1 (edited by Bayley 2013-09-16 10:41 AM)

Topic: What exactly has been failing on the K-car lately?

As a fellow pentastar racer myself, I eagerly await race results expecting to hear about the mighty K-car domination... but am constantly met with disappointment.  As a Detroit native, the Lions have me well seasoned on dealing with disappointment.

I am curious though, what keeps failing with the latest V6 power plant?

I've run the 6G72 Mitsu V6 in two races this year and have pretty horrible results.  Overheating and detonation were the usual suspects.  We eventually discovered a crack in a cylinder head that went clear across from the intake bowl into the exhaust bowl.  We think this is our smoking gun with our overheating and detonation, but we're still eating rod bearings like they're going out of style. 

Some teams replace brake pads and / or tires after the first day... we replace rod bearings.

So what has been failing for you guys / gals lately?

The Pentastar whisperer

Re: What exactly has been failing on the K-car lately?

If you are eating rod bearings, has anyone thought to get into the oil pump and increase the pressure?  baffle the oil pan?  accusump?

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We won the IOE at Southern Discomfort.
We got screwed at The Real Hoopties of New Jersey  and we took cars down with us.
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Re: What exactly has been failing on the K-car lately?

RobL wrote:

If you are eating rod bearings, has anyone thought to get into the oil pump and increase the pressure?  baffle the oil pan?  accusump?

Pfffttt... that sounds like work.


Actually, we are looking at oil pump mods but have yet to make any firm conclusions.  Has the K-car suffered similar bearing struggles / failures?

The Pentastar whisperer

Re: What exactly has been failing on the K-car lately?

K's V6 motor has been very reliable up till now, mechanically. I'm suspecting either oil leaks intensifying and contributing to momentary low oil pressure in a turn, or oil overheating. Compared to our Nissan motors both I4 and V6 K engines had really hot oil when driven hard.

K Car Stalker

Re: What exactly has been failing on the K-car lately?

I could look into welding in some baffles since it sounds like the pan needs to be repaired anyway. If anyone finds good info about other improvement to the oiling system, please let me know. My employer's Websense has recently cracked down, so my racecar research time has been drastically reduced.

Re: What exactly has been failing on the K-car lately?

See if a Volvo water-to-oil oil cooler can be adapted (if it uses the same thread pattern). One of those sandwich types from early turbo Volvo bricks. Easy upgrade with high reliability, and there's already a coolant line nearby. I like those much better than air-to-oil units.

Check to make sure the valve covers don't have nests/nuts in them and can actually breathe.

When you have the engine out, replace every oil seal. Most seals are already in the car somewhere, just need to be installed.

Speaking of welding: cut, sleeve, and weld the exhaust so that it doesn't rub on the body, and maybe add a small rear engine mount. Mountain bike shock/spring would be best. Also, driver side mount has bolts stuffed in the wrong place - you want them to raise the engine, not lower.

K Car Stalker

Re: What exactly has been failing on the K-car lately?

The 3.0L daytona engine has a baffled pan.  Of course you'll need to buy a new one as the pan on each engine is fubar'd.

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Re: What exactly has been failing on the K-car lately?

New oil pan? Pffffffft.

https://scontent-b-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/1236622_518471064894908_1464310189_n.jpg

I haven't looked much at the utterly fuber'd oil pan from the original engine. The pan from the junkyard motor has a windage tray of sorts, but no baffles. That being said, I'm not bothering to weld in baffles. We're strapped for time enough as it is, getting one good engine built out of the corpses of two. We are definitely adding an oil cooler, though.

We're using the heads from the original motor, along with a new water pump and timing belt. (The water pump on the junkyard motor was seized up, BTW. That may have been what killed the timing belt.) I'm trying to get the cam seals swapped out right now. They're a major pain in the ass to remove. We're hoping to have the whole assembly back in the car by Wednesday night.

Hopefully the K will be done before Friday, so someone can spend most of the day teaching one of our newbie drivers how to drive a stick while the rest of us finish up the Dart. I guess I should mention we're putting in a new clutch as well.

Re: What exactly has been failing on the K-car lately?

Oh, one important thing.

Those three dead axles in the car? Boots need to come off, the whole thing needs to be degreased in a bucket of gas, and then welded to the trophy. And the oil pan. and anything else broken that you see.

Also the used wheel bearing in the box (there should be one good one that's new, so feel free to weld the old one to the trophy as well - it squeaks and will die rather quickly).

Sorry, I haven't had the moment to build up the trophy, but it has to happen. The more, the better.

K Car Stalker

10 (edited by SpaceFrank 2013-09-23 10:23 PM)

Re: What exactly has been failing on the K-car lately?

As it turns out, those cheesy screw-in dent pullers are great at removing rear camshaft oil seals on this engine.

Edit: Okay, I was wondering about all the axles. I'll probably get to trophy-sculpting after we get to the track on Friday. Definitely want to add some broken bits of con-rod from Thunderhill.

11

Re: What exactly has been failing on the K-car lately?

Update us when it's running.

This space for rent.

12 (edited by Team Infinniti 2013-09-24 06:54 AM)

Re: What exactly has been failing on the K-car lately?

What was up with the new engine that the heads needed swapped?Interference engine?

Homestead Chump 5th-Sebring 6th-PBIR Lemons 9th - Charlotte Chump  CrashnBurn 9th
Sebring 6th again -NOLA Chump 1st -PBIR Chump Trans Fail 16th
Daytona 11th - Sebring 6th - Atlanta Motor Speedway 2nd - Road Atlanta Trans Fail 61st-Road Atlanta 5th
Daytona 13th - Charlotte 9th - Sebring 2nd-Charlotte 25th broken brakes - Road Atlanta 14 10th-Daytona 14  58th- Humid TT 19th Judges' Choice!

Re: What exactly has been failing on the K-car lately?

The V6 lasted for several races and a couple of long cross-country drives before blowing up, which is pretty good by K-car standards. As I recall, fuel-delivery woes have plagued the K at just about every race.

Re: What exactly has been failing on the K-car lately?

It's a non-interference engine. We just used the old heads because the original motor was freshly built, and they were still in good shape. We're keeping the junkyard heads for spares, though.

Re: What exactly has been failing on the K-car lately?

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Re: What exactly has been failing on the K-car lately?

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It's amazing what shows up on a Google Image search for DOMINATION.

Re: What exactly has been failing on the K-car lately?

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DOMINATION!!!

Dangerous Banned Technology (NOLA 09), Judges Choice (Houston 2010), Organizers Choice (NOLA 2010), Most Heroic Fix (Dallas 2010), $100 from Jay's Pocket (Dallas 2010), Dangerous Homemade Technology (NOLA 2010), Ununhexium Legends of Lemons Status,  Index of Effluency (Dallas 2011), Most Heroic Fix - (Houston 2011), Index of Effluency (TWS - 2012), Organizers Choice (Dallas 2013)

18

Re: What exactly has been failing on the K-car lately?

http://pics.imcdb.org/0is462/crashez7.9681.jpg

Damnation!

This space for rent.

Re: What exactly has been failing on the K-car lately?

http://www.moviegoods.com/Assets/product_images/1020/374526.1020.A.jpg

DAMNATION!

Re: What exactly has been failing on the K-car lately?

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DALMATION!!!111!!!

Dangerous Banned Technology (NOLA 09), Judges Choice (Houston 2010), Organizers Choice (NOLA 2010), Most Heroic Fix (Dallas 2010), $100 from Jay's Pocket (Dallas 2010), Dangerous Homemade Technology (NOLA 2010), Ununhexium Legends of Lemons Status,  Index of Effluency (Dallas 2011), Most Heroic Fix - (Houston 2011), Index of Effluency (TWS - 2012), Organizers Choice (Dallas 2013)

Re: What exactly has been failing on the K-car lately?

http://www.nationofblue.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1745&d=1277515782

Re: What exactly has been failing on the K-car lately?

This thread is making me want to follow Alex's suggestion for theme enhancement.

http://www.brobible.com/files/uploads/images/Gear/cars/team-america-world-police-28.jpeg

Re: What exactly has been failing on the K-car lately?

First off, congrats on the IOE, and secondly, what happened with the k car?

Fourteen time loser. You'd think I'd know better by now.

Re: What exactly has been failing on the K-car lately?

They got it running, but it was smoking so badly it was black flagged.  I think they said something about leaking a ton of oil, too.  Since they didn't drive it in off the track, I suspect they may have shut it down before doing any damage to the motor or oiling down the track any further.  But I neglected to ask them.

Gotta hand it to the guys, though.  They were working on it in the paddock, wrenching, getting greasy and rolling around in a veritable mound of kitty litter for the better part of 24 hours.  (Starting well before the race.)

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Re: What exactly has been failing on the K-car lately?

I managed to see the K car out on its lap at MSR.

It was creping along - but it was moving!   I slowed down to give a thumbs up out the window but at about that time it crept to the side of the track and expired in a smokey cloud.  sad

Dangerous Banned Technology (NOLA 09), Judges Choice (Houston 2010), Organizers Choice (NOLA 2010), Most Heroic Fix (Dallas 2010), $100 from Jay's Pocket (Dallas 2010), Dangerous Homemade Technology (NOLA 2010), Ununhexium Legends of Lemons Status,  Index of Effluency (Dallas 2011), Most Heroic Fix - (Houston 2011), Index of Effluency (TWS - 2012), Organizers Choice (Dallas 2013)