First Race Night and Stuff the Engine

[MadPhil]

Well the title said it all.

(The engine is in a Stockar in New Zealand and racing on a 400m dirt oval)

The second race of the first meeting, the engine was working well.
Had good oil pressure (50psi) and water temp was good. Rev'ed to around 7800 - 7900 at the end of the straights (gearing makes it around 113kph).
Then after about lap 4 it started to slow down and woundn't rev past 5600 so I pulled off. After later inspection we found that it has spun the main bearings!

Looks like it has wrecked the crank as well. Haven't pulled it apart properly yet as had to rush around trying to purchase a spare engine. But talk about annoying.

We had taken it to various test days and it worked perfectly, then the first race night it all turned to custard.

http://www.marxmotorsport.com

Just bored at work so I thought I'd share my story.

 

[elhsupra]

Sorry to hear it. Hope some of it can be salvaged.

 

[LEXUSV8NZ]

Like elhsupra said, Sorry to hear that man
Hope all goes well with the new engine, and that you can trace the prblem down and fix it (hopefully there is a problem that caused this that can be easily diagnosed and fixed)

Logan

 

[Zuffen]

Logan,

Is it a clockwise or anti clockwise track?

If clockwise I would suspect you have oil starvation toward the end of the turn. The reason I say that is the oil pickup is on the right hand side of the sump. On tight/fast right hand turns the oil will surge away from the pickup. Eventually most of the oil will be siiting on the left hand side of the sump.

You won't notice the surge on the oil gauge, as at that point you won't be watching it. I expect you only check your gauges on the (very short) straight which by then the oil will have settled back and will be up to pressure again.

If you can check your gauges mid corner you aren't driving fast enough!

If this is the case I would deepen the oil pan under the pickup and lower the pickup. I would also look at reducing the depth of the left hand side of the pan to ensure as much oil as possible makes it way to the pickup.

 

[MadPhil]

I've got fingers crossed that the new std engine will cope for a few weeks at least.

We race anti-clockwise, we took the bottom sump pan off and built our own which holds an extra 4 litres of oil. We built baffles into the sump to stop the oil from surging away from the pickup. Oh and we also extended the length of the oil pickup so it when down into the new pan.

I only glance down to see the water temp gauge in case I have to turn on my radiator water sprayer. There is a very bright blue oil pressure light on the dash which cannot be missed and it never came on during the race.

Oh well only time will tell.

 

[GrahamB]

Hey MadPhil,

Any updates on the season so far???

Regards,
GrahamB

 

[MadPhil]

Well it has rained pretty much each weekend since the opening night so my car has sat in the shed ever since we put the std engine in.

Last friday however I did manage to get a run at another track. But I took my brothers car as it was already loaded in the truck and I couldn't be bothered unload it and then loading mine. His car runs a Chev V8 and it went really well.

I wrote a review of the night on my website if your interested;
http://www.marxmotorsport.com

It looks like there will be racing this weekend (weather permitting) at the Auckland Track. It will be nice to have a run a gauge how the std motor compares to the first one.

I'll post back how the night goes and if the engine stays together.

 

[deankdx]

Well it has rained pretty much each weekend since the opening .

I wrote a review of the night on my website if your interested;
http://www.marxmotorsport.com

just cheched out your site and was wondering about a few things, one is the inlet manifold, is it a one off custom or are these a manufactured item available for purchase, and seeing as you're not running injection what are you using for ignition? not the standard ECU i would assume. am i right in reading you are using a holden 3 speed manual in there too?

 

[MadPhil]

Hey deankdx,

Nope there are a couple of places in NZ where you can buy these manifolds. From memory they start from around $900NZD.
The std ecu went in the rubbish as did the entire engine loom. I run the HPX Coil system from electromotive-inc. The whole system just has 3 wires, has complete control over the timing curve and a setting for a rev limiter. Just had to mount a new crank trigger and timing wheel, which was very simple.

Finally, yes I do use a HQ 3 speed manual gearbox. I start using 2nd and race in 3rd
Race start procedure is:
Rev to 5500rpm, drop the clutch in 2nd, rev to 7000rpm, hook 3rd, and hang on!

We use the cut off saw and chop the whole tailshaft off the gearbox and fit our own coupling to shorten the gearbox up.

At the end of the straights the car is geared at present to be pulling around 7500rpm @ 115kph.

 

[deankdx]

Hey deankdx,

Nope there are a couple of places in NZ where you can buy these manifolds. From memory they start from around $900NZD.
The std ecu went in the rubbish as did the entire engine loom. I run the HPX Coil system from electromotive-inc. The whole system just has 3 wires, has complete control over the timing curve and a setting for a rev limiter. Just had to mount a new crank trigger and timing wheel, which was very simple.

the car is geared at present to be pulling around 7500rpm @ 115kph.

thanks mad phil opens up a few options for us, but i won't be using a three speed box thanks, i was considering running straight gas if the rego mob don't like my plans but it should get rego with std ECU and cats