Hey Youse Guys,
So, a week and a half ago, I thought I was ready to go, motor wise, for the
SVRA event at Road America. I straightened out my cam timing issue, had
everything nearly buttoned up, and thought for shits and grins, I'd check
the compression.
20 lbs in #1. This can't be good. Oil it, raises it to maybe 80. Shit. Off
with the head. Deep scores indication some sort of wrist pin voodoo. Damn.
These were brand new old stock flat top TRW's for 998, .030 over, that I'd
got from Mini Mania years ago. Unfortunately, tear down revealed the piston
was galled to hell to. The circlip style wrist pin lock failed, ground up,
and disappeared. So, even if I sleeved that cylinder, I'd have to find
another one of those pistons, and a search revealed they're made of
unobtanium.
I dragged a couple of 948 blocks out of the archives, got them to the
machine shop, with the hope of transferring the remaining good shit from the
bad motor to a new block. But, a bore, line hone, machine for center strap,
and our new rear seal fix would take quite some time to pull together.
Luckily, I had Rosco 1 already at the machine shop. This was one of the 3
motors I got in the deal for the Bugeye racecar that was under Hopper's
nose.
Roscoe 1 is now in the car, running, and looks to be dry. Yee hah. The
cylinder head looks real nice. The Venolias are making squeeze at about
13:1. Damn well ought to be fast.
Tomorrow everything gets a good powerwash (car and trailer), and I can get
loaded up.
The Striking Viking has been working on the landscaping at the Dream Farm,
in order to make it look like white folk live here. I've been messing up the
shop enough that it looks like white trash lives here. but, as we know,
white trash lives in the Hopper garage. If he keeps on making that thing
better looking, we're gonna have to change the name.
We're excited about having our old buddy John Sprinzel with us again. I'll
be at the track Thursday during the day, then picking up John & Caryl at the
airport. They'll come to the track with us Fri, AM.
See ya there.
WST
Wm. Severin Thompson
<mailto:wsthompson@thicko.com> wsthompson@thicko.com
<http://www.thicko.com/> www.thicko.com
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