Bill,
You will be extremely lucky if you find a Main cap that will go in without
needing to be align bored. That meens taking the block to
your machine shop to have it done. While you are at it, you should have all
them magnafluxed to see if they are in the same condition
as the one that failed.
Joe
P.S. What machine shop are you using in Seattle?
Bill Babcock wrote:
>
> Started off nice--good weather at SIR (Seattle International Raceway), spent
> most nights the week before checking over Peyote and replacing it's fuel
> lines with braided stainless (I'm just not very fond of gasoline fires). Did
> a general nut and bolt, and drove it up and down the driveway a few
> times--everything was great.
>
> Fine day at the track, clear and cool. Went out for practice, the first hot
> laps I've taken in Peyote--what a hoot. The little bugger rips! But on the
> third lap, headed into turn 1 at the end of the straight, as soon as I
> touched the brakes the car started sliding. Got off the brakes, but it just
> kept sliding, and finally spun, sliding off into the infield at 90+. I mowed
> a bunch of grass for a long way, and finally stopped without any great
> drama. But the engine would barely crank and when it finally did start, it
> sounded horrible--I thought I might have separated the header. Flat-towed it
> to the pits and popped the engine cover, and immediately saw oil everywhere
> and the oil filter turned free of the base about 1/4".
>
> Never had an oil filter come loose before, but of course everyone started
> telling me how they safety lock their filters with a hose clamp around the
> filter and safety wire. Humph.
>
> Spent Sunday pulling down the engine--all the bearing are trashed of course,
> but the pistons look okay so far. We'll see how they mike out. The center
> main bearing cap came out in two pieces, which was a bit of a surprise. From
> the appearance of the metal it may have been cracked for a while and the
> extra heat finished the job. Of course there's Babbitt everywhere. I cleaned
> the crank up enough to see that there's not any deep scoring. With a little
> luck in can be just polished clean. I'd rather have a quarter thou extra
> clearance than be .010" under. We've got a good local machine shop--they'll
> do the right thing.
>
> Here's a question--I have spare bearing caps, can a replacement be simply
> bolted on or should I have the machine shop fit it. Okay, it's a dumb
> question because I pretty much know the answer.
>
> Anyway, I should have Peyote back together pretty quick. The only hard part
> is that I'm out of town for about three weeks starting this Friday. I'm
> going to have to plan this all pretty carefully. Might even have to pay
> someone to rebuild the engine (heaven forbid).
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