Hopefully, I will be getting my Reynard to a prep shop and the engine off for a rebuild in a few weeks. I was wondering how many runs on an engine (Kent, aluminum head) between rebuilds.
How many runs before a rebuild
Hopefully, I will be getting my Reynard to a prep shop and the engine off for a rebuild in a few weeks. I was wondering how many runs on an engine (Kent, aluminum head) between rebuilds.
Take good care of it, no over revs. The new parts in use today should give you 50-75 hours of competition run time not including warmup. When its fresh take data on compression and leakdown with a warm engine. That way you have data to trend.
“Racing makes heroin addiction look like a vague wish for something salty.” -Peter Egan
I got 1225 runs on a motor of unknown previous use. Even at that #, it was probably my fault it grenaded. If you do rebuild before catastrophic fail, it is a lot cheaper.
1990 Van Diemen, the Racing Machine, CM AutoX, 2016 Frontier
You can try to make a street car into an autocrosser or you can do a lot less work and make a race car into a great autocrosser
My friend John was driving the Reynard at a NASAcross at Peru last year. Just before the finish, the engine made a loud noise and quit. There was no oil trail, so no rods through the block. We pulled the head and cranked the engine and it turns freely. We forgot to check if the distributor was turning. I'm hoping it is the distributor gear. The engine was making like a mosquito fogger since I bought the car, so I was planning on getting it rebuilt over the winter. That plan got delayed because of prostate cancer. Then, at the first of the year my work schedule was changed from nights and weekends to days and weekdays resulting in $25,000 a year pay cut.
So, the remains of the SoloVee engine I blew up spectacularly a few years ago is at my Vee engine builder. After getting the Vee running, I will check the bank balance and see if I can get the Reynard going this year or if I have to wait awhile. I'll have something for John to drive at Nationals. It remains to be seen if it is the Vee or the Reynard. The Vee is actually fairly quick when someone with more talent than me is driving it. John has way more talent than I.
I'm with Mark on this I'm at 445 runs in 2 1/2 years on an unknown engine that the selling at the time said it was rebuilt in 2009, if he did they did a great job with the engine.
I'm going to run this engine until I feel like it's losing power, mean time saving money.
Ben
I am somewhere over 400 runs over the past 4 years, plus what ever the previous owner had on it. The head has had some work done to it, but I have not sent the bottom end to get reubilt yet.
so far knock on wood (hitting a knuckle to the forehead) engine is still fine, purring like kitten unlike the rest of the car it came out of.
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