That didn't go well

[Lynn]

Got the SoloVee back from the shop last night at 5:30. New engine, new tires. All ready to go. Fire it up at today's Saint Louis event. Idles beautifully and sounds strong. We give it a little and oil sprays everywhere. An investigation reveals it is coming from the oil filter. John pulls the filter and the seal is not seated correctly. I talk to Dave Whitworth (Solo Performance Specialties) who installed the engine and Andy Hohl who used to codrive the car. The said it is possible that the pressure relief valve in the oil pump is stuck. John installs a spare oil filter and tops off the oil. I start the engine and rev it a little. The result is I now have a sneaker well lubricated with Red Line 10W-40. The car goes back to Dave's shop tomorrow.

[rickb99]

..... the filter and the seal is not seated correctly.

I cannot believe they put another badly sealing filter on. So, what was it - when you find out.

[Rick Kirchner]

is there a relief valve in the case too?

pretty sure that there's a cheap tool to remove those stuck pistons sold by the buggy industry.

[killerken53]

The relief valves are in the case. If the car doesn't have a belly pan under the engine it should be possible to pull the reliefs without pulling the engine.

[Lynn]

Thanks for the info Rick and Ken. Dave did a little internet searching and found out the relief valves are in the case. The car is back at his shop and should be ready in a couple of days. There is a Boeing Sports Car Club autocross next Sunday John is hoping to enter. And, there are a NASAcross and a Saint Louis Region before Nats.

[Lynn]

All fixed and ready for the Boeing sports car club autocross on Sunday. It was the pressure relief valve in the case.

[rickb99]

.... There is a Boeing Sports Car Club .....

WOW! That is cool! I don't think there's one in Everett??

When I was with RCA, we had a 2 meter club but no sports car club

[Lynn]

The club in Washington is the http://www.beac-online.org

[J Leonard]

Paine field Everett circa 1975. Boeing club event. 1967 Cooper S.

[Lynn]

Well, I got the car back from Dave Whitworth yesterday. It now has 50 lbs of oil pressure at cold idle. Of course it drops some as it warms up. I had asked Dave to replace the missing trailer fenders and to replace the six year old tires. He did a great job mounting the fenders. These won't fall off. He painted the fenders and even repainted the side of the trailer damaged by fire when the right side fender came off. While replacing the tires, he repacked the wheel bearings. The jack on the tongue of the trailer was the wrong type and hung to low, so crossing deep dips it would hit the ground and pop the hitch of the ball. Dave installed a jack that can't hit the ground. He also replaced the old four pin wire which connected to a no longer available connector on the trailer with a seven pin heavy duty cable, and replaced the obsolete connector with a new junction box. I'm all set for the tow to Lincoln.

I'm also bored so I'm typing this tome. We were supposed to run with the Boeing Sports Car Club today. But, they don't run in the rain or if the course is wet. It rained all night. I talked to John and he was at the site and it was drizzling and the forecast calls for showers and the occasional thunderstorm today. John and I both have all the experience we need driving mod cars on slicks in the rain, so the car is in its trailer in front of the house. Maybe, I'll take back to the shop I rent today, or maybe I'll do it tomorrow. The next scheduled event in Saint Louis is a NASAcross at Gateway Motorsports Park on the 20th. The way things are going it will probably be 105 degrees that day. Oh, well. My next big decision is where to go have lunch. Later, guys.

[TedV]

Does your Vee idle at 5000 or 3000 RPM? My water cooled VW's I think were 15- 20psi at 900rpm idle if I was lucky. Just giving you a hard time. Some of my VDubs were clapped out pieces of.. shtuff.. ok, most of my VDubs are clapped out POS

I did around 30 runs in the shifter kart this weekend. (whew! no oil pressure to watch) We ran a copy of the Bristol Match Tour course today close enough my sound meter placement matched up to the inch. The location marks were still there. (hooray for being the region sound steward) I would have been 2nd or first at the match depending on how you do the creative math with me running not the " fast/hot" tire. Had maybe 10 hours of sleep since Friday, and wide awake headed towards 1am.

Speed and race gas are a hell of a drug!

[Lynn]

Well the NASAcross was another minor disaster. The two new AGM batteries don't seem to hold a charge. Batteries were swapped and charged several times. The oil pressure is still high and wrecked a third oil pressure gauge. It, like its predecessors, is stuck at 20 psi. On John's second and third runs, the clutch would not release. Yup, after sitting for five years the master cylinder was dry. Problem solved with a quick fill and bleed.

Then on his two afternoon runs, I heard a loud popping sound from the engine. It was not a backfire. It is mechanical. It is intermittent and happens mostly at low rpms. It even happens when just cranking the engine. I'm not sure if it happens at higher rpms. It runs like proverbial ape. It sounds great on course. We talked to a couple of people who have built many engines, and they think it might be push rod or valve train related. So, the car goes back to Dave Whitworth on Tuesday.

I told John to bring up the revs and dump the clutch to launch. He is still rather tentative and bogs off the start. He also tried to shift from second to third as fast as he does in the Reynard. The Vee has to be shifted slower and with deliberation. His last run was FTD, but with a cone. He slid wide into a cone wall. And that time was with a bogged start and a missed second third shift. No, he didn't over rev the engine. He was shifting slowly, but the gate on the Vee is much wider than the Reynard.

BTW, for those not familiar with SoloVees, most are launched in second gear and the course is mostly run in third. Fast courses may require fourth. And they all seem to be geared differently.

If the Vee can't make Nationals, John will switch to a very competitive CAM-C Camaro.

[captain_pants]

Good luck getting it running well for Nats, Lynn!

[Lynn]

The Good. The noise was a valve that went out of adjustment and it wouldn't close. It is fixed.

The Bad. After adjusting the valves, Dave started the engine and it had no oil pressure. The oil pump was seized and it snapped its drive shaft.

The Ugly. We won't take the car to Nationals without being tested first. The last thing we want to do is oil down the course at Nats. There are no local events before Nats.

But it's not all bad news. The engine doesn't seem to be damaged. We will take the car to an Arkansas Region two day at Blytheville next month.

[Lynn]

The plan was to pick up the car today and go to Blytheville for the weekend. It turns out that the wrong oil pump was sent to Dave, and he didn't get the right one until yesterday.

And then he sent the following email:

[QUOTE]No good news - I put the new oil pump in, it fired right up and had good oil pressure so I let it run for minute. As it was running, all of the sudden the oil pressure spiked up to 80 at idle and then the motor stopped with a squeak and will barely crank over.

There is something in the engine (cam gear/crank gear maybe) destroying itself and the pieces must be migrating up into the oil pump and seizing it up. The engine needs to be removed and checked out to see what is going on before things get expensive. It sounded extremely healthy right before it stopped and it was stone cold, so I don't think there is any major damage to bearings, crank, etc.

It probably needs a new oil cooler with the engine going back in and probably a dry sump type of inline filter just to be safe. That cooler was a bitch to clean out the first time, I spent close to 2 hours on it.
/QUOTE]

So, it's wait until next year. We should have both cars running by spring.

It's 7:15 in the morning, but I just got off work. I think I'll have a margarita.

[killerken53]

If I had to take a wild guess, you seized the small crank bearing, the one that is a full circle behind the crank gear. I did the same thing, engine running good, warming up, then stopped cold.