So our engine for this weekend is no good... (Page 2 of 4)

Troof?  I didn't know this. I have three of them now that I don't need. Should I ebay them, or throw them up on Corral, or what? I know they are much lighter, being all aluminum, but I didn't know they brought much more than scrap weight...

I feel your pain. Been in your type of situation many a time.

Thank goodness my latest junk yard motor for our V12 Jaguar is running like butter. I think we stole your luck. But it could be worse... you could be looking for a Jaguar V12... that was NOT easy to find under budget. Seems you can buy the whole damn car cheaper than just the motor most places.

x1,000,000

I paid MORE for the replacement motor than I did for the WHOLE car..okay only $44 more...but still more......the only upside of our insanely depreciated Euro whips is the used part values are also very high.....I got $50 for the A pillars.....serious.....just two A pillars, in the finest 25 year old german leather!!! 

I wonder how much this is worth  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL92flNHmNk

too bad you're so far away because I always defiantly help people!

So......does it run?

Well, I'm one tired puppy. We just came up from the garage, and big Joe has to drive 10 minutes home and then be up for work in like an hour. The replacement engine is in, although the accessories are not. There's also a number of issues to fix, including swapping the throttle body with the broken-off intake bolt in (or drilling it out, something I hate doing on a throttle body while on the car), and replacing the oil filter adapter gasket, which dumped about 4 of our 6 quarts of Mobil 1 on the floor while cranking. I dunno if it has an oil pressure switch that keeps it from running with low pressure, but it didn't start. Also sounded like a few of the original 1994 plug wires were *gasp* arcing out. There's still a week's worth of work to do in two days. I need a Red Bull I.V.

Good luck!  Wish I was closer, would be over spinning wrenches, or at least bringing beer.  You'll make it.

I never tried to hide anything about this car. The thing about running the same car over and over is that you can improve on it each time under budget, as long as its not a frontrunner at the end. Because we fully cooked the motor at CMP last fall (had to push it on the trailer), we were given a residual of $100. As the car has already run 3 races, and in its best finish was 130 laps down from the leader (Stafford), our residuals were low each time. The rear shocks are used stock Mustang rear Bilsteins (Cobra takeoffs with 40ish k) for $100 shipped from Ricardo Topete on corral net. The fronts are el cheapo stockers from ebay, $50 offer for the pair accepted by a liquidator. I think they were Monroes or Gabriels.

The springs are vogtland. They were on sale for $200, with free shipping. The rest of the suspension and car is stock. We ground off the guides for the front control arms and enlongated the holes to get more camber. Never modded the motor, trans, or computer. Never had the intake or cam covers off. Never tuned it up. All we did was gut the everloving crap out of it, as you know. That and tires picked us up 3 seconds a lap. Today I gotta try to sell the old block, return the motor, and sell the original suspension air compressor to offset the added cost of the new old motor.

We pride ourselves on integrity, and even though we went nuts trying not to spend more than the allotted $400, we were faced with going over or not racing this weekend, thanks to the bad motor and some other problems. I don't think a lot of teams would drive 8 hours for a trans that is $100 cheaper than one locally, but we honestly did, to keep under budget. That represents how strongly we feel about following the rules. The spending rule keeps this race fun on a budget, and encourages creativity. The first time Jay saw the Mark VIII, he laughed at it openly and called it a piece of shit. No offense taken, it was. Our dream is to have the first Lincoln to win overall, and rerunning and tweaking a Mark VIII race after race after race is our best shot. I could have said I found another $200 motor and swapped them, but I didn't, and I refuse to lie.

I will pull out all the stops yet again to recoup the difference we spent. Anybody need a 4.6 DOHC core motor or suspension compressor?

A bad motor you end up not using does not count against you in the budget.  So why are you counting it?  If it didn't end up in the car, it doesn't exist for cost purposes.  The motor you end up putting in hits your budget.  If you use some pieces off the other purchased motor, then that proportion should be charged to your budget too.  And when you resell the unused motor, those monies should not count for you. 

I think you're making this more complicated than it needs to be.  Oh, and spare parts do not count either to a certain degree.

You never know.  We were accused of cheating in our POS Miata even though we got zero penalty laps.  We weren't, and in fact were well UNDER budget.  Unfortunately the results reflected our lack of preparation and our pathetic excuse for a race car---108th out of 120+.

I'm pretty thick-skinned. 15 years as a cop in high crime urban areas will do that. I wasn't offended in the least.

Plus, I know what you drive and where you live. I have cop buddies there. Kiss your license goodbye.