After spending more time in the garage than anyone can keep track of,
after suffering from major lack of sleep and normal food for the last couple of months
it finally stands there, ready for action.
This is not the first time the car has ben finnished,
actually it was raceready before the meeting at Emmaboda Airfield the 18:th of May...
...but just as I thought it was raceready, it was not.
During a period of three weeks three complete sets of bearings passed my hands.
I haven't meassured the block, but I'm quite sure of that the main bearings are no longer in-line.
I don't intend on meassuring it either, I just never want to see it again.
The resutls of the block eating the mainbearings is shown here:
The bearings were like welded to the crank both times.
At first I thought the problem was the bearings so when I mounted the second set of bearings
I was verry verry carefull to measure the play, and as it all looked alright I put everything together.
The second time I was pretty certain everything was going to be alright.
It took almost a week to put everything together the second time,
and I had more than a week to get everything to working propperly
before the summer import-series, called TXM, would start.
If everything had just worked out that well,
the Wok even might have got some good runs at Tullinge airfield...
With the race being on Saturday the 1st of June,
the second set of bearings said good night at Wensday night before.
The feling I got when I realized I had burnt the second set three days before race,
and that all my work for the last three weeks was in vain is just undescribable.
I didn't know if I was gona leave the car and take a taxi home and just forget everything about the Cherry,
Try to fix it or trash every visible part of the car, laugh or cry...
After considering my options I decided to fix what was fixable.
I called a friend and got towed back to the garage.
Then I had to go home and get some sleep.
After working half-day at my regular work, I got directly to the garage.
Starting to dismount the engine at around 18:00 Thursday,
I got some help bringing out the old engine and to get the gearbox on to a "new" block.
After burning two sets of bearings and two cranks I decided not to use that block ever again.
I only had one crank and one block left to experiment with,
so I decided not to take that last crank out at all.
The new emty block, crank and gearbox was back in the car around midnight,
then all I had to do was to move over the custom pistons and rods to the new block...
I worked like a verry well tuned robot all night.
It was beyond what can be considered human.
Even thoe I worked hard as ever before, I managed to take some nice pictures:
Around Friday lunch-time it was all back as it was the day before, ready to run, but now with a fresh block.
I just had to go home to get a coolant-hose, but as I came home
my body forced me to sleep for a cuople of hours...
I really didn't have time to sleep one minute,
but after working in the garage for over 18 hours without food or rest
there was not much I could do. My body basicly colapsed.
When I finally woke up, I didn't know if it was Friday, saturday och even Sunday...
...it was still Friday afternoon.
-Great! get the coolant hose and insert some food on the way back to the garage!
Fill the engine up with fresh oil, coolant and turn the ign. key.
It started up like nothing ever happened.
Of course it didn't run as smooth as ever, but it ran, and it ran without any strange noises.
I had some company in the garage untill around 03:00 between Friday and Saturday.
The night was spent trying to run it in, and to fix various whater and oil leakages.
I think I had the engine as high as at 5000 rpm two times
untill it was time to gather with the friends and get going to the race.
-This was really it!
The first round was run with 0,9 bar boost wich resulted in 14,59 seconds - 153,8 km/h
Then the radiator started to leak like xxxx.
After gluing a friends shirt to the radiator, it almost stopped leaking...
...at least it didn't flush, so it was possible to participate in the tournament.
While waiting for the glue to harden, we put a spring on the wastegate.
That gave me 1,3 bars boost, wich resulted in 15,19 seconds - 153,7 km/h.
The time itselfe sucks, but when the lambda-value dropped due to the engine leaning out at higher revs.
I simply shifted gears WAY to early.
After spending the past three days and nights witout real sleep or food in the garage,
I didn't feel like destroying the engine this early...
After being nocked out of the tournament that day,
all I felt like was to go home and get some well urned sleep...
...but that was what I felt like.
My friends wanted to treat me for some beer on the locale pub.
Three beers later and I could hardly stand up. Pretty inexpensive.
Now it was two weeks until next race,
so I rebuilded the engine to look as standard as possible so it would pass the Swedish M.O.T.
I changed the intake manifold, exhaust manifold, turbocharger, exhaust system, and so on...
Usually they are verry senitive to anything thats not standard, but the Wok (amazingly) passed.
Then I built it back to "racemode" and tuned up the fuel-pressure a bit.
Now it really ran as it should!
At least the night before the race, but as allways somethings just have to fail...
This time the car started missfiring at higher revs.
Later on it showed up to be powerdrain on the battery leading to lack of power for the ignitionsystem.
Even if the car didn't do any perfect rounds it still ran as fast as it has never gone on a official race.
The day after, the 16:th of June that is, it was time for TXM-Cup part two.
The day started with 5 hours of rain.
rain, rain and more rain.
After lunch, it had stopped and the race could begin...
...but due to all raining, the timing system was beyond repair,
so the competition was setteled just like in the good old days,
with a maual starter and manual goal.
I got to run both the qualifying round and the cup round against "lill-peter" in the blue Opel Corsa,
formerly known as the green Corsa.
It is a regular Opel Corsa with a Calibra Turbo engine, and it runs verry well.
I came verry close on blowing my gearbox due to a failure to engage gear three,
so I pretty much lost.
It seams as if the gearbox has survived, but it doesn't sound that well,
so I will probably have to change it pretty soon now.
Next race is in Oslo the 29:th of June.
Until then I will hopefully get the engine running as it should, or even better.
To run a mid 13 is not a goal, thats just a stop on my way to get the 12's.
I will try to update as soon as anything happens.
Pics from the garage:
2002-06-18
