I think I found the two roots of the problem with the engine over the
weekend.
1 - Upon inspection of the fuel lines I found that the line to the front
carb had a piece of rubber lodged in it. More than likely from assembly of
the aeroquip line. I blew that chunk out and now have full flow restored to
the carbs.
2 - I think I found the reason for the rpm never going above 7k...and the
reason it turned to complete crap during the race. The plug on the cross
over vibrated out during the race. This means it was loose all weekend
(never checked it) and eventually came out during the race.
I checked for damage and re-assembled tonight...It runs good but still has
some timing issues. My plan of attack is to pull the head and properly
identify where 30 BTDC is on the pulley with relation to the pointer. This
should go a long way towards getting me to where I need to be.
Aaron
All the best
Aaron Johnson
#38 F Production Spitfire Mk4 Oregon Region SCCA
http://www.geocities.com/spitracer9
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-fot@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-fot@autox.team.net] On Behalf
Of Bill Babcock
Sent: Monday, June 14, 2004 07:22
To: 'Aaron Johnson'; fot@autox.team.net; 'SpitfireMailList'
Subject: RE: Rose Cup Races
I pitted next to Aaron this weekend, his car is coming along nicely, but
that engine sure sounded nasty.
Peyote did pretty well this weekend--what a great car. It was fairly grim in
practice--I had ancient tires on, and had to manhandle it around the track.
The only new Hoosiers around were at A&T tires, and Fred (the best tire guy
on the west coast) had ordered them for someone else and didn't know if he
needed them for the weekend. Saturday morning the guy hadn't returned Fred's
calls so he mounted them for me. Much better. I was being good to my new
tires, so I qualified at 1:33:something which put me back a bit on the grid.
Had a little miss at the end of the session. I swapped plugs to see if that
would cure it.
These SCCA races are different--there's only one vintage grid, and
everything is in it. The split the grid and put the open wheel stuff up
front, and the rest of us in the back behind a second pace car. It's fun
because you're racing against cars you'd never be on track with. At the
green, I got a good start and tucked up behind a Porsche 911 with some kind
of whale tail spoiler. I don't know what it was. In front of us was a Shelby
350 and another right behind us. There was a Ginetta in first, but he was
gone so quickly we never saw him again. After a few laps the 350 behind me
got past, and then I managed to get by the Porsche. I need to get at least
50 yards on the Porsche heading into the straight, because he was quite a
bit faster. But the Shelby's were holding me up in the infield. The Porsche
eventually got me in the back straight, then I finally got past one of the
Shelby's and started chasing the other one down. I figured the tires were
going away on the Shelby and I could probably get him on the entrance to the
sweeper, then chase down the Porsche with a clear track, but halfway through
turn 12 my engine when pop, pop, BANG. So I coasted into the hot pits exit,
going backwards towards the grid, which startled the heck out of the pit
marshal.
That little car sure is a kick. I could have easily gotten by the Mustangs,
but they wouldn't give way to such a horrid looking LBC. Several times in
the infield I was so close to the big mustangs I could have reached up and
opened their door. That would have made them give me some room! Wish I'd
thought of that.
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