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RE: Corinthians and Tristan

To: susan@grotecon.com
Subject: RE: Corinthians and Tristan
From: Bill Babcock <BillB@bnj.com>
Date: Wed, 3 Jun 1998 22:10:20 -0700
It's always tough rebuilding a blown motor. I'm always expecting some
sliver of metal stuck in a oilway to pop loose and find the worse
possible place to lodge--like in between the gears of an ancient gear
oil pump (a painful motorcycle memory). Erk, snap. End of pump.  Seizure
at the entrance to a slightly off camber left. My shoulder throbs just
thinking about it.

To whatever degree is possible on your engine I'd bottle brush the
oilways. There are specialty brushes available for that. The oil cooler
is junk. Too many hiding places. You could move your filter to the
outlet, but it's probably best to replace. 

I've never understood how the factory can get all the scarf and
machining junk out of an engine, but they seem to do just fine. 

I like your idea about bios, but it seems like we'd need a place to put
'em so new members could see what they're getting into.

-----Original Message-----
From: Susan Hensley [mailto:susan@grotecon.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 03, 1998 8:35 AM
To: Amici Triumphi
Subject: Corinthians and Tristan


Thanks Joe, for the site info!  Here is our local vintage group I hope
to run with in August, Corinthians Vintage Auto Racing:
http://web2.airmail.net/cvar1/

I have attended several of their events as pit crew, and it's a lot of
fun.

Now to my sordid story:
I got sidelined by a neck problem after pushing an MGB (yeah, I know, I
asked for it), and finally got to pulling of Tristan's lower end on
Sunday.  Yuck.  I wish I hadn't.  The #3 rod was spaghetti -- twisted up
and in about 3-4 major parts and a whole lotta slivers.  The piston was
pretty chewed (read MORE metal in the system) and the cylinder wall was
nicked a little --  not badly, considering what was going on.  So, I am
set back even more.  I have located and will be picking up a 1300 small
bearing block and crank and hopefully rods on Sunday ($50 -- thanks
Darren!)and will whisk them to the machine shop ASAP.  I do have an
offer from the same guy (Darren) to rent his spare 1300 race engine for
VTR National.  Nice guy!  I hope to have this one back together by then,
but it just may not happen.

I do have a question for the collective wisdom -- what is the best way
to clean out oil lines and the oil cooler so no metal shreds are left? 
Is it better to replace everything (ouch)?  I have an Accusump, which
unfortunately was wide open at the time, and it needs to be cleaned
out.  Darren gave me the name and number of a company that does that, so
that will be taken care of.

Thanks so much!

Keep Triumphing,
Susan   :)
Slightly discouraged, but with options, and boy, what a learning
experience!

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