More Progress!

I'm a bit behind on Blog updates, sorry. Had a few more work days since we pulled the motor.

Brick and I dropped off the trans downtown to have them check it out and possibly replace the synchro's. Apparently it wasn't needed, and they fixed a few minor settings inside and said all should be well.

Then we spent quite a bit of time finding items that we needed to move between the old motor and the Camry motor we were putting in. A lot more parts needed to be swapped then you would think, but all were taken care of.

Big thanks to Brick for all his work (many times by himself) on getting the motor into the car and finishing up other items needed to get it running.

It runs! Seems like we may have a vacuum leak somewhere, but otherwise running smooth.

Old motor was filled with water when we cracked it open

Work has resumed!

The new team started work on the car today. We pulled the header & AC compressor off the "new" motor since we don't need AC, and the header was for the Camry.

We then started pulling everything we needed to in order to pull the old motor out of the car. We started about 10:30am and just finished up at about 2:15pm. Engine is out!

Next on our list is removing the transmission and then swapping required parts between the motors.

Some pictures are below, and more are here.

    

Back from the Race!

A little delayed... but been swamped since getting back!

Well, the race was definitely fun, but neither our team or our other team finished the race. Our other team threw a rod about 1.5 hours before race end on Day 1. Our car started over heating just before that.

Oil was good and we didn't see any leaking fluids... but each time we checked the radiator, it was just about dry. Twice we saw temps on the block of almost 600 degrees, and the aluminum head 400 degrees (sigh). We called it a day about 20 minutes before race end on Day 1.

It was determined that the head gasket was toast, and at this point we may have a cracked head as well. In the morning of Day 2, we figured we'd top off the fluids and try and get a few laps in. No such luck... We called it a day and the end of our race as well.

Here's a shot of me on the track... 3 wheels are better then 4 on the ground, right?



I have more pictures here, and even more of The Cursed car getting crushed here.

Looks like both teams have some work to do for the next race!

Pre-Race Day

Just a few small finish up items on the Car, and the big packing/loading day. Since we are part of a 2 Team group, we had 2 cars and all the related gear, tools, etc to load up. A full day just doing that!

A few pics of our car as it sat this afternoon...

Work Day 11

Today (Sunday) was another good work day. We started at 1pm and just finished up about 8pm.

We did some more road testing and found a small leak in the passenger side front brake line, so we decided to replace both front brake lines. We also finished up the installation of our "brake ducts", and got the fire extinguisher purchased and installed.

We also started organizing some of the stuff we need to pack up to take with us to the race this week.

A few pictures are below ... More are here.

Work Day 10

Brick was able to pickup the tires we ordered on Thursday, so we mounted the tires on Friday. These will definitely be a great improvement :)

I also picked up a new bearing and some other odds and ends we needed on Friday as well.

Saturday we started around 9am. We removed the bearings from the knuckle, but found we needed to press a part out of it in order to install the new bearing, etc. Took the entire knuckle off and ran it up to a local machine shop to have it done and the new bearing installed. One look at the hub, and a little measurement, and it was determined that it needed to be replaced as well. Seems it's a dealer only part (~$180) and we can't have it until Tuesday at the latest. After some phone calls, we found an import salvage yard that had the complete knuckle with bearings, hub, ball joint, etc for only $40! So Brick and I ran out and picked it up. 2 hours of the day shot. Once back, it bolted right up and worked way better then the old unit.

After installing the axles, we moved on to the brakes. Re-bled the brakes to make sure all was well... and installed the new rotors and pads. Moved on to refilling the trans fluid, re-installing the oil pan and oil fluid, etc, etc.

Nate & Paavo also worked on installing the hinge and latch for the sunroof, so that is finally taken care of as well!

After some hair raising issues on trying to start the car for the first time (and a few more hours), the car started up and ran well! We took it out for a test drive and the power, brakes and clutch are 1000% better then before! At this point, it was 10:30pm, so we decided to call it a night.

Work Day 9

Sorry... hectic past 1.5 weeks or so. This update is for last weekends work. Brick and I were working Autorama on the weekend, but the rest of the team was able to make some good progress. The new rear seal was installed... and the turned flywheel and new clutch kit was installed and transmission was put back in.

We finished hooking all the linkage, etc up after Tuesday nights meeting. However, while putting the axles back in, etc we noticed that there was quite a bit of play in the passenger side axle (bearing or seat, etc).