[Fot] The Little Engine That Could

[Greg "Lunker" Hilyer]

The Plum Pi finally gave the death rattle. A lap from the end of  
Connie's race last Saturday she "sensed something" and brought it in  
although the temp and pressure were OK. The rod knock didn't start  
until idling thru the pits. Had I been driving I'd probably have a  
puzzle-piece bottom end. It's actually been a open secret that I've  
been insisting on Connie doing more driving as a means of extracting  
every bit of borrowed time that the poor thing has been on since  
Portland. Funny thing is that my procrastination on last winter's  
scheduled rebuild actually allowed Chris Marx to develop the sealing  
fix I've been waiting for.
So I just went thru the log books. This is the re-incarnation of the  
engine I built in '05 - the Mahle pistons have never been out of  
their bores. The current build got some track time and one race  
before Watkins Glen. Then Brainard, back home, Portland, home to best  
my personal record by 1.5 seconds and taking the Vintage Production  
lap record by 1.7 secs., Topeka and back home. And all the races in  
between. Total of 13 race weekends and about 5 light testing days. In  
hindsight it wouldn't have made it thru Topeka if Connie hadn't done  
her share of the driving. And BTW - Heartland was her first race off  
of our home track at Sandia. She had a blast did a great job in my  
book, including being pretty aware of passing traffic and point byes.  
She's a natural for seeing the line but just has a more prudent  
approach to our TRactors than I do.
My question from awhile back was a honest inquiry. I was wondering  
what sort of duty others are getting from stock but messaged  
internals. The first incarnation would actually see as high as 7200  
rpm and lived. I had that crank mag'd and it wasn't until it was re- 
checked after cryo treatment that the crack was detected. I'm  
convinced that the treatment brought the crack to the visible surface  
and saved me from "the big one". On the tear-down of that 7000+ rpm  
version I found the timing chain to be stretched enough to retard the  
cam close to 8 degrees. Next [this] time around I used a virgin, un- 
ground crank, crack checked it, did the Kas treatment of stress  
relieving, lightening and polishing, cryo'd it, crack checked it  
again and polished journals to -.0001. I tried a clue from the  
previous lesson and retarded the cam [Isky 666. Looking forward to a  
LY] 4 degrees and used a better chain [BPNW]. This engine saw 6800+  
on the over-run but was all-in for any power by 6500. Anyone  
listening from the fence at Topeka knows what I mean about "over-run"  
in my downshifts... Might even have touched 7k in the last turn of  
Topeka. I really like driving with the rear end and my car really  
won't do much of that on-"power", mostly on the other side of the  
curve. I never intended to get max output from my set-up. I'd just  
get addicted to it at the expense of longevity. Thus the original  
short runner manifold [great conversation starter - "you know they  
made a ...."], original untouched carbs [Henry Fry and I took the  
original, round, solid brass float needles out in Portland - I still  
owe you a pair of needles Tony G] no trumpets, no heat shield, no  
nothin'. Points ignition done Kas' way to a gnats ass. Head looks to  
be nicely done [by some unknown other ] and I gave the chambers my  
treatment to get the compression down to the 10.6:1 I thought I could  
get away with. Ignored the common [and good] wisdom and left the head  
gasket [Payden composite] hanging over into the chamber and no relief  
notches in the sleeves. CC'd +/- .5 cc.
I've never subjected it to a dyno but always thought I MIGHT be in  
the 130+hp range. To my surprise, a friend just built 148hp with this  
basic spec. So my big question is: How nuts am I in thinking I might  
get a bit more for Laguna Seca? I've got a really nice 12:1 head on  
the shelf that I've never had the guts to install. I'm sold on the  
Mahle's and will do them again. Forged anything is not in the plan.

On a side note and to my surprise, a few have asked for the whole  
Topeka saga. To my surprise because I'm never sure if anyone reads or  
wants to hear my drivel. For those that don't, start lookin' for the  
delete button.
The "inland freighter" is a 53' Haulmark enclosed car hauler. Picked  
it up in Tulsa this spring and brought it home to Albuquerque. Got a  
'91 Dodge 1 ton, turbo diesel, dually and outfitted it as a  
cab&chassis tow rig. A couple brief shake-down runs and Topeka was  
it's maiden voyage. Talk about "beaten by equipment"!! The first 50  
miles from Albuquerque to Santa Fe goes from 5500 to 7200 feet.  
Quickly obvious the cooling system is not happy with my 14,000 CGVW.  
At Santa Fe I got on the 50 mph Old Percos Trail [route 66 prior to  
1937] to try cooling things off for the pull up Glorietta pass.  
Haven't driven that stretch for a few years but I knew where I was  
the moment I saw it - the last place to get on I-25 before the road  
dead-ends in a couple hundred yards. That's when I found out the  
trailer brakes were not set quite where they needed to be. There was  
one small sign about 150' from the downhill turn. Overshot it by 25'.  
That's when I found out that the engine/transmission mounts were not  
up to the task of backing uphill. Dead-end road, no turn around [how  
New Mexico] and no reverse. That was the first time I questioned if  
this was going to work. Barley and I scouted around for about 20  
minutes on foot looking for some way to reverse course. One driveway  
looked promising so we gave it a try. Tight but just up-hill enough  
it didn't take much clutch to go backwards. By the third or fourth  
jack-knife maneuver I'm thinking I'm going to make it. Then comes the  
first wife on her way down the drive in her way to work. Explain  
myself, she backs up 100' feet and we're doing good. Than comes the  
second wife driving down. Followed by hubby on foot. With hubby's  
guidance I clear the mailbox by inches and the trees on the other  
side of the road by a few feet. Probably took a hour and a half and  
on the road again. Cooling system is a issue but find how directly I  
can control the temp with my right foot. As the terrain flattens out,  
the trip seems to smooth out. Stop for fuel somewhere in Oklahoma and  
do a light check. They're not doing as well as the last time I  
checked. Typical ground problem. Put a jumper on ground side and go  
in for [another] Red Bull. Come out ready to go, give everything a  
final check and the inside of the trailer is filled with that acrid  
smell that only comes from burning wires. Go to pull the jumper and  
get a good burn. How it did what it did without burning a fuse I  
don't even want to know. Turns out the wiring is the damnedest array  
of mis-wired backfeeding I've ever seen. A couple hours, a complete  
re-wire and a spare light later, we're on the road again. Keep in  
mind that WE is me and Barley - we're due to pick Connie up at the  
Kansas City Airport at what is now TODAY at  9:45 p.m.. 100 miles  
down the road and we find a road sign that had so many options it  
looked to be from the Japanese alphabet. Missed the turn. 12 miles in  
the wrong direction to find a "almost' turnaround. I say "almost"  
because the landing gear on the trailer bottomed out about half-way  
around... totally smoked the dually's to get it horsed around with  
the trailer jacks grinding their way into the pavement. Another 12  
miles back and headed east again. It's about 11:30, we're doing about  
60 on two lane highway 56. With a KAWAMM- BANG!!! I thought the frame  
had broken in half. We're headed for the other shoulder/ditch.  
Correct a bit and we're now tracing the centerline but 53' of trailer  
wants to pass. Hit the hand control on the trailer brakes and get it  
straightened out. But now we're about to be parked and disabled in  
the middle of a two lane highway. Actually had the presence of mind  
to downshift, give a bit of throttle and get it parked on the grass  
on my side of the road with maybe 4" of the rear over the line. Took  
about 1/4 mile to get it stopped and at the end I could see the  
sparks coming off right next to the fuel tank. Had plenty of time to  
grab the fire extinguisher from under the seat and think A: There  
goes Topeka. And B: How am I going to get this thing fixed and out of  
here? Jumped out and the good news was that we weren't on fire. Next  
clue is that we didn't have either wheel on the drivers rear of the  
truck. Flashlight revealed that we had one sheared lug stud and a  
mangled drum. Took Barley for a little walk and within 100' he found  
one wheel. Another 25' and we found the other!. Back to the truck for  
lots of jacking and blocking. Beat the brake drum back on, started  
the truck and put it in gear with the wheels off. The drum make some  
bad noises and required a few more whacks but was soon running fairly  
true. Then to discover that a Dodge with a Dana 70 uses different  
lugs from front to rear. Only thing to do is to rob 4 [half] off the  
other rear and see what happens. It was durring this swap process  
that I saw the 140 Ft Lbs on the face of the nuts - I had them at  
75.  53' of trailer on 4 lug nuts is not very confidence inspiring...  
100 yards and check them. 1/4 mile and check them again. 1 mile and  
another check. After they hadn't budged in 5 miles I started to get  
up to speed - maybe 45mph. By this time of the morning the truck  
traffic started up. Talk about jumpy! Had a pebble got stuck in a  
tire I was ready to pitch the whole thing in the ditch.
Needless to say, but we weren't there to pick Connie up at the  
airport. She had to get a room, rent a car, and meet us at the track.  
By the time I got there about 1pm Friday, it had taken 28 hours to  
drive 736 miles straight thru and I was hardly in a condition to  
unload the car much less drive. First race of Saturday was Connie's  
first time on the track. After lunch was my first outing - though I  
did take the TR3 out for the lunchtime lapping to figure which way  
the track went. Funny thing was at the drivers meeting Sunday - Jim  
Grey was explaining how I was apexing too early to get set up for the  
bridge. I told him that the bridge looked like there was plenty of  
room to keep going after the crest. He looked at me with a kind of  
puzzled look and explained that the turn before going down to the  
bridge had to be entered from far drivers right. My response was "we  
go UNDER a bridge?"!!! I just don't see those kind of things. Reminds  
me of when Chuck met the wall in Portland - after he told me what  
happened I said "there's a wall out there?" Really glad I don't seem  
to see those scary things.
So that's the "rest of the story" I know this is over max but please  
send it thru Mark.
Would really like to hear about others engine longevity.

Greg "Lunker" Hilyer
TR4 #314
Albuquerque NM

And kudos to Walt Hollowell for having that TR6 flying last weekend.