Defining "Success" in Lemons

Apparently it has nothing to do with winning, although that is pretty cool.

TLDR: Almost didn't make it, made it but didn't expect to last, lasted, but with a string of challenges, and I had dices to remember until I am in my grave.

We almost didn't make it to the race, and even after we did, we weren't sure we'd last more than 20 minutes.

Two weeks prior I took the car to Petaluma to get Kurt's help with the throttle linkage and fire bottle installation. When I got there I mentioned the blow-by. We had quite a bit. This engine had had a lot of that already but now I could see it when stopped in traffic. The car ran fine. I had just completed a spirited cruise to Sonora and back. It was a good enough engine for Thill. Turns out it had 0 psi on #3. Strange, but we've raced on 3 cylinders before and never really noticed.

No problem. Just finish the build of "Orange", a duplicate of now ailing "Blue". Orange was a result of our Bonneville/Thunderhill/Sears Pointless/Buttonwillow series of engine failures. Pieces of Orange were still in oiled zip-lock bags and plastic storage boxes. The head was still wrapped in Saran Wrap. The block with crank installed was in a sealed garbage bag. Within a couple of days Orange was a done motor, ready to assume Blue's duties and responsibilities.

Back in Petaluma and Blue comes out and Orange goes in. Taking my time, this was going to be a sweet little engine. Orange fires and runs nicely from the start, then we proceed with cam break-in, and 6 minutes later the engine shuts down. All gauges were fine. Perfect, even. Electrical? We fire it up and 4 minutes later it shuts down. Electrical? Again, and when it starts to shut down I give a little throttle and it resumes. Then oil temp creeps up to 240 and the exhaust takes on an unwelcome color. We shut it down and drain the oil. It is burnt and glittery. The oil filer was full of metal.

Orange come back out and was opened up. The poor baby had lived a short, painful 20 minutes. It's internals were a mess. All bearings fried, including the cam bearings. Crank scored. Valve guides, unknown. We were scheduled to leave for Thunderhill in four days.

Open up Blue and see what we had that was good. Most of the rings were broken, one into 5 pieces. Those pistons were history.  The head was good. The crank needed a little polishing. #3 rod bearing was on the way out, probably because we finished Pointless with only 1.5 quarts of oil on the engine. Blow-by had pushed the rest out.

The hybrid Orange/Blue was in by Friday early AM, around 3:30. Friday 8 AM Kurt and I did what we could to ensure we'd have oil flow before starting the motor. I made phone calls asking for tips. Posted to Facebook and got great support and sympathy, but nothing to calm our fears. So we cranked it and it came alive immediately. Gauges were good, including oil pressure, just like last time. We had tested the gauge and it was good, but still, last time... After five minutes we shut it off and started packing.

We swung by Davis to pick up parts, supplies, gear, etc. Between Friday traffic and all it took nearly seven hours to get to Thunderhill. Normally this is a 1.5 hour drive from the Tinyvette Garage and Corporate HQ. The rest of our team was already there. They had faith in me, else they would have stayed home until I confirmed we had a running car. Plan C was, if Orange/Blue blew, I had another stock 1.) motor at home, partially assembled. The team would get to learn how to swap a motor.

We arrived at 10:30 PM, ate the food we picked up at Walmart on the way in, unpacked, dumped the trailer, and went to bed.

At 5:30 Kurt was up and setting up our pits. I joined him at 6. The car still needed so much. We did enough to get through tech then returned to finish the work. Tranny fluid, valve lash, carb balancing and adjustments (new throttle linkage), and more. All the time Kurt and I are just hoping the engine would last another 15 minutes, meaning it was at least better than Orange. It survived valve adjustments, done with the engine running, so that was encouraging.

Jon would take the first stint. I told him to go out and drive it like he wanted to blow up the motor, but don't blow it up, but if he did, I wouldn't blame him, except in PR situations where it would be 100% his fault. So Jon went out, took the Green (I feel in cases like this "Green" should be a proper noun.), and a few laps later was smoking bad. We called him in. We were not depressed yet.

The valve cover gasket was ajar. Fixed, cleaned up, back out. No more smoke.

Now the clutch is slipping. Bring it in.

1.5 quarts of oil had been lost during Jon's smoking stint. Some of that had gotten into the clutch housing. I popped an access panel and the housing was oil soaked. So, disable the ignition, bump the starter, grab and extinguisher, press the clutch pedal, and let me squirt some Brakleen in there. (I've since heard that another team used a Super Soaker filled with gasoline.) What could be done was done, so we sent Jon back out. I told Jon to expect it to slip during shifts, so be gentle, but it should, hopefully, get better. It did.

Then Jon BF'ed for a spin, which they did not give a shit about. It was that driving the wrong direction on the track they were not happy with. The team assembled in Penalty. Jon came in. They put him in impound. Jay told me this was not a GOOPBF card situation. Jon came over, got scolded. I still could not picture what he had done so asked for him to draw it. He had spun avoiding another car and ended up backwards on the bypass. His offense was coming back down the bypass and making a u-turn to rejoin the race. It was a safe move. Jon could see for miles from up there and waited for clear track, but it was still considered a gross violation of protocol and decorum and is probably one of the reasons Jay is bald, seeing the shit we do.

Zep was next and had a great time, thought car was great, and before long called in for a slipping clutch. We found more oil leaks, squirted more Brakleen, and sent him back out. We'd have to do this two more times that day, but hey, the engine had lasted more than 20 minutes show what the hell was a half quart of oil per hour and a Brakleen-clutch treatment every 2 hours to Kurt and I? All we knew was we didn't have to implement plan C.

I had the first stint on Sunday. The car was fine but I was slow. I couldn't get my head in the game. Before long there were about 8 cars stranded around the course. Full course caution. I had no idea the downhill at the start of T'hill west was so steep. Boy the track sure looked different going this slow. Green flag, for some reason and my head was now in the game, and I had some of the most fun in all my 20 Lemons races. I remember catching the Amazon, a slightly larger car with about the same size and vintage motor and, like us, with dual DOCEs. In other words, a great match. The driver must have thought, "Well damn, the Tinyvette just caught me. That cannot stand." and the chase was on. I could hang with him but could not pass. I made my move a couple of times and he shut that down with some courteous blocking, as I saw it. He was probably just claiming his apex. After a couple of laps of this fun I figured my chance was T8. If I hung back a bit I could probably get though quicker than just following him, and since many cars slow too much for T8, I stood a good chance. I was right, and slowly the fabulous Amazon faded from view.

Then I saw Ferkel. Ferkel had passed me so authoritatively at the end of the full course caution that I thought I'd never see him again. He was only two turns ahead and there were only two cars between us. It took a while but I got past the first. I had also gained a bit on Ferkel. One more car then it would be Tinyvette -vs- Ferkel, again, a repeat of our Pointless dice.

The one car was a brown BMW with a white trunk lid. I caught it and expected to pass it soon. That car seemed to use a lot of brake. This should not be difficult. Then he seemed to wake up and the race was on, and it was a blast. I could catch him but not pass. I'd have to figure out where I had the advantage. I could get a nose in now and then but had to back out. T8 worked for me again, but he immediately re-passed me at the start of the downhill on the west coarse. I've come to love the turn at the bottom of the hill on the west course so I waited for my chance, drove in hard, slipped it into 3rd, late apexed, and we were side-by-side, full throttle into the esses, through the esses, over the blind left-hander leading to the tight turn on to the straight, side-by-side through the hair pin, and we exchanged thumbs up as he slowly powered past me down the straight. It was awesome, but we were not done yet. I think I caught and passed him later and he came right back using the traffic advantage. We'd get separated by traffic several times and I'd catch up, but could not get past. By this time fuel was getting low and my 2 hour stint was nearly done, so I called in. The team was ready when I was. I radioed that I'd be in after I caught the BMW one more time. I did, and pitted, and holy crap, that was racing.

Mike