List,
Part 2
We put the car on the trailer and prepared to take it home. I had a
seminar to attend in Dallas, scheduled to fly out of Salt Lake. I stayed
Tuesday and spectated a bit and then left for Salt Lake Wednesday
morning to wait for my Friday flight. while I had nothing to do for a
couple of days, I used the time to reflect and do some serious research
into my misfortune. Here comes the stupid part...the real confession!
In November, I prepared the car for the lakes meet to run on gasoline.
Guess what? It was still prepared to run on gasoline, only I was running
alcohol. Gasoline nozzles and the dial-a-jet box was loaded with
gasoline jets. I was jetted about .015 lean, even if I had had the alky
nozzles in it. How it ran 225 MPH with that setup I can't imagine. Wait
this is not all...when we pulled the engine to change pistons, we found
lots of copper in the lifter galley...further inspection uncovered the
rear and front main bearings in shreds. (I sure do miss my engine man,
Randy, who succumbed to cancer in June) Normally, I would have refreshed
the engine myself, but I was pushed to get the rest of the car back
together, so I sent it to Randy's shop. I took the engine back this
morning to see if they can figure out what happened. They will fix the
damage, but I am still not sure what caused it. I just hope they uncover
a clear reason for the failure.
Tom, Redding CA - #216 D/FCC
PS: When put in the proper prospective, really, this is minor stuff! I
was so saddened by John's accident. He too, thrashed to get to the meet,
only to pay the ultimate price for the quest for speed. I will miss him
greatly. He was a good friend and great competitor. I will always
cherish the ten plus years the we swapped records back and forth.
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