Saturday, May 15, 2010
Photographic evidence
Jalopnik has a really nice photo of the mystery machine, pre-bunnied, in their 108 top cars of Thunderhill post:
Racing!
The Mystery Machine, in all its lumbering blue and green glory, isn't the race car of the century, but it's fun as hell to drive. What with all the engine work, it was running so much better than last time that it was only a matter of time until we blew it up. And blow it up we did.
This is Goin' For Broken 2010, Thunderhill.
Friday
We towed up on Thursday night, and Friday got off to a pretty slow start, which is probably quickest explained with a picture:
But the Mystery Machine went through tech and BS inspection, and - apart from a couple of minor fixes, including securing the battery down a bit more firmly - we had no problems at all. The Mystery Machine's gigantic epically powerful 4-banger evokes mostly pity from the BS judges, who sent us away with 3 bonus laps and a cookie.
Saturday
Saturday dawned bright and early, and the Mystery Machine rolled out onto the track - followed promptly by a long string of black flag penalties. There's a new rule that teams with more than 3 black flags on Saturday get sent home, and we... well, we tested it.
Flag #1 was JDH putting two wheels off in turn 11, three times in a row. (As it gets hotter, it gets harder and harder to stay focused. The pandamonium guys were having the same problem.)
Flag #2 was Josh. It was his first time on the track, except for a few laps on the practice day, and he blew past the track worker while entering the track. This earned us a lengthy parade lap of the pits, behind the adorable judges' microbus, with Josh saran-wrapped to the roof of the van. :-o
Josh getting in:
After that we put Rob out, and begged him to drive carefully. He did - it helped that he overheated the van almost right away and lost most of its power - but an encounter with another car in turn 5 got him flagged too. A faster car tried to take an inside pass (it's not a good passing zone, even on the van), thought better of it, and clipped the Mystery Machine's back bumper while trying to disengage, causing both of us to get flagged for contact.
Black flag #3 required us to wire a Cone of Shame onto the roof (this is a regular traffic cone, spray-painted) to identify us as miscreants on the edge of expulsion. And after that was done, I went back out. There were about three and a half hours of racing left, and I did the best I could to keep it on the track, driving clean.
Two o'clock passes... three o'clock... four... as the sun gets lower I start to relax, and at 4:45, with fifteen minutes of racing left, I'm feeling like a superhero. Three and a half hours in the car, without a problem!
And then I passed another car under a yellow flag. SADNESS.
Long story short, we weren't ejected, though under the rules we should have been.
But then we ate some steaks of delicious peppery "hooray we made it, more or less!" goodness, and after all, that's racing.
Sunday
Sunday wasn't so hot, which was a huge improvement. JDH turned a pile of blinding laps - relatively speaking. His 2:46, while not fast in any other car is pretty good for a minivan - or at least, for our minivan. (There was another minivan on the track, a Gen2 Dodge, very similar to ours, but much more nicely set up - for a start, they'd lowered the back as well as the front, and handled beautifully in the turns. It was also a 5-speed, and seemed able to lay down power a bit more easily - the Mystery Machine is a 3-speed auto, and you can shift it, but kicking down into 2 isn't quite like dropping into 2nd, and they were a solid 15sec faster than us.)
After JDH started, I went out next, and had a roaring good time - it was cooler than saturday, we weren't under penalty pressure any more, and the day 2 racetrack is always cleaner, more serious and less crowded than day 1. I'm always struck by the difference between the Lemons-of-the-paddock, which has a carnival atmosphere (what with the feats of strength, hot dogs and beer, and vast number of people in costumes) and the Lemons-of-the-track, which is a lot like real racing.
Josh went out after me. He remembered to stop for the track workers this time, but he didn't get in more than a couple of laps before coming in too hot to turn 5, and driving off track, earning our first (and only) black flag of the day. (Timing data later proved that the couple of laps he did drive, were damn fast. Josh, we're looking forward to getting you back out on the track next time!)
As a reward for this unfortunate event, we got the best punishment ever - a pair of humping bunnies welded to our roof!!
(I dearly wish I had a photo.)
So JDH went back out in the newly-bunnied van, and turned laps ever more scorching, until at last he managed to get the Mystery Machine up to its best speed ever through the whole back section - a steady 80mph through all of 6, 7, 8, coming in to 9. And then, in true K-car style, the engine blew.
With only an hour left in the race, the Mystery Machine came back in with the saddest goddamn knock you've ever heard. We're pretty sure we threw a rod.
RIP, engine #3.
Maybe next time we'll race a Shadow.
My favorite part of a Lemons race is the end. After the checkered flag goes out, all the cars file in off the track, driving slow through the pits, and everyone who isn't hastily packing up all their stuff comes out to watch and clap for the cars as they come past. It's an amazing community feeling - the cars might be junk and the racing erratic, but everyone present put in a huge amount of time and energy to make it happen, and - winning or just driving (or nursing a crushed front end or a broken engine) - the end of the race is an achievement.
This is Goin' For Broken 2010, Thunderhill.
Friday
We towed up on Thursday night, and Friday got off to a pretty slow start, which is probably quickest explained with a picture:
But the Mystery Machine went through tech and BS inspection, and - apart from a couple of minor fixes, including securing the battery down a bit more firmly - we had no problems at all. The Mystery Machine's gigantic epically powerful 4-banger evokes mostly pity from the BS judges, who sent us away with 3 bonus laps and a cookie.
Saturday
Saturday dawned bright and early, and the Mystery Machine rolled out onto the track - followed promptly by a long string of black flag penalties. There's a new rule that teams with more than 3 black flags on Saturday get sent home, and we... well, we tested it.
Flag #1 was JDH putting two wheels off in turn 11, three times in a row. (As it gets hotter, it gets harder and harder to stay focused. The pandamonium guys were having the same problem.)
Flag #2 was Josh. It was his first time on the track, except for a few laps on the practice day, and he blew past the track worker while entering the track. This earned us a lengthy parade lap of the pits, behind the adorable judges' microbus, with Josh saran-wrapped to the roof of the van. :-o
Josh getting in:
 |
| From lemons - goin for broken 10 |
After that we put Rob out, and begged him to drive carefully. He did - it helped that he overheated the van almost right away and lost most of its power - but an encounter with another car in turn 5 got him flagged too. A faster car tried to take an inside pass (it's not a good passing zone, even on the van), thought better of it, and clipped the Mystery Machine's back bumper while trying to disengage, causing both of us to get flagged for contact.
Black flag #3 required us to wire a Cone of Shame onto the roof (this is a regular traffic cone, spray-painted) to identify us as miscreants on the edge of expulsion. And after that was done, I went back out. There were about three and a half hours of racing left, and I did the best I could to keep it on the track, driving clean.
Two o'clock passes... three o'clock... four... as the sun gets lower I start to relax, and at 4:45, with fifteen minutes of racing left, I'm feeling like a superhero. Three and a half hours in the car, without a problem!
And then I passed another car under a yellow flag. SADNESS.
Long story short, we weren't ejected, though under the rules we should have been.
But then we ate some steaks of delicious peppery "hooray we made it, more or less!" goodness, and after all, that's racing.
Sunday
Sunday wasn't so hot, which was a huge improvement. JDH turned a pile of blinding laps - relatively speaking. His 2:46, while not fast in any other car is pretty good for a minivan - or at least, for our minivan. (There was another minivan on the track, a Gen2 Dodge, very similar to ours, but much more nicely set up - for a start, they'd lowered the back as well as the front, and handled beautifully in the turns. It was also a 5-speed, and seemed able to lay down power a bit more easily - the Mystery Machine is a 3-speed auto, and you can shift it, but kicking down into 2 isn't quite like dropping into 2nd, and they were a solid 15sec faster than us.)
After JDH started, I went out next, and had a roaring good time - it was cooler than saturday, we weren't under penalty pressure any more, and the day 2 racetrack is always cleaner, more serious and less crowded than day 1. I'm always struck by the difference between the Lemons-of-the-paddock, which has a carnival atmosphere (what with the feats of strength, hot dogs and beer, and vast number of people in costumes) and the Lemons-of-the-track, which is a lot like real racing.
Josh went out after me. He remembered to stop for the track workers this time, but he didn't get in more than a couple of laps before coming in too hot to turn 5, and driving off track, earning our first (and only) black flag of the day. (Timing data later proved that the couple of laps he did drive, were damn fast. Josh, we're looking forward to getting you back out on the track next time!)
As a reward for this unfortunate event, we got the best punishment ever - a pair of humping bunnies welded to our roof!!
(I dearly wish I had a photo.)
So JDH went back out in the newly-bunnied van, and turned laps ever more scorching, until at last he managed to get the Mystery Machine up to its best speed ever through the whole back section - a steady 80mph through all of 6, 7, 8, coming in to 9. And then, in true K-car style, the engine blew.
With only an hour left in the race, the Mystery Machine came back in with the saddest goddamn knock you've ever heard. We're pretty sure we threw a rod.
RIP, engine #3.
Maybe next time we'll race a Shadow.
 |
| From lemons - goin for broken 10 |
My favorite part of a Lemons race is the end. After the checkered flag goes out, all the cars file in off the track, driving slow through the pits, and everyone who isn't hastily packing up all their stuff comes out to watch and clap for the cars as they come past. It's an amazing community feeling - the cars might be junk and the racing erratic, but everyone present put in a huge amount of time and energy to make it happen, and - winning or just driving (or nursing a crushed front end or a broken engine) - the end of the race is an achievement.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
how low is too low?
The race is this weekend. We leave tomorrow, to spend an exciting night in the RV line in front of the gates at Thunderhill, along with our Pandamonium comrades. (We're going to have to draw straws on who has to wear the panda suit.)
Since we got everything running well in advance of the race, we took advantage of having a whole leisurely weekend of van time to do a few extra things (which will almost certainly make it worse): added a "boost gauge" (a vacuum gauge plumbed through the firewall and jb-welded to a bracket on the roll cage), fixed the engine mount bolt that we stripped the previous weekend, etc. We also cut a couple of coils off the front springs.
Here's Rob, in state-of-the-art protective gear (it doubles as a welding helmet! so long as you keep your eyes closed.):
Now it's shorter:
Now the front is *really* low:
So low that when we lowered it off the jack stands, the oil pan bottomed out on the jack. Think that's too low? Never! We'll just have to be careful around speed bumps.
Since we got everything running well in advance of the race, we took advantage of having a whole leisurely weekend of van time to do a few extra things (which will almost certainly make it worse): added a "boost gauge" (a vacuum gauge plumbed through the firewall and jb-welded to a bracket on the roll cage), fixed the engine mount bolt that we stripped the previous weekend, etc. We also cut a couple of coils off the front springs.
Here's Rob, in state-of-the-art protective gear (it doubles as a welding helmet! so long as you keep your eyes closed.):
 |
| From Mystery machine rebuild |
Now it's shorter:
 |
| From Mystery machine rebuild |
Now the front is *really* low:
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| From Mystery machine rebuild |
So low that when we lowered it off the jack stands, the oil pan bottomed out on the jack. Think that's too low? Never! We'll just have to be careful around speed bumps.
Friday, April 30, 2010
timing is critical
Arse-Freeze-a-Palooza back in November was pretty great, but the Mystery Machine wasn't exactly running at top form - timed all to hell, it couldn't be made to top about 4500-4800rpm. We tried a few different things - cpu troubleshooting, vacuum (we kind of eyeballed the vacuum lines when we put the new engine in, and Laz swore up and down he plugged everything in to the right place), distributor timing. None of it made much difference, and we limped our way through the race.
So then we parked the van for the winter and conveniently ignored it for a while. But now that Goin for Broken is right around the corner, we thought it would be nice to regain the use of our many missing horses (and our turbo, which wasn't really working either).
After some more fruitless poking around, we eventually discovered (via some googling and much experimentation) that our problem was, as we initially suspected, related to timing. We'd already marked the flywheel and reset the ignition timing to spec, but doing so had given the van a disturbing smoker's cough.
Once we lined up the cam pulley at TDC, and were putting things back together, we consulted the manual, eyeballed everything, and...
JDH: And the lines on the crank pulley line up with the arrows on the block, right?
Rob: ...those are supposed to line up?
HA!
Since we had it mostly apart anyway, we also replaced the timing belt.
When we put it all back together - magic! It totally works!
As soon as it was running well again, we noticed a lot of hissing, and found an uncapped vacuum line (which used to go to the A/C) which we'd never noticed, due to not having actually generated any boost. The super-high-tech vacuum gauge threaded through the firewall confirmed, while hooning up and down an unsuspecting quiet residential street, that we're getting up to 7psi now.
Now, if you ever need to re-time a gen-2 dodge turbo, you should check out the instructions on turbominivan.net, here: "Cam timing on 2.2/2.5 Chryslers". But in general this was easier than I expected - once the belt was off and we'd given up on the pre-existing timing entirely, we lined up the holes in the camshaft pulley with markers on the block, lined up the markers on the crankshaft pulley, and then, once the belt was back on, re-timed the ignition timing to spec. (The crankshaft pulley ended up being 2-3 notches off from the camshaft, depending on how you count.)
There, we fixed it!
(I am not in the picture. I am holding the camera, poorly.)
So then we parked the van for the winter and conveniently ignored it for a while. But now that Goin for Broken is right around the corner, we thought it would be nice to regain the use of our many missing horses (and our turbo, which wasn't really working either).
After some more fruitless poking around, we eventually discovered (via some googling and much experimentation) that our problem was, as we initially suspected, related to timing. We'd already marked the flywheel and reset the ignition timing to spec, but doing so had given the van a disturbing smoker's cough.
Once we lined up the cam pulley at TDC, and were putting things back together, we consulted the manual, eyeballed everything, and...
JDH: And the lines on the crank pulley line up with the arrows on the block, right?
Rob: ...those are supposed to line up?
HA!
Since we had it mostly apart anyway, we also replaced the timing belt.
 |
| From Mystery machine rebuild |
When we put it all back together - magic! It totally works!
As soon as it was running well again, we noticed a lot of hissing, and found an uncapped vacuum line (which used to go to the A/C) which we'd never noticed, due to not having actually generated any boost. The super-high-tech vacuum gauge threaded through the firewall confirmed, while hooning up and down an unsuspecting quiet residential street, that we're getting up to 7psi now.
Now, if you ever need to re-time a gen-2 dodge turbo, you should check out the instructions on turbominivan.net, here: "Cam timing on 2.2/2.5 Chryslers". But in general this was easier than I expected - once the belt was off and we'd given up on the pre-existing timing entirely, we lined up the holes in the camshaft pulley with markers on the block, lined up the markers on the crankshaft pulley, and then, once the belt was back on, re-timed the ignition timing to spec. (The crankshaft pulley ended up being 2-3 notches off from the camshaft, depending on how you count.)
There, we fixed it!
 |
| From Mystery machine rebuild |
(I am not in the picture. I am holding the camera, poorly.)
Monday, November 23, 2009
Slow but predictable
Last things first, the win this weekend went to... Pandamonium! Our Siamese twin sister team finished Saturday in first and held on to the lead - despite enthustiastic competition from several teams, including the Eyesore Racing Batmobile Miata - finishing in first place.
But more importantly, the Mystery Machine FINISHED THE RACE! In 62nd place, out of a field of 150 or so.
When we took her out on the track on Friday, fresh from the engine swap, we discovered right away that all was not quite right - she's okay at idle, and okay up to about 4200rpm, but after that--nothing. Couldn't top 55.
After some contemplation, we hand-adjusted the timing. Having forgotten to line up the timing mark when we replaced the flywheel, we were reduced to: rotate the distributor cap a little bit, rev the engine, see how it sounds. (Scientific!) But it kinda worked: we still couldn't really top 4200rpm, but at least there was power lower down, and when the race started on Saturday morning we were slow, but functional.
Here she is, on Friday night, getting all ready to race:
Despite the lack of top end power, the Mystery Machine hummed around the track, doing her best impression of a rolling chicane. And our fourth driver this time around was a ringer: Rob, also driving for Pandamonium, who promptly put all our complaints about lack of power to shame by turning in lap times only 24sec slower than in Ling Ling - 2:47 in the Mystery Machine, to 2:23 in Ling Ling.
Here she is, out on the track:
(from Laz's gallery)
Driving the Mystery Machine gives a great view of the race, especially at less-than-full power - you can't go very fast, particularly on the straights, so you have a lot of time to check out the other cars. It's largely an exercise in being passed gracefully.
We turned in a fair amount of damage on the first day - a hard hit each to the driver and passenger side doors, and some assorted whacks on other body panels. Here's the Mystery Machine experiencing a slightly less-than-graceful pass, which knocked out the right front headlight:
At the end of the day's racing there were a few retirees, like the Killer Bee MG, which landed on its roof:
Pandamonium drivers changing brakes for the morning:
On Sunday we settled into the super serious business of not melting an engine in the last hour of the race, which was a huge downer at Reno Fernley - just staying predictable, out of the way, and out on the track. Fortunately our engine's persistent refusal to top 75mph kept us from getting anywhere near overheating.
Two more cars flipped on Sunday: the v8olvo (formerly the Black Metal Volvo) flipped right before I arrived on the scene in the van in turn 10, and this BMW apparently lost a wheel:
Meanwhile, things were heating up for Pandamonium, who was still in the lead.
("We're gonna need a yellow to fuel," Laz suggested. "Maybe we could get Jinnah to roll the van." I nixed this plan on the grounds of being really, really fond of that van.)
Ling Ling on the track:
Pandamonium in the pits:
The rest of the field:
JDH driving:
We started Sunday in 73rd place, stayed around there for most of the day, and started to steadily climb at the end of the day, as other cars dropped out, but we kept going. Last I saw, we were in 62nd place.
They threw the checkered flag at 4:30, and I was fortunate to drive the Mystery Machine across the finish line -- bringing her back triumphantly accompanied by people shouting things like "Mystery Machine, you're slow as shit, but we love you anyway!"
Aww, we love you too.
Here we all are, while going through Tech inspection:
Left to right, drivers: Rob, Astrid, Jinnah, and Jen.
And here's Scooby, hanging out in Ling Ling during the award ceremony:
Lastly, huge thanks to Laz and Rob from Pandamonium, who put in the past four weekends, along with JDH, on the Mystery Machine's engine swap. We couldn't have done it without you.
But more importantly, the Mystery Machine FINISHED THE RACE! In 62nd place, out of a field of 150 or so.
When we took her out on the track on Friday, fresh from the engine swap, we discovered right away that all was not quite right - she's okay at idle, and okay up to about 4200rpm, but after that--nothing. Couldn't top 55.
After some contemplation, we hand-adjusted the timing. Having forgotten to line up the timing mark when we replaced the flywheel, we were reduced to: rotate the distributor cap a little bit, rev the engine, see how it sounds. (Scientific!) But it kinda worked: we still couldn't really top 4200rpm, but at least there was power lower down, and when the race started on Saturday morning we were slow, but functional.
Here she is, on Friday night, getting all ready to race:
 |
| From THill Lemons 09 |
Despite the lack of top end power, the Mystery Machine hummed around the track, doing her best impression of a rolling chicane. And our fourth driver this time around was a ringer: Rob, also driving for Pandamonium, who promptly put all our complaints about lack of power to shame by turning in lap times only 24sec slower than in Ling Ling - 2:47 in the Mystery Machine, to 2:23 in Ling Ling.
Here she is, out on the track:
(from Laz's gallery)
Driving the Mystery Machine gives a great view of the race, especially at less-than-full power - you can't go very fast, particularly on the straights, so you have a lot of time to check out the other cars. It's largely an exercise in being passed gracefully.
We turned in a fair amount of damage on the first day - a hard hit each to the driver and passenger side doors, and some assorted whacks on other body panels. Here's the Mystery Machine experiencing a slightly less-than-graceful pass, which knocked out the right front headlight:
At the end of the day's racing there were a few retirees, like the Killer Bee MG, which landed on its roof:
 |
| From THill Lemons 09 |
Pandamonium drivers changing brakes for the morning:
 |
| From THill Lemons 09 |
On Sunday we settled into the super serious business of not melting an engine in the last hour of the race, which was a huge downer at Reno Fernley - just staying predictable, out of the way, and out on the track. Fortunately our engine's persistent refusal to top 75mph kept us from getting anywhere near overheating.
Two more cars flipped on Sunday: the v8olvo (formerly the Black Metal Volvo) flipped right before I arrived on the scene in the van in turn 10, and this BMW apparently lost a wheel:
 |
| From THill Lemons 09 |
Meanwhile, things were heating up for Pandamonium, who was still in the lead.
("We're gonna need a yellow to fuel," Laz suggested. "Maybe we could get Jinnah to roll the van." I nixed this plan on the grounds of being really, really fond of that van.)
Ling Ling on the track:
 |
| From THill Lemons 09 |
 |
| From THill Lemons 09 |
Pandamonium in the pits:
 |
| From THill Lemons 09 |
The rest of the field:
 |
| From THill Lemons 09 |
 |
| From THill Lemons 09 |
JDH driving:
 |
| From THill Lemons 09 |
We started Sunday in 73rd place, stayed around there for most of the day, and started to steadily climb at the end of the day, as other cars dropped out, but we kept going. Last I saw, we were in 62nd place.
They threw the checkered flag at 4:30, and I was fortunate to drive the Mystery Machine across the finish line -- bringing her back triumphantly accompanied by people shouting things like "Mystery Machine, you're slow as shit, but we love you anyway!"
Aww, we love you too.
Here we all are, while going through Tech inspection:
 |
| From THill Lemons 09 |
Left to right, drivers: Rob, Astrid, Jinnah, and Jen.
And here's Scooby, hanging out in Ling Ling during the award ceremony:
 |
| From THill Lemons 09 |
Lastly, huge thanks to Laz and Rob from Pandamonium, who put in the past four weekends, along with JDH, on the Mystery Machine's engine swap. We couldn't have done it without you.
Friday, November 20, 2009
arse-freeze-a-palooza
Day 1 at Thunderhill (north of sacramento, outside the lovely town of Willows) dawned with a text message from Laz asking for a helicoil, to rethread a stripped oil pan bolt on Ling Ling. It also dawned rainy.
But laz sorted out the oil pan bolt issue, and we straightened out the truly awful positive camber in the mystery machine's front wheels (via some crack last-minute internet purchasing of camber bolts) and we figured out how to assemble the sidewalls of the EZ-Up, and eventually the clouds even cleared up. Ling Ling and the Mystery Machine both passed tech with no more than minor issues. Pandamonium team passed inspection with less trouble than last time, probably because Laz wasn't wearing a t-shirt which reminded everyone that he's an E30 racer.
I think everyone would agree, though, that the real highlight of tech inspection was Jinnah's awesome Fred hair.
But laz sorted out the oil pan bolt issue, and we straightened out the truly awful positive camber in the mystery machine's front wheels (via some crack last-minute internet purchasing of camber bolts) and we figured out how to assemble the sidewalls of the EZ-Up, and eventually the clouds even cleared up. Ling Ling and the Mystery Machine both passed tech with no more than minor issues. Pandamonium team passed inspection with less trouble than last time, probably because Laz wasn't wearing a t-shirt which reminded everyone that he's an E30 racer.
I think everyone would agree, though, that the real highlight of tech inspection was Jinnah's awesome Fred hair.
 |
| From THill Lemons 09 |
Sunday, November 15, 2009
The Mystery Machine LIVES
At the end of the last race, the Mystery Machine came off the track at Reno Fernley in a huge cloud of white smoke. We guessed it was the rear main seal that blew, but honestly, there was oil everywhere so it was really hard to tell. And it sounded terrible.
How terrible, you ask? THIS terrible:
So in August we picked up a potential replacement from the Milpitas Pull Your Part (since closed, alas), and then we... kind of sat around for a while. We didn't really have anywhere to work.
By october it occurred to us that we should really put the engine in if we were planning to race. In this process we have learned valuable lessons:
1. If you're going to pull a junkyard engine, it's a really good idea to do a few simple tests first - a compression check (even a basic one, hand crank it and stick a finger over the spark plug hole and see if it pushes). You should also probably pull off the valve cover and make sure the head is full of nice shiny oil, and not foamy oil-and-coolant milkshake, and rust. Otherwise you get to go back to Pick N Pull and do the whole thing over again, which is exactly what we did.
Empty engine bay:
Work in progress:
2. While a 2-ton folding shop crane sounds excessive - even if it was really cheap from Harbor Freight - it is not. It is AWESOME, especially if you need to winch multiple junkyard engines in and out of trucks and vans.
3. There's no better time to rebuild an engine than when it's out of the vehicle, on a stand or on a crane. We thought about that. But it really seemed like a lot of work. So we just installed it.
The new engine came with a shattered flywheel, which was an encouraging piece of evidence in trying to determine why the donor van (a 1990 dodge caravan) was junked in the first place. On the flywheel there were pick-n-pull part numbers, and hand-written lettering that said "89 Le Baron".
Despite having done a solid preflight check on our second replacement, after a day of pulling and a day of installation, we still didn't know if it would run. But we finally drew some good automotive fortune, because the new engine purrs like a kitten. (Persistence helps. If you don't have time to do it right, you can always do it over.)
Meanwhile, JDH also fulfilled his dream of converting our 14" rims to a 15" setup. This is way harder than it needs to be, due to the really-similar-but-not-the-same universality of K-car parts. The basic unit to replace is the steering knuckle, the whole bracket with hub plate, lower suspension mount, and caliper bracket. We already had calipers, rotors and pads from having tried this before, but this time, after pulling four different sets of steering knuckles and three attempts at replacement calipers, we were successful -- mostly. The front wheels have some disquieting positive camber.
The back was just new drums with the different lug pattern, and that was all. Our new 15" pick n pull steel rims are super pimp.
Between the pick n pull engine, the frequently-wrecked chassis, and the full selection of drivetrain parts (we also swapped halfshafts, which was easier than replacing our ripped cv boot), the entire vehicle is pretty much a junkyard special.
Now, I'm looking forward to spending some quality time at pick-n-pull this week, sorting receipts to reclaim a truckload of core charges.
Leftovers:
- 2 busted engines
- 1 transmission (actually, we're keeping that, along with one of the spare turbos)
- 2 halfshafts, 4 steering knuckles, 2 calipers, and 2 rear drums
- 1 battery
- 6 steel wheels
Now here's a picture from the last race:
Thunderhill is going to be AWESOME.
How terrible, you ask? THIS terrible:
So in August we picked up a potential replacement from the Milpitas Pull Your Part (since closed, alas), and then we... kind of sat around for a while. We didn't really have anywhere to work.
By october it occurred to us that we should really put the engine in if we were planning to race. In this process we have learned valuable lessons:
1. If you're going to pull a junkyard engine, it's a really good idea to do a few simple tests first - a compression check (even a basic one, hand crank it and stick a finger over the spark plug hole and see if it pushes). You should also probably pull off the valve cover and make sure the head is full of nice shiny oil, and not foamy oil-and-coolant milkshake, and rust. Otherwise you get to go back to Pick N Pull and do the whole thing over again, which is exactly what we did.
Empty engine bay:
 |
| From Mystery machine rebuild |
Work in progress:
 |
| From Mystery machine rebuild |
2. While a 2-ton folding shop crane sounds excessive - even if it was really cheap from Harbor Freight - it is not. It is AWESOME, especially if you need to winch multiple junkyard engines in and out of trucks and vans.
 |
| From Mystery machine rebuild |
 |
| From Mystery machine rebuild |
3. There's no better time to rebuild an engine than when it's out of the vehicle, on a stand or on a crane. We thought about that. But it really seemed like a lot of work. So we just installed it.
The new engine came with a shattered flywheel, which was an encouraging piece of evidence in trying to determine why the donor van (a 1990 dodge caravan) was junked in the first place. On the flywheel there were pick-n-pull part numbers, and hand-written lettering that said "89 Le Baron".
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| From Mystery machine rebuild |
Despite having done a solid preflight check on our second replacement, after a day of pulling and a day of installation, we still didn't know if it would run. But we finally drew some good automotive fortune, because the new engine purrs like a kitten. (Persistence helps. If you don't have time to do it right, you can always do it over.)
Meanwhile, JDH also fulfilled his dream of converting our 14" rims to a 15" setup. This is way harder than it needs to be, due to the really-similar-but-not-the-same universality of K-car parts. The basic unit to replace is the steering knuckle, the whole bracket with hub plate, lower suspension mount, and caliper bracket. We already had calipers, rotors and pads from having tried this before, but this time, after pulling four different sets of steering knuckles and three attempts at replacement calipers, we were successful -- mostly. The front wheels have some disquieting positive camber.
The back was just new drums with the different lug pattern, and that was all. Our new 15" pick n pull steel rims are super pimp.
Between the pick n pull engine, the frequently-wrecked chassis, and the full selection of drivetrain parts (we also swapped halfshafts, which was easier than replacing our ripped cv boot), the entire vehicle is pretty much a junkyard special.
Now, I'm looking forward to spending some quality time at pick-n-pull this week, sorting receipts to reclaim a truckload of core charges.
Leftovers:
- 2 busted engines
- 1 transmission (actually, we're keeping that, along with one of the spare turbos)
- 2 halfshafts, 4 steering knuckles, 2 calipers, and 2 rear drums
- 1 battery
- 6 steel wheels
Now here's a picture from the last race:
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| From reno fernley lemons |
Thunderhill is going to be AWESOME.
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