I had no time to set any of this lot up before going to the track for the first time with the new engine, but the weekend event I was to be running at had unrestricted track time all weekend so I knew I would have time to sort things out and make adjustments.
This would have been fine if it was not for the fact that the laptop I had been using all winter on the car decided it would not talk to the ecu. Needless to say this fueled my hatred of all things electrical and did not get me off to the best start with it all.
There was also a fuel pressure regulator issue which prevented me from making the 1st pass. But with Dave's brains and a regulator from Michael (Tiki Madness) it got down the track at the second attempt which was great.
I did 3 runs that day starting with a 12.1, then and 11.8 and to finish a PB of 11.1 with and early shut off 111mph terminal speed. All these runs were with a quick spin of the tires rather than a burn out which had proved to be quite successful with the old motor.
All looked good with the car and was promising start to the season and I was looking forward to the following day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiEk_sE4Yzs&list=PL08x_IQUdVU8WIIJqHtc4vr4wdScDfQAR Sunday resulted in another 3 runs, two 11.2's but I was still spinning the tires, so did a proper burnout and then ran the 10.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2L2UFqbL8c [ Attachment: You are not allowed to view attachments ]
I was still struggling to get the car off the line without the ability to adjust the clutch, so actually managed the 10 with a far from ideal 60ft which was also promising in the long run.
Unfortunately by this time I was struggling to stop the pushrod tubes from leaking so that was it for the weekend.
So the 10 was in the bag but this was not the 10 I was looking for (said in a obi wan Konobi voice) given I had not driven the car to the track and it was not street legal. So there was plenty still to do.
The next event for me was Volkslife at SCR and with the laptop sorted, plan B with the pushrod tubes in place and some clutch adjustment sorted. I was feeling optimistic.
As it turned out I had hydraulic clutch related problems all weekend which wasted a lot of time and effort on the Saturday, but I did still run on the Sunday 3 times all of which were 11.1* at around 120mph so not slow, but not where I wanted to be either.
The hydraulic side of the clutch all came apart when I got home and I fixed a few issues I'd found and ordered some spares so if I had problems again I'd be better prepared.
Dragstalgia was next and as it was a nostalgia event I decided to run on the BRM's which also meant street tires (M&H DOT's), which would be a good step towards the street car 10 I'm looking for.
The first run of the weekend was a very solid 11.2 which was by far and away the fastest I'd been before on DOT's and a great start.
Unfortunately that was the best news of the weekend as clutchgate struck again! Only this time it was a bit more fundamental as it turned out.
There were various problems with an over traveling clutch release bearing being the first. I managed to waste a fair bit of time due to me miss diagnosing this as a repeat of the master cylinder issue. Once the motor was out the problem was obvious as the release bearing was half out of the housing. We fixed this and got the motor back in and thought we were all good. Unfortunately the slave cylinder in the gearbox then blew a seal and was leaking Hydraulic fluid into the gearbox, which brought the weekend to an end and with some work to do when the car was back home.
Taking the drain plug out of the gearbox confirmed what we had diagnosed at the track as a mixture of clutch fluid and gearbox oil came rushing out!
With the gearbox out (I have to remove the diff to change the seal as its internal to the gearbox) and seal changed it was just a case of getting it all back in one bit again for DDD.
That said I also fitted a line lock in the clutch line and looped the line with the valve round the line lock just the same as most that are using them have done. The line lock is activated of a throttle switch so it only works on full throttle which has proved to be a good solution with the clutchless shifting.
Up until this point I simply had the clutch valve in the main line between the master and slave cylinders. This would not be an obvious solution in most cases, but with only using the clutch on the start line I thought it would be a good simple solution for me, but I was wrong! Most of the seasons drama to this point had been clutch related but hydraulic rather than mechanical unlike previous years.
With the car together I was off to Germany for the last event of the year for me.
DDD is a great event and I had a great time. The weather played its part on Saturday but there was plenty of track time over the weekend.
The car was running well in general bug I was struggling to get on top of the clutch adjustment now I actually had some. This was partly due to not having anyone with me to watch what was going on and video the car of the line but mainly because the data logging channel I had set up was not working so it was just a trial and error job over the weekend which was not ideal. That said I did eventually get round to running an 11.15 by the end of the weekend.
So that was it for the 2015 season. The main success was to finish the year with the engine in one bit and proving the oil system and valve train was up to the job. The only motor maintenance I did in the year was the usual oil changes, valve lash checks, and bit of ecu adjustment. So all in all a decent year.
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