Hi All,
Well, just had a nice visit with a fellow nearby who races cars, maintains
them and has a large shop he owns where he repairs mostly foreign cars. In
the shop was a Shelby kit car, a 914 Porsche, a Lotus, don't know the model
and other assorted goodies of machines. Including, drum roll please, an
Isetta 300!!
He said it was pretty standard practice to use floating pins in the 1275,
because he said the engine was "Happier" with them. He said the nylon or
Teflon buttons were "Hokie" and a waste. Said any time the keepers came
out, it was the fault of the person assembling the engine. PERIOD!! He
claimed you alway needed to use the clips designed for the piston supplied
by the piston maker. Said anytime they start using those that are in the
shop or off the shelf, they come loose. The only exception was the spiral
lock clips available for the piston. Claimed they weren't used a lot
because they were a real pain in the ass to put in and take out! But, says
he's never seen one come out.
So, the postmortem of the engine the club had just showed up a bit of my
ignorance on building of race engines. Claims there are no decent race
engine shops in the Portland area, so most send them to a place in LA, where
he's so stacked up you'll possibly get grey haired waiting. But he says
they are the only ones that keep the Bergmans 138 hp 1275 alive and well!
They also have a 1098 of about 110 hp.
We also discussed the art form many good race engine builders have in doing
trick things to make the engine work right and stay together. I suspect
that some of them you don't want to watch what they do!!
All in all this whole episode was a nice education for me. Learned lots
about some mods and how stuff gets modified. Guess I can say "You're never
to old to learn!"
Later, Paul A
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