The SCCA National race will be held at Lime Rock June 10-11. Chris Foley and Ed Givler will be running Fp and Erik Madsen (me) will be running EP. This should be a heck of a weekend. For Ed and Chris MArk Megliola in his Rabbit will be the competition as will the Cefalo boys. For me (Erik) EP will be tough with Chris Fox, Charlie Vaccaro, Jerry Hinkle (lap record holder last I checked) in a lotus. So if I can run with some of those guys and get some points it will be a good run. I am hoping for 1:01 laps, anything less will not meet my expectations. Of course if it rains, I should do very well.

If you have some free time, look us up in the Paddock, we would love to see ya there.

Erik Madsen 914-6 EP

Erik,
If you can't do 1:01's or better you're in big trouble 'cause I'll be in front of you at the finish line!
I plan on doin' :01's with my "B" motor!

There are 8 FP cars and 6 EP cars pre-registered online, with 26 cars total (EP, FP, GP, HP, GTL) in the group so far. I'm sure there are more who have registered by mail.
This should be an exciting race.
Our group is #7 of 8. That means we'll be running in mid-late afternoon on Saturday.

See you at the track!

Maybe Erik meant he'll be doing 1.01's in the rain
Good luck and have fun!
Oh... and make sure you post pics and stories

I like to be reasonable when I set goals, Chris is right, 1:01's will only get you beat, and second place is just the first loser. The car is more ready than it ever has been, except for the non functioning #4 EGT probe ? their brand new. Unsure of what to make of it???

Anyway, I have never driven this car at Lime Rock, and Chris has hundreds of laps there, so if I can figure out how to remove the skirt from around my ass, I'll go okay. We'll see, proof is in the lap times, not the Bullshit.

New Slicks, Oil Change, carb synch, timing adjustment, dyno time, Jetting changes. hope it goes well. 1:01's in the rain....... no way. But if it does rain, I have my settings from NHIS, so game on.

Erik Madsen

Update??? How'd it go?

Chris, you missed some real competition this weekend at M-O. Mark Hotchkis brought out Kirby's 914. Only his 4th time in the car and managed 1:40s with the keyhole. I think he finished 2nd.

12 EP cars entered and 13 FP cars entered. We ran with GT2 and 3, 48 car field. I finished 9th, for the final point. I'll also tell you I've never been so pleased with a 9th place result. With the compression 35-40 psi lower on the left bank, I leaned out that side and it woke up. I can now make power to 5600 RPM and got about 130 hp out of this motor. The car's finally starting to work well and I'm understanding it much better. I ran a couple low 1:48s in the race, which, IMO, is pretty good at M-O for 130 hp and really old tires.

Last year at the Buckeye Sprints the best FP time was a high 1:39, so Mark is right on the pace, considering he hasn't raced there before. Someone told me Finch did 1:36's with the chicane in Kirby's car a couple of years ago. I didn't do any better than a 1:46.5 with my "b" motor and 1 year old tires.
I'm stickin' to the short tracks until I have my "A" motor (dont ask ) in the car, and this weekend I'm prayin' for rain at LRP. And more of the same for Beaverun next weekend.
:raindance:

I'm planning on BeaveRun, too. My first time at that track, just hoping to pick up some points.

Now, if I would have looked at the dates I would have realized this Lime Rock race is this weekend. I saw the post and assumed it had just happened.

Good luck this weekend!!!

This will be history making , 4- 914 club members at Beaverun, Madsen, Foley, Groot, Givler. And in this corner, the 914 CLUB. I make sure the announcer knows we are in the club, maybe some free promo. This will be awesome. Kevin, buy some tires will ya.
Or at least some Hot Lap tire prep.

Erik Madsen

I know, I know.....

Definitely for the last 2 races, not sure about new tires for BeaveRun, since I haven't run there before. If I'm close enough to catch someone, I may spring for a set.

Are you guys running the practice on Friday? Do you know any details?

QUOTE (groot @ Jun 6 2005, 12:08 PM)

Are you guys running the practice on Friday?

I'll be travelling on Friday.
In 12 years of racing I've never been to a test day yet.

Test Day Please elaborate, How much, call who, what time, gas available, bring own. Help Help I'm late I'm late.

Erik Madsen

"Kevin,

Yes there will be a test day on June 17th. The track gates will be open at 7 am and the test day will begin on track by 8:30 am. We do have a registration form on the BeaveRun website that can be printed and mailed or faxed to BeaveRun. The cost of the test day is $150. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Krystal

BeaveRun MotorSports ComPlex

201 Penndale Road

Wampum, PA 16157"

I'm planning on going so I can learn the track at least a little bit.

Eric,

If you do make the practice session, I'd really like you to run a session in my car so I can see it through the corners and get your opinion on some things.

Kevin

Pre-Race Update:

4 914s (3 -FP, 1 - EP) in a 30 plus car field .

None of us did as well in qualifying as hoped for.
Erik Madsen has the tenth overall grid position.
Chris Foley starts 17th.
Tom Burdge a little further back.
Ed Givler bringing up the rear after having engine issues, and being hit by other cars in both qualifying sessions.

We'll see what the race brings us late this afternoon. Weather forecast includes a chance of late day thundershowers. We had one last evening during the party.

LRP Race Report.

Disappointing!

I Qualified 10th, behind FP cars and the like. 1:02.21 not very good. Pole was 1:00.571 in a Mazda, and An Elva Courier at 1:01.5, Caterham 1:01.6, So I was 4th in class and 10th overall. Not as well as I had Planned.

Had A few issues, The gearing information I got was not right. 2nd was two low and 3rd too high for two corners, as well as 3rd gear too low and 5 th too high or long, so it basically sucked. After qualifying, found the carb linkage out of adjustment. Pete got some tire temps which caused me to change the front toe to a little less to gain some balance at the limit. During the race this worked well and the car felt better. Still searching for more rear grip.

The Race: 1st Start got waved off, 2nd start was a good one for me ending up 6th by the second corner, then all hell broke loose. A guy in a FP Miata just could'nt wait to make his move and punted a FP Rabbit into the EP Elva, which turned the Elva sideways and being right behind these cars, I found myself going down the hill through the grass and finally back onto the track losing 12-14 positions. After working my way back up to 3rd, I was trying some different things to make the car go faster, one was going down to second for the right before no name straight, this worked okay, but was not as fast as the correct gear would have been. I was behind SEVERAL oil leaking cars, mostly MGBS or Midgets, It was so bad my in car video is useless after about lap 8 due to the lense being covered in oil, so was the front of my car.

So heres what really screwed me. In Practice the day before, I zinged the motor. Probably 10.5-11.0 k. Just making a mental error. afterwards in ran fine. I did not worry or even think about it again until....... Yes, it happened, lap 16 it broke a rocker arm, or at least thats what it seems like. Dropped power big time, and the #5 EGt went "cold". No noise from the engine, no other problems, oil temp okay, oil pressure okay, CHT okay. WTF, Will find out tomorrow. Tough racing on 30 year old components. But what are you going to do.

Finished 5th and 20 laps out of 30 laps. Best Lap 1:02.1 we'll see if I can get it fixed for Beaverun in 1 week.

Erik Madsen

Well,
My report is only slightly better than Erik's.

Before the race I fixed the ignition problems I was having in qualifying and verified that the car was running well in the morning warm-up. It was still rich, so I made another jet change to adjust for the hot/humid weather conditions. We had 95 degrees with heavy haze around race time.
(Side comment: on the pregrid a worker came up to me and suggested that I drive with "fender loving care!" Little did I know this was to prove very wise advice.)

The jet change worked. The engine woke up and I finally saw exhaust temps rise to near 1300 at the end of the front straight. Unfortunately I picked up a miss on cylinder 2 which sometimes lasted nearly the entire length of a straightaway. It came and went throughout the race and was not confidence inspiring, to say the least.
I got a decent start and went through the incident Erik described after all involved were scattered on the grass to driver's left. I saw Erik was moving along, headed toward the track and made room for him to re-enter as I passed. Good to see he was headed the right direction at least and it didn't take long for him to be ahead of me again.
Unfortunately, a lap later, as one of the other involved cars was passing me to regain position I had to ease out of the throttle at a critical corner, allowing Tom Burdge to sneak through as well. Since I was slowed significantly at West Bend a GP Sprite surprised me by diving under me at the downhill turn. Now I had to figure out how to get around him in order to chase down Tom. I managed to pass both of them after several laps and pulled out to a comfortable distance, except for the times when I was only running on 3 cylinders.
Around lap 20 a backmarker started leaving a trail of oil all around the track for two complete laps, before he spun in his own fluids and managed to cause several others to spin as well. I could clearly see the slick areas, right on the racing line and slowed a bit to avoid being one of the casualties. In fact I did have a sideways moment entering Big Bend.
The timing of all this couldn't have been worse for me though. The overall leader (a GT Lights car) lapped me only one corner before the full course caution was issued, so instead of being able to drive around to pick up the tail end of the field I was second in line with everyone else bunched up right behind me. We circulated for a couple of laps and then were brought in to pit lane to wait while speedi-dri was spread on the oil at all the corners.
We got a restart after a lengthy wait and I got lapped by the first four FP cars who were running close together in hot pursuit of each other. On lap 28 I saw two of them tangle in the left hander, but one resumed (with damage) and stayed ahead of me. As I came out of the down hill turn I saw another of them pulling back onto the track after making hard contact with the tire barrier at the exit of the turn. He had significant damage to the rear of his car and limped to the finish line as the checkered flag was waving. The race was ended a full two laps early because the 45 minute time limit ran out. The three FP cars involved in late race mishaps would not have continued another lap, so if the last two laps were run I could have finshed as high as second place. Instead I had to settle for 5th in class and 12th overall. Small consolation included an undamaged race car and the first Porsche across the finish line.

As you can see our luck wasn't with us this weekend, Chris, Ed and I were sportin' some brand new 914 Club decals which I got from Sean (Thanks Sean!) .

I am hoping to have a better result next weekend at Beaverun PA, After I find the engine problem, If it can be repaired, we will make it, if not, We'll see you at Watkins Glen. pics Enclosed. I have some Race Video, but it is basically unuseable after the 8-9th lap due to the British Leyland products pissing oil all over the track. Nice job oilers!

As my car, I need to add a rear sway bar and install my Ohlins shocks and springs, so off to the garage I go to find out what happened to the engine. More later.

Erik Madsen

Another Club Sticker!
Thanks Sean!

Here's another pic of Erik's car before the race, featuring his new Club graphics.

and a pic of Ed Givler's car on the pre-grid.

Here I am waiting for the 5 minute signal to get ready.

all strapped in and ready for action.

Sorry to hear about you guys' misfortune. Good write-up
anyway.

QUOTE (mskala @ Jun 12 2005, 09:53 AM)

Sorry to hear about you guys' misfortune. Good write-up anyway.

Chris, any idea of the cause of your ignition problems?

QUOTE (jd74914 @ Jun 12 2005, 01:39 PM)

Chris, any idea of the cause of your ignition problems?

When I installed the new Hyfire CD Ignition I also installed an old Crane PS-92 coil, made for use with CD ignitions.
The coil was the problem on Friday. When I replaced it with the coil I had been using the spark problem went away. Unfortunately during the race I had an intermittent miss that seemed to be a carb problem instead.
This morning I opened up the left carb and found a tiny rock in the bottom of the float bowl next to the #2 emulsion tube well. It was just the right size to get sucked up against the main jet in right turns.

QUOTE (Racer Chris @ Jun 12 2005, 12:46 PM)

Unfortunately during the race I had an intermittent miss that seemed to be a carb problem instead. This morning I opened up the left carb and found a tiny rock in the bottom of the float bowl next to the #2 emulsion tube well. It was just the right size to get sucked up against the main jet in right turns.

I was wondering if the miss was a spark problem, but evidently not. Having a rock stuck on the carb jet is really strange

I won't be making Beaverun!

After some checking it appears i have broken a cam shaft between the center and the rear cam journal the camshaft is just loose in the housing. So the entire engine must come apart. Time to change cam grinders, Maybe this is a cam tower issue, but they felt really good when I assembled the motor. We'll see. Hope to make it for Watkins Glen. What a bummer! All the heads and everything else seems to be in good condition. So we'll see if a housing and a camshaft will fix what is ailing me.

I have all the parts except the camshaft. I have that as a core.
Pics later.

Erik Madsen

QUOTE (Thorshammer @ Jun 12 2005, 03:40 PM)

I won't be making Beaverun!

That is a shame!

Actually, I'm on the fence about going myself. It's an expensive trip including over 1000 miles total travel. I won't have my good engine yet, my old tires aren't getting the job done, and there are 12 FP cars pre-entered.
I don't need to spend $1500 just for 3 or 4 points, even though I'd like to race there.

Oh yeah. I forgot about the final kick in the ass I had yesterday.
On the way home I had a truck tire blow out (again).
This was the spare I put on outside Wash. DC in March.
It went a little over 2000 miles before giving up.
Buying a couple of truck tires is another expense I have to absorb before attending my next race.

I am always one to promote personal responsibility! Own your actions and guide your life accordingly. However this camshaft failure I can't swallow as mine. It appears that when the cam was ground that a small radius groove was cut on all of the cam journals. This created a stress riser and caused this failure. The Cam tower housing is in near perfect condition with no odd wear patterns except the damage from where the cam shaft broke (it is limited) with some 600 grit on the edge of the aluminum journal it is re-useable. I will be calling the cam grinder in the AM. And Next Day airing him the broken camshaft. Really kind of pisses me off. Could have done without this problem. But thats racing. See the pics.

Erik

Not the best focus job, but you get the idea.

WOW I have never seen a 911 cam break

never...

is this one of the west coast cam grinders?

Tim,

Me neither! I have built many 911 engines and have never seen this. I have seen cam journals scored and worn oddly from incorrect cylinder height of cylinders or cylinders that have not been torqued down properly. But this is not the case with this engine. The cam tower journals look good with no unusual wear. The only thing that points to a problem is this one incomplete radius next to the middle main bearing on the cam. All of the lobes look great, nothing wrong except it broke. I am even using the cam grinders springs, which My machinist really liked and said they were excellent./ Everything was set to the cam grinders spec. And I will say worked pretty good. It could be better.

My biggest dillema is this, do I disassemble the motor the rest of the way. Or flush it, run 14 qrts of petroleum oil through it and take my chances. it has an Oberg filter and it does have metalic flakes in the filter but it is not rod bearing material. it is not full but has maybe a 1/4 of a teaspoon of metal in it. I am unsure of the obergs ability to catch particles. I will remove the oil tank and check it tomorrow. That will give me the best indicator. ? What Would you do?

Erik Madsen

DAMN!! A broken camshaft. I'm sorry about the weekend. I hate the disappointing weekends, but they happen more often than anyone would like.

I'm still planning on BeaveRun, the left side of my engine only lost a few more psi of compression. I think I'll try and wring one last race out of this ol' engine and then refresh the heads.

QUOTE (Thorshammer @ Jun 12 2005, 11:49 PM)

What Would you do?

What Would Jesus Do?

Seriously though, at a minimum it would seem prudent to remove the other camshaft for a close inspection.
Did you run a magnet through the filtered particles?

sorry to hear about the broken motor and all the other troubles you guys had out there ...

but at least the 914club decals look sharp!
Andy

damn, erik, sorry to hear this

Chris and Erik,
Sorry to hear of the misfortune.

I know that Chris is running an engine on it's last bit of life whiole we continue to fight some issues with his MassIVe engine on this end as well as the hooplah that the Nickies cylinders have added to the suspense as for as legality goes.

Chris will have his "A" engine back sometime very soon, I am waiting on one component for it that should be done within the week.

Erik, Sorry to see the broken parts- It proves that even the -6 engine can and will fail in a Production race venue and that as convventionally believed they are the bullet proof "Failure proof" way to go!

I have never broken a Type IV cam, unless you count the ones that were involved with being chopped in two with a connecting rod :-)

In racing, ANYTHING within an engine can and will break, and if you don't break it either the engine wasn't modified enough or a pussy was behind the wheel not working it hard enough!

I just wasnted to stop by and see how you guys did over the weekend- I'm not back yet and won't be for atleast another 6 weeks as I have to finish Chris' engine and also Tom Burdge's run offs engine before I will even have time to breathe... By that time Len will have Kevins heads finished and it'll be time to assemble the most bad ass 2.0 on planet earth!

BTW- Erik, Tear that engine down 100% and ensure all the grit is out of it before you experience failure #2.. I have learned to NEVER take chances on this level!

Also, send me the replacement camshafts to have magnafluxed and cryoed- This won't happen again if you do.

See Ya'll later!

Thanks guy's for the Pix and discriptions and the help in the padock. Thanks to Dan & Tom in providing a rock strainer for the oil coolers and doing all the tweeks to keep it running on a very hot day.
(Note the "altered" door where the pole sitter and later another car collected me.)

I must appologize to Chris & Tom for not getting them through cleanly and quickly. They arrived on the scene with about 6 of their friends just as I caught 2 of the tail end cars.

It took me about 1/2 a lap to get the car started after the "black flag all". This did provide me with 4 laps of relatively clear track and I got my fast lap on the last lap! (1:09+) is not going to win much.

We hope to do a bit more tweeking and be at the Glen.

Ed

After visiting my machinist and really looking at the break, it is very apparent this was a manufacturing issue. I am using a welded cam as opposed to a new chilled billet. Maybe my mistake? anyway, when the cam is welded is can bend slightly, then the cam must go through a straightening process which from what I understand is the application of a fairly blunt chisel looking device and a (believe it or not) a hammer. Then the cam is re-checked for straightness and then ground to the specs of the master. I guess this is an acceptable process in the cam grinding business and is widely used on welded cams. To know this process was news to me. I will probably only be using a new billet camshaft from here on out and have contacted an engineer in Minnesota which develops and grinds his own stuff. He is also the grinder for the GE series cams and has many type 4 grinds as well. We'll see what happens.

My order is in and the broken cam is on the way back to the original grinder for him to see the break. Hopefully he will see the same thing I have seen and replace the cam. I know it is in a race motor, but when it has less than 2.0 hours on it, I think this is pretty clear. As for disasembling the entire engine to clean it, I think you are correct Jake. and that IS my plan.


Erik Madsen

Erik, I thing you need to take the whole engine down, who knows where any metal particles went.

I understand the oberg filters do a great job of filtering,, depending on what size screen you install in them.