foot of the right size, a wobbly and some duct tape, Scott was able to fish the line on and off with any tranny removal. What a great job!!

We put the new crank trigger on and adjusted the computer program, and... still no fire!! It was good to have a fresh set of eyes. Roger, Geoff and I are all thinking, what the hell, what is it now. Scott started fussing around as the rest of us bitched, eventually starting to go through the wiring and the fuse box. Damn if we didn't have a blown 15 amp fuse!!! 6 weeks of bitching, moaning and throwing wrenches and its a damn fuse. Yet again I'm reminded that when something seems mysteriously unresponsive, its time to look for the ordinary! Seconds later, the car is running, although with a 3000 rpm idle with an AFR of 11.8-12.0. But it started over and over and over. Man what a breakthrough.

Roger and I keeped working on the rear window. Pictures below:

[Horsewidower]

Here is the finished rear window and the start of the windshield. We are using rivnuts on part of the front window due to the way the windshield flange is made:

[Horsewidower]

We have a significant valve cover oil leak that we need to fix, and we are having trouble with the worn out mule motor making enough oil pressure. We, are going to test the oil pressure gauge, but if it tests good, we may swap to the race engine before the date at the dyno set for the 29th of September.

We are making progress people!!

H

[Raven855]

Great update! Looks like you had a great weekend....

[Horsewidower]

Thanks, it was quite productive. A little infusion of new blood with all its enthusiasm is usually great. Its really turning into a pretty good team, Rog sings while he works and has 30 years of racing experience, Geoff worked as the crew chief of a vintage racing team in his "youth", Scott has about 30 years in as a mechanic for the fire department and is currently finishing a build on a Mini Cooper S with what he hopes is about 260 whp. It should fly! I'm the mutt of the group.

Here is Scott doing what he does best:

[Ken Potter]

Catching a quick 40 winks under the car? HAHA

I'm sure I'm not the only who has nodded off while under the car after thrashing on it trying to get it done?

Looks great so far and congrats on getting it running consistently.

[Horsewidower]

Had another thrash yesterday. Finished putting the left rear axle and seal together. Fixed the valve cover leak, drilled a couple holes in the throttle plate to try and achieve a lower idle. Roger got the windshield hung. Cleaned the interior of the car and mounted the seat, remote shifter, fireproof shifter boot and bolted down the accelerator cable and pedal.

Got it started after some fiddling around. Picked up a miss and after a few backfires, blew out the front oil pan gasket. Never did pick up enough oil pressure, but after checking the oil level (which was way high) decided that we have mixed so much gas with the oil that it needed to be changed before we make a decision to yank the engine. So that's what I'm off to do now.

Pics tonight.

H

[svobrown]

Really enjoy watching someone else spend the money. looks really good!

[Oldham_Racing]

damn, looks like a fun project. i hope to do one to that extent one day...good luck with the rest of it

[Pat_in_L.A.]

Don't you have that backwards??

Solder is your friend.

[Horsewidower]

Thanks guys!!

Mike and Pat: I don't have an idle air valve. We were having some trouble getting the engine to drop below 3000 rpm. When we closed down the throttle plate, it would abruptly stop running as the throttle plate closed. It seemed that it went from adequate air to none rather abruptly. We drilled the holes to provide an air bleed. It seemed to work, we were able to start dropping the rpm lower, but then ran out of oil pressure and had to stop.

[Horsewidower]

Here are pictures of the windsheld install. It's 1/4 inch mar and uv resistant lexan. Its mounted with spacers in order to make it flush, and we used 10-32 screws with either riv-nuts or nylocks so that it is removable. One of the serious mistakes made on the car is that all the electrical connections are made behind the dash, which requires that the windshield must be removed in order to make any repairs. What a pain. Anyhow, here are the pics showing the lexan, the trimming and the mounting.

[Horsewidower]

Mercy Killing

Well, after trying to get some oil pressure by draining the oil and gas mixture and refilling with a 60 wt valvoline oil, we still could not bring the pressure up. So we yanked the mule motor. It served its purpose, we beat on it for about 60 days, fixed a number of crank trigger problems and fueling problems, and finally we needed to remove it before it just seized. Anyhow, we pulled the motor and will put the first race motor in it. It currently resides in my 86 SVO.

We yanked the mule motor today and did some necessary additional work, including sectioning the pinch flange at the firewall for valve cover clearance, doing a little clearancing on the k-member for the oil pan and putting the bulkhead fitting through the firewall for the accusump. We'll go ahead and plumb that in now.

Here are the pics: