Well Keith you asked for it;
After six passes at Speedweek with no bearing problems at all, and
going 241 out the back door we were pretty smug about the bottom end changes
we made. HELLO - WAKE UP CALL, we pounded out all eight rod inserts in the
first half mile of our first pass at the WOS. After fiddling with it for a
day we decided that we were just inviting disaster trying to fix it at the
salt. We could have easily converted a scored crank and two dead rods into a
broken crank and a split block.
As you may remember our problem at Speedweek was two dead
transmissions. The trans guy in Salem asked if we were proud of abusing our
antiques. The glides were state of the art in 1990, the last time they were
rebuilt (we didn't run in 92 through 97) but are behind the times now. So
with 400 pounds more lead, rebuilt non slipping transmissions and air ten
degrees cooler we figured we really missed the tune up big time.
Saturday after the tow home Ken tore everything down, sent the rods to
me to take to Carrillo, the crank to his grinder in Salem and the fuel pump
to Enderlie. Carrillo says as we surmised two of the rods are dead, we have
two spares so that's looking OK. The crank guy says he doesn't like what he
sees with the dye check so he is going to pick the worst throw and grind it
ten under. If it is OK he will grind the rest. Not sounding too good there.
We can get another right away even though our 3.760 stroke is a custom
order, our buddy Nick Arias has another COLA unit he is willing to part with
for only a measly $1,250. As I have said before "you can't put a price on a
good time".
And the fuel pump? you may ask, well our 15 gallon a minute pump is
down 1.2 gal/min and the sleeve and cover need replacing. That is an eight
percent reduction in delivery so it turns out the tune up wasn't the
problem. We really take good care of the fuel system, draining and oiling
after each meet so we looked elsewhere. Kent Enderlie asks if we are running
a pump saver, Ken says no, Kent says do it. Jerry was always very easy on
the fuel system when he shut down at the end of the run so we never had a
problem with spiking the pump pressure. Russ and I, not being as experienced
are not treating the system as gently and Kent says that is what killed the
pump.
So we learn another lesson that we knew already but got lost in the
background noise, remember what I said about target fixation. Running in
November depends on how the crank thing goes. If it cleans up we will go but
if we have to get another I don't think so. Nick will send us the crank on
the cuff but Ken and I don't like running with parts we don't own yet, and
we cant afford it right now. Good luck to all who are going to the WFOS.
Jim in Palmdale, where it is 55 degrees outside at 11 AM
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