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1Tristan CLIFFE175 (186)
2Malcolm SCOTT118
3Anthony BISHOP65
4Antonio IMPIERI64
5Richard PURCELL52
6Graham READ40

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Posts Tagged ‘engine’


I’ve mentioned on here recently about the oil pressure issues we thought we might have been having, and had been optimistic that it was behind us following the mid-season rebuild of the engine.  However, that was not the case…

Pressure Relief Valve SchematicAfter refitting the engine, and having it running late last week, we found that the reported oil pressure (confirmed with a mechanical gauge to ensure the electronic version didn’t have a problem) was lower than usual at idle, and massively high when revving a bit. When I say massively high, I mean about 150psi – almost twice what we want!

So over the weekend, the engine was removed from the car again, and partially stripped to see what we’d done wrong. And we found nothing. The bearings were nice, with good clearance, and all in the right way around. All the oilways were clear, and the head gasket was on the correct way – all very basic things, but when you’re struggling you check everything.  The oil pump was taken off and checked, with nothing apparently wrong. Whilst we were there, we thought we’d make a quick drawing off the pressure relief valve system (as it is different from the TOM’S pumps we have in stock), and that is when we found the problem.

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Last Updated on Tuesday, 24 August 2010 04:40

A brief overview of fuel by Martin, originally written for and published by Startline (Monoposto’s e-magazine) in July 2009, and now published here for all to see. It was in response to this article on the same site. Click “Read More” below to see it…

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Last Updated on Friday, 20 August 2010 03:48

Mallory TrackmapRounds 7 and 8 of the 2010 Monoposto championship are at Mallory Park, a track that so far seems to suit our Dallara, although I never felt especially comfortable there in the Reynard.  This is probably because the Dallara is a much stiffer car, and remains more composed in long, high speed corners like Gerards.

Last year, it was our 2nd meeting with the car (we skipped Anglesey), and was the scene of our first victory and first pole position with the car – although Timms’ engine blow up removed an element of competition that weekend! However, the pole time was bang on the lap record, so I’m confident Jeremy would have had to work hard to beat it. Unfortunately, we also had a throttle cable failure in the subsequent race, and couldn’t capitalise on that form…

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Last Updated on Wednesday, 18 August 2010 10:31

The engine is now rebuilt, and is back on the gearbox ready to refit to the tub. Hurrah!

Martin is fitting a fridge, oven and hob to the truck to make catering easier (and milk last longer).

And the front wing endplates have been remade in lighter ‘foam’ that should wear rather than splinter, as recommended by Jon Gray of the BRSCC F3 series.

Update: The engine/gearbox assembly is now fitted to the tub, with most of the ancillary connections done as well…

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Last Updated on Wednesday, 11 August 2010 10:13

After Snetterton we decided to remove and refresh the engine due to lower than ideal oil pressure. Nothing wrong was found – perhaps it was just fuel diluting the oil with the bodged air intake system blocking on cylinder 1 – so it was rebuilt and prepared for refitting.

It was then that Martin discovered the missing teeth on the oil pump drive belt.  Failure analysis is still ongoing as I write this, but will update this post when we’ve deduced the cause.

Click on the thumbnail to the right to see the belt, and here to read about belt failure modes.

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Last Updated on Wednesday, 11 August 2010 10:13

Despite an amateur theatrical production of Wuthering Heights getting in the way a bit, we’ve got the engine out of the car in into its constituent parts to make sure everything was okay. So far it’s all looking rosy, but the rebuild process will prove if that is the case or not.  Here is a picture of the engine at the moment (block and head not pictured, as they were being cleaned at the time); click to enlarge

The Twitter feed on the right of this page isn’t working at the moment, but if you are desperate to follow me on Twitter or just want to casually glance at my ramblings, then go here. <edit: bodged up a Twitter feed, but it’s not as nice. It does work though, which is an improvement>

The other ‘exciting’ thing this week is a inspirational talk at a local school on “Living the Dream”. I’ve been asked to do a small presentation to some children about how I turned my dream (motor racing) into a reality. Hopefully the children will then want to get involved in motorsport, at some level, later in their lives – either as marshals, mechanics, drivers or simply fans. The aim is to do the talk in the style of a TV interview, and I’m hoping to have the car there too – as such I’m spending my evenings fitting the ‘spare’ engine (from last year) so as to make the car into a rolling structure again. Could be interesting…

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Last Updated on Tuesday, 20 July 2010 03:40