LeMons Recap - Tunachuckers Ferociously Flog a Ford at CMP

Driving to work the morning after a race weekend is always a bit surreal. One's street car generally drives much differently than the track car, and one must continually remind themselves that the other drivers are now much less focused on the task of driving and more concerned with thinking about what they're going to make for dinner. Or talking on the phone. While driving my Volvo 240 wagon in to work that morning, it felt really slow, and the steering seemed overly sensitive. That should give you an idea about what it’s like to race a 1975 Ford LTD Landau.

Trying to remember the details of this race weekend, in which so much transpired, is tough. But here’s a crack at it. If I forgot any details which later come to light, I’ll edit as appropriate.

THURSDAY, April 27th, 2017

Hope springs eternal. Well, hope can spring any damn way it wants to, I was heading to Raleigh to load up the race car at Matt's house. Hauling ass in my K3500, towing the car hauler from DC down I-95, then I-85, first stop was The Southern-most Wegmans for race fuel:

pg

I passed this clusterberkeley just north of Raleigh, which tied up traffic for a couple of miles.

Things were going fine until just before the North Carolina line. Stopped at a Lowes (for gasoline, because 454) at Exit 13, the starter on the truck just clicked and clicked. I tried jumping the starter with cables, and I tried defeating the clutch switch. Nothing. Finally, 3 guys emptying the garbage cans at the pumps helped push the tow rig out from the pumps and onto a slight downhill, where I pop started it with the clutch.

In my haste to get going again, I forgot I’d left a couple of toolboxes on the tailgate, which quickly deposited themselves onto the road as the truck left the gas station.

It took another 10 or 15 minutes to clean up that mess, and then I was back on the road, phoning ahead to Matt to please pick up a new starter and battery cable for the tow pig.

Matt wrote me later: "Tough to get any work done in the office, too excited about the upcoming race. Frequent texts from Mike on the way down are not helping with the lack of focus.

Leave work around 3pm and get an ominous text from Mike around 3:30pm “Feel like doing a starter on a big stupid truck?” Not a great start to the weekend. "

At Matt’s house, I tried the truck’s starter again and, miraculously, it now worked, so we decided to pack the spare starter with us and focus on the race car, which needed work before we could load it onto the trailer. We changed the oil from the break-in stuff to the race Mobil 1 15W-50, installed the new radiator and lower radiator hose, filled it up with water, and fired it up.

(Matt added: "This involved more work than it sounds like, as the radiator needed to be modified to accept the fan shroud, and the lower radiator house basically needed to be fabricated from random sections of pipe and hose (and six hose clamps). As Rob and John pointed out on the radiator hose as soon as they saw it… “Way to add six points of failure, guys!”)

What's that noise?

The 460 in the LTD was a fresh build, and while we'd found a cheap, purportedly "high performance" camshaft for it, we had cheaped out and put the stock valve covers back on the engine. "That noise" was the rocker arms tap-tap-tapping on the inside of those stamped steel valve covers.

I removed both covers and found witness marks like the ones above- 8 of them. With no spare covers on hand, and not much time, I took a hammer and a block of wood and domed the valve covers over each mark. One particularly motivated rocker had actually made a small crack in one of the covers, which we dealt with in a professional, not-at-all backwoods-mechanic-esque manner:

That little issue behind us, we wolfed down the Wegmans subs and threw the car and race gear onto the trailer- in the dark, as is customary. Though it was nearly 11PM by then, I needed a few beers to settle down enough to fall asleep. But, we were packed, the car seemed to be 100 percent, and we were back on schedule for the weekend.

I have a feeling this is not going to end well

I bet that starter will work if you clank it with a hammer

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote: I bet that starter will work if you clank it with a hammer

I had tried that in the Lowes parking lot, to no avail. GM had this wonderful idea in planting the starter right under the exhaust manifold, no? My wife's Camaro (SBC) is the same- and has hot start/ slow crank issues. As I told her, GM quite frequently does things well, but when they screw up, they often are loathe to admit it.

She replied, "Sounds like GM is run by a bunch of Germans."

FRIDAY

Hope…still springing. After a quick checkout of our soon-to-be rolling E36 M3show, we motored on out of Raleigh, pausing briefly for a Dunkin Donuts breakfast.

We picked up a rental RV in Sanford, NC

and roughly 2 uneventful hours later our caravan landed at Carolina Motorsports Park, just south of Kershaw, SC. Being nearly 1 o’clock, Rob (who was already at the track when we arrived) and Marilyn made lunch while we unpacked the car and set up camp. McCall and John arrived a bit later and joined us. The car sailed through tech, we had a few laughs with Judge Phil discussing our super-cheaty mods, and we got Class C, zero laps, anyway.

While CMP offers a Friday “Test ‘N Tune” track day, we decided not to avail ourselves of that $200 option, and instead hauled the car to Jefferson-Pageland Dragway about a half an hour away.

After waiting what seemed like an interminably long time for the local yokels (who were by far the most entertaining part of the entire evening)...

...to get their act together and open up the strip, we made 3 very terrible passes which we finally managed to blame on the transmission, which couldn’t make up its mind what gear to be in. McCall ended up with the best ET, a 10.9 second 1/8 mile time, running the whole track in 2nd gear. John ran around 12 seconds, while I ran an 11-something run that was described by Matt as “Like an old lady leaving the church parking lot.” At least I made a semi-respectable burnout. Though I did lose heads-up to a stock-looking (but clearly cheaty!)GMC Jimmy.

We should also note that Rob made several “fast” passes in Marilyn’s new Mercedes wagon. Easily smoking the LTD on each pass. Rob also was scolded by track “officials”, getting a note on the back of his time slip to “TURN OFF A/C!” Nothing like drag racing in the full comfort of a large German wagon.

Also of hilarious note, this truck attempted to spray his way down the strip, which resulted in a done-blow'd-the-heck-up rear diff. Lacking any real tow equipment, the track used a set of harbor Freight wheel dollies and an ATV to drag him clear of the lanes.

Tails somewhat between our legs, we hauled the transmission-crippled LTD back to CMP. The kickdown linkage on the C6 was bound up, so the decision was made to just remove it (the 460, with its prodigious torque, only needs top gear on the road course, anyway). Something still seemed off, though. "Park" had been acting like Neutral since the last race due to damage we'd inflicted to the parking pawl when we slapped this C6 in about a year ago. Now, some of the other gears were acting funky/ erratic, but it would still go into 'D', and that's all we really cared about. We gobbled down some delicious Jambalaya (that Marilyn whipped up for us) and sacked out in the RV.

SATURDAY

Hope got its ass kicked today.

Race morning was relatively laid back for us as a team. The drivers’ meeting was shockingly short… like 6 minutes long, so there wasn’t much to worry about before hitting the track. The race got off right at 10AM. Matt had first stint. It was hot, the cool suit was sort-of not-working great, but the car fired right off and went into an indeterminate forward gear. For a bit over an hour, Matt made good, quick laps. Seeing as how there were only about 60 cars at the race, traffic was light and yellow flags were nearly non-existent.

Matt Reports: “Managed to get the car onto the track right at 10am. Made several laps under yellow while waiting for the other cars to get on the track. The LTD seemed to be running OK. Temperatures were OK, oil pressure was OK. Cool suit wasn’t working, but it was 10AM and still “kinda” cool out. The green flag drops right as I hit the homestretch, and somehow the cars in front of me didn’t see it. Manage to pass 3 cars right off the bat with the gobs of 460 POWA.

About ¼ of the way into the second lap, I mash the accelerator coming out of a turn and the engine REVS, but the car goes nowhere… the transmission is slipping… BAD. I let off the gas, press it down again… nothing but revs and noise… no forward acceleration. At this point I’m trying to determine if the car has enough momentum to make it to the pits and not have to get towed off the track. I’m pretty much crawling at this point, and I try to shift all the way down to 1. The shifter feels “wrong” the whole way down, and back up to what I think is N. I didn’t want to go too high for fear of hitting Reverse. At some point of going down and back up the transmission seemed to find second gear. After shaking things out for a lap or two in 2nd gear, making sure brakes and tires were happy, and getting comfortable in the car. I started getting used to racing up to 4600 RPM or so on each of the straight-aways before needing to back off the throttle for fear of over-revving the engine.

A few laps later, and this is going OK… this car is FAST. The motor was pulling harder than it ever had before. The brakes felt great… and the handling… well… we ACTUALLY put enough air in the tires (40 psi) before getting on the track this time. It was handling as well as a 4,000 lb. car was ever going to handle. Passing everyone in C class, and lots of cars in B class was no problem. For some reason all these other small cars are braking at markers 5 and 4. The LTD can brake at 3, and pull with more power coming out of the turns… so long slow cars!

Keeping one eye on the clock (needed to come off the track at 11:30), one eye on the gauges, and one eye on the track, I continued making very fun laps for over an hour. I was thinking in my head that all I needed to tell Rob about was the transmission that is stuck in 2nd gear, and otherwise to not touch a thing. Then at around 11:10 or 11:15, just after coming off the front stretch I glance down and see the temperature gage is climbing… QUICKLY. The needle is on its way past 230º and still rising. I immediately switch on the electric fan and let off the gas. Waving the other cars by, I slowly circle the rest of the track. The temp needle keeps climbing… up over 250º (the highest marker on the gage), and back around the other side again. No point in pulling off to the pits at this temperature… shutting this motor off now will destroy it. I make another SLOW lap with the “PIT SIGNAL” horn blowing. The needle finally starts to turn counter clockwise, getting back down to around 250º. 250º seems like it’s as low as its going to go. On the 3rd cool down lap the temps won’t go any lower, so I pull into the pits fearing the worst. “ (end of Matt’s report)

Matt brought the LTD in with the Temperature needle pegged. He left it idling in the pits while we popped the hood, but as soon as we noticed the problem- the fan belt had thrown off- we had him kill the engine and began dousing the radiator with tap water to cool it off. Of course, none of the spare belts we had fit, so John ran to the NAPA to grab a correct one. Meanwhile, we stuck the old belt back on so we could just start the car and get coolant circulating, at least.

And then we found out that the starter…wouldn’t. Likely fallen victim to old age and being cooked under 460 cubic inches worth of un-cooled explosions, we rapped on it with a hammer a few times and managed to get the solenoid to kick out and spin the engine enough to get it to fire. With fresh water circulating through it, the temps came down, and no damaged seemed to be done. When John arrived with the new belt, we cut the engine off, swapped belts, and got Rob into his seat to start the second stint of the day. This would be the point where we realized the car had no gears other than forward..in 2nd. Pushing the car out of the pits to get it on to the track was just as much fun as it sounds.

As McCall said, “The transmission is in drive, drive, drive, drive, drive, and, uh, drive.”

After Rob did his time, McCall suited up to go fuel. So McCall and Matt go to the “TRACK PUMPS” to fuel up and after much monkeying around realize that the pumps be broken. We leave the track to go to the nearby gas station to fuel up… except the pumps are full of other cars. McCall gets as close as he can to one of the pumps… still about 5 feet too far away…. while Matt runs in to turn the pumps on by giving the proprietor a credit card. I come back out to still see McCall too far away and realize… D’oh… NO REVERSE. This transmission is going to take some getting used to. We were in a bad spot. The car was too far in front of the pumps, we have no reverse, and we are afraid to turn the car off because it hasn’t wanted to start ALL day. Matt can’t push it backwards because we can’t turn it off and there is no neutral. McCall lets his foot off the brake and it rolls forward more. McCall uses some quick thinking and great driving to take the car on an off-road adventure around the back of the gas station, coming around to a different pump. We fuel up and McCall heads back to the track.

McCall made some good, clean, stately laps and came in to pit after a little over an hour … and then the starter died for good. No amount of rapping, tapping, banging, or swearing would revive the deceased starter motor, so we swapped in the spare (used) one, and checked the transmission fluid.

Did I mention that checking the transmission fluid is hazardous? Oh E36 M3, the car is in drive, drive, drive, drive, drive, and drive.

Since Matt, Rob and McCall had successfully managed to avoid breaking the car (too badly), the team decided, reluctantly, to hand me the tiller for a stint. We tanked up with a full load of 93 octane, and I eased the monster around the pits and onto the track right as the clock hit 3 o’clock.

I was astounded by how…empty the track felt. It was wide open. And, immediately, I realized that I had no idea how to drive. I mashed the loud pedal on the straights, and hit the binders at the first brake marker on every turn, trying to re-acclimate my brain and limbs to circumnavigating CMP. Not realizing the transmission was still stuck in second, I accidentally banged the big block up over 5300 RPM before discovering the issue. Very fortunately, I clicked the shifter up and down and eventually the slushbox landed in what felt like top gear. I punched it, and the car roared off!

Soon after I entered the track, a Kia (I believe it was Mock Grass Racing) passed me and I followed him for a few laps, gradually gaining confidence. At first, I was only able to keep up with him because of the huge power advantage of the LTD; the Kia would lose me in the twisties, and the LTD would come roaring back up its bumper on the straights. I eventually managed to pass the Kia, and held him off for a few laps. Then he passed me, I smoothed out my driving some and a few laps later passed him and made it stick. After those first 20 minutes or so, I found a decent enough line and started really cranking out the laps. The car felt good. There was all the power in the world (Because 460 Big Block) coming out of the turns- only a handful of cars could touch the LTD in the straights- and enough brakes that I eventually got down to the #2 or 3 markers before using them. I found decent lines through most turns, let the E36 Class A cars past and duked it out with the slower Class B cars, while annihilating everything in Class C. At one point, just to see how fast it would go, I kept my foot in it past my self-imposed 4500 RPM limiter and tickled 5000 RPM before heading through The Kink, which I later calculated to be just at 109 mph. Most laps I kept to a 4500 RPM limit- 100 mph or so. My best lap turned out to be in the 2:06 range, which would have been very Class B competitive if I hadn’t lost oil pressure…

Yeah. After about an hour and a half, just as I was starting to think about doing a cool down lap and coming in, I noticed the engine significantly down on power. I checked the gauges- no oil pressure. Immediately I slowed down, idled around the track the rest of the way, brought it in and shut it off. The Temperature needle showed 200, which wasn’t bad, and the engine wasn’t smoking or making odd noises.

The decision was made to remove the distributor and try spinning the pump with a power drill- engine off. (Thumbs up to Ford for using a hex bit on the oil pump shaft instead of a stupid slot like on a Chevy.) This still resulted in no oil pressure. Figuring either the pump drive shaft was broken, or the pump was bad, we knew what we had to do: Remove the engine.

John and Rob had to leave for other obligations that evening, so the task fell to McCall, Matt, and myself, with help from Ron (who camped with us the whole weekend, and acted as team photographer. Thanks, Ron!) and the occasional burst of effort from well-wishers who seemed to hang around the car port until midnight or so. (We had music cranking and LED lights blaring to keep us awake.)

The next 10 hours were a slog of sleep-deprived, unfathomable sadness, punctuated by making corn (slowly, in the RV- that stove took forever to boil water!) and eating some delicious BBQ (courtesy Terminally Confused). Because the transmission had been giving trouble since the drag race, we decided to yank the whole drivetrain and swap transmissions while we dropped the oil pan to see what the problem was with the engine. As it turned out, the oil pump pickup (which is press-fit into the pump) had fallen off of the oil pump, which had caused the lack of oil pressure.

We stabbed the pickup back into place, and tack welded it in for good measure. We almost grounded the welder to the engine hoist, which could have been unfortunate for many, many reasons, one of which being that I was laying on top of it…

Put the pan back on the engine, and yanked the 200 pound caput C6 off the 700 pound 460, and wrestled the spare C6 on. Ugh... this was awful. The bell housing refused to pull up to the engine block. We bolted them up at least twice before finding the perfect alignment. The observation was made that automatic transmissions and torque converters are witchcraft. Oh, and we dropped the tailshaft on someone’s big toe. Ouch.

Around 2AM everything was back together and we took a quick, slow drive around the slumbering paddock to make sure the car would at least move under its own power again. It did, so we called it a night. I drank a beer or two, and must have spent a half an hour in the shower of the RV rinsing, soaping, and repeating before crashing in my bunk.

Dang man. I've replaced an FE big block's oil pump without removing the engine. Loosen the motor mounts and prop the engine up a few inches and you can get the pan off no problem. It doesn't help you this time but maybe next time.

dculberson wrote: Dang man. I've replaced an FE big block's oil pump without removing the engine. Loosen the motor mounts and prop the engine up a few inches and you can get the pan off no problem. It doesn't help you this time but maybe next time.

We thought about that, however the 385-series engine in the cars have a front sump that the oil pump pickup goes into. And the crossmember is right there. We'd have had to lift the engine a good foot to gain clearance, which would have necessitated doing everything else attendant to removing it. Plus we had to swap transmissions, which is usually easier with the engine + trans out of the car.

In reply to volvoclearinghouse:

Come to think of it, I was doing it in a '68 Country Sedan, so the crossmember might have been different. In my case it only required a 2x4 between the motor mounts and the engine, but it might be very different in a later LTD.

SUNDAY

Hope regains (some) lost ground.

With the green flag flying at 9AM, not much sleep was achieved. Matt got motivated slightly before I did; I think I stumbled out of the RV around 7:30 or so, chugged a water and Gatorade, tossed some random food (it might have been some cheese puffs and a water-logged granola bar) into my mouth, and started work on the car. We had to swap the front tires, which were badly chunked, and install new rear brake pads, which were worn down to the warning chirper. Matt went out onto the track first. We felt somewhat relieved, and ate a little (real) breakfast.

Around 10 minutes later, the LTD, like a rotten burrito in the toilet, reappeared in our pits. The car had quickly filled with smoke, and Matt tapped all of the safety belts… preparing to pull the car behind a tire barrier and bail out if needed. The corner workers were all giving him the “it’s you who are on fire!” look. After about a half lap most of the smoke dissipated, and it began to smell like burned ATF in the car. After 2 laps, figuring there probably wasn’t anything on the car hot enough to ignite ATF, he figured he would be safe driving back to the pits. Matt reported that he had made a good lap or two, and then a horrible shaking started above about 60 mph.

We jacked the car up and noted the differential was coated with oil. Did we destroy yet another 9" rear? Nope- the C6 was actively leaking transmission fluid. Closer inspection showed the output shaft section of the case cracked all around the perimeter. Yep- we broke two C6 transmissions in one weekend.

None of us had ever peeked inside a C6 before, and we had no idea if the rear case section could be swapped on the car. The Internets seemed to believe that it could not. Shows what they know! Undaunted, we unbolted the rear case from the transmission we’d swapped the night before and found it came off easily.

Eagerly, we swapped it with the cracked one on the car, filled up the transmission, and sent Rob out. He came back in after 5 minutes or so claiming the car was shaking horribly, and, not wanting to break it, he brought it in. We checked the case and it was fine.

Heads were scratched. Opinions offered. Minutes ticked by. With about 4 hours of racing left in the weekend, I decided we should try swapping driveshafts, thinking the one in the car might have thrown a weight (since we didn’t see one on it, and it was unlikely to have not had one, being a Ford product of the 1970s). The spare driveshaft did indeed have weights on it, about 5 of them. We swapped them and sent Matt back out, fingers crossed.

Amazingly, it worked. Matt made a full stint and reported the car was back to full strength.

Matt Report: “The car drove really well the 2nd stint. It was nice having a Drive gear, as I could actually get the car up to speed on the straights without fear of over revving the engine. Traffic was super light, and I was able to enjoy time trying to perfect my driving line as I made many laps around the track.”

We offered John a stint, as he had yet to drive the car all weekend, but he deferred, saying we’d all hammered on this thing, we deserved to enjoy it. McCall drove next, and apart from hitting some rumble strips, dislodging the exhaust, and apparently knocking off a plug wire, had no issues. In fact, he must have driven for a while on 7 cylinders, and reportedly it still pulled like a freight train. My finely-tuned ear detected the miss when he brought the car in, and the offending loose wire was shoved back on the plug.

Rob went out for the last stint and took the checkered flag. He had to come in once to clear a fogged windshield; it rained briefly but torrentially and from the windshield one would swear he was making out with his wife in the car. Otherwise, the LTD made laps, finished, and drove onto the trailer under its own power. Despite our repeated and significant trials and tribulations, we did not win any celebratory hardware at the awards ceremony. So there wasn’t much left to do but shake off the gear, cram it into the cars, and head off on our respective vectors homeward bound.

Nice!

I noticed the LTD on Roadkill's article, you guys made the cover photo. Been waiting for an update...

The LTD was pretty quick out there. I forget which day it was but I was chasing you and a P71 battling it out. I was laughing watching both cars go 2 wide in a turn then power away from me. Will you guys be at Thompson in Aug?

In reply to PseudoSport:

That was me battling the P71. He was a bit better set up for cornering (and lighter ) but I had all the power in the straight, so we battled for some time. That was hella fun. What car were you in?

I don't think we'll make Thompson. With 2 kids and our team scattered from Maryland to South Carolina, the one CMP race is all we're planning for this year. Mrs. VCH says I might be able to do some A + D, though.

I was in the white and green 280Z. It was fun chasing you guys and trying to find a clean way around. I've been following the engine build thread and wanted to stop by and say hi but I saw you guys were kinda busy Saturday night and I didn't want to bother you. CMP is a hike for us from MA but maybe we'll be back next year.

PseudoSport wrote: I was in the white and green 280Z. It was fun chasing you guys and trying to find a clean way around. I've been following the engine build thread and wanted to stop by and say hi but I saw you guys were kinda busy Saturday night and I didn't want to bother you. CMP is a hike for us from MA but maybe we'll be back next year.

This the two of you?

In reply to NOHOME:

Sure looks like it! That Datsun was quick and well-driven.

POST RACE ANALYSIS

I’ll start with the bad. The following is a chronological list of the E36 M3 we broke on the car: 1. Transmission 2. Fan belt 3. Starter 4. Oil pump pickup 5. Transmission 6. Driveshaft

We also went through one set of $25 rear brake pads and (2) $100 tires.

Of the 9 possible hours of track time we could have gotten on Saturday, we managed about 4.5. Of the 6 possible hours of track time we could have gotten on Sunday, we managed about 4.
So, we were on the track 8.5 hours out of a maximum possible 15.

I got about 1.75 Hours of track time, all Saturday.

Matt, Rob, and McCall each got a little over an hour both days, 2.25 hours total each.

John got 0 time (by choice).

Good driving all around. ZERO BLACK FLAGS. I’ll say that again. ZERO BLACK FLAGS! ALSO the car NEVER died on the track, which means no slow tows back to the pits… that might be a first for us.

NO black flags! NO tows! Even when the car had zero oil pressure, it made it all the way around the track and back into the pits. Credit Mobil1 15W-50 and big Dearborn bearings with loose tolerances for that.

Another team captain quipped, "if we'd lost oil pressure on our Honda, it would have scattered across the track. This thing just drove back into the pits, they stuck the pickup back on, and then went back out the next day, running just as well."

I have no idea how much gas we used, but I’d guess around 85 gallons. The big 460 is thirsty. Glug, Glug.

I had the fast lap at 2:06. The car was competitive in class, at least as far as lap times go.

The RV made for a much more comfortable experience. That may have been the highlight of the weekend. That thing was nicer than my house.

Recon1342 wrote: Nice! I noticed the LTD on Roadkill's article, you guys made the cover photo. Been waiting for an update...

Since the Roadkill website is atrociously organized and nearly impossible to navigate, here's the link to the article:

Roadkill - 24 Hours of LeMons CMP Spring 2017 "Southern Discomfort"

PseudoSport wrote: I've been following the engine build thread and wanted to stop by and say hi but I saw you guys were kinda busy Saturday night and I didn't want to bother you.

"Kinda busy"...understatement of the week.

Having done this for a dozen or so races, we're used to folks stopping by to socialize while we're spleen-deep in burned axle grease. No worries. Be forewarned, however, that you may be recruited to help when we need to push the car in and out of the carport.

volvoclearinghouse wrote: POST RACE ANALYSIS I’ll start with the bad. The following is a chronological list of the E36 M3 we broke on the car: 1. Transmission 2. Fan belt 3. Starter 4. Oil pump pickup 5. Driveshaft 6. Transmission

IMHO, FYP. Seeing the second trans failure- it's really likely that the driveshaft lost a weight, which caused the output of the trans to break like that.

Good that you fixed it quickly.

I am in Raleigh now, and my best friend and I would love to come out and check out or help support someone elses race effort while we have not currently invested in our own crap can race car.

Depending on the situation I could even bring out my new to me 19ft hybrid trailer

STRONGLY recommend you pull the pan and check those bearings............

In reply to oldeskewltoy:

When we had the pan off to fix the pickup, I grabbed each big end bearing and moved it back and forth. None of them seemed to have any more play than they had when I'd put the engine together. Yes, this is subjective.

Hoever, there was only a small bit of metal in the pan (maybe a dozen small pieces, about what you'd expect) and the oil pressure afterwards was identical- 50 psi cold, and 25 or so hot (at idle).

I may pull the pan anyway, to make sure the pickup "fix" held, and while I'm at it I'll pull some big end caps and have a peek...

If the oil pressure is the same as it was before, I'd say berk it and run it until it explodes. If you're in there, pull a cap and see how it looks. It'll probably be pretty fine.

Whaahooo! Glad to hear this car was out there and running! And you persevered despite a few bumps... Sounds like fun!