A Danish car enthusiast racing his 1963 Triumph Spitfire in hillclimbs and circuit racing
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Tech update: Nightshifts and panic for last preparations
Last update boldly declared the bonnet back on the car - and it was, but the lights and locks weren't, and that required some late Thursday night work to get right. As I am really not into electrics I fumbled with this for far to long, but got it working in the end - it is really easy to check the lights at 2.30 am, at it is very dark at that time. Almost as frustrating was my discovery of why the bonnet stood high at the back - it didn't clear the radiator, so that had to be lowered in its mounting. Of course, that meant the oil cooler had to move downwards as well, which in turn meant that the oil cooler lines had to be altered - boy did I need a good nights sleep afterwards. I had to get up early on Friday though, as the car was entered for final tuneup on the rolling road at Kurt Mejer, where we would finally see the results of the engine work. But no: A routine check (paranoia is my middle name) showed metallic deposits on top of the cylinder head. And I had only driven 45 kilometers with this completely rebuilt (that was Wednesday night...) rocker gear on a new shaft. Hmm - this was far too like the symptoms after last years catastrophic engine failure to be any good. There wasn't anything to be seen on the rockers or the valve stem, though, but metal particles in the oil is never any good. Although Kurt Mejer thought that the engine sounded healthy enough, we decided to drop the rolling road session, and he only did minor adjustments on the Webers - using his sensitive ears. It went much better afterwards, but back in the garage I decided to make a final adjustment on the rocker gear by spacing the pedestals up - using aluminium plate, appropiately drilled for oil delivery. That way I made sure to enter the race Saturday completely sleep deprived. And extremely nervous for the reliability of my car. I dreamt of shiny metal flakes in hot oil...
I received the bonnet back from the painter Sunday, and with the help of Jesper Møller, Analysis and Data Acquisition Manager in the TriumphRacing team, got it bolted on Tuesday. This bonnet was on the car back in 1990, but at some time before I bought the car replaced by the GRP-bonnet that I have used until now. That bonnet was not legal to use under our racing regulations and had to go. The weight disadvantage is quite large, and most of last weeks weight loss is now lost. But with 3 days to go before our first race my car is legal - an important point.
I prepared everything for extracting the gearbox Saturday, and got the helping hand of my Transportation and Inventory Manager Jørgen Klithom, when it finally came to lifting it out Sunday morning. The parts for renovating the gearbox and change the ratios to close-ratio specification were all lying ready, supplied by Rimmer Bros and Canley Classics respectively. This was done by a local expert, and I had the gearbox back in the garage by Sunday evening.Monday evening the new gearbox assembly was installed in the car again - with much sweat and tears by myself and sponsor Claus Hagstrøm. I am now pretty sure that pulling out engine and gearbox in one operation and mating them outside the car would be the easier option, should gearbox work became necessary again. But we did it, and everything seems fine. After connecting the hydraulics up again I should be able to test the gearbox Tuesday evening.
The safety tank is in place, and the old steel tank is out. The weight difference is around 10 kilos, and the price for this advantage is a significantly reduced fuel capacity - the new tank contains 12 liters. On the track this is more than enough, as the Danish races are so short that the Spitfire only uses around 4 liters in a heat. On the road the small capacity is going to be a nuisance, as for example a trip from Århus to Padborg Park means refuelling will be necessary. The last 5 kilos in this weekends weight loss programme are from the ditching of the tank of the Lifeline fire extinguisher system. My halon-based system is not legal anymore, and therefore I removed the tank. According to Lifeline it is not possible to substitute the tank with a newer model containing a legal extinguisher substance. I hope to find a solution to this, and so far I have kept the plumbing to the engine department.
The old battery was removed, and a new Varley racing battery installed. This is considerably smaller, both in size and capacity. The car still starts fine though, so goal achieved: Weight loss without drawbacks - except economically, of course.
The renovated radiator is now installed and the temperature is back to normal. I choose once again to use a thermostat in the cooling system - instead of the constant opening used by many other racers. This is with the engine wear in mind, as wear is much less with a thermostat, since the engine warms up far quicker. And engine wear - well, I had enough of that last year.
This weekend’s training didn’t go quite as planned, but as one of the other competitors said: Better to discover the problems now than at raceweekends. What did I discover? Well, after 175 monotonous kilometres from Aarhus to the track at Padborg Park I’d say that the car was ready for a few quick laps at the track, but after just half a lap I could smell cooling liquid, and returned to the paddock immediately. The radiator was boiling – even though the Spitfire has never ever had temperature problems. Of course it has only been used to cool less than 80 horsepower! It seemed the radiator wasn’t evenly warm over its entire surface, and presumably it was the radiator that was the reason for the problem. Another task added to the list before the first race.
The end result was that I didn’t get the training I was there for, and couldn’t try the things I have been planning all winter. If I can get the technical issues solved quickly I may be going for another trackday before the start of the season the last weekend in May. The weekend also shows that my now almost 1000 kilometers of street driving couldn’t identify this problem, so even a road registrered racecar needs real track tests. On the positive side of this weekend counts that the skimming of the cylinder head has stopped the oil weeping, and that the engine itself felt good, and clearly pulls a lot harder than before. Now it just needs to do that a full season.
