Hi all,
Well it has been a long time since I ventured to the FOT keyboard! Mind you
much has transpired and I have maintained my careful interest in all that
goes on... some of it a load of crap mind you...still thats the price you
pay....its a bit like the internet itself really... one must take the good
with the bad.
Firstly let me say thank you to FOT for letting my mate Chris Swingler on
board. This man is a marvel to rocket science, and we had the pleasure of
being told recently by one Gene Cook, one of this country's foremost
Nascar/Auscar racers ... he's been to US a few times I think ... to Indy and
such... that our little 1296cc is the best he has seen for its size!!! He
has seen one other super expensive small Ford engine, which goes close.
How is he in a position to make such a statement, he owns the engine dyno we
used to test the current re-incarnation of Superspit.
I will tell you something for nothing.... never, never... use a road dyno
again... ever!!!!! What we learned in two days, would have taken us two
months (and more) on the road or track, thats assuming we did not wear
everything else out first!
Now, to Chris, as Cary - one of our esteemed members knows, the boy can
build a motor car (I think you guys call 'em motor vehicles). Neverthless,
this is my public way of saying 'Chris... you are a bonza bloke, a
gentleman, and friend. And I simply want to say sincerely... thanks mate for
all the work you have done. Your selfless committment to this project
exemplifies your profesionalism and general approach to what you do.
Now to Superspit... we started almost a year ago... and like all projects
nothing is what it seems at first. The car we bought was abucket of bolts...
and we had to start again.
First time out, November last year we startedto breka things... and we went
down hill from there. We went on to break (keep on doing so actually) the
thrust bearing to the crank... clutch too big, we broke the rockers, the
pedestals and more... So you see it has been a learning experience - and
costly too.
Anyway what else can you spend your hard earned on and still ahve fun
sitting down?
Over the past four or five moths Chris and I decided to rebuild by starting
from scratch. Regrind the cam, rebiuld as required the head and top-end, fix
troublesome gearbox and various other things together with a lot of
insurance.
In the middle of all this on January 17th while towing the spitty to Chris'
place I crashed my tow vehicle into four cars at a busy intersection.
Suffered the usual stuff, prolapsed disc (two - L3/L4 and L4/L5) and damage
to my lumber spine. On top of that we discovered through an MRI very late in
the piecs that I was also suffering problems with my thecal sac (I think
thats right)causing the top of both legs to lose sensation somehow. last
Friday they generously informed me I will have to live with my current
situation in all probability... pain pisses you off though!
Anyhow, wrote off my lurvly 1973 Ford XC Falcon utiluty... and did a small
amount of damage to Superspit... nothing serious though. Chris kept on and
helped me tremendously as did my friend Phil, who has partnered me (in the
biblical sense) through this episode. Unfortunately with the limited need
for mainfame programers these days, he fell upon some lean times a while
back, and has had to readjust his financial commitments. In addition we are
encouraging him to rebuild his six which he destroyed a year ago at Philip
Island. Hence he used the refund of money committed to Super-Spit to aquire
a Californain six as a donor chassis and body. he is currently gainfully
occupied preparing a new car as it were. Should see it in ozzie historics
later this year.
Back to Super-Spit... we did decide that when we have the engine back
together we wold dyno it out of the car. So last week we made good our
promise and hooked up with gene Cook and his water bottle as he
affectionately calls it... and prepared to do a few runs. Wouldn't you know
it. we popped a head gasket!!! back to the drawin board we thought. But the
intrepid duo saud no... lets get a gasket and just see if it was an
aberation. Turns out I stuck too much goo on the gasket, it slipped about a
bit, the gap opened up... and voila, she popped. You would think if you rang
local Tr guys and ask for a 1296 head gasket, that they would ensure thats
what you got, as they knew where we were and what we were doing, and
therfore costing. Nope, they sent a 996 or whatever gasket instead... so we
packed up for the night and went home, on our way of course aquiring not one
but TWO gaskets, to be sure, to be sure.
Next day at dawn we are back on the road and finally got everything back
together by mid morning or so. We ramped her up slowly, adjusting head
tension as we went a few times and eventually decided to bite the bullet and
do a couple of pulls to set the timing.
Got that worked out and away we go... Well guys after forty five runs,
changes to plugs, hacking up some exhaust pipe and so on we managedto reach
our goal. Oil temp was a bit down and we di not go over 7000 RPM. We
improved from our first test on a road dyno by more than twenty horse power
and increased torque just as dramatically. Suffice to say we have more than
110 horses with almost a ton of torque. So, the engine is back in the car
and we are off for some track miles probably Friday.
Wish us luck
#777
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