Making a TR6 more fun to drive....

It's been a minute since I've posted.

I've hit 2 autocrosses, and both have gone well. In both cases, the courses were tough, and traction on the surface was difficult as well. Again, in both events, it was not until the 2nd to last run that I was able to put down a good run- both over a second faster than any run that day. 

Since those events, I hit a good car show. Bunch of gorgeous cars out there and fun to see a bunch of old friends. I think I may have had a good chance at people's choice, but another car jumped into the lead via some 'funny' means ;)

My buddy Lester, won the age group that my car was in. His VW truly looks like it just rolled off the showroom floor.

Unfortunately, on the way home from the show, my ignition issues from last year reared their ugly head again and stranded me on the side of the road again. This time, I was ready. I was able to quickly prove it was not any of the distributor components. It was not the ignition switch. Also was not my MSD box. A quick swap later proved the coil had overheated and failed. 

To prevent this from happening again, I've moved it to the fender well from its standard block mounted location. I've also ordered an epoxy coil for the car.

Some pics from my last autocross.

I have not posted in a while, but definitely should have!

I drove a 2 day autocross a few weeks ago and had a great time. The car is driving great. I feel like engine and suspension-wise I have it very well tuned.

That was backed up by my results on the first day- I had my best results on PAX ever. Really proud of that. I'll chuck in a vid link below. 

The weekend was not without problems however. Since my last engine rebuild, the car runs significantly warmer than before. She has more power for sure. It actually cools off during each run. However, while sitting in line for the next run, it will heat up badly. Then the fuel in the carbs boils and she starts to shut down. 

To fix the problem, I have:

-Installed insulated heat shields on the carbs. 

-Insulated the fuel line in the engine bay

-Installed a new rad cooling fan- upped from 2000cfm to 3000cfm. I went from an ebay special to a Flex-a-lite.

I've got another 2 day event this weekend, so I get to test the 'improvements'.

Memorial Day Autocross Vid

With Ed's autocross car, we wired a switch on the dash to manually turn on the fan while waiting for a run.  That helped keep it from getting terribly hot.  Only on the hottest days did we need to pop the hood.  I suppose there's a price to pay for performance mods.

It's good to hear you are back in action.

I'm really getting terrible about updating this thread. 

So my first day of the event mentioned in the thread above went pretty well. The car seemed to handle the heat well, so I believe that I've finally beaten my heat issues for the most part (I have one more thing I may try). 

First day of the event, turnout was good and I drove reasonably well. 

Second day of the event, after 2 runs, the car started stumbling as I was going to the line. Then it died..... 

Friends helped push me to my parking place and I was immediately in diagnosis mode. I ended up having to go and do my work session, and come back to it. At lunch, with the help from some friends, we quickly figured out that the MSD 6AL box was dead. I used some extra wire in my spares kit and made a stock wiring harness to run the car with out the box. I zip tied the MSD harness out of the way. With that done, I was able to drive the rest of my runs and drive the car home. Phwew!

When I got it home, things were still not quite right a couple days later. I heard what I thought was some wicked valve noise. After re-setting the valve lash and checking a few other things, the noise was still there. I used my borescope to look at the underside of the exhaust gasket. There I saw that my gasket had blown through on two cylinders. 

I've since replaced that gasket with a Remflex gasket and everything seems good now....

Or does it?

Now, the Innovate LC-2 box seems to be dead, and as a result I can't see if the car is running lean/rich, whatever. A call to cust service and I'll be pulling that out this weekend to ship back. Projects never end! 

Bonus car pic from a show on the town square the other day.

Autocross today! Had a great time.

Yesterday, in preparation for the event, I decided to burp the cooling system. I parked the car on my inclined driveway, and then jacked the nose in the air. After running the car up to temp, with the rad cap off, it started to burp. I was then able to add another 2 quarts of water to the rad. At the event, it never began to approach overheating, even with the heater turned off.

As for driving, I took my first passenger rides in almost 30 years. Rode with one of the fastest guys in the club. Then we talked through where to make up time and where I'm giving away time. After riding with him, I put down a run that was 4 seconds faster than my first! 
 

https://youtu.be/B5ELI6xVL0g?si=XUT_b0HXdWWnXb75

I probably need to burp my cooling system as well.  It pushes a lot of coolant into the overflow  tank after shutting it down, so I'm thinking there's some air trapped in the thermostat housing.  Squeezing the upper hose while running usually takes care of it, but not this time.  I've seen people drill a small hole in the top of the thermostat cover and fit a bolt with a copper washer, and I have a spare cover.  So maybe I'll try that.

I have not had much of a need to post recently. Had one charity autocross that went well. 

Unfortunately, on the way home, the car developed a sound at 2500 rpms that got louder as I drove more. I looked at all sorts of causes, but kept coming back to my exhaust.

I tested it by plugging the header at the collector, removing the valvegear to close the valves and making and adapter to put an air hose in my o2 sensor port. 

Soapy water on the header produced bubbles where I had a crack in the header and where the gasket was not sealing. 

I have a buddy welding up the crack this week. 

https://youtu.be/lNRrM_wNtdM?si=RLC--qiUy04nGYkY

Well, while the header was cracked, it was not the cause of the sound. 
 

I ended up tearing into the engine to find the source of the noise. First, I dropped the oil pan and found my engine had committed Subaru. At that point (late November) I had to find the source of the glitter. 

Well, I've finally had the opportunity to dig further into this issue. As always life has gotten in the way for a little too long. I did manage to get away long enough one Sunday to autocross a buddy’s turbocharged Ford!

After finding the glitter in the oil pan, I pulled all the caps, one by one, and pulled the front cover. 

In the front cover, the tensioner, chain and wheels all look fine. However, the oil slinger is pretty ground up by the rivet ends on the chain. Has to be the source of the glitter and chips. 

Main bearings and journals are perfect no evidence of abnormal wear or damage. 

Rod bearings and journals were not as fortunate. Journals all look fresh from the machinist. 2-5 bearings show no damage. 

#1 rod bearing had a ‘valley’ carved in it that aligned with the oil hole. The bearing overall was also worn away. Has to be the source of my ‘rod knock’ sound. I reassembled it for the time being with a fresh bearing so I could safely turn over the motor and also do some plastigauge measurements of each journal.

A couple of other notes- I’ve now seen the entire cam and all lobes look perfect. Also, everything was still torqued, and all of my paint witness marks from when I torqued everything were still there.

I hope you can replace what was wrong and clean up the rest.  We had a cam wipe out a whole set of lifters on an autocross TR6, but that took 10 years.