Hoping that John gets his sorted so that the imprezas can be out in force. :thumb:
RaceDynamix STi - Time Attack 2009
Round 2 - Knockhill Review (The Big Bang Theory):
The week started poor with oil pressure issues starting on tuesday on the way over to Zen to fit the new 1000cc injectors. An oil change and check for debris showed some evidence of wear but pressure was better when changed so knockhill was going to happen. A couple of hours on the dyno mapping for the injectors and it was running fine enough (although down on power)
The drive home and oil pressure was not fully back up so decided that I needed to check the oil pick up pipe on saturday. Tim from zen helped me do this under the car in the rain - thanks Bird Leg Man
Sat night and a lovely chinese and great night out (as it always is with Zen) and ready for sunday...
I went out in warm up with Steve in the car holding the laptop to check stuff for me during this session I knew there was a serious issue with the car. The pre event paranoia had been right.....
Paul and I decided that the only option for the day was to nurse the car through the sessions, learning what we could and just go for the most points we could safely get.
I needed to ration the laps to get set up right and did 1 lap in practice at low boost, then 3 hot laps in qualifying (again at lower boost) but still 3 seconds quicker than last year... and enough to get me 30 points for qualifying in 3rd place. Oil pressure was desperate at this stage, really not nice but would sort of hold while the engine was cooler - as soon as hot it fell like a stone. I asked the car for one more lap for the final....
I drove it as hard as I could on that lap (still only at 1.6 bar) but giving all I could through the twisties to claw back time I was losing on the straights from being down on power compared to the much higher bhp cars of Shane and Russ that I was aiming to try and beat. I followed Shane out on that first hot lap and stuck as close as my dying engine would let me. The car's handling and grip was immense. It flew through the corners and up the straight to finish that lap (bit of a missed shift out of the hairpin LOL ) and then it killed itself just after crossing the line. Big ends are gone and it is rebuild time.
Still 3rd place is great and I loved it - it puts me into 2nd in the championship.
Much celebrations ensued and the odd game of pool and planning of rebuilds and improvements and the night was superb. Sorry that Steve had to leave us to head back down south but a great night again.
I dropped the car off at Zen's on the way back and decided to get cracking on taking the engine out to see the damage. Thanks Rich for talking me into that... It wasnt looking pretty with lots of metallic bits kicking around in the sump and big end number 4 completely missing
Huge thanks to Team Zen for support up there and in getting the work done on saturday (and as much as was needed on sunday) to give it a fighting chance of getting over the line, for Steve for sitting in the car in warm up and steady supply of coffee and laughs, Liz for being Liz and doing a great job of polishing the car
, Alyn at ASP for emergency oil supplies (cheers Stew for bringing them) and Mark at Lateral Performance in anticipation of the new engine internals
Loving Time Attack and loving being part of Team Zen - work hard, race hard, play hard
Also thanks to the superb Solaris datalogging I can pinpoint the exact millisecond where the engine decided it had fulfiled my request of that one lap - funny as fook looking at all hell break loose in the logs. (maybe I shouldn't laugh but it is class)
Not long til Silverstone
The week started poor with oil pressure issues starting on tuesday on the way over to Zen to fit the new 1000cc injectors. An oil change and check for debris showed some evidence of wear but pressure was better when changed so knockhill was going to happen. A couple of hours on the dyno mapping for the injectors and it was running fine enough (although down on power)
The drive home and oil pressure was not fully back up so decided that I needed to check the oil pick up pipe on saturday. Tim from zen helped me do this under the car in the rain - thanks Bird Leg Man
Sat night and a lovely chinese and great night out (as it always is with Zen) and ready for sunday...
I went out in warm up with Steve in the car holding the laptop to check stuff for me during this session I knew there was a serious issue with the car. The pre event paranoia had been right.....
Paul and I decided that the only option for the day was to nurse the car through the sessions, learning what we could and just go for the most points we could safely get.
I needed to ration the laps to get set up right and did 1 lap in practice at low boost, then 3 hot laps in qualifying (again at lower boost) but still 3 seconds quicker than last year... and enough to get me 30 points for qualifying in 3rd place. Oil pressure was desperate at this stage, really not nice but would sort of hold while the engine was cooler - as soon as hot it fell like a stone. I asked the car for one more lap for the final....
I drove it as hard as I could on that lap (still only at 1.6 bar) but giving all I could through the twisties to claw back time I was losing on the straights from being down on power compared to the much higher bhp cars of Shane and Russ that I was aiming to try and beat. I followed Shane out on that first hot lap and stuck as close as my dying engine would let me. The car's handling and grip was immense. It flew through the corners and up the straight to finish that lap (bit of a missed shift out of the hairpin LOL ) and then it killed itself just after crossing the line. Big ends are gone and it is rebuild time.
Still 3rd place is great and I loved it - it puts me into 2nd in the championship.
Much celebrations ensued and the odd game of pool and planning of rebuilds and improvements and the night was superb. Sorry that Steve had to leave us to head back down south but a great night again.
I dropped the car off at Zen's on the way back and decided to get cracking on taking the engine out to see the damage. Thanks Rich for talking me into that... It wasnt looking pretty with lots of metallic bits kicking around in the sump and big end number 4 completely missing
Huge thanks to Team Zen for support up there and in getting the work done on saturday (and as much as was needed on sunday) to give it a fighting chance of getting over the line, for Steve for sitting in the car in warm up and steady supply of coffee and laughs, Liz for being Liz and doing a great job of polishing the car
, Alyn at ASP for emergency oil supplies (cheers Stew for bringing them) and Mark at Lateral Performance in anticipation of the new engine internals Loving Time Attack and loving being part of Team Zen - work hard, race hard, play hard
Also thanks to the superb Solaris datalogging I can pinpoint the exact millisecond where the engine decided it had fulfiled my request of that one lap - funny as fook looking at all hell break loose in the logs. (maybe I shouldn't laugh but it is class)
Not long til Silverstone
Shame about having to re-build engine 
Small update..
Engine out, stripped and cleaned.
New parts have arrived from http://www.lateralperformance.co.uk - thanks Mark :thumb:
Other parts are also there.
So... the final strip down and clean happens today and then start the rebuild on sunday.
Some very interesting things spotted in the block that I will get more info on before commenting on too much, but the bores are in remarkable condition considering the number of miles and use of it.
Engine should be back in the car on Monday ready for running in with the new pistons, crank and rod for the event next weekend. 8)
Engine out, stripped and cleaned.
New parts have arrived from http://www.lateralperformance.co.uk - thanks Mark :thumb:
Other parts are also there.
So... the final strip down and clean happens today and then start the rebuild on sunday.
Some very interesting things spotted in the block that I will get more info on before commenting on too much, but the bores are in remarkable condition considering the number of miles and use of it.
Engine should be back in the car on Monday ready for running in with the new pistons, crank and rod for the event next weekend. 8)
You chose a good strategy and kept to it and it paid off so well done.
It is great that the bores resisted damage with all that bearing material flying around.
Are you/can you do anything different on the rebuilt to try avoid this wear happening again?
Eddy
It is great that the bores resisted damage with all that bearing material flying around.
Are you/can you do anything different on the rebuilt to try avoid this wear happening again?
Eddy
Authorised trader. Bespoke & direct fit exhaust/induction solutions, silicone hose specialist, Millers oils, Whiteline, EBC + much more. Find me at http://www.fast-eddys.biz
330hp Pulsar Gti-r, 153hp Metro and 185hp Smart Car!
330hp Pulsar Gti-r, 153hp Metro and 185hp Smart Car!