Status #2

[BigMike]

We had a good meeting last Wednesday evening Bill (Sirdeuce), Mike (MiniMike), Chris (3.slow) and myself were in attendance. Bill's wife Barbra was also there

We discussed where the project is at and what we need to do to get the car running as soon as possible. Here is what we came up with:

1) Get the cage built and installed. I have contracted our fabricator Rocky for this job and he is coming up with a quote for us now.
2) While Rocky is installing the cage, Bill will build the engine.
3) While Bill is building the engine, I will build the 6-speed transaxle.

Notes:
Cage: We want to get the cage built now and then install the interior around it. I believe the original plan was to get the car up and running and later install the cage, but Bill suggested installing it first to help with mounting and wiring everything and we unanimously agreed.
Engine: We agreed to go with the larger 1.8-liter displacement 7A block for better torque. Bill needs rings before he can start and I am looking in to getting these. The 7A crank has a different bolt count than the 4A crank, so we won't be able to use our lightweight flywheel. We will have to come up with some extra $ to get a lightweight 7A flywheel, if one exists, or to lighten the stock part.
Transaxle: We already have a C50 donor core to build into a 6-speed, but we need to get a C60 6-speed. I will look into this also.

As for the car, it approximately looks how it did from July of last year:


The California LeMons races are held once every season: ~ March at Infineon Raceway (north of S.F. near Sonoma), June at Buttonwillow Raceway (near Bakersfield), September at Thunderhill Raceway (above Sacramento), and in December usually somewhere near the LA area.

Remember that the application deadlines are a few months in advance of each race, so we'll miss the remaining Sept and Dec events for this year but have a GREAT chance to apply for the March event whose deadline is in mid January.

So that's it: We need to get the car running and fully tested, everyone with some seat time, and our team theme and application all finalized by January. This gives us four full months and we can hit all four events next year!!

LET'S DO THIS!!!

[BigMike]

Pending Rocky's schedule, I will be taking a trailer up to Bill's house and will need at least 1 person to join me on a weekend to transport the car to Rocky's place in Kingsburg.

Also, if you know of anyone here in the Valley who has shop or garage space for a more convenient place to work on the car, PLEASE POST UP! I have a friend Danny Lutz who has a shop with room and will allow us to work on the car there, however I feel he is going out of his way to do this and if there is an alternative location we'd be interested to hear about it. FYI Danny's place is east of Fresno near Belmont and De Wolf Aves.

Any help with this would be great, thanks!
BigMike

[Sirdeuce]

I like the Belmont and DeWolf local. The flywheel IS available, but quite pricey. We can have one custom machined for around $400. Lightening the stocker is risky, and expensive to boot. Then balancing is necessary for the entire rotating assembly. Before we get the engine assembled we need to make a decision on the flywheel. Ihad the engine balanced when I had the machine work done, with a 4AFE flywheel.

[BigMike]

$400 to lighten a stock flywheel? Dang G!!

Regarding balancing, the engine should be internally balanced, right? So that each part only needs to be balanced to itself to maintain overall system balance. I thought?

[Sirdeuce]

The price of machining a flywheel and balancing in close to 250 bucks. The internal engine balancing can be affected by the flywheel's balance. to properly balance the engine to the flywheel the flywheels weight is balanced to the rotating assembly. Just putting a 'balanced' flywheel on your engine can cause catastrophic failure if the balance points are off by just a few degrees. Naw, they need to be balanced together.

[Sirdeuce]

I'm going to hook-up the steering and brakes tomorrow(I hope) so the car is easier to move. I hope you plan to pick it up the weekend mike. Hopefully, the cage won't take too long.

[BigMike]

Ah, update on the car Bill. Rocky hasn't told me an estimated cost yet, but he said he doesn't have room for it yet (he has to finish a few other projects first). I think the earliest to deliver will be Sept 22 or 23. I will let you know-

As for balancing, I know for race engines it's important to balance everything, but I'm pretty certain production engines have individually balanced components. Aftermarket clutch kits are themselves balanced and are safe to install, the same with aftermarket flywheels. We sell clutch kits and flywheels and don't require our customers to have their 22R's, 3VZ's, 5VZ's, 3RZ's...

[Sirdeuce]

OK, I have a piece of alluminum 1" thick. I'm going to try to get down to the shop to make a set of roll center adjusters, and maybe blocks to drop the engine. See how things go with that. Also, I tried the oil pan from a 20 valve block on the 7A, it fits. Figure the 2 piece pan that comes on the 7A would raise questions at inspection time. The 20v pan looks like a regular 4A pan.  I'll have to have Mike post pics, the saltwater bath I gave my camera ruined it.

[Sirdeuce]

Picked up anothrer waterheater skin for anything else we could think of.

[BigMike]

I'm so hot and cold on this project I'm sick at myself.

[Sirdeuce]

Try having the thing in your barn, not knowing if you are going to actually finish the project. I look at it EVERY day and can't make up my ind what to do. But I still have hopes to finish it. Rings?

[BigMike]

Ringer.