Not so much a build diary entry as a link to the race diary so you can see my shiny new rollcage. Tell you what, I'll stick the pics here to save you a mouse click - how nice am I? ;)
Well, assuming you've read the race diary. You HAVE read the race diary haven't you!!! You'll know that my engine is just so much scrap again. I took it over to Grace to have a look at the damage. Not good. I'd guess that the followers for vales 1 and 2 gave up the ghost (again), snapping the cam, snapping the valves and consequently embedding one in the head and one in the piston - which in turn, had completely destroyed itself and was now wedged in the top of the bore having completely come away from the gudgeon pin and conrod. The head's now history (unless I fit valve seats) and I don't trust the block. So that's about a grand's worth of scrap. Not happy. James will do a total strip down on Wednesday so I'll get the verdict on salvageability then. Got to get going now, have to write a letter: Dear Mr. Bank Manager......
Well, what a nightmare today has been! It should have been a simple case of putting the old engine back in for Silverstone (see the race diary for details) but things are never that straightforward are they! The trouble was, half the bits were at the engine builders. Stu had brought back the flywheel, clutch and sump but we were umpteen bolts missing, the fuel pump blanking plate and crankcase breather missing - doh! Still, James was due to come over later on in the evening to check the carb jetting so it would have to wait 'til then. The sump was first order of the day as the original one made the engine suffer from oil starvation which did nothing for the longevity of the cam followers. However, the sump was still full of swarf and chunks of piston from the disintegration at Pembrey. So an hour of steam cleaning, prodding with a magnetic probe for swarf and picking bits of aluminium out finally resulted in a clean sump. After loads of fiddling, on it went to the block to replace the old one. The engine went back in easily enough (after buying a load of UNC bolts for the clutch and manifolds) but we then found that the fuel hose - which turned out to be unsuitable for this purpose! had gone brittle and had to be replaced. Then it was onto the rev limiter/shift light that I'd ordered from Demon Twits. This is a dead sexy bit of kit and is a doddle to use. The rev limiter has a range of 3,000 to 20,000 revs (a bit much for a x-flow!) and lights the shift light 500 revs (it's adjustable though) before the limiter soft-cuts in. Installation was a doddle with two wires going to the coil with another for the chassis earth and one for the dash mounted shift light. That done it was time to fire her up..... Plugs out, it was the usual heart in the mouth moment until the oil pressure light went out. Then, plugs back in she fired up on the button - sweet as a nut! Phew.
We ran her for a good half an hour at a little over 2000rpm (the cam relies on oil being thrown up onto it so you need to keep the revs up for running in) and everything seemed to be fine. Next up, the road test. I though it was a good idea for Martin to lead the way in case of any problems (I didn't trust the cam follower bores as they'd got scored when they wore at Donington). Mart was more than happy for the excuse to drive his new Subaru Impreza anyway! Driving with low engine loading the first mile was fine. We stopped and Mart checked to see if it was OK and I said I wanted to go further. Approximately half a mile later things started to get rattly and the engine sounded suspiciously like it had done at Pembrey. NOOOOOO!!!!!!! We opted to turn around sharpish as we were only half a mile from the workshop. Struggling back, the car conked out in the middle of a roundabout about 400 yards from home. Damn! A quick tow and we whipped the rocker cover off for an inspection. We re-set the valve clearances and restarted the engine...... tap, tap, tap, tap. I couldn't belive it! I'd checked EVERYTHING when rebuilding this engine and couldn't understand why this should happen so quickly. I was already starting to resign myself to not racing tomorrow at Silverstone :( My brother, who'd helped me all day in a sweatbox of a workshop had to leave us to it on the promise that I'd call him later. More depression :( Martin couldn't understand it either and aided with a screwdriver pressed to his ear he concluded that no's 7 and 8 followers were noisy. Off with the rocker cover again and re-check. With a 'Eureka' moment, Martin spotted the problem. One of the rocker shaft bolts was loose - no wonder we couldn't adjust the tappets properly! Quickly torqued up, we re-set them once more, reassembled and fired her up. Smooth as silk - thank f^&( for that!
I ran the car up and down round the back of the workshop a few times and everything seemed fine. Relieved, I made my way home to wait for James (the engine builder) to come and check the jetting. So, about 7:30 I was back down there with James' tuning kit being unloaded. First thing James says is "Eh, you've got an oil leak" - whaaaaa!!?!???! Sure enough, a small puddle had appeared under the sump. I tried tightening up the sump nut but the socket kept spinning on it? Weird as it was the right size. I felt around it with my finger when horror - the nut was smashed in half!! Nnnnooooo!!! I must have clipped it on something during the test drive. Can my luck get any worse? It was impossible to shift the nut even though I had a spare and there was a small crack in the sump. With no time to repair it now, I patched it up as best I could with leak-fix and would have to check in the morning to see if it had sealed. The only good news was that the carburration was pretty good. It was running a little rich but given that it was supposed to be damn hot tomorrow I thought that was better than too lean. James set the timing and finished up. I have to say, as we left the workshop my hopes for a finish at Silverstone were not looking good.....