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Saturday, 18 August 2007

BIG Bang L20 Gets me again !!!

See 'A New Set of RODS' before this article.

Saturday 18th August 2007. Having discovered the original heat problem and satisfied that the problem was overcome with the new motor, Martin again stripped the 'Ol Faithful' L20 motor (moulded pistons and standard rods) and did the transplant of external components (carbs, branch, dry sump etc.) for the umpteenth time, hopefully this time for good. Most of the Saturday afternoon was spent meticulously bolting each component together and ensuring that this would hopefully be the last time that this would have to be done at least for the foreseeable future.

Having finally completed the transplant he did the inevitable by removing the spark plugs and rechecked the compression. To his utmost dismay, cylinders 3 & 4 read almost the same while 1 & 2 were substantially down on compression compared to 3 & 4. While not TOO serious he replaced the spark plugs and at last fired her up. Man she sounded good, ready to take to the tar track again. Without stressing the motor, he initially let her idle for a substantial amount of time so as to ensure that the engine heated to almost race temperature. The maximum water temp this time proved to be within normal range as well as the oil temp, which wasn't the case last time out. Martin was therefore quite confident that his problem had been fixed. He took to the quiet industrial roads and 'hoofed' the son of a bitch. She felt incredibly strong and no sign of any detonation or knocking was at all present. Based upon my impression that this was finally it, he returned to the workshop, let her cool down while he hastily packed away all the tools used during the change of motors.

Before all was said and done, he again removed the plugs to re-check the compression. He let rip with a few choice #$%^&*ing words.... No difference or change from the initial check done before. He contacted his engineering guys immediately, gave them the details of his findings and tests he had performed. I guess it's too early to say for sure at this stage. Could it be rings (albeit that they are brand new) or is it possible that the #1 & 2 cylinders are a different bore size to that of 3 & 4? This possibly means out with motor again, strip completely and return to the race engineers for a recheck of bore diameters and rings. Maybe even a new block. Something's just not right!!! However on second thoughts, I guess he might just want to do 1 or 2 other tests beforehand though.

As he had said to me 'To say I'm disheartened is perhaps a ^!@#$%^ing understatement at this stage'. However on a more positive note:
  1. I still have 2 weeks till the next race meeting and
  2. if I can ensure that all the basic test and checks are correct and are within tolerance range and
  3. given the improvement already in rev and power range encountered,

I think I will have a smile right around my face again in no time at all.

Watch this space while I sort this 'Mother' out .

1 comment:

  1. 10 out of 10 for sheer determination. Good luck!
    Brandon S - Australia (Perth)

    ReplyDelete