The Plum Pi finally gave the death rattle. A lap from the end of
Connie's race last Saturday she "sensed something" and brought it in
although the temp and pressure were OK. The rod knock didn't start
until idling thru the pits. Had I been driving I'd probably have a
puzzle-piece bottom end. It's actually been a open secret that I've
been insisting on Connie doing more driving as a means of extracting
every bit of borrowed time that the poor thing has been on since
Portland. Funny thing is that my procrastination on last winter's
scheduled rebuild actually allowed Chris Marx to develop the sealing
fix I've been waiting for.
So I just went thru the log books. This is the re-incarnation of the
engine I built in '05 - the Mahle pistons have never been out of
their bores. The current build got some track time and one race
before Watkins Glen. Then Brainard, back home, Portland, home to best
my personal record by 1.5 seconds and taking the Vintage Production
lap record by 1.7 secs., Topeka and back home. And all the races in
between. Total of 13 race weekends and about 5 light testing days. In
hindsight it wouldn't have made it thru Topeka if Connie hadn't done
her share of the driving. And BTW - Heartland was her first race off
of our home track at Sandia. She had a blast did a great job in my
book, including being pretty aware of passing traffic and point byes.
She's a natural for seeing the line but just has a more prudent
approach to our TRactors than I do.
My question from awhile back was a honest inquiry. I was wondering
what sort of duty others are getting from stock but messaged
internals. The first incarnation would actually see as high as 7200
rpm and lived. I had that crank mag'd and it wasn't until it was re-
checked after cryo treatment that the crack was detected. I'm
convinced that the treatment brought the crack to the visible surface
and saved me from "the big one". On the tear-down of that 7000+ rpm
version I found the timing chain to be stretched enough to retard the
cam close to 8 degrees. Next [this] time around I used a virgin, un-
ground crank, crack checked it, did the Kas treatment of stress
relieving, lightening and polishing, cryo'd it, crack checked it
again and polished journals to -.0001. I tried a clue from the
previous lesson and retarded the cam [Isky 666. Looking forward to a
LY] 4 degrees and used a better chain [BPNW]. This engine saw 6800+
on the over-run but was all-in for any power by 6500. Anyone
listening from the fence at Topeka knows what I mean about "over-run"
in my downshifts... Might even have touched 7k in the last turn of
Topeka. I really like driving with the rear end and my car really
won't do much of that on-"power", mostly on the other side of the
curve. I never intended to get max output from my set-up. I'd just
get addicted to it at the expense of longevity. Thus the original
short runner manifold [great conversation starter - "you know they
made a ...."], original untouched carbs [Henry Fry and I took the
original, round, solid brass float needles out in Portland - I still
owe you a pair of needles Tony G] no trumpets, no heat shield, no
nothin'. Points ignition done Kas' way to a gnats ass. Head looks to
be nicely done [by some unknown other ] and I gave the chambers my
treatment to get the compression down to the 10.6:1 I thought I could
get away with. Ignored the common [and good] wisdom and left the head
gasket [Payden composite] hanging over into the chamber and no relief
notches in the sleeves. CC'd +/- .5 cc.
I've never subjected it to a dyno but always thought I MIGHT be in
the 130+hp range. To my surprise, a friend just built 148hp with this
basic spec. So my big question is: How nuts am I in thinking I might
get a bit more for Laguna Seca? I've got a really nice 12:1 head on
the shelf that I've never had the guts to install. I'm sold on the
Mahle's and will do them again. Forged anything is not in the plan.
On a side note and to my surprise, a few have asked for the whole
Topeka saga. To my surprise because I'm never sure if anyone reads or
wants to hear my drivel. For those that don't, start lookin' for the
delete button.
The "inland freighter" is a 53' Haulmark enclosed car hauler. Picked
it up in Tulsa this spring and brought it home to Albuquerque. Got a
'91 Dodge 1 ton, turbo diesel, dually and outfitted it as a
cab&chassis tow rig. A couple brief shake-down runs and Topeka was
it's maiden voyage. Talk about "beaten by equipment"!! The first 50
miles from Albuquerque to Santa Fe goes from 5500 to 7200 feet.
Quickly obvious the cooling system is not happy with my 14,000 CGVW.
At Santa Fe I got on the 50 mph Old Percos Trail [route 66 prior to
1937] to try cooling things off for the pull up Glorietta pass.
Haven't driven that stretch for a few years but I knew where I was
the moment I saw it - the last place to get on I-25 before the road
dead-ends in a couple hundred yards. That's when I found out the
trailer brakes were not set quite where they needed to be. There was
one small sign about 150' from the downhill turn. Overshot it by 25'.
That's when I found out that the engine/transmission mounts were not
up to the task of backing uphill. Dead-end road, no turn around [how
New Mexico] and no reverse. That was the first time I questioned if
this was going to work. Barley and I scouted around for about 20
minutes on foot looking for some way to reverse course. One driveway
looked promising so we gave it a try. Tight but just up-hill enough
it didn't take much clutch to go backwards. By the third or fourth
jack-knife maneuver I'm thinking I'm going to make it. Then comes the
first wife on her way down the drive in her way to work. Explain
myself, she backs up 100' feet and we're doing good. Than comes the
second wife driving down. Followed by hubby on foot. With hubby's
guidance I clear the mailbox by inches and the trees on the other
side of the road by a few feet. Probably took a hour and a half and
on the road again. Cooling system is a issue but find how directly I
can control the temp with my right foot. As the terrain flattens out,
the trip seems to smooth out. Stop for fuel somewhere in Oklahoma and
do a light check. They're not doing as well as the last time I
checked. Typical ground problem. Put a jumper on ground side and go
in for [another] Red Bull. Come out ready to go, give everything a
final check and the inside of the trailer is filled with that acrid
smell that only comes from burning wires. Go to pull the jumper and
get a good burn. How it did what it did without burning a fuse I
don't even want to know. Turns out the wiring is the damnedest array
of mis-wired backfeeding I've ever seen. A couple hours, a complete
re-wire and a spare light later, we're on the road again. Keep in
mind that WE is me and Barley - we're due to pick Connie up at the
Kansas City Airport at what is now TODAY at 9:45 p.m.. 100 miles
down the road and we find a road sign that had so many options it
looked to be from the Japanese alphabet. Missed the turn. 12 miles in
the wrong direction to find a "almost' turnaround. I say "almost"
because the landing gear on the trailer bottomed out about half-way
around... totally smoked the dually's to get it horsed around with
the trailer jacks grinding their way into the pavement. Another 12
miles back and headed east again. It's about 11:30, we're doing about
60 on two lane highway 56. With a KAWAMM- BANG!!! I thought the frame
had broken in half. We're headed for the other shoulder/ditch.
Correct a bit and we're now tracing the centerline but 53' of trailer
wants to pass. Hit the hand control on the trailer brakes and get it
straightened out. But now we're about to be parked and disabled in
the middle of a two lane highway. Actually had the presence of mind
to downshift, give a bit of throttle and get it parked on the grass
on my side of the road with maybe 4" of the rear over the line. Took
about 1/4 mile to get it stopped and at the end I could see the
sparks coming off right next to the fuel tank. Had plenty of time to
grab the fire extinguisher from under the seat and think A: There
goes Topeka. And B: How am I going to get this thing fixed and out of
here? Jumped out and the good news was that we weren't on fire. Next
clue is that we didn't have either wheel on the drivers rear of the
truck. Flashlight revealed that we had one sheared lug stud and a
mangled drum. Took Barley for a little walk and within 100' he found
one wheel. Another 25' and we found the other!. Back to the truck for
lots of jacking and blocking. Beat the brake drum back on, started
the truck and put it in gear with the wheels off. The drum make some
bad noises and required a few more whacks but was soon running fairly
true. Then to discover that a Dodge with a Dana 70 uses different
lugs from front to rear. Only thing to do is to rob 4 [half] off the
other rear and see what happens. It was durring this swap process
that I saw the 140 Ft Lbs on the face of the nuts - I had them at
75. 53' of trailer on 4 lug nuts is not very confidence inspiring...
100 yards and check them. 1/4 mile and check them again. 1 mile and
another check. After they hadn't budged in 5 miles I started to get
up to speed - maybe 45mph. By this time of the morning the truck
traffic started up. Talk about jumpy! Had a pebble got stuck in a
tire I was ready to pitch the whole thing in the ditch.
Needless to say, but we weren't there to pick Connie up at the
airport. She had to get a room, rent a car, and meet us at the track.
By the time I got there about 1pm Friday, it had taken 28 hours to
drive 736 miles straight thru and I was hardly in a condition to
unload the car much less drive. First race of Saturday was Connie's
first time on the track. After lunch was my first outing - though I
did take the TR3 out for the lunchtime lapping to figure which way
the track went. Funny thing was at the drivers meeting Sunday - Jim
Grey was explaining how I was apexing too early to get set up for the
bridge. I told him that the bridge looked like there was plenty of
room to keep going after the crest. He looked at me with a kind of
puzzled look and explained that the turn before going down to the
bridge had to be entered from far drivers right. My response was "we
go UNDER a bridge?"!!! I just don't see those kind of things. Reminds
me of when Chuck met the wall in Portland - after he told me what
happened I said "there's a wall out there?" Really glad I don't seem
to see those scary things.
So that's the "rest of the story" I know this is over max but please
send it thru Mark.
Would really like to hear about others engine longevity.
Greg "Lunker" Hilyer
TR4 #314
Albuquerque NM
And kudos to Walt Hollowell for having that TR6 flying last weekend.
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