Toyota 4AGE into Eleven will go (one way or another)

[alleggerita]

Charles, 17 May is a Tuesday on our calendar. Can't find any clear info on the SIlverstone website either. I did some googling on Taydec: not much avaialbe but it has all the looks off CanAm.

[allymally]

Hi Guy's, I think that may be 7th May. Jack All the best hope it goes well Charles

[erictharg]

Sorry guys. It is of course the 7th of May.
17th is on my mind because I've been invited to my first motorcycle track day at Rocky on the 17th May. Just 12 of us to share the whole track for the day. Which given my dreadful bike riding is a good thing. Time to actually learn how to ride a bike fast (ish) after 33 years of pootling around on the roads. I've just never learned top trust the grip of bike tyres... That's the snag when Rupert Paul (ex PB editor and longtime bike journalist) shares your workshop!

[erictharg]

So, rolling road today. Found I was more nervous than any time I can remember this morning. Sad, I guess! It's just a bloody machine. Got to AE Lynx early (of course) and ran through the usual one man band rolling road drill. Have to say that John who owns / runs the setup knows his stuff. And I do prefer to be driving my car on the rolling road than have someone else do it. First baseline run was just under 160HP. Showed leaner at midrange than ideal for racing. Tweaked the jetting and got the lambda better. Slightly rich and good for drive out of slow corners before you get fully onto the mains. Set about optimising the timing and found that when we advanced things too much we got to the point where the rotor arm was out of line with the cap segment. So a big bunch of misfire resulted. Moved the trigger adapter back one "notch" (15 deg) and sadly fell the other side of the problem. But not too critical. Maybe some marginal gains to be had but at the end a healthy 168HP @ 7000 which is about what the cams should give, and pretty flat to 7500 (best gear shift point). Fixing the timing issue might gain 1 or 2 HP, but not a big deal. Time to run it and see what the next thing to change is! Roll on Saturday. Relieved. Jeez - can't wait to race again.

[Splat]

Lordy, that's going to be quick! Great to hear that your perseverance is paying off. Looking forward to the race reports. Let's have some video, too.....

[erictharg]

Cars all loaded on trailers (Eleven and Taydec) ready for run the Silverstone early tomorrow (only an hour away). Too much to do to bother with video this race but all being well I'll start videoing from next race (Brands Hatch, 12th June). Will let you know how it goes.

[erictharg]

This should really go in Marshall's Post. Except I didn't actually get to race...
I was feeling positive after the rolling road session. Went out into the practice session and had a great first 6 or so laps. Just trying to tame the car. So much faster out of corners and down the straights. Struggling with braking - getting really out of shape. Also when driving out of corners a lot more squirming than ever before. As you'd imagine riding a bucking bronco might be. All what you'd hope a 30% increase in power would give you. About 8 laps in I finally (too late...) checked my gauges. Engine running hot - mid 90's, but in 25 deg ambient not the end of the world. Oil pressure low. Not good. Had been at the pressure relief valve limit of 75 psi until now, but down around 40. Watched carefully and it was jumping around a bit, but gradually getting lower. Backed off and cruised to the pits as it finally dropped to about zero. Engine stalled and hard to re-start. Got a push to the paddock and race day over. No leaks. Started it when cooler and still only made half what it should on the gauge.
So spent yesterday pulling the engine again (getting good at this) and had it stripped by 1500 hrs. Mains were shagged. Big ends surprisingly not too bad. Shells OK and very light scoring of the journals. Oil pump pressure relief valve jammed open. Piston skirts and bores scored due to bearing debris. A little more scoring damage to the cams bearings. This is getting tedious.
Need to see if the bores and pistons are salvageable by honing / polishing. This time I doubt it. If they are not, it's bore oversize and new pistons. No fancy forged race items this time - just stock aftermarket jobs with my spare large journal crank and stock rods. £150 vs. £600. Then see if the head (cam bearings really) is still useable. If doubtful I'll use one of the stock spare heads I have with better springs and the race cams. All the fancy bits are probably not worth 10HP. Especially as the cams make max power at 7000. Don't need anything exotic for that.
But the big question is still root cause. this time the engine ran for 80 plus road miles and a session on the rolling road with no evident problems. But after 10 mins of racing the oil pressure had gone AWOL. So did the relief valve stick and the resulting drop in pressure cause the mains to fail. Or did the mains fail and the debris cause the relief valve to jam?
Could have been oil surge, but the stock sump has a reasonable baffle already. So, faced with more bills and uncertainty on what will fix the problem.
I will add extra baffling to the sump - crazy not to. I will also seek better cooling. Peugeot 205 GTI rad looks as if it will fit. Next race Brands hatch in just under 5 weeks. I think this is karma for 4 years of trouble free racing with the A series whilst others around me struggled...

On a positive note my friend Austen managed to complete practice and the race in the Taydec he had never driven before, despite being shunted by the heaviest car on the grid ('71 Mach 1 Mustang; 1420kg). Fortunately only GRP body damage.

[alleggerita]

hi Charles, I feel sorry for that misfortune. We need to thoroughly evaluate over a good glass of Neve Valley's finest tomorrow evening, lavished with Austen's heroic track experiences.

[allymally]

So Sorry to read about your misfortune Charles have been waiting to see how you got on, what a BxxxxxD. Please consider Dry Sump System in future I know its more expense But keeps the oil in the right place.

[erictharg]

Dry sump would be great Malc, but it's another £1000 in round figures, and I'm sure with a bit of baffling the wet sump can be adequate. My machinist (Automotive Services, Northampton) confirm that the pistons can't be saved and the bores are too scored to hone this time. So its oversize cast pistons, my spare 42mm crank and a set of std rods. He also noticed that some of the cam followers had worn badly so my fancy head is also scrap! Back to a stock head and a good valve job. Should not have too much impact on power. The oversize valves are not really needed until 180HP levels. His view was that the culprit was more of the grit we found in the crank that was lurking somewhere. So I've got to gather some bits together than let him do his stuff on the bores and my spare stock head.
Meanwhile I can work on the brakes, and improve the cooling. A 205 GTi rad looks like a useful upgrade from the Metro item so will source one and see if we can persuade it to fit!