OK- this may be open the doors to a whole new series of jokes, for which
you are all welcome in advance, but wondered if anyone could shed some
light on the following:
At Savannah over the Easter weekend, just in time for the feature race, the
engine on my Lola T294, a Hart 420R, refused to start. In earlier
sessions, it ran OK, though it sounded a wee bit off-song to me (no one
else thought so), and felt perhaps a bit down on power, but nothing
dramatic. Then, it was hard to start for the pre-race warm-up, but
ultimately did start, and warmed-up fine. When I got in the car to start
it and go to the grid, it refused to fire.
Checking compression showed compression down - and from memory, almost nil,
on all cylinders. End of weekend. Sent the motor off to Dave Vegher who
told me yesterday, that upon opening it up, he found a white powdery
deposit "caked" on the rings...said it looked like flour... And the radii
on the edges of the rings themselves has been as if removed to sharp edges.
And the rings just "popped" right off the pistons, as if the pistons had
shrunk... but they hadn't.
Dave said he's never seen anything like it. There is no evidence of
overheating or excessive piston temperature, all bearings are in great
shape. He asked me if I made any enemies at Savannah or Sebring, because it
was as if something had been added to my fuel or oil. Despite that I can't
imagine anyone in vintage racing doing such a thing, there is nothing in
the fuel filter, metering unit, injectors, etc. Which leaves the
possibility of oil or air, or???
Dave discarded all the white stuff... else it would have been interesting
to have it analyzed... but lacking that evidence, does anyone have any
clues on this?
Sorry for the length of this letter.
-Alfred Kobacker
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