erik;
If your used to any other car, the cap does seem a little loose.~1/16"
is
about right?
If your cam is biased toward low rpm there won't be any point in twisting
it tighter. GET A COPY OF THE 1500 SPIT COMPETITION MANUAL. I think TRF can
help you there. DO THE OILING SYSTEM MODS as per the book or you'll be
buying new cranks and rods. the # 2 and 3 rods don't get enough oil for
street use let alone racing on slicks. Dont panic and not race, just do it
as soon as practical. (It does require a complete eng strip). Practice very
smooth shifting and takeoffs. The diff , rear axles and tranny are not very
forgiving of sidesteping the clutch. The alternator isn't going to cost you
any real hp., the stock eng cooling fan will ! (as well as flying off at
inconvenient moments if it's the press on kind) Don't bother with the alt
switch until you get niped for LTD by someone . I don't know what your
sanctioning body allows, but I'm assuming your running in prepared. Have
fun. My first race as a novice, I won with a motor similar to yours, but
with stock 4 or 4.5 rims and bridgestone RD102 175/70-13 tires. I beat this
one kid (hell- I was 17) who had slicks and aftermarket suspension. He came
up after and asked me about my motor. Having built it myself, and being
young, I braged a little about how fast it was --hah. He walked away saying
he HAD to get a hot motor, but even then I knew he wouldn't beat me with
that. He just needed to spend more time practicing his cones. I later got
return payment when the Canadian national champion in my class showed up
and cleaned my clock with a fiat x1/9 that had few motor mods. Autocross is
a drivers sport . don't worry your first year about making hp., get it
reliable and have fun.
I think the gas tank is close to 10 gal. US. 10.4 or something.
Your wheels sound fine . check the studs for cracks often, and always
use
a torque wrench to tighten them. There is a mod you need to do to your rear
axles. At least on the early cars, (and this memory is going back to 1975),
you need to polish the root of the axle keyway where it ends on the inboard
side. Cracks start there. There used to be stronger axles made by Summit
eng., but I honestly don't know now.(listers ; you guys have more up to
date info?) I started racing bikes and building faster BMW's in 1982 so my
sources are long cold. Put redline 80-140 w in the diff., ns 75- 90 in the
tranny and they'll live a bit longer. If the tranny won't shift, go down to
MT90 or MTL.
I'm looking to revive ''le marinade" (my spit racer) next year .
The stock 1500, in great shape, can go to 6 or 6500. If you start it up
in
the morning after a long run the night before, and you don't hear any rod
knock, your ok. If after a long fast run you can hear a faint rod knock as
you slightly blip the throttle to 2k, your toast. Inbitween lies discretion
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