ML's Whiteout

[ML]

Originally Posted by RedReplicant

What a relief, I'm glad that worked out for you

well......


Crank timing pin snapped at idle on the dyno, so now pulling the engine back out. I have spent so much money of oil I have never used.


https://youtube.com/shorts/YHrrppMpo8E?feature=share

[captain awesome]

Any ideas what caused the pin to let go?

Originally Posted by ML

well......


Crank timing pin snapped at idle on the dyno, so now pulling the engine back out. I have spent so much money of oil I have never used.


https://youtube.com/shorts/YHrrppMpo8E?feature=share

[ML]

Originally Posted by captain awesome

Any ideas what caused the pin to let go?

no idea yet, its not an unheard of issue on built motors apparently. The aggressive cams seem to wreak havoc on the timing systems unless you take precautions. Going to a modified gear that uses a the crank keyway in addition to the pin and getting a stronger timing chain tensioner. Also, the tuner noticed a rattle from the head that we thought was the VTC actuator going out but now I'm not so sure what it was. Either way its going back to the engine builder

[ML]

Current state of the car; It is fast




I'll start with what most people want to know 410hp 272ft/lb @8500 rpm 2450 lbs with the new roll cage and heavier CD009






Now, what did it take to get there? Well its been one of the most stressful and frustrating things of my life. We left off with the engine back in the car and finding very low oil pressure due to the oil jet not being plugged. Well the day after that the car went to the dyno for the 2nd time only for the tuner to call me saying there was a weird noise. This turned bad when the car died at idle and wouldn't turn back on. After much much troubleshooting after about a week we found the crank pulley on the honda motor hadn't been tightened enough (even though I torqued it to what was called for ) which allowed the timing gear on the crank to have play and eventually snap the locating pin.





Sooo obviously if the whole engine gets out of time like this there is concern that the open valves hit the piston and bent. We put a camera inside the cylinders and found no indication of contact and did a leak down which showed less than 10% across all the cylinders. So I ordered a new gear with a keyway in it to make sure this didn't happen again and made sure the pulley was seated all the way and put it back together and put the motor back in the car.. OH but not so fast! I found the pilot bearing bushing had been destroyed due to not being hammered in far enough! So my brother luckily had one made for me by a local machinist and I used some green loctite and hammered it in fully.





So then it was just a mad rush to get everything back together and running to go back to the dyno. Which we did, but then proceeded to run up against another very frustrating wall where the engine would not make more than 268hp and would not rev above 6000rpm or so. It would just die on its own and there was no codes or anything in the logs except that the boost would just die and go to a vacuum state. It took us two weeks and 3 more days on the dyno to FINALLY figure it was a combination of a restrictive air filter



And the bolt that holds the pulley to the supercharger was not tight enough so once it hit high rpm the pulley would spin and loose all boost. So that is why on the dyno graph you see all those pulls and then a pull without the supercharger hooked up and then we tightened the pulley bolt and we went to 8500 and 17.5psi. Also had to throw two blowoff valves at it as it was throwing too much boost for one to let out of a less than 1 inch hole.



So there is much refinement left to do and I think this setup should be able to make about 500 hp, we just have to refine the setup a little more, find the right pulley setup and maybe add more fuel.


So anyway we got done Thursday afternoon, I then took it to my brothers shop where I corner balanced it, aligned the car and then bled the brakes. The brakes were giving us issues but I had to go as it was 10pm at that point and I just bought a ticket to Gridlife which was in the morning. Got up at 530am drove 1:30 down to CMP, got ther at 730(gates opened at 7) only to find a line to get it and get the ticket scanned which caused me to miss the driver's meeting and almost miss tech. I took the car off the trailer and the brake pedal went to the floor! So I got to spend the next 3-4 hours bleeding brakes with a couple guys I knew from the track that just happen to be there watching. So I didn't realize that because its a dual master cylinder setup with a pedal box you have to crack open both front and rear calipers at the same time. Not knowing this is why it took so long so I missed ALL the practice sessions and the car looked like this:



Finally we got the brakes bled and I got the car on track for the first qualifying session and the last session of the day. One lap in and coming around the last turn I down shifted and lost all my gears.... so I coasted back into the pits only to find the bolt for the shifter linkage had fallen out...so we rushed to get a bolt back in only to be too late... This was really the low point for me, I felt so defeated and it was one of many times I just wanted to be done with this car. I found this frame from the gopro:





I did get to go out one more time for the drift/grip combined session which was interesting but a lot of cars on track going off and throwing sand everywhere. I some how managed to spin the car around on the last turn and put 4 tires off which is the first time I have ever done that on track. Went in and everything seemed fine but later found that my camber got pushed to -6 because of the alignment bolt on that off.


Ate some food with some friends that night and hung out went to sleep, slept like shit, woke up and got the car ready. They were calling for wind and rain but we all had no idea how bad it was going to get. I was the last time attack session of the morning so I had everything prepared and went out on track. I got through the out lap this time and began starting to get into WOT. after about turn 3 the coolant line blew off... which amazingly was captured in this picture by Devin



So go back to pits without blowing the engine, frustrated again but was at the point where I just had to laugh, This was a terrible event to goto try and shake the car down....Then the monsoon hurricane hit and they had to call the next sessions for lighting. That took awhile but they made the GLTC w2w guys go out and it was insane how bad the rain was while they raced, props to them for that and not having any wrecks. This picture really doesn't do it justice:





So I had one more chance at a good lap after this. Again I was the last TA session to go out and the sun had come out so it was starting to dry out. What I didn't realize as I was griding up against some of the fastest Time Attack cars in the country was that it was infact not completely dry. I went around the track twice kinda half throttle and decided to start pushing. Well here came the kink and trying to take the dry line did not work as it sent me sideways at 12x mph which was the fastest I had ever gone around the kink by far. That was the worst driving I had ever done I thought to myself trying to countersteer in the grass lol. going back to the pits I realized the rear lexan was completely gone. The wind had stolen it and my diffuser was destroyed. All in all not bad for what I just did....







Well at that point I was done racing, so I loaded it up into the trailer and left! My next race is at the Pine Mountain hill climb in 3 weeks so time to get fixing!

[captain awesome]

Take a week off maybe and then spend the next two thrashing?

[RedReplicant]

That was a rollercoaster of a post, might feel kinda shitty now but the event will be a good memory for you

That pulley thing is kind of why I was leery about the ATI damper versus the Fluidampr, they're meant to be a super tight fit / require honing in some cases.

[ML]

Originally Posted by captain awesome

Take a week off maybe and then spend the next two thrashing?

Wish I could but I don’t have time to waste or I won’t make the event

[ML]

Originally Posted by RedReplicant

That was a rollercoaster of a post, might feel kinda shitty now but the event will be a good memory for you

That pulley thing is kind of why I was leery about the ATI damper versus the Fluidampr, they're meant to be a super tight fit / require honing in some cases.

I hope I will remember it well. Yeah it was super tight to the point it would torque down. I was told about the honing thing later by some other people too

[redlined600]

[QUOTE=ML;3575522]Current state of the car; It is fast




I'll start with what most people want to know 410hp 272ft/lb @8500 rpm 2450 lbs with the new roll cage and heavier CD009

That's awesome!



After much much troubleshooting after about a week we found the crank pulley on the honda motor hadn't been tightened enough (even though I torqued it to what was called for ) which allowed the timing gear on the crank to have play and eventually snap the locating pin.

Thanks for this info, I went with the ati damper as well and will keep an eye out for this. Out of curiosity how were you not shredding belts?

[gnarjunkie]

Oof. That's rough.

I'd skip the drift/grip sessions if I were you...

I did one at Alpine Horizon last season... 2nd time out a drifter spun and decided to pull straight back out onto the hot track in front of me. I had to slam on the brakes to not t-bone him ... turns out another drifter was trying to see how close he could be on my tail in drift at the same time (while someone was actively spinning out in front of both of us) and he ran straight into the back of me when I got on the brakes.

[ML]

[QUOTE=redlined600;3575561]

Originally Posted by ML

Current state of the car; It is fast




I'll start with what most people want to know 410hp 272ft/lb @8500 rpm 2450 lbs with the new roll cage and heavier CD009

That's awesome!



After much much troubleshooting after about a week we found the crank pulley on the honda motor hadn't been tightened enough (even though I torqued it to what was called for ) which allowed the timing gear on the crank to have play and eventually snap the locating pin.

Thanks for this info, I went with the ati damper as well and will keep an eye out for this. Out of curiosity how were you not shredding belts?

I was told in the future to hone the inside by sanding the coating down to the metal with sandpaper. Belts usually aren't an issue with the rotrex if you have good alignment. I have also made a my own belt tensioner device to put pressure on the idler at all times so it won't slip.

[ML]

Originally Posted by gnarjunkie

Oof. That's rough.

I'd skip the drift/grip sessions if I were you...

I did one at Alpine Horizon last season... 2nd time out a drifter spun and decided to pull straight back out onto the hot track in front of me. I had to slam on the brakes to not t-bone him ... turns out another drifter was trying to see how close he could be on my tail in drift at the same time (while someone was actively spinning out in front of both of us) and he ran straight into the back of me when I got on the brakes.

yeah I really didn't know what I was getting into, and it was sketchy at best. That would have pissed me off if something like that happened to me so I could only imagine how you must have felt.

[hedtrip]

sucks that you had alot of problems this weekend. but it was awesome to meet you.

[jflogerzi]

I am sure we all have been there at some point to some degree but shake it off. I know when I am out in track for HPDE all my cares go out the window. The pure enjoyment off sets all the shit that leads up to that point.

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