2009-08-02
In the Saturday afternoon we loaded the car and all tools at Mantorp park,
after racing there all day.
As you remember from our trip to Mantorp we got a flat on Nalles Dodge van.
You can read all about that here: Bilsport Actionmeet 31 july-1 august 2009
However that was easily solved since it was daytime and we were traveling along a freeway.
Unfortunately he got another flat on our way between Mantorp and Kjula.
Main difference were that it was around 8PM, it was getting dark and we were in the middle of no ware...
...and the spare still read Chevy.
I tried to get a good explanation of why he were driving around half the country
with a spare that did not fit, but it remains a mystery to us all.
Me and Andersson went the remaining miles to Kjula to try and find a Dodge van that we could borrow a spare from,
and like a miracle we found a van of the correct make for sale at once! =)
Andersson went back to Nalle with a spare while I went in to the pit area trying to find some space for us all.
After an hour or two all the team had arrived and we started taking down the gearbox to clean and inspect the cluch. When we were finished most people had already hit their sacks and it was rather late indeed.
Sunday offered perfect weather, just as we had on our way to Mantorp on friday.
The sun was shining and we had around 20-25C degrees.
We didnt run any impressive times in our one and only qualifying round,
and when looking at the slip one can clearly see something is wrong...
10,44 gave us a place in the lower part of the qualification list for sure.
At Kjula we run in the Ten 'n Half-class with 10,5" tires as its only limitation.
The winner of last years total, Benny Thelin, ran high eights, and I Qualified 5th with 9,91 last year,
so the cars performance in this class varies widely, with makes it interesting.
This time I got a 1963 Dodge Dart as my first opponent.
I felt right from the start that all was not well,
but when there is a car in the other lane that you are trying to beat
it is hard to understand werther it is your car thats slow or the other being much faster...
My excellent 0,15sec reaction time was of no help when having miserable 2,0sec in 60-ft.
My guess is that the engine were destroyed pretty much at once,
but apart from the poor power it gave me no sign until right before finnish line
when there were steam and smoke every ware.
When I stopped next to the rescue team there were litres of water poring out of the exhaust pipe,
and at that point I knew exactly what to expect in the garage later that evening...
I think one can see pretty clearly that it did not have any to do with excessive port job,
since the walls that have melted still are thick.
The Fererra stainless valve had a giant hole, and half its shaft was melted too.
This time it broke on cylinder 3.
In the dyno and after two races this spring it was cyl. 4 that gave us trouble.
This is how the combustion chambers looked like:
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Cyl 1 Not a trace of problems of any kind here, after delivering almost 250hp 
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Cyl 2 Spark plug damaged, but head and valves seems ok 
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Cyl 3 Spark plug and surface of chamber destroyed, one runner melted. Other runners ok. 
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Cyl 4 This chamber surface were repaired this spring after running E85. After repair we went back to CSP. 
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This was a sad way to end the 2009 season in.
We had planned two or three more races but with this much engine trouble
we need to go to the bottom of it and try to figure out what the cause is.
No idea of preparing a new head and just keep our fingers crossed...
Obviously we do have our theories of the cause.
The result is detonation no doubt,
and it seems as we have some unpleasant electric problem to sort out.
Among many things we will change ECU, ignition system, cables and connections.
We must make it a new electrical system.
Now it is winter in Sweden and no race will take place until May.
Apart from building a new engine or trying to finance it,
I will do my best to share you with movies from the summer
and keep you updated with whats going on in the Wok Garage...
...as long as you keep getting back here of course.
See you at the tracks 2010
Best regards
Björn Holmberg with team.
Also, thanks for photos from this event: Wolfman
