Silver Lake, KS - This sport to me, promotes family more than any other sport I have been associated with. From race track to race track, you will see dads and sons, husbands and wives, brothers, cousins, kids, etc all helping out their specific race teams. Our race team is no different. The 'So You Wanna Be A Race Car Driver' program is lumped in with Team In The Pits and it consists of my dad (Old Dude), my brother (Fuzz) and two best friends, Ronny & Donny Reed (Reed Bros. Racing Photos).
The focus of this article was suppose to revolve around putting the motor together, and it still is, but over the past week I saw just what friends are and it changed my thought process a little.
For the most part, B-Mods in the Topeka area are restricted to a stock configuration in the engine department. Basically, it's OEM on about everything in the engine compartment.
Last season, we struggled a lot in this department. It seemed like it went wrong the first night out and got worse as we tried to fix everything. From this, Old Dude and myself learned all the wrong things to do in the process of putting in and fixing an engine. Here 3 key points that are helpful in putting engines together.
#1. Don't Hurry - Yes, you want to go racing, but their is no since killing yourself to get out on the track. Most racers will tell you, when you hurry you don't do a great job. When you get out on the track you are waiting for something to go wrong.
#2. Be Precise - If you don't have an engine builder, use whatever sources you have at your disposal to answer any questions or problems you might have. Over the years it's the teams that pay attention to detail that have success on the race track. It's not from... "Well it fits so this is how I am going to do it."
#3. Test It Out - Before you drop your bullet into the car, make sure it's ready to go. If you have an opportunity to break in your motor first, do it. You would rather find a problem up front and fix it, before you go to the race track. Some people have start-up stands to test engines on and some people just drop it in the car and run it for 30 or 40 minutes and observe what's going on.
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Old Dude in action, don't get in his way when he is on a roll! (Reed Bros. Racing Photos) |
If you can afford an engine builder, I would say that might be the way to go. They know what there doing and a lot of them will guarantee their work. For our project, Old Dude likes to make his own horsepower so we let him. After last year he is bent on redemption! For what I don't know. He seems to have taken the engine problems on himself from last season. When I used to play football back in the day, I learned one thing. You win as team and you lose as a team! So whatever goes wrong on with the race program is not one person's fault it's everyone's'!
This year, Old Dude got going early. He tried to figure out what we could run and then he went out and started collecting the parts we would need. We had a couple of old blocks that we ran last year and we took them over to Absolute Machine to get them cleaned up, along with the heads. We ordered new pistons and a cam for the new motor.
It took Old Dude about a month to get the motor put together. This year, he has asked questions about certain things and took his time putting together HIS motor. One thing you will find out from anyone who is 'OLD SCHOOL', they like to do things THEIR WAY. I don't mind that. Outside of being a grunt at times... I have never done some of the things that I do now. So for my dad to put a motor together his way is fine. I know how some other race teams do it and suggest alternatives, but it always falls on a deaf ear. I don't mind. I am just taking the time to try and learn everything he is showing me.
Last week we got the engine together and took it over to one of his old pals, Carl Murphy. Murphy has a start up stand. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's a contraption that you can put your motor on, hook it up to all the gauges, run it and see if you have any problems before you drop it in the car. A stellar idea.
Murphy and Old Dude go way back. I don't just mean way back, they both were drag racing with Fred Flinstone and Barney Rubble, they go back that far!
Murphy has been racing for what seems like forever. He and Joey Selbach and their team run in the Modified division at the local tracks. If there is one person that my dad will take advice from, it's Carl Murphy.
Team In The Pits appreciated Murphy and his bunch, for letting us bring our bullet over and put it on the stand. Lord knows that we needed to get it right this go round. In preparation for getting it ready to run, Murphy, Selbach, Chuck Streeter and PJ Flower would offer tidbits of information on things that had worked or not worked for them in the past. It was nice to hear about these things, because I know we would have run into some of those problems!
As a matter of fact we had some problems as we put the motor on the stand. Firing it up the first time, you'd have thought we were in the middle of a 5.8 earthquake. That motor started jumping around, stand and all! Not a good sign. Murphy shut it down and we went to looking at the motor. It seems that the timing gear was lined up incorrectly, so that needed to be fixed and hopefully that was the problem. The big thing was that was going to mean doing a lot of things, just to fix that one thing.
The next day, Old Dude, went back to the shop about 8 a.m. to get to work on the motor. He was met by Chuck Streeter, who just worked a 12 hour night shift, only to help Old Dude on the motor. That is a friend. The more you look in this sport you will find a lot friends like that, keep them around, they are good to have.
After an all day session, the two of those guys got the motor back together in no time flat. Thank goodness we were rained out at all the tracks on Friday, because it gave us some more time to get the motor going again.
Soon enough, it was time to fire that beast up again! We put a new flywheel on this time too, just to try something else. The motor fired up, it didn't vibrate, but! Oil was shooting out of the front of the pan. We used a new cork, pan gasket and the center of the pan needed a thick gasket in it. The first thing I thought was, damn, now we are going to have to pull it all off again to just put a new pan gasket on it. I was wrong.
Streeter came up with the idea to take out the front bolts and loosen up the back half. He put a gasket in the center section, along with some silicone and sealed it back up. The crew decided to let it sit overnight and come back the next day to fire it up, once again.
Saturday came and I really didn't want to bother Murphy and his bunch, because it was race day and a lot of teams are busy getting ready to go to the track. Murphy still took time out to help us out. The engine fired up, no vibrations, no leaks and Old Dude was walking around like a Rooster in a hen house! Murphy ran the motor for 30 minutes. Changing the RPM's from time to time, breaking the motor in. Everything looked good, so we shut it down and called it good. The motor is ready to take back home and drop in the project car!
Watching Old Dude and his buddy, Murphy, was really pretty cool. I wasn't kidding when I said that these guys have been racing together for quite some time. I am sure as the day is long, they both have forgotten more about racing than I will ever know. To see them work together, laugh and have fun is one of the main reasons I wanted to do this project. I have always wanted to race, but now I know why. Seeing those two old friends together, told me all I needed to know! |
