Do you want another race report? Of course you don't, so you'll get it anyway. The Six Banger Nats held at Warwick, Queensland, Australia is an event that many look forward to every year. It's one of those events that gets put on the calendar as soon as you get home from the previous one. The road trip to get there including the trials and tribulations, the camaraderie of the mates you only catch up with each year and the sound of six cylinders screaming their lungs out and not competing with the roar of V8s (and no bloody rotary engines). I took a couple of extra days off work to get stuff ready and to travel the 800klms (about 500 miles) to Warwick. Lucky I did. I took the racecar out of the enclosed trailer to pack our bedding and supplies and thought one of the trailer wheels was sitting at a weird angle. Took the wheel off and found scuff marks on the spring pack retainer. I was going to just grind a bit off the retainer for clearance but I thought to myself, 'self, that can't be right'. On further investigation I found a broken spring pack centre bolt and after a hurried trip to the local trailer bits shop I had another centre bolt in place and we were right to go. Don't you love it when a casual afternoon becomes a hurried scramble to get finished? Next day the Crew Chief and I leapt out of bed at 4.00am ( well, I leapt out, she wasn't so keen), threw down some cereal and we were off. Now, I think I posted in my last race report how if you want to break a drought just plan a Drag race meeting. We drove for 8 1/2 hours of which 6 was in pouring rain. What can you say? The land needs it, the farmers need it, but you wish it was some other time. We arrived mid afternoon Friday to local thunderstorms. Great, the roof of our trailer leaked so off to the local hardware for a large tarp. Rain continued through the night and the next morning we were greeted with this sight.
The bracket meet set down for that day was cancelled but we were told that if they were able to get the track dried and prepped by late afternoon, we would get some test 'n' tune runs. This was at 5 o'clock. The track was cold but useable. We got a couple of runs in before their finish time. I was having traction trouble again so I dropped tyre pressure down to 10 p.s.I. The engine was pulling like a steam train when I got traction so I was hoping for big things. Oops, missed a gear. The next day, Sunday, was beautiful and sunny. Out I went for the first qualifying run. (By now you can tell this isn't going to end well, can't you?) Great traction ,left hard, sounded strong, died big time. Investigations found I'd stripped the teeth off the new aftermarket crank gear.
That was the end of my weekend. One thing that irks me is the run was the fastest terminal speed, the quickest elapsed time and the quickest 60' I've done. All this and the engine quit at 3/4 track.. The other blokes, John, Steve and Jackson were still going strong. I should point out we run in the Stick Shift bracket at this event which means we run against some hard hitters. We try not to run against each other but it's not always possible. Here's a couple of videos of the others blokes running. Jackson was having a ball and John was breaking out each time with his new engine obviously loosening up each run. Steve ended up in the final but broke out and was runner up. Congratulations to Steve, and as that large ugly bloke would say, "I'll be back".
I just thought I'd add this video for those who like their racecars longer and skinnier. I'm looking for one myself but the budget is tight with my (hopefully) impending retirement from work. Thanks for watching. Spanners
"Thanks for watching." Feels a bit odd being thanked for doing something I enjoyed. Guess I'm just used to getting a somewhat different response for enjoying myself. That's certainly one well stripped gear.
Yes Dick, I did a good job of it. I think it suffered from lack of lubrication. There doesn't appear to be much oil around. The oil pressure went a bit haywire in a previous run but settled down for this run. When I get home I'll strip the engine down again and check for shrapnel.
As Old6rodder puts it, it's a pleasure watching. Like your headlights for running at night. Sometimes the return roads can be pretty dark.
It's a pleasure having you all along for the ride. The broken engine has been repaired and hopefully will be tearing up the track at Gunnedah in a few weeks. The crank and cam gears were an easy fix but the bloke who does my machining wanted me to do a total strip down. He pressure washed the oil galleries and honed it for free. I put new bearings in, (old ones had only done 8 runs but I didn't want to risk them being impregnated with metal bits) plus plumbed an extra oil feed line to the front cover.
I might add, the problem with the crank gear losing it's teeth appears to have been caused by a mismatch of the gear teeth profiles( I think that's the terminology). I assembled the engine so that one's on my head.
I just told a much younger guy the other day: I have done a lot of things wrong.... once. I try to not repeat the mistake. LOL ...... I look forward to more racing videos. best of luck to you & your wife .
The Jalopy Journal
