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Yeah, narrow escape. This is going to do much damage to my bank account, but it could easily have been a whole new block and crank on top of the rebuild. The consolation being that if the car was quick before, it will be a rocketship when this build is complete. One of my bucket list items is to put it on the track at PI, looking for track days down there later this year.

No sign of detonation on the piston(s), and as there are three bent ones it may simply be an overdose of torque rather than a problem in one cylinder. OTOH injector duty cycle was very high at max revs WOT, could have leaned out/bad batch of fuel, but lack of evidence of detonation suggests cause was something else. Possibly abuse from a PO, but again no real signs of that. Car has done two uneventful track days on this tune, knock started first session of the third track day.

In other news, after much searching I finally found my Singular bonnet louvres, hidden away in a box labelled 'Singular hood louvres' ...



(When I dropped mine off at Mania, David showed me one that died of alternator failure - the rod literally came out and knocked the alternator off!)

Regards lost things - I couldn't find my 17mm socket, which turned out to be in my pocket!

bruce wrote:Regards lost things - I couldn't find my 17mm socket, which turned out to be in my pocket!

That's where I find the 10mm wrench that "disappeared" despite me just using it a second ago!
(usually followed by a mental "smack in the back of the head" when I "find" it)

My stock engine cracked piston No.3, most likely detonated itself to death from a not so great tune (not manias). When David dismantled the engine all the rods were fine and he said the bore was actually pretty good.
Fingers crossed it was just more torque than the rods could handle and forged bits sort that problem out.

You.can never find a 10mm socket/wrench when you need it.

Spoke to David at Mania today.

Block is back, assembly starting shortly. I need to get the rest of the bits down so that the complete engine can be built ready for installation, but in the meantime it can build up to a short engine.

It is nice to see progress!

The front shocks are out, geeze they are crappy. The oil leak is pretty small, but it doesn't take much oil to collect the dust and crap from my dirt access road. Tomorrow I have booked out to dismantling them prior to delivering them to Heasmans for new shaft seals, a la the rears - they will also get the MCA condoms to stave off a repeat, the rears are already sporting theirs.

Dismantled the flattop IM today, dragged out the die grinder and attacked the TB mount. Pretty pleased, the step from the Junk2 TB has gone and it is a decent taper into the IM body. Between the IM entry flowing better, and the flattop's better overall performance, I am hoping for good things when installed. IM obviously came off a sick engine, lots of oil caked inside. My little parts washer struggled and failed to properly clean it, looks like I need to hit it with a more potent solvent I am nervous about filings ending up in the engine, so all that sticky residue has to go, and then it has to get a thorough clean. Colour me paranoid, but after I have done my best I think I'll get mania to run it through their parts washer as insurance.

I need to get this done ASAP as I want to get the next box of engine bits to Mania next week so he can get into the reassembly of the engine, dropping the shocks off as well.

More to come ...

Front shocks dismantled - more or less. Seems the top nut/adjuster/spring seats on both are 'frozen' to the aluminium shock body, at least I have not been able to shift either, and have refrained from exerting macho force for fear of damaging threads. I'll let Heasmans solve that problem if the overnight soaking in penetrating fluid doesn't work.

They are not leaking too badly and could stay on for a while yet, but will only get worse and with the front of the car empty of obstructions this is the time to nip it in the bud.

Had another go at the flattop IM, its overnight soak worked wonders and the inside is almost looking pretty now - lots of nice clean naked aluminium in all its silver glory! I hope the soaking tonight of the shocks works as well!

Progress!


Qmax reroute, flattop


ATI damper with 36 tooth trigger.

Latest acquisitions for the Black Museum, not quite a matching set, looks like one is almost straight

Just come in from buttoning up the front end of the SE. The front Bilstein PSS9s went to Heasmans for new top seals (they were starting to leak), when they opened them up they needed a total refresh inside, only thing not replaced was the body and the shaft, and the shaft got a polish along the way! I only hope they got the valving right, they assured me they put in what came out, but they didnt dyno them unfortunately.

Also new are the lower BJs (stock), one new tie rod end and one new upper BJ. It will need a wheel alignment as it was wearing ELBJs before, the rubber boots split and replacement ELBJs have a very short life apparently. It is still on the axle stands, but will come down tomorrow as soon as I can get the jack out to it.

Then it off to Mania on Monday to have the newly rebuilt engine installed. Hopefully back on the road around the end of the month - happy days are coming!

Geez I hat that. You buy quality Bilstein shocks and they need a rebuild after a while.

Well, yes, but ...

I got these in the early oughties, so they are probably 20-odd years old. They did >200k kms in the original GM, before they came off to go on the racecar. That was about 2008/9/10, when they were revalved for the racecar and fitted with higher rate Eibach springs. They then went on the RGM around 2018 after the racecar was parted out.

Having said that the usage since going on the racecar would be pretty low, and I have not put a lot of kms on the RGM, and it was off the road for quite a while with the dash out, and now a 8-10 months with the engine woes. Those internals, essentially the valves and shim stacks, should have done better.

The leakage is a legacy of my dirt road, the road has now been upgraded (graded and new gravel, still dirt essentially) but now all the shocks have MCA condoms to help control the dust and dirt and keep it away from the shaft seals.

bruce wrote:Geez I hat that. You buy quality Bilstein shocks and they need a rebuild after a while.

The recommended service interval for Xida is 100hrs. ( for HPDE which is my usage)
Trailered hrs are counted the same as track hrs, so 100hrs would be less than one season of use!
I strongly considered a set of Xidas but I’m not sending them back/forth to America every year, with all the downtime and removing/refitting hassles that would occur..
Guess MCA (local-ish) are in my future..

20 years is a great life (I thought they were newer). 100 hour life shocks would be for a pure track car.

bruce wrote:20 years is a great life (I thought they were newer). 100 hour life shocks would be for a pure track car.

When the Billies went on the racecar, I put some second hand Tiens on the GM (ugh), and I think I very briefly tried some BCs (rough as guts) before picking up a set of on-sale PSS9s from Shox.com. That set had seal problems from the get-go, they replaced one set, the second also went quickly and I bit the bullet and sent them to Heasmans who put new seals in (at my cost this time, but freight to USA ), and AFAIK they are still going strong.

Yes, so one set like grandfather's axe, another later set subsequently on-sold.