Previous updates for the 2002 season

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12-17-02

Well I did it. Went out one last time for the year. (I swear)

The waist gate issue bugged me and wanted to know if this would solve some hesitation problems and didn't want to wait all winter. So I fixed it up and took the car out to the Street Legal races at California speedway.

The Results were much better. Although the 60ft times were still off from what it should be, it was a lot better. I made 3 passes. First was a bit on the conservative side on tire pressure. Spun the tires a touch more then normal, but it did seem to pull out a lot better then at Palmdale and I saw a 1.57 60 ft. Not to shabby, but still a tenth off of what I think I can do. Then I proceeded to miss second gear again. And only came up with an 11.30somehting. It is now time to try a Pro Ring 2nd to compensate for the heavy clutch disk I am using. Pass number 2. Lower tire pressure. A little less spin and not quite the same feeling, but I sort of babied 2nd (lifted off the gas and hesitated clutch pedal). The car fell off to a 1.60 60ft time, but over all I finally broke into the 10 second range with a 10.98 at 124. But on the return road, I heard an exhaust leak similar to what the waist gate leak sounded like. Sure enough, the tubing feeding the waist gate off the collector had 2 cracks in it. Another contribution to slower spool up time. But not a problem to fix. At this point, I told my self early on, make one or two passes to make sure waist gate fixed the problem. If I get into the 10's, just pack up and go home. BUT NOOOOOO, I got greedy and wanted to back it up. So I waited an extra 3 hours to get a third run in. (that part sucked.) dropped the tire pressure a touch more as I wanted to do a nice big wheelie this time to show off. Sure enough, the wheels came up but hooked a little to good, and bottomed out on the sump again. This caused the motor to hick-up and made for a bad ET.

And with in 15-20 minutes of that pass, I was out the gate and on my way home. But I got what I was looking for. Problem correction and a 10 second time slip.

There were a few other VW's out there as well. most notable. Lloyd Mosher and his street legal buggie. I think he ripped off a 10.53 in that little thing. The old man still has it. Then there was Ray Mejia with his street legal and really driven chop top Ghia. He was in the same boat as me. Wanted that 10 second time slip. He started out rough with a boost line blowing off his waist gate. Then he wanted to be like Mike, and did this HUGE wheelie with a right turn toward the wall. So that was a wash. Pass 3 and it was do or die. So he grabbed the knob and gave it a little more of a twist and clicked off 10.91 at a huge 129mph. That's haulin some butt in this heavy ghia.

Next on the list, tare my motor down for inspection of aluminum case. Really!

12-9-02

Link page update

Now we are talking. Another Fellow PRA Racer makes a page. Go check out Matt Davis and his turbocharged sedan at www.davis-racing.org

12-2-02

Look at this, a picture update. (about time) Any ways, at the Palmdale IDRC event, i had a little problem getting it to come out of the hole properly under power.

this potentially might be one of the problems. a leaking waistgate. this view is from the bottom of the valve and the light you can see is the body that has been corroded away. so it needs a little clean up so it will seal properly and maybe this will solve it coming on boost in first. (I hope)

 Yeeehaaaa! I finally finished Sixto's motor. 2332cc destin originally to be turbo'd for his green notch. Just in time as his other motors in both his notches seem to have some problems, but he hasnt had a chance to sort them out yet. He came by to pick it up Saturday afternoon and was like a kid on Chrismas. Can you blame him?

The pictures from here down was pictures I have been meaning to post, but you know how that can be. This picture is of my Van at Green River Utah at the hotel with the grinding rear end. This was Thursday night before the Denver race.

Saturday morning and I show up at Bandimere with this. Eric Madson's wife's truck. What a cool lady she is. If you havent seen my set up lately, thats a Yamaha scooter on the front of the trailer  (The pit bike) and a spare gear box hanging off the back. this is how you use up every bit of your trailer.

Saturday morning practice at Bandimere.

The new, (well not so new now) aluminum block as finished and ready for its first race.

Tough new flange crank.

Thats all for now. If I can fix the waistgate, I just might take it out for one more spin. The two options are this thursday is the last TnT at irwindale, and then there is some 1/4 mile stuff going on at Fontana, Dec 14-15. So at this point if I decide to do that, it will be a few more weeks until I tare down the motor for an inspection.

11-26-02

Happy Turky Day.

I couldn't help my self. I went racing again.

Since I had not had a chance to tare the motor down for inspection, and the IDRC import race came to town at Palmdale, I made a last minute decision to blow off some household chores that needed to be done and last Friday night about 7pm made the commitment to go. Fixed my leaky sump plate and load up.

It was actually a pretty good turn out at Palmdales LACR and a good showing for the VW crowd. There were even spectators there from out of town just to watch the VW's.

For me, I was just out to bracket race. I was in need of a fix and here was the last opportunity. Although at a higher altitude then most of the tracks we go to, it wasn't out of the question to look for that 10 second time slip again. So I went out on Saturday, gave the regulator inside the car another ¼ turn, and bogged the car to a 11.66. so the sea level jets came out and try again. Most of the bog went away but was spinning tires to a 11.31. don't touch any thing, adjust air pressure in the tires, hook up reasonably well, but motor seem to fall off trying to get to the top of first gear to an 11.30. All these were a slow 60ft times in the 1.70's and slower. One last try for Saturday night, add a few more degrees of timing and add a touch of air to the tires and go out for a night time pass (love racing at night, reminds me of being at Terminal Island). Tire spin as expected, but felt a little better with no hesitation. Still a slow 1.68 60ft time but continued to pull all the out the top of 1st and no hesitation in second. This was good enough for 11.03 and an overkill 124mph. Oh so close. So it was off for home and return in the morning. First pass on Sunday, missed 2nd. I am loosing it. 2nd pass with a little loss of boost over the night before was good for 11.23 with light tire spin. So I thought its time for eleiminations and lets dial appropriately with an 11.24. Yes you saw it right. I got 6 practice runs in a 24 hour period unlike the NHRA event where it took 3 days to get 5 passes total. Well I go out for my first round against a Honda with a 14.70 dial in. I have a little over 3 second wait. Not a problem. I did my job on the lights and posted a .523 reaction time. (Good enough to beat most of the field) but this time the car hooked up again and drifted left, more then I have ever seen it. By the time the car set down and I clicked 2nd gear, I was id say 5 feet from the center line, but this is where I shouldn't be. I think my left tire was in the marbles (dust and rubber debris) and loosing grip while the right tire was still pulling. And id say about a third way through second gear, the car was turning again toward the line and as I felt I was about to cross the line and be disqualified, I had to lift. Get the car pointed back in a normal direction and stab it again. Well this pretty much cost me the race. Although I must have been real close because I caught up to the Honda right at the end. But my win light didn't come on. (The track did not give out two time slips and was splitting one for both lanes, so I have no idea what the other driver did) I lost with a 11.60 at 119 and I'm sure I came by this Honda at 25 mph faster then he was doing and probably went Holly Cow!!!

It took me a while, on the drive home, that maybe some of this weekends problems of having full power through first gear, stemmed from a leaking waist gate. Not coming on boost soon enough. We noticed this on Sunday idling in the pits. But didn't give it much thought, besides not being able to do much about it either. At that point my thoughts were, if it runs consistently crappy, that is ok, its only bracket racing.

The good news was Fellow PRA racer Richard Laitinen went on to win the bracket class that I was trying for as well, would have been cool to see 2 VW's in the finals.

10-29-02

NHRA Sport Compact races at Pomona Ca.

I arrived on Saturday morning, and again on Sunday morning, and then once again on Monday morning. Yes you heard right, I raced on a Monday.

Due to some earlier weather conditions on Saturday, the track was in need of some minor repair and took all morning to fix. So there was only time for 2 qualifying/practice passes. Pomona had a restricted time allowed to run an event and the cut off was 6pm. Not to mention they have no track lights.

Sunday came and every one was allowed one more run down the track. Then they started a half hour early on eliminations, but failed to complete the program before dark. This was due to many oil downs, brake downs, TV commitments, a lack of organization, that all accumulated into what most would have called a poorly run program. Although some of the stuff was truly out of their control. Part of the problem lied in the fact that, because of TV commitments (I am assuming) the ET brackets were blown off so the pro cars could run around and make their eliminations. I can understand that thinking. But the bracket I was in, ET-3 was the 11.99 and faster, never even had a chance to run on Sunday for even first round of eliminations. ET-1 and ET-2 did get in 1 and 2 rounds. And after talking to a few in the lanes, most of us were in agreement that this program was not going to finish, but when or if we get to run round 1, we were all going to go banzi the run and call it a weekend. Even the 10.00 car next to me decided to match my dial in of a 10.80 because they just wanted to brake out and go home. Well, ET-3 did not get to run on Sunday. The new announcement was that the gates were to open up at 8am Monday morning.

Enough about the track. This weekend, I was pretty much interested in getting a 10 second time slip, just so I can say I did it. My stuff worked ok. I had some traction issues. But looks like I have solved my second gear missing issues. (tried a lighter clutch disk and added a T-handle to my old Hurst shifter)

During Saturday's ET practice, the track just bunched up ET-1,2, and 3 all together. Not that big an issue if you run with the rear wheel drive v8 group that would not drag water all over the place. But with a lot of the front wheel drive cars, I find the tendency is water is drug all over the place and maybe other fluids are dropped. I never really seem to get good track conditions during this kind of event. But I didn't help the issues either. In the past, I have always gone around the water box and then backed in to do a burn out because I was using real street tires on the front. But for the past few years, I have been using race front runners that have almost no tread and does not really drag water out. And now I was use to driving through the box to do a burn out. Well I did this. And it might not have been too much of a problems, as I didn't seem to have any problem doing this at Irwindale. But when there was water 10+feet before the box and tracks 10+feet beyond the box, I guess my front tires were just picking up too much liquid and made for bad 60ft times. So on the first pass, I gave the knob a big turn. Zipped off a 1.66, 60ft time and an 11.26ish at 119 mph against a 7200 top limiter chip all at about 14 lbs. of boost. (looked at my gauge at the top of 3rd gear). Get back to the pits, put in a 7600 limit chip, give the knob another half turn, drop the tire pressure another pound, try a longer burn out that lasted almost to the starting line because it just kept spinning. 60ft slows down to a 1.70 but the car picks up to an 11.05 at 124 against the limiter at about 16-17 lbs. of boost. At least this is what I see at a very quick glance at the top of 3rd gear. This kind of mph is an indication that the car is definitely capable of the 10 second mark. Under normal conditions, a car with this power might be pushing a mid to high 1.40's 60ft time, and if I could get that to happen, this is a 10.70-10.80 car. So I think I can UN-officially say that I have a 10 second car.

Sunday morning comes and I drop the tire pressure down just a touch more, raise the limit chip up to 7800 now. (my poor dual Engle valve springs are probably crying for mercy by now) and I go out and really blow the tires off with a 1.88 60ft and only produce an 11.23 but at 125 mph. Now I am thinking, maybe I am tracking water out my self. So as we come up for first round of eliminations, at about 2:30pm (and track is closing at 6pm) I go for an 11.00 dial in. time passes, and more time passes, the air is cooling down, we are all getting frustrated. It pretty much looks like we are going to go out after the pro cars, so I think the track might actually be good and I will get a good 60ft time. So I turn my dial in down to a 10.80 and come to the conclusion, this is the balls out run and who cares what happens and we need to go home any way. Well from what you read above, we never got our run.

Monday morning and I find my self at the track right along with all my other fellow friend VW racers that were sick too. (sick of work maybe) How many of you ever raced on a Monday? I change my dial in back up to a 10.99 and finally get to run at 11:30ish. (but the track is suppose to close down at 12 noon.) There were 6 vw's in my class and we did our best to keep away from each other. But due to some not sticking to the rules. (no role bars and faster then 11.99) some cars got pulled out and suddenly I find good friend and long time rival Robert Hemphill next to me. He too was looking for his first 10 second time slip and we thought this is it, let it ride, brake out and lets go home. Well I owe him a few and put a whoopen on him on the lights with a .511 rt to his .577.  (although, had I hooked up, I probably would have turned on the red light) and as we took off, I felt I got the lead, spinning tires as usual, and out of the corner of my eye, OH MY GOD, this red machine is SKY HI passing me. I think we now have a new wheelie king. In the end, he had to burp the gas a touch, and I moved right back ahead. And after I clicked 4th gear, the competitor came out in me and instead of running it out, I let off and took the stripe to take a win.

Well at this point, NHRA gets a time extension to run past 12 noon to finish up the rest of the ET classes. (or so they say)

Round two, and I broke my rules. Never change up your routine, especially during eliminations. Instead of going through the water box like I had during first round. I went around. Did a good burn out and immediately felt the difference as I came out of the box; the tires started to hook up. So I'm thinking at this point, its going to hook and my reaction is going to be too fast. I hesitated a touch more on the tree to try and compensate this, but then it really hooked up. So much so that I bottomed out on the sump plate of the motor and lifted the tires right out of the beams for a really bad .450 red light foul. It actually hit the sump once, unloaded the car, grabbed again, and hit it a second time, and then felt like it stalled the motor for a brief moment. But that did not matter as I had already lost the race. No NHRA Wally for me. But a bad day of racing is still better then a good day at work. LOL

So for me, that is it for the season. The sump plate is now leaking. (made a nice mess on my trailer) And I leaned on the motor a little bit. So I think my next step is to open up the motor and inspect the new case and how every thing is holding up. And I will be sure to update on this.

10-25-02

Last second update to tell you what I will be up to.

NHRA Sport Compact (import) race at Pomona Ca. (oct.26-27)

I am going to go out and use this as a test day to see if I can clear up the miss shift 2nd gear problem I have encountered. Not to mention the potential of winning one of those cool Wallie's (winners trophy) I do know there will be a few other VW's on hand to play this weekend. So if you are near by, drop by the track and support us VW people.

We also attended the PRA awards picnic last weekend. The Renn-Kafer Cup guys also shared in the awards picnic so it made for a good outing. (cool first place trophy won by Mike Lawless, I saw, stainless steel, glass back ground with a shifter mounted on it.)

I walked away with a 3rd place plaque and some spending cash for the 2002 Super Gas season.

All was good. I filled up with a couple of double cheese burgers, did plenty of bench racing, watch my son try and master walking on uneven grass and play with the other kids. And then the raffle came out. They gave away probably some 50 items all donated by the sponsors. A lot of cool stuff like hats, T-shirts, assorted tools, motor parts and even an Easy-up canopy. As usual, we purchased our round of raffle tickets to support the cause and once in a while I do win something. And this year was no exception. The wife and I, had our eyes on the Easy-up. And as the items rolled off the table, Amanda (wife) won a cool Andy Costello T-shirt. I thought yea, we got something. Then it was time for the Easy-up. Number called and damn! Ken Cervone won it. BUT there was one more grand prize left on the table. The number was called and it was amongst my tickets. YeeeHAAAAAAAA!!! I just won a new 86mm flanged Bugpack crank. Hot Damn! guess now I will have to build a back up motor. :)

10-8-02

VEGAS BABY!!!!!!

Well it was not quite that good for me.

My weekend started on a great note.

We celebrated my Son's first birthday with a party on Saturday. Good friends and fun times were had by all. Then it was a mad dash to clean up, hop in the van, and head out to Vegas for the Sunday race.

We left a few hours behind schedule, witch wasn't all that bad. But about 80 miles into the trip, Dominic, "the burn out king" had a rental car that broke down. More like an ignition system failure. His race car was being towed by his friend in a single cab pick up, and had no more room for Dom and his girl friend. And with the potential of others going, he had rented the chase vehicle. Well the problem with that was, this put us another 3 hours behind schedule to get a tow off the highway and get going again. By the end of the night, we had reached the hotel we had planned on saying at by 3 am. This was fine and dandy, but we were still 40 miles out of Vegas. Went to check in and one of the reservations was lost, and this took up valuable sleep time. 3:30 am, lay down to sleep and stare at the ceiling trying to unwind from driving. 6am and the phone rings for the wake up call. "Hay, I just closed my eyes a minute ago!!!!" arrived at the track by 7:30. So far so good, we are all still standing and made it.

Racing.

Because of the altitude, the index for super gas was adjusted to a 12.15 et. I went out on a guess set up and clicked off a 12.12 for my first qualifying pass. Yeeehaaa. I am in the ball park. Although too fast, it's easy to slow a car down just a tick then speed it up. Round two, I decided to leave the set up and blip the gas in 4th gear. Well I did a Big blip and slowed down too much to a 12.30. But this number also put me solid into the show, especially since it was going to be open to a 16-car field again. Upon further review of that pass, the 1/8 mile time showed it to be a little over .02 slower then the previous pass. So that potentially put me into a 12.14 or maybe even 12.15 pass. OOOOOhhhhh! Ok, I'm in the field solid already, so I might as well let it hang out again and see if I can steal the number 1 qualifying position. Although through the morning, the wind had picked up and coming strait down the track and slowing every one down, I gambled that this would be the case for me as well and on the last pass, if I stayed into it, I would be looking real good. The wind died down a click and I clicked off a 12.139 for my final qualifying pass. .011 off being perfect for the class. But at this point, I am pretty happy that my car is performing very well and consistent.

In the big picture, I was looking at the point's battle. With the 16-car field, this opens up a bigger window for extra point. Going 4 rounds instead of 3. All I needed was John Schuerger (1) and Robert Hemphill (2) to go out in the first and early rounds. But this usually takes an act of god for these guys to not produce. The planets aligned and both went out in first round and opened up a big window, but I slammed the window shut right on my fingers as I to, went out in first round and giving the championship away. Congrats to John on another Super Gas championship.

For me, I put 3 tenths of a second reaction time advantage on the tree against my opponent in first round. This is a mile lead in only the ¼ mile track. An easy victory if I can hold it together. But once again, I missed second gear and could not recover fast enough. I sealed my own fait. I was definitely upset at the time, then I heard that both John and Robert went out as well, and really kicked my self in the butt for letting the golden opportunity get away. In the end, if I did the math right, I still came out in 3 place for the points series for the 2002 season. But I was also a sitting duck for that position as Jeff Richards was poised to go rounds and take that over, But I was fortunate, and he was out by round 2 and kept only a 10 point cushion over him. That right there saved my whole weekend. Although not the goal I was looking for, it was still a step up from last years troubles. So I will sit down, and re-evaluate my year, figure out what I can do to make it better. Especially this second gear issue. And hopefully come out swinging next year. I have some thoughts already on what my problems might be, (I get plenty of time to think when driving home) but this will take some off season testing on my part. First opportunity for this will be the NHRA import race at Pomona on Oct. 26-27th. I will try one change and see if I can get though the weekend with out missing shifts. On the other note, it might just be a lack of seat time on my part, I just haven't made as many passes through the year like I use to. Maybe it was lack of sleep and my timing being off. So these are all the things I am looking at. Get some extra testing in, get into better shape so I can be tired and get away with it. All these things that it takes to be competitive.

I take this racing stuff very seriously. Maybe too seriously, but the nice thing, I was upset for 10 minutes after my loss, but my wife gave me a pat on the back, my son gave me a big smile and hug, I went and talked to John and Robert and a few of the other guys in the class, and all was good in the world again. The people we race with every month, makes it all worth while.

9-12-02

Drag Day

Another success as an event.

As for me, I wasn't so successful. I put my money in the pot and entered the Quick 16 class. Went out for my first morning pass and guess what? I missed second again! Well crap, now I wonder if it was me at Sacramento. I did as much adjustment to overcompensate for what ever in the shift linkage and it worked perfect the rest of the day. HMMMMM. I will be replacing my 10 plus year old shift coupling before we go to Vegas. Got one more qualifying pass and things worked good. So it was on to eliminations. First round was an easy red light given to me. But the second round, I returned the favor. I gave back a BIG red light. Not just slightly off, but HUGE. I don't know what my body was doing. My mind was on running a full tree for the day, but my foot decided it was on a pro light. I even knew I was going to red light as my foot (having its own mind) started to move, but by then there was nothing I could do. So I gave it away. And then to top it off, my opponent lost it and smacked the wall. Fortunately it wasn't too hard a hit and early in the run. But that makes me two for two in round two at Irwindale. You may remember that the previous Drag Day in March, Keith Griener had a major crash against me.

I tried a few different things over the weekend, and didn't produce any major air time wheelies or expected ET's. I was a just a little too conservative on the set up (at the same time trying not to kill the gear box so I have something to go to Vegas with.) But I went out and made a time only pass after the fact, and did do a nice wheelie for the full length of first, and got it to bounce off a second gear and felt like it carried that a good 50 ft too.

Then the last pass of the day, we did a wheelie contest of sorts, but that turned out to be sort of a dud as the other car and I didn't do any thing spectacular. The only good thing for me on that last pass was I got the tree back down and ripped off a .512 reaction time.

If you missed it, you missed a good time. It was an easy relaxing day of racing and good friends.

Dominic "The Burn Out King" did go out and brake his previous record with a 6 minute and 35 seconds of smoke. Holly Cow Batman!!!!!!!!!! Look for pictures in up coming Hot VW's magazine.

9-5-02

Sacramento Bug O Rama 50.

Well, all I can say is driver error.

I think I finally have all the bugs worked out, every thing seem to be mechanically working well. I didn't have to bring it home and fix any thing. And after making it around some problems last time, I just plane ole screwed up. I missed second gear. I don't think its any thing mechanical as it all worked just fine and still works.

But wow, has this Super gas class got tough. First round of qualifying found one guy with an 11.907 (on the 11.90 index) for the number one spot. When third round of qualifying came up, the 11.907 was only good for 4th place in qualifying. Now you got to know that is very tight. And once again, the promoter and PRA went for the 16-car field. Normally run on an 8 car field and the number 8 qualifier, John Schuergar put up an 11.97.(as of now, the points leader) Now that is one tight field. Fortunately for me and Robert Hemphill (number 2 in points) the class was extended, otherwise we would be looking in from the outside. As we both qualified with only low 12's and were not aggressive enough to put up those 11.9x marks.

My first round of eliminations was against the previous winner of the SG class at Sac in may. Allen Wiess in his bitchen looking white street sedan. (yes street sedan). I was able to cut the light on him, and just barley caught him at the top end, and when doing the math, I cross the line a measly .007 of a second ahead. That's about 1 and a half nats farts. Round 2 came and I was pumped. Maybe too pumped. I tree'ed my next opponent real good, and then that's when I floundered. As I missed second, I went ahead and stuffed it in 3rd, and it just kind of bogged. I thought, turn the boost up, put it back in second and catch the guy. So I went back for second, and it went into fourth. And wasted more time. By this time I am just rattled. Well I got it under way, and was just too far behind. This will kind of tell the story, I ran a 13.55 at a huge 111 mph. So I was charging hard but just a little too late. And for the most part, blew my chances for the championship. Although not mathematically impossible, but it would take all the moons and planets to line up perfectly for me to sweep in and take it away. And at the same time, I would have to leap frog Hemphill in the process. And that's a tall order in it self. It's kind of like Kenny Bernstein and Larry Dixon. Kenny can win races, but as long as Larry goes rounds, it just keeps the points championship out of reach.

Basically, this is how it has to brake down going into the last race of the season for me to win the points battle. I need to qualify 3 spots or better then both Robert and John. Then John has to go out in the first round. And I would have to win. I can meet Robert in the final but I still have to win. HAVE TOO is not an easy thing to do. I will cross my fingers, and find all the lucky charms I can find and put them in the glove compartment. This whole Super Gas class, is a class act of people and run a class act race program. But at the end of the day, we are all just good buddies until we meet at the starting line the next time.

The last PRA points race of the season will be at Las Vegas motor speedway on Oct. 6th. For more info check out bugorama.com for info and hotel accommodations. And as usual, PRA2000.com for race and points results.

BUT This weekend, is the next DRAG DAY at Irwindale. I will be there. And so should you, weather you race or are a spectator.

8-30-02

for you people that dont know what to do this Labor Day weekend and make last minute plans. here it is.

Bug-O-Rama 50 check out their web page for details.

And if you cant make that, then you will have to make the Hot VW's Drag Day at Irwindale ca. I'm on the event shirts, so you have to go and get one.

Lack of real updates here. havent been on the home computer in a while and been very busy getting ready for this weekend. So stop by and say hi at either or both events.

8-16-02

Denver, Fineline Bug-In

The monkey is off my back and Denver was good to me again and got my first win in Supergas.

But there were some big up's and down's over the weekend. It all started out great, had the motor running with the new case and crank. Got on the road Thursday morning. But by that night, I knew I had a problem with my 1 ton, van. Pulled into Green River Utah, and the rear end was making some noise. Pulled the magnetic fill plug and this big long trail of magnetic hair came out with the plug. At that point, I am 700 miles into this trip and in the middle of no where. So I made a call to John Redding that lives in Grand Junction an extra 100 miles up the road. He contacted Eric Madson (driver of the Real Source Pro Mod Ghia) that also lives in GJ to let him know of my situation. Friday morning, I went for it and tried to get it the extra 100 miles into GJ because that was my best chance to get it fixed. Dropped off my trailer at John's house, went around town to find a shop that could fix it. but would still take the weekend to get done. So at this point I still needed a ride to Denver (another 250 miles away) a couple of options we came up with was a U-haul rental truck or maybe to weld a new hitch to the back of John's 5th wheel trailer and do a tandom trailer pull (leagal in Colorado) and get his turbo diesel truck a real good work out over the Rocky Mountains. Then as usual in the VW community, Eric's wife Deanna pulled one out of the hat, and said use my new truck to get your stuff there. So the next thing I knew, I was back on plan and on my way to Denver. Loaded my necessities into John's trailer and off we went. I also found out later that the guys at Engine Machine Service, that I started this trip with, had already planned to drop their stuff off and come back and get me and my stuff if I couldn't arrange any thing. So either way, I was going racing. How cool is that? Cell phones and friends, cant live with out them. A big thanks to John and the whole Madson Family for stepping up in a big way to help me out.

Although I knew the Van was going to cost some money, maybe the race weekend would be better. But it really went down the tubes and I was looking at a potential long drive home. 3 test passes on Saturday to try and get the car dialed in didn't go to well. Car was hooking up and bogging. And I missed second gear once. Made some adjustments on Sunday for our real qualifying session and it went ok with a 13.04 on a 12.65 index. For the first pass. So now I have a real base line, and can tune it up a bit and get a lot closer to the index. Well that was not to happen as I missed 2nd gear on the next two passes. The weekend before, I went out and tested a different clutch set up that just didn't work and made it very hard to shift into second fast. So I think this chewed up the syncros and it just snow balled from there. So now I am faced with a some what bad qualifying spot and no real way to shift into 2nd gear fast. I was on a no base line to race. I figure my best bet was to turn the boost up, shift slow into second and play catch up. And that is what I did. Round 1. Car launched good, pushed the clutch in, let off the gas, apply pressure to shifter until it popped into 2nd and then take off again. (that felt like an eternity) but fortunately the guy I raced, (all the way from Texas, so I feel his pain) messed up also, and it was an easy win. Round 2. I raced Marty Chase, number 1 qualifyer. I got him on the tree (better reaction time) and did my slow second gear shift. After talking to Marty after the race, I think it actually gave him the sense that he was moving too fast when I fell out of the picture at the beginning of the race. I fell some 6-7 cars behind, and then the boost took over and caught him on the top end, where he let off a bit too soon thinking he was way ahead and might brake out. Needles to say, I caught him and took the stripe. (crossed the finish line before him) Boy, you should have seen the smile on my face when the win light came on in my lane. I thought Holy Cow! (well I used other words that I cant type here) I might actually be able to save this weekend and actually produce something. I am going into the finals for the second year in Denver. (I lost by inches last year) But I was also going into the finals against Robert Hemphill. The battle of the two turbo cars in the class. If you have kept up with my page in the past, you have heard this name before. Robert was the number 2 qualifier and was on his game as usual. This was going to be a tough one. Once again, I cut the better light ( I had to dig down real deep for that) and Bob knew we were probably going to be fender racing at the top end. And sure enough, he knew I was coming and didn't want to give up the stripe either. We ended up both braking out in a pretty big way. And he actually took the stripe by some thing like .01 of a second, but by virtue of a better light, and me braking out by less, the win went to me. On the 12.65 index, I ran a 12.54 at 109 to his 12.47 at 103 and you can see I was doing the big chase by my MPH. Not a bad finish at all to what looked to be a bad weekend in the beginning.

And with this win, it kept the points tight, so there are a few drivers that owe me some beer. LOL.

Drove back to Grand Junction, and had to wait a little longer then expected, but got the van back on the road. It sucked up all my winnings and then some to get it done. But it works and it got me home. Winning makes for a much easier drive when traveling that far. Not to mention I stepped on it a little getting home and only spent 16 ½ hours in the car instead of the normal 18-20 hours I usually take. (gas mileage suffered big time)

Next up, Sacramento Bug-O-Rama 50. And a week after that, the second Drag Day at Irwindale. Go check out the T-shirt art work they will have for the event, if you like my car, you will love these shirts.

I have some extra pictures to put up, but lack of time is the issue. but i will get them up real soon.

As usual, you can find the rest of the results on PRA2000.com

7-21-02

Only 3 weeks left till the Denver race. (Aug. 11th.)

After the decission to make this case work. It was off to EMS to have them do some clearancing. its not he generic type you might get from Rimco, but a little more specific. One of the nicest things I like about this clearance job was, there was no burs or ugly left overs you get from a dull tool and left to the next person to clean up. The last two cases I worked on from rimco needed some extra massaging, this was a no brainer. nothing to touch.

Its really nice having my own welder, so I can do things like these. welded only, never a clamp on.

One of the minor issues I also found with the aluminum cases, was the dowel pin hole was drilled a touch too deep. I ened up cutting up some aluminum welding rod, dropping it in the hole to push up the dowel pin, to where it would actually do something if needed. (about .090" high)

Since the case was in for machining, we made a call that made things easier on me. if I had left the deck as is on the case, I would have had to cut down the cylinders again. So the old case went in with this to measure. EMS cut the deck down to match my old case, and after check out was on the money and will not have to touch the cylinders.  This was also a good oportinuty to check out how accurate the existing deck was. It was slightly crooked. Parrellel to center line but kicked at a real minor angle.(not really enought to worry about) And at the same time, the 8mm case savers came out and replaces with a heli-coil type insert to accomodate the new 10mm head studs. (now I dont have to worry if I overboost, or if I want to turn the knob.)

In this picture, apoximately where the pen show, is the oil drain hole behind the flange. Cant see it, and its mighty close to the back of the flange.

So talking to a few people on this subject, I made my own call and created an extra groove to assist in  oil drainage.

this is the result. in the event I pump a lot of oil into this cavity, it will be able to drain fast and not leak by or blow out the rear seal. (was it worth it, I dont know, but for my eyes, it was extra insurance.)

Since these aluminum cases are not proven to me yet, and i was doing all the tapping on the case, I opted to plug up the oil outlet port of the pump to help insure that I will have no leak back.

One of the other things I noticed that the distributor drive locating might be a bit on the loose side. one of the things I never payed close attention to was how much slop there was from crank movement to distributor movement. It never really caught my eye. But this one, I started to rotate the crank and notice a momentary hesetation of distributor movement. I thought ok, my brass drive gear is a little warn, so I swapped it out for a new one. it got better but there is still almost 3 degrees of movement worth of slop. now I figure some of this will go away with an oil barrier, but not much. I will check and monitor timing and see how bad it jumps around. if its really bad, then I will have to do a crank trigger in the future.

6-26-02

Case number 2

Strike 2

I got another case last week. It came out of the second batch to arrive into the U.S. (from Auto Linea) Pretty much looks like a stock case.

 So it was off to do the usual check up. plug some holes, and stuff a funnel in it to fill with solvant. WHOOO HOOOO, no leaks this time.

 BUT!!! Most of the distributor drive measured perfect except for a little bump that protruded about .0035"

 it looked like the cause of the bump was from the press in plug next to the distributor hole. It was rather easy to fix with a small half round file just to take the high spot off. On another note, when I pulled this plug, there was a couple of good size shavings behind it. So I might have made a good call when deciding to pull and tap all the plugs.

 PROBLEM 2. The oil relief ports where you drop in the small pistons and springs to control oil pressure and divert oil to or from the cooler. I will do my best to explain on text what I found. It looks like there was a boo boo in the cnc program or the rough cut drill was not set properly. My theory of what happened here. A rough cut drill opened up the hole but went a little too deep. Then the final drill or ream that finishes the hole size and puts the flap spot at the bottom came in and did its thing, the only problem was there was no material to make flat at the end because the previous drill went to far. So what we ended up with was a small step in the port and down to a tapered surface. (Kind of like you would get with the end of a drill bit)

EMS ordered 3 of these cases, and I picked one pretty much at random. So I thought, ohh I have 2 more to choose from. Well that was not going to help me one bit. The other two cases were in the same shape.

 At this point, I am running out of time quick to make my motor come to life again before the Denver race. So instead of trying to go through the exchange process and probably find out that maybe the whole batch of cases might be this way, the decision was made to make this case work. (what fun would it be if it only bolted together) I consulted with Dick Nuss at EMS and he measured, stared and then took a stock piston, machined it down to fit pass the step, dropped in some dykum and checked to see if the piston would seat on the taper. And sure enough, it cut a nice seat into it. So now, Dick is going to make me a custom piston for the rear (oil pressure control end) that will be .100" longer then stock with the step. Why .100" longer? Well once we could get it seated, the piston was .100" deeper then what a stock piston would sit at. This keeps the use of the stock spring with out having to shim it up or find another longer spring. The same held true with the oil cooler port. But it was only .060" deeper, but since this is not a street driven motor, its ok if I loose tension on the front spring as the oil will end up I the same place and maybe loose some flow through the cooler. So a stock cut down piston will go there. This is all with the assumption that the releif cross drilled hole is at the stock depth too. I did find that the side hole that will ultimately dump the oil back into the case was farther down the hole then stock. with an un-scientific way of measuring, it was close to .060"-.070"ish deeper. so had the stock seat been there, it may have still dropped off the oil pressure sooner. (by the top of the piston reaching the relief hole sooner, or taking less spring pressure to get to) And this means I may  still have to shim up or even try an adjustable pressure cap with the screw in it to make sure I can maintain pressure.

 And during the time I was waiting for the second case, I figure I might as well check out the new crank. So I stuck it in my old case half and put the dial indicator on it to check for strait-ness. These are just some of the things that one can do if they are really picky about their motor building. This crank was only a half thou out.

6-5-02

In an effort to make sure this case is good, and after hearing about another case with porosity around an oil galley, I wanted to check mine out thoroughly. So I popped on a block off plate and my gauge in the side of the case so it will not leak.

I got some putty and closed off some holes in the lifter bore area.

Put a funnel in the inlet port of the oil pump area, and tilted the case back a touch. Then added some solvent to fill up the galleys.

Guess what, the little porosity above the lifter bores leaks. you can't see through it, and I put a pick to it and it doesn't cave in or any thing like that, it must have just a bunch of small pockets linked together. But I haven't given up on these cases yet. EMS is on the hunt for another one for me. We really want to try one just to see how it handles things. It might come out great, or maybe they will end up as junk. Who knows.

6-4-02

Well briefly before the Sacramento race, I got a chance to dabble with Sixto's motor again. Like all the oil pump covers bolted all over the case? this is so i can move the magnetic based dial indicator all over the place.

Get a good clamp down on the cylinder to get an accurate measurement of depth.

Fortunately, I have a set of these .412" thick shims laying around to add to the bottom of the cylinders, so I can get an accurate measurement. with the 84 crank and 5.7" long rod, the .412 shim only gave me .039" deck. imagine if i didn't have these shims to work with. Piston be sticking out the top and I would have to measure a different way.

Our weekend at Sacramento. This was "Methanol" Matt's first event and even the first event my wife attended since this race a year ago. Notice the new Aircooled.net logo on the doors.

It was a shame when Jim Hagethorn sold his red turbo car. But life goes on, and so Jim purchased a new daily driver.

This nice, simple, STOCK 65 pretending to do a wheelie. Actually Jim was changing out the original shift bushing.

interior is in excellant shape Most of the original stock stuff is still on it. It hasn't been smashed or butchered or any thing like that. just the minor little primer spots and door dings. it even look to have potentially the original colored rubber fender beadings. I'm not really up with correct equipment on these cars when they were new, but I remember something about the fender beadings and running boards being the same color as the car from the factory.

Motor is still SMALL

Now for my stuff. Well I did end up hurting the motor. So in mid season, what does one do? One scrambles for new parts fast. And since things were going to be new, I might as well go all the way. This is one of the NEW ALUMINUM cases designed to replace the normal magnesium cases.

For the most part the look very similar to the stock case. You can't really see the detail but that is the end of the second crank I ended up hurting. Normally I learn once, this time it took me twice to learn that flywheels just don't like horse power with out some assistance from a wedgemate. I was hoping to pass this off till the end of the season, but no good. This crank was the old used and abused, pre hurt, and left for dead crank I borrowed at the end of last season. it probably lasted longer then it should have any ways.

Since the rest of  the crank was fine, I was using it as part of the check out of this case. But still in the preliminary stages of check out. I will try and get some closer pictures when I really do a close inspection.

And here is the lesson learned. Skip the wedgemated cranks and jump right into a flange crank. This is a little more then I wanted to spend mid season, but in hine site, I should have done this at the beginning, although I had already planned it at the end of the season.

NO more loose flywheels with this big grabbing hands.

 6 big ARP bolts and 6 dowl pins holding this baby on.  These are all Bugpack products. In my opionion, the best bang for the buck cranks. Bugpack does not sell directly to the public, but sell through their distributors, so if you want one of these, you will need to get a hold of one such as Aircooled.net. They can supply you with every thing you see here. crank, flywheel, custom bearings, seal, bolts, etc. to do the job right.

5-28-02

Bug-O-Rama 49 at Sacramento.

After the lack luster performance at Phoenix, I went out and got some testing done, found a few problems, corrected every thing I thought was needed. I packed up the wife, kid, and the other kid (my car) and we were on the road to Sacramento.

Right off the trailer, I clicked off a 11.959 (shooting for 11.90 index) and my first thought, things might be paying off. So I didn't touch a thing and waited for first round of real qualifying at 7pm Saturday night. Round 1 of qualifying resulted in a 11.950, and after 1st round, I was number 1 qualifier. At this point, I was very happy and thought this might just finally be my weekend.

Then it went down hill from there. Round 2 of qualifying came at 10:15 Sunday morning. I made a minor adjustment and wanted to squeaking in a little closer to that 11.90 mark and I knew the 11.95 would not hold up much longer. I don't know if it was driver error or a bad connection, but as I staged the car and put it on the limiter, it went right passed the 2 step and winged the motor and blew the tires off, so my car slowed to 11.98. Had my 60ft time been what I wanted, I was looking at a 11.92-11.93 pass and keeping right on top of the heap. Went back to the pits and checked every thing. Couldn't find any thing and the 2 step was working fine. ?????????? What I did find was the fan belt had flipped off. I thought, ok, I winged the motor too hard on the line and it just couldn't take it. Put it back on, and found the crank pulley a little loose. Ok I will tighten that up some. Round 3. The two step worked but now I started to hear a touch of clutch slip when hitting 3rd and 4th. Not much, I can live with that even though I slowed to a 12.02. We will just turn the knob a touch. But the 11.95 held up for a number 4 qualifier. But the new twist on things came in the way of we had more cars then ever try out for this class. The call was made to make it a 16 car field. I thought cool, better for the sport, and possibly a sign of things to come. So I am back in the pits checking things out and sure enough, I flipped the belt again. I try to do some real inspection and notice the pulley was slightly loose again. Try to tighten it but it was already tight and still moving. OH NOOOOOO!!!!! I'm off to the venders lane and found a cheap aluminum power pulley. I start thrashing, pulling the header off to get to my pulley. Off comes the autocraft pulley with the steel hub, and sure enough it had split. The down side at this point was the pulley I got was not cut for a sand seal and mine was. Thought about it for a moment and decided to rip out my seal, and hope the little bit of material left that is still stock I.D. would be enough to keep the oil in. Sure enough, no oil down in round 1 of eliminations. That means my motor must be sealed up pretty good. Round 1 was fairly easy to get by, I cut the light on the guy and was able to shift slow trying not to beat up on things. I then met up with Jeff Richards in round 2. I cut the slightly better light then him, but by this time, the clutch slip stuck its ugly head out. And no matter how much I lifted to try and get the clutch to grab again, I just couldn't catch him and ran a 11.99 to his 11.91 but only missed him by about a foot because of a little better reaction. By this time, I am frustrated and wondering why my new clutch combo just up and slipped bad. And at this point I have not put 2 and 2 together yet. So after a few minutes of cool down time, I enjoyed the rest of the race day as a spectator and watched Allen Wiess in his street car take the Super Gas class and help keep the points contenders from running away with every thing. Way to go Allen. I packed things up and when I went to strap the car down to the trailer after driving it on, I noticed a fairly large oil leak coming from the clutch area. Aaaaa 2+2 must equal 4. I wonder if the flywheel came loose or a small existing crack just got big. If it came loose, this might explain the loose front pulley too. I have some work to do this week. At this point, I don't know if I will make the classic weekend with my car. We shall have to see. But next up will be the Denver Fine-line Bug-In.

I have finally got a hold of a real digital camera so picture taking will be easier and much more clear. So stay tuned.

4-18-2002

Look!! It's the "King"!!!!!!

No, not Elvis, its Dominic "The Burn Out King" Carollo aka, Evil Oval

There is actually a building in the back ground too. Photo by Shannon.

4-16-2002

Phoenix Az,

Bug-O-Rama

It was the PRA season opener. It was HOT and dry. No threat of rain all weekend.

After a crappy 2001 season, this year looked to be a little better. I drove my car back on the trailer under its own power. This is always a sign of a good day.

My morning qualifying started out good with a 11.84, shooting for the 11.90 index. I did a light de-tune, and went out again only to have a shift light fail. I wing the motor hard, missed second and pretty much had to throw that run away. I ended up borrowing a light bulb out of the side marker lights of the Engine Machine Service tow vehicle. Got the shift light working again and it was time to go out and try it again.

I went side by side with the already number 1 qualifier. And did exactly what you are not suppose to do. I second guessed my self and instead of trusting my car and running it out all the way for a good qualifying number, I paced the other guy. Who in tuned had a bad run and shut off. I ended up qualifying number 8 but got in the field with a 12.20.

Round 1 was next. I put the 11.84 tune up back in it, and with the assumption I can cut the better light then my opponent, I would put a half fender on them and take a win. Well I cut the better light, but the half fender never appeared, and I just got beat to the line with my slowing 12.12. I will have to do some investigating and see why the car fell off pace. But still a fun weekend. One of my former competitors from the Pro Eliminator class, Robert Hemphill, made the leap this year into Super Gas and took the win his first time out. And still a thorn in my side. Way to go Bob!

But it wasn't a total loss for the Muffler Mike camp. My buddy Dominic, who played part time pit crew for me last year while my wife was out pregnant, decided he wanted to partake in the festivities. He had a minor problem with his motor earlier in the month, so he brought it over to my place, and we freshen it up. Ok I had a beer and pointed fingers. Got it running the weekend before. And he took his car out to Phoenix for the sole purpose of the burn out contest. Guess what? 5:17!!!!! That's right, 5 minutes and 17 seconds in the water box before a tire blew. His little 1776 did a nice LOOONNNGGGG smoky burn out, smashing Aaron "Berg Boy" Gerber's record. To top it off, in round 1 of the sportsman class, the car went a half second faster, must have broken that motor in right. So that's the new brake in procedure around here. Hold the motor at 6000 rpm for 5 minutes. LOL (don't do that for real)

See what happens when you give a kid a line lock.

This was last summer when the line lock was installed in the Evil Oval.

There are some prelimiary picture of the event right here. http://www.angelfire.com/nm/GoPed/phx2002.html

And for the rest of the PRA results, make sure and check out their web page at PRA2000.com

3-6-2002

BIG NEWS for the Muffler Mike Racing stables.

Aircooled.net will be the Primary Sponsor for the 2002 PRA race season.

So what I need from you is to support the people who support me. So the next time you are thinking of a purchase for your VW needs, think Aircooled.net first. And if you don't see what you're looking for on their web page, just ask. They will more then likely have it waiting to be put on their page, or can get it. The nice thing about Aircooled.net is they are always looking for good quality parts and accessories and if it doesn't meet their standards, its not sold. This is a nice feature when there can be so much crap out there and some one has done the filtering for you.

Its been quite the few months.

Trans West made some more ratio changes in the gear box to see if we could get my car to get moving in first gear. My choice of a 3.78 first gear with the 3.88 ring and pinion last year was not such the hot ticket as it took every thing my motor had to get the 1900 lbs of German steel to move. We are now running a 4.11 first. What a difference.

I went out to Palmdale for an IDRC Import race just a week and a half ago. I had to find the new sweet spot to make the car launch, but when I did, it came in 1st round of eliminations, and boooyeaaa, broke out big time. Went from a 12.00 dial in to what was going to be an 11.50ish pass. I lifted quite a bit against a dragster but due to my opponent getting the upper hand on the tree by .015, there was little I could do and coasted through the lights at a 11.84.

Then last weekend it was the Hot VW's Drag Day at the new Irwindale speedway 1/8th mile track.

Now this was fun. For me, probably the closest place I will travel to this year. Full of fun, friends and fast cars. Well at altitude, I was starting to turn the boost up at Palmdale, but when I went to Irwindale, I left all the settings. This made my car up and haul butt. (at least in comparison to what I normally run.)

First pass was a BIG wheelie (got to love those) with a 7.35 at 96+mph. Bad 60ft time (1.80 some odd) but still entertaining.

So I massaged the launch chip and tire pressure, hoping for a big wheelie and a better 60ft time. This produced a much better 60ft with a 1.54 and a 7.05 ET. Now we are talking.

From there, we went into Eliminations. And first round I went up against the old Dean Lowery Superbeetle pro stock car but was fitted with Keith Greiner's (aka Turbo Keith) turbo motor.

Going into this pass, I added just a touch more air pressure and OH MY GOD!!!! My car launched so good. It wasn't exciting for the crowd but for me, it set me back in my seat with a 1.36 60ft time. Some where along the line I found the very fine line perfect set up and will probably never find it again. To give you an example of what a 1.36, 60ft time is like, just watch one of the better Super Street class cars. What a ride. And although I lifted because I was out ahead, the 330ft mark indicated that I was on a 6.90 pass (= 10.90 ¼ mile time) it was overshadowed by my opponents crash that happened right behind me. As I was looking for him in the left lane in my side mirror, he was catching me fairly quick but still not enough to win, and then suddenly he disappeared out of my side mirror. My eyes opened up real fast and looked up in my rear view mirror and all I saw was the top of his car fill my entire rear view mirror. WOW.

Dan at Oceanstreetvideo.com happen to be taping and caught these images.

http://www.oceanstreetvideo.com/dragday/wreck.jpg

http://www.oceanstreetvideo.com/dragday/wreck1.jpg

http://www.oceanstreetvideo.com/dragday/wreck2.jpg

http://www.oceanstreetvideo.com/dragday/wreck3.jpg

http://www.oceanstreetvideo.com/dragday/wreck4.jpg

http://www.oceanstreetvideo.com/dragday/wreck5.jpg

That's me just in front. In the near future, Dan should have the whole race day on tape for sale. This will more then likely be a must buy as all his other tapes are.

Then in round two, I got my butt whooppped by Robert Hemphill (one of my long time rivals) on the tree. He seems to always step up to the plate and perform well. This day was no exception. Not to mention I didn't even run close to my dial in. The car went up in the air again but started to drift left. Im not sure if I lifted or not, but if I did, that would explain the off the mark on ET. Robert went on to win the class. Now this is a car you have to see. A very simple looking non flashy 69 sedan. But fuel injected turbo charged all under the lid running just as fast as me. Robert is stepping up to the Super gas class with me and will more then likely be a thorn in my side all season long. It would give me great pleasure to meet him in the finals of every race just as long as I can win a few.

The only other big excitement came in from my old time buddy John in his green wheenie 71 sedan. (my brothers old car.) the way the track was set up, there is a turn out that is REAL close to the end of the finish line. So if you want to make it, you have to stand on the brakes pretty hard. So John ran through the traps and stood on the brakes. Well maybe he stood on the brakes a little too hard and it went out of control and did what I hear was a couple of whips and a 360. And from his comments, it sounded like he had to pull his drivers seat cushion out of his a- from the big on the butt pucker factor scale, spin. Then from what I hear, as he returned to the pits and drove by in front of the fans, he got the standing ovation for some super skilled driving keeping his car off the wall.

Tracy at TG Fabrication made the long trip from Florida just to watch and took some cool pictures of the event. Go check it out at http://www.tgfab.com/new_page_2.htm he has a picture of my new muffler set up.

A special thanks goes out to the guys at Cal-look.com for stepping up and giving me some extra sponsorship support for the Drag Day event. So be sure to stop by there site and see what its all about.

Next big VW event will be the Phoenix Bug-O-Rama on April 13th. Put this on your calendar and see what it's all about.

2-27-02

Hot VW's Drag Day

March 2nd at Irwindale's new 1/8th mile drag strip.

details at www.bugin.com

BE THERE!!!!!!!!

2-9-02

I purchased some new rods to accomodate the different crank i will be running. I needed to switch to a chevy journal and my Pauter rods are a VW journal. I purchased a set of the new Scat H-beam rods from Aircooled.net The new Scat rods now come with 3/8" bolts instead of the smaller 5/16" (more clamping force) So I thought I would show you a comparison between the Pauter VW journal rod on the right, the Scat rod in the middle, and a Eagle rod on the left.

Although the 3/8" bolt does make the rod bigger, it is not quite as big as a Pauter, but definitly bigger then the Eagle.

I took the rods down to EMS and had them nip off the corner and rebalance for extra clearance. Plus a good check out.

My overall impression of these rods. I would buy these again. And I would buy these over the Eagle's. Not to mention these are still around $300

I recently dropped my heads off at EMS for the usual check up. clean up the valve seats ect. And in preperation that I do get greedy with the boost, I had them remove and blend in the exhaust guide so it will not have a chance to melt away and go through the turbo.

I love it when I get my heads back from EMS, they are nice and clean. They are ready to bolt on with the copper head gaskets installed.

 I have done something I thought I would never do. I started cutting up the car. I made the apron and bumper removeable.

I whipped up this box on the bumper bracket , so now all you have to do is pull the pin.

and wha-la, bumper is gone.

and now the motor can come out rapidly.

1-5-2002

The work continues on Sixto's motor.

In an attempt to make sure the deep sump pick up tube never comes off or leaks (sucking air is a bad thing.), I fitted up the tube to a desired depth and then pulled out the welder.

I am far from being the greatest welder, but  the more I do it, the better I get.  One of the things I keep learning every time I try it is, don't be afraid to put some heat to it, and if it looks like it might burn through, back off the pedal a little bit. I even went as far as putting on some soapy water and lightly pressurized the tube to see if I had any leaks. And yes the other side is welded up too. It was actually a lot easier to weld in a tight spot then I thought with the TIG welder set up. Complements of the overkill beast of a welder.

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