It was a nice event. The weather was beyond perfect on Sunday. So the performance of the Mach should have been way better than it was. I'm still not sure what the motor was doing when I was driving but I certainly know what it did on Nancy's last run.
Those of you who saw her sitting at the top of the hill, there was good reason for that. I completely tore the motor apart today and found this:
This is the oil pump. For those of you who are not familiar with the mod motors, this pump is driven off the crank shaft. It mounts on the front of the motor and you can see the cut outs in the center of the drive gear that correspond to notches on the crank. Well, that gear should NOT have cracks in it and there shouldn't be a piece missing. The oil routing is out of the pump, thru the filter and back into the motor. I am certain that when we cut open the filter, probably tomorrow, we'll find that piece.
So, what is damaged. A lot. 4 of the 5 journals for the exhaust cam on the passenger side are wiped out. 3 journals on the exhaust cam on the drivers side head are wiped out. The #8 and #1 rod bearings are wiped out. The #7 rod bearing was severely damaged. The oil passage out of the crank on the #8 rod is clogged with bearing material. With the lock up of the motor, even though they don't appear to be damaged, all the cam gears, chains, tensioners and relateds, need to be replaced. Basically, all-but a rebuild. We'll need to buy 2 rods at a minimum. They're black as can be. I'm REALLY hoping the material on the crank, from the bearings, can be taken off. If so, we'll be in better shape. I seriously don't want to buy a new crank....hell I don't want to buy any of it but....that's racin!
The oil pumps in the Aluminators occasionally go bad. In retrospect, I should have just upgraded to the Melling pump, but that's history now. It'll be on the purchase list very shortly.
What is good is that no rings were damaged. The cylinder walls still look brand new with the factory hash marks and all. Otherwise, I'd be considering cancelling the rest of the season.
At this point, I'm not sure how many races we'll run. Duryea is a given that we'll run. I have a target there so I gotta run it.
The REAL bummer about Weatherly is that few noticed the 'RIP "Bumper" ' on the back windshield. I put it on before we went up that weekend. I should have had the lettering way bigger but I thought that more would see it with the black rear windshield and the white lettering. Oh well. It'll be on there at Duryea.
So that's the report. It's bad but maybe not as bad as could have been. We'll be back to race another day soon. And we won't be absent from any races. I'll be up doin the novice thing with John or we'll be working during the event.
We'll see ya'll at Pagoda!!! Can't wait. Yeah, I'm odd. I get excited whether we're running or not.
