-----Original Message-----
From: Henry Frye [SMTP:thefryes@iconn.net]
Sent: Tuesday, March 21, 2000 9:48 AM
To: fot@autox.team.net
Subject: A couple questions
To the dirty fingernail crowd,
Question 1: Upon tearing down the engine in my race car, I found one of the
connecting rod bolts was finger tight. My machine shop gave the rod a clean
bill of health after magnifluxing, cleaning up the minor spalling on the
end cap and resizing the big end. It's a stock rod with Carillo bolts. My
machinist is suggesting a higher than stock torque setting to take
advantage of the stronger Carillo bolt, he is calling Carillo to verify.
Does this make sense?
[Jack Wheeler] When I used stock rods in my race car, I used the later
(TR-4A) rod bolts. I don't have the book in front of me, but it seemed
like the stock torque for the rod bolts was about 60 ft. lbs. and Kastner
recommended a torque of 80 ft. lbs. I used this recommendation without
problems. Had rods and rod bolts magnafluxed every 4 races or so. Never
broke a rod bolt (broke one rod, but it didn't have anything to do with the
bolt torques). In the early 80's I switched to Carillo rods. Carillo
recommended a torque of 75ft. lbs.
Question 2 is about break in, or should I say the lack of engine break in.
After getting this engine together, I hope to have the car on the track
without any real run-in time at all. I'll run it long enough to get the cam
and tappets happy, but wasn't planning on disturbing the neighbors much
more than that. How long should it take to get the rings to bed when
running at track speed? I am running a very low running time set of
pistons/rings/liners with a real light hone job to break the glaze. Should
I use mineral based oil for the entire race weekend, then switch to
synthetic?
[Jack Wheeler]
When I first started racing (1974) I used to be real cautious about
break-in. We had on old airport nearby and I could take the car out there
and drive it for hours without bothering anyone. Later, when I lost the
use of the airport, and didn't have the time to spend I spoke with some
friends who had done some dyno work for me and asked them what they did
about break-in on the dyno. The answer I got (from more than one
knowledgeable source) was that they let it idle on the dyno for five
minutes (or until thoroughly warmed up), then did the dyno runs. I was
using cast iron rings at the time and they seemed to seat in real fast.
So, I stopped worrying about break-in.
The only difference I noticed was when I switched to pop up pistons, I
started using a chrome moly top ring. This seemed to take a little longer
to seat, which meant that the engine began to pull more power after I had
run it for a while. A couple of practice/qualifying sessions usually got
the job done. I always used petroleum based oil, so I can't help with your
question on synthetic.
I still can't decide what to do with 5 gallons of 3 year old racing fuel I
drained out of the fuel cell... Somehow I don't think the push mower or the
snow plow truck will get the job done any faster with it!
[Jack Wheeler]
Here's a non-technical story on the above subject, which you may enjoy.
When I started my E-Type restoration, I drained about 5 gallons of really
old fuel (the car had been sitting for about 10 years when I got it) out of
the fuel tank. Actually there was more than 5 gallons in the tank, but a
lot of it ended up on my garage floor and is now either mixed in with my
garage floor paint or is residue in the gutter in front of and alongside my
garage.
Anyway, I had the 5 gallons of old gasoline to dispose of. I called
everyone I could find in the yellow pages who I thought might be able to
help, but to no avail. I was willing to pay to get rid of it. I sure
didn't want to pollute the environment. One day I was meeting with the
Mayor of our city, and asked him if he had any suggestions of how I could
legally dispose of this old gasoline. He suggested I go upstairs in City
Hall and ask the Fire Chief for his recommendations (I wasn't sure why he
would refer me to the fire chief). The Fire Chief said, "If it was me, I'd
take it out in the country and pour it on the ground in a field somewhere".
I couldn't believe my ears. I guess we really do live in a rural area!
Some weeks later the old gasoline mysteriously disappeared from that 5
gallon can. I wonder where it went???
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