Old man's gonna go racing

[Dodging]

A little teaser

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Now the waiting for Saturday...

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Seriously can't think of anything that still needs to be done before Saturday, except to give the car a good clean and change the wheels...

Today I fitted the front bumper, put the last stickers on, locked the flap on the intake manifold to the short position with Pratley Steel, had the alignment sorted, fitted a different fire extinguisher...



Got everything that needs to go along ready to just be packed in the van, like the wheels with the slicks I intend using, tools, odd spares, compressor etc...

Helmet, racing suit, boots etc are packed and ready to grab...

Basically just need to get the trailer on Friday afternoon, load up and head to Fourways where we will be sleeping over...

Don't know how the heck I'm going to focus at work tomorrow and Friday haha

If I manage to drag my arse out of bed early enough tomorrow morning I'm gonna give it a quick clean and try to do a quick photoshoot with some remote flashes while the sun rises...

[Dodging]

[Dodging]

Anybody want to guess what I kept myself busy with tonight?

Well if your guess was that I was changing big-end bearings, you'd be right...

Last night after taking pics of the car, I gave it a burn to check everything was OK. Heard a funny noise and all day today I was worried sick about it. Soon as I got home, pulled the sump off and found the no 4 big end in really bad shape. Thankfully I had a new set of bearings on the shelf, so in they went. Unfortunately the crank has some scoring marks, so I know this is no long term solution...

Just hope it holds through all of tomorrow...

[burgundyB]

Just read through your thread, really interesting and inspiring actually. Really excited on starting mine now! Had any more progress?

[Dodging]

Oops. Been kinda slack in updates.

Here's the main bits:

Went to my first race meeting, dropped a rod in qualifying. Day over. Did nothing to the car for about a month...

So I finally started on getting a working engine again.

Started by opening up the motor, this is what I found:



The piston hit the head pretty hard, so obviously them valves are bent properly



Did a little seepage test on the other combustion chambers, and found that the valves don't seat perfectly on 2 other chambers too, so the head needs a complete overhaul. Don't have the bucks for that now, so I'm just going to slap the flowed head on. Will still see how much weight I'll now have to add to the car to stay in regs.

The crank is obviously not in good shape. The no 4 journal is hurt bad. Doubt a 10thou grind will sort it, 20thou should do but that crank can wait. Using the other crank for now - had that polished and it looks real good now.

Unfortunately the block needs to be re-bored. Sadly so does the other one... So I dropped both off at the engineers this morning to be taken to 20thou. Picking up a new set of pistons this afternoon, and will get a second set sometime soon for the second sub assembly...

Costing a bloody fortune....

[johnny]

Seeing a snapped con rod always puts a smile on my face [emoji38]

Good to see your fixing it though, would you not bore the block out a bit more and slide some 1.6 pistons, give a fair bit more low down torque and you could still race it as 1.4

[Dodging]

Johnny, it's an X18xe1

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Things are coming along...

Took the oil cooler out today and flushed it out - don't want some bits of bearing anywhere near the new motor. Gonna replace the oil pump too, as it feels a bit sticky - probably some pieces of the bearing in there. Not taking any chances with it

Engineering work is almost done. On Monday I'll go and put the sub assembly together at the engineers. Doing it there as I'd like them to torque the caps with their fancy torque guage. Will then set about putting the head back on and dropping it into the engine bay...

[johnny]

Johnny, it's an X18xe1

Thought you were in the 1.4 class? [emoji38]

[stanc3w0rks]

Johnny, it's an X18xe1

Thought you were in the 1.4 class? [emoji38]

So did I?? Haha

Sent from my GT-I8200N using Tapatalk

[Dodging]

Nope - just run in class C. It all works power to weight ratio. The 1800 delivers just a tad more than what I require, so I carry some extra weight to stay in regs

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Update on the engine...

Buggerall has happened since. Block is still at the engineers, just needs honing.

Summary of what's happening to the engine:

New pistons, rings, bearings, oil pump, headgasket, head bolts. Flowed head going on instead of std. The rest remains as it was.

Flushed out the oil cooler yesterday - lots of fine pieces of bearing came out of it. Scary stuff...

The block will supposedly be ready thisafternoon, then assembly will commence...

Clock's ticking...

[Dodging]

So this morning I started on the sub assembly

Main bearings in


Crank in just before the caps and getting torqued


Might be able to continue later this afternoon with it, but I have my doubts... Worst case tomorrow morning I'll put the pistons in and torque the bigends, then the rest can go on there. Thankfully I am at home tomorrow, so with a bit of luck I can maybe start her up by tomorrow evening