sccsiouxland

As some of you know I have been having some major teething problems with the race car this year.

First I had trouble with the car building 125 psi of oil pressure and blowing out oil filters when I reved the motor. I think I have that fixed after replacing the oil pump, aftermarket bypass filter, new oil lines, and lighter weight oil. Still a little high 90 psi on cold start up but the BMW M10 have been know to have high cold start pressures.

Lost the exhaust at MAM this spring. Fixed that by a new bend giving a better fit and an additional mounts.

Now the latest is the car losses power and will not rev up after about 2 to 3 laps of running. Does not matter if the engine is hot or cold. Full of fuel or low on fuel. Sitting in the paddock it will rev to 7500 with no problems and hold it there but this is not under load.

Understand that the motor is not stock and uses Bosch CIS Basic fuel injection and I have limited options based on the rules.

Things I have done so far at different stages before and after 4 events but still have not fixed the problem.

Replaced the distributor
New pentronix ignitor "points"
New coil
New MSD 6al
New plugs
New cap
New rotor
New fuel pump
New fuel filter
Cleaned all the grounds and added star washer on each ground

I have replaced the plugs a couple times and closed down and opened the spark plug gap.

Richen and leaned the mixture out based on my on board wide band sensor.

Checked for vacuum leaks on the motor.


Things I am currently doing or have done:

Replacing and rerouting the fuel lines due to the a belief that one of the braided steel AN lines may have gotten crushed when jacking up the car.

Added fuel pressure sensors to data logger to monitor system pressure and CIS control pressure.

Put a new wide band sensor on the car and recalibrated the sensor.

And something I may have found last night that I am going to test tonight. Replacing the vent roll over check valve and vent hose on the fuel cell. I believe it may be creating a vacuum in the fuel cell and that may be the root cause to the issue. Not confirmed yet and just an idea.

Can any one else things of anything? I am open to any ideas.

I am going to try and get over to Spencer to do some testing. Still have some stuff to do to the car before then. I also have dyno time set up for next week and then race on Sat and Sun (15 and 16) down at MAM (Additional Crew always welcome!!) I have rented another car to run in a different run group so I can get some finishes for my license but I still plan on running the BMW. So I am doing 3 race in one weekend.

Good luck sorting the car Ron. I would be leaning towards fuel also. That was my thought as I was reading what you ahve going there.

Well just got back from the dynotune in Watertown. Had a good morning. Did two third gear base line pulls. Did a 3rd and 4th run up and slow down run up and slow down and run up again. Over a long period of time to see if any problem showed up. Nothing!!!

Added back in 4 degrees of timing and pickup 7 HP and 4 Ft-Lbs at the rear tires. Added another 3 degrees and it stayed about the same. Backed it off 2 degrees and called it good. Everything was doing good.

The motor did not put out the HP numbers that other races have seen up I am running a stock trans so there is a little higher drive train loss.

I am feeling good about everything.

Not totally sure what was the fix since I changed so much stuff but help I feel good about racing again!!!!

Now off to MAM in the morning to have some fun Saturday and Sunday

Good luck. Let us know how it goes.

Well made it to the race track yesterday and got unloaded and got everything setup. Took the tires and rims over to the Hoosier dealer and got them swapped around. Not sure if I will need them since it is raining fairly heavy here this morning. Glad I have a set of racing rains for my car.

The guy I am renting a ITA race car from was not here yet. Gave him a call and he was still back in Lincoln putting the motor in his car. I headed over to Lincoln to give him and hand and to tow the rental car back over to the track. Got out of his shop around 5:30 - 6 pm. It is about an hour to the track from his shop.

Just sitting at the track this morning in the pickup watching it rain and lightning like crazy. They will not send the corner workers out with lightning and this heavy rain it is a waste. I am going to run the rain tires for at least practice/qualifying.

Not sure if there is rain tires for the ITA car. Lucky it is the last run group so the track my clear off by then. Storm front does not look that big but it is slow moving. Not much off in the distance so far.

I will try and post of over lunch break how practice/qualifying goes.

Good luck.

Well the day was hit and miss. It rained in the morning and the track lost all power. The worked getting generators for the timing tower and corner radios. Once everything was up and working it was lightning and they do not send out corner workers which was fine because it was raining very hard. I put on the rain tires and get ready to go. Of course it stops raining and the wind picks up and the track drys off before we go out while sitting on grid. Half the guys go back and change to dry tires. I figured I would not be able to get it done in time.

I went out and drive 4 laps before the rain tires started to get hot and I was sliding all over the place. I had some times and I gave up and went in.

I then went out in the rental VW and was putting in some good times. Got in and they told me the transponder was not working and I would have to start at the back of the pack. Oh well. The car had some trouble with the ignition switch and we may have broken the power to the transponder while changing out the battery. It was a simple fix.

After lunch I went out for my race in the BMW. Everything was going good for two laps until I went to shift coming out of turn 4 and the trans would not go into 4th gear. Tried a couple times. Tried 3rd gear and it would not go into that gear either. Was able to shift trans into 2nd gear.. Did the next turn in 2nd and was not able to get into 3rd or 4th.

I then down shifted back into 2 and and they was able to get it into 3rd by not using the clutch. Rev matched and it dropped into get. I figured ok time to drive around in 3rd gear and see how it goes. Was going under the start finish lane and I started by runinging.. The trasns gave up and broke.

I race the rentel in the afternoon and had no major isues.

You know Ron, You should just my BMW and race that!!

Steve I wish it was that easy....lol

Well watching the listening and watching the video it sounds like a bearing started going out in the transmission and then let go. I could not find any holes in the case. Still need to unload the car and start the tear down.

I did get two finishes in the rental race car which was good. I had a lot of fun. It was not the fastest car but it lasted the whole weekend which is more then I can say about my car....LOL

I am going to work on editing down some of the race videos and uploading them this week.

This is what we had for conditions on Saturday morning. Here is a picture I found of the Saferacer.com paddock space that was right next to mine. BTW I was on a "high" spot.