Track day at Portland International Raceway! The ol' 1275 is feeling strong,
and pulling 5500 revs at the end of the front straight. Temperature 190.
Running good! Four laps later, pulling 5200 revs at 210 degrees. Hmmmm. Lap
and a half later, will only pull 4400 revs on back straight, temp jumps to 230,
drops a cylinder. Hand up, pull off into pits, engine quits.
All plugs look great, good spark everywhere. All valves are free, and timing
chain hasn't jumped. Restarts with difficulty. Oil pressure 55 at idle, 70 at
2000 revs. Pull plug wires off one-by-one: number three does not worsten when
removed -- in fact, the idle sounds BETTER with #3 plug wire off! There is an
ugly knock when #3 _is_ fireing.
I'm thinking I broke the piston skirt in #3. With the plug out, compression
(via the "thumb over the plug hole" technique) is intermittant -- sometimes
it's there and sometimes it's not. Maybe a broken compression ring? Any other
thoughts??
I left it at the track, and will push it over to the All British Field Meet in
the parking lot tomorrow. Stop by and offer sympathy and/or ideas.
Mark Joerger
Westfield Eleven
http://www.open.org/joerger/
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