Re: PowerMods911 - GTV6 2.8 TT - Race Car
Posted: Mon May 13, 2013 11:48 am
Kyalami raceday 10 May 2013
With 3 practice sessions scheduled for Friday, I arrived at 11am keen and eager to get to grips with the track. Session 1 was scary, had major front brake issues, the pedal was spongy, very little brakes and pedal disappeared at times. Had a big scare when I came off at the first bend (which to me is 3rd turn). Back in the pits and Dixie and I bled the brakes.
Session 2, brakes were still an issue and to add to it all I could hear the car pinging and had developed a misfire. If you can hear it with a helmet on you know you have major pinging. Came off at the first bend again. Back in the pits, by this time the BOSS (Domingo's) had arrived. When I mentioned the pinging he ONLY had 1 question. Are your actuator pipes on? Sheepishly I admitted I'd not fitted the left side pipe on after refitting the turbo. Problem resolved.
Back to the brakes, under the beady eye of the BOSS we bled the brakes...again and again and again......an hour later with some laughs and witty comments to keep our sanity as what was supposed to be a simple task was getting the better of us, we realised we'd gone through 1 litre of Ferodo fluid. Appears the BOSS didn't tighten one of the nipples properly. Finished too late and missed practice 3. Took car out onto service roads to check the brakes and it felt good, however the misfire was still there.
Arrived at the pits at 6:30am on Saturday, checked tyre pressures and topped up oil. Then I remembered we never got around to the misfire. Dixie found plug 3 gap was completely closed, opened it up and we were back in 6 cylinders.
Brakes were better during qualifying, but still not what it was with the praggia's. Roy qualified 1st in a time of 2:07.7 and I was second at 2:08.7 (very happy with my time) with Giuseppe a very close 3rd at 2:08.9
First race was marred with major drama with the starting procedures that saw Giuseppe, Adrian and Warren amongst others pulling off some serious evasive manoeuvres.
Although the brakes behaved, I had 2 incidents both at wesbank corner when I ran out of brakes, thankfully I was able to stay on the track. First 2 laps were great then I heard engine misfire again, shit was it plug 3 again who knows... the race must go on and Roy made his way through the back markers of the 111 saloon cars and pulled away, and pull away he did, only saw him again in the pits. At some point in fast sweep, just after the start finish line, a yellow Porsche closed the door on me, absolutely scary as I thought he was going to spin out as he tapped my front left bumper corner , but we both held our nerve and came out of it unscathed. In the pits he did come and apologise. No hard feelings...but it could as easily have been big tears.
We checked plug 3 and found all OK. Misfire was prominent, and we decide we couldn't risk going out into race 2 without knowing the cause. As luck had it Warren and Paul from POWERMODS were also at the track to support and help. We opened up the tappet cover and found the lock nut on the exhaust rocker setting screw was "missing" never found it. Under instructions from the BOSS, Dixie and I went home and got another nut, the excitement was on, as it was now a race against time to see if we could get the car ready before the 2nd race. On arrival at the track, it was all hands on deck working feverishly as I sat back and enjoyed my lunch......... everything back on and the car sounded better, but not 100%.
Went out for race 2, managed to hang in for 2 laps then Roy started pulling away. He then got caught up in traffic, then some yellow Golf lost it in the esses, didn't even make the first bend, went straight on the grass and sand and across the track again into the kitty litter pulling all the dirt onto the track. He shoot up a stone (Roy, must have looked like a rock) which shattered Roy's windscreen. The 2 cars between Roy and I slowed to get through the cloud of dust and when we emerged out of it we just saw glass flying off Roy's car, we hung back until he punched out the windscreen then it was racing again. Roy was visibly not 100%, but going balls to the wall, finally I got past the Porsche and Golf and was with Roy. Then he and I had a mighty scrap overtaking each other twice before the end of the race, we were on the edge... sliding and getting the back out at several tight bends. In particular at the end of the mine shaft, on the second last lap we were both sideways, must have been awesome for the crowd. Into the last lap and I almost lost it at wesbank again, saw Roy come up next to me, somehow I stayed on the track and managed just to stay ahead.
Not sure what it is with the yellow cars!!!!!!!!!!!!
All in all a damn great week end.
Only bad thing is Domingo's says head must come off, looks like a valve seat is loose or I've burnt a valve on cylinder 6. Looking at the times of race 2 doesn't seem to be too big a problem.
With 3 practice sessions scheduled for Friday, I arrived at 11am keen and eager to get to grips with the track. Session 1 was scary, had major front brake issues, the pedal was spongy, very little brakes and pedal disappeared at times. Had a big scare when I came off at the first bend (which to me is 3rd turn). Back in the pits and Dixie and I bled the brakes.
Session 2, brakes were still an issue and to add to it all I could hear the car pinging and had developed a misfire. If you can hear it with a helmet on you know you have major pinging. Came off at the first bend again. Back in the pits, by this time the BOSS (Domingo's) had arrived. When I mentioned the pinging he ONLY had 1 question. Are your actuator pipes on? Sheepishly I admitted I'd not fitted the left side pipe on after refitting the turbo. Problem resolved.
Back to the brakes, under the beady eye of the BOSS we bled the brakes...again and again and again......an hour later with some laughs and witty comments to keep our sanity as what was supposed to be a simple task was getting the better of us, we realised we'd gone through 1 litre of Ferodo fluid. Appears the BOSS didn't tighten one of the nipples properly. Finished too late and missed practice 3. Took car out onto service roads to check the brakes and it felt good, however the misfire was still there.
Arrived at the pits at 6:30am on Saturday, checked tyre pressures and topped up oil. Then I remembered we never got around to the misfire. Dixie found plug 3 gap was completely closed, opened it up and we were back in 6 cylinders.
Brakes were better during qualifying, but still not what it was with the praggia's. Roy qualified 1st in a time of 2:07.7 and I was second at 2:08.7 (very happy with my time) with Giuseppe a very close 3rd at 2:08.9
First race was marred with major drama with the starting procedures that saw Giuseppe, Adrian and Warren amongst others pulling off some serious evasive manoeuvres.
Although the brakes behaved, I had 2 incidents both at wesbank corner when I ran out of brakes, thankfully I was able to stay on the track. First 2 laps were great then I heard engine misfire again, shit was it plug 3 again who knows... the race must go on and Roy made his way through the back markers of the 111 saloon cars and pulled away, and pull away he did, only saw him again in the pits. At some point in fast sweep, just after the start finish line, a yellow Porsche closed the door on me, absolutely scary as I thought he was going to spin out as he tapped my front left bumper corner , but we both held our nerve and came out of it unscathed. In the pits he did come and apologise. No hard feelings...but it could as easily have been big tears.
We checked plug 3 and found all OK. Misfire was prominent, and we decide we couldn't risk going out into race 2 without knowing the cause. As luck had it Warren and Paul from POWERMODS were also at the track to support and help. We opened up the tappet cover and found the lock nut on the exhaust rocker setting screw was "missing" never found it. Under instructions from the BOSS, Dixie and I went home and got another nut, the excitement was on, as it was now a race against time to see if we could get the car ready before the 2nd race. On arrival at the track, it was all hands on deck working feverishly as I sat back and enjoyed my lunch......... everything back on and the car sounded better, but not 100%.
Went out for race 2, managed to hang in for 2 laps then Roy started pulling away. He then got caught up in traffic, then some yellow Golf lost it in the esses, didn't even make the first bend, went straight on the grass and sand and across the track again into the kitty litter pulling all the dirt onto the track. He shoot up a stone (Roy, must have looked like a rock) which shattered Roy's windscreen. The 2 cars between Roy and I slowed to get through the cloud of dust and when we emerged out of it we just saw glass flying off Roy's car, we hung back until he punched out the windscreen then it was racing again. Roy was visibly not 100%, but going balls to the wall, finally I got past the Porsche and Golf and was with Roy. Then he and I had a mighty scrap overtaking each other twice before the end of the race, we were on the edge... sliding and getting the back out at several tight bends. In particular at the end of the mine shaft, on the second last lap we were both sideways, must have been awesome for the crowd. Into the last lap and I almost lost it at wesbank again, saw Roy come up next to me, somehow I stayed on the track and managed just to stay ahead.
Not sure what it is with the yellow cars!!!!!!!!!!!!
All in all a damn great week end.
Only bad thing is Domingo's says head must come off, looks like a valve seat is loose or I've burnt a valve on cylinder 6. Looking at the times of race 2 doesn't seem to be too big a problem.