mark kibort

We (I) am racing this weekend in the SCCA ITE regional event. (no scot)

A little lighter field than normal, but a lot of potent competitors. 3 comp coupe vipers, but they might be running in a different class now, the vet, SC S2000, and the 500+hp NSX turbo. there is also the winner of the E0 class in the 24hour of thunderhill showing up in an Evo. should be a hot weekend, so hope the Holbert car survives its 103rd race day!

race time is 2:30pm on Sunday. Qual tomorrow around 3pm.

Mk

Landseer

Good luck, be safe.

Fabio421

Good luck.

Mark, do they ever show your races on speed? Everytime I see SCCA racing on that channel I look for you but I guess it's a different class. Yesterday was Mazda's for awhile and then a class with some 911's, vipers and corvettes. Any chance of seeing one of your races?

mark kibort

They dont show the regional races on speed. I think it would be interesting to make the SCCA ITE series an "all Comer" event that is shown on speed to exhibit the grass roots efforts that is pretty entertaining to watch. If you buy a T1 corvette, you could run in the SCCA nationals which gets some great coverage at the end of the season.

mk

chassis research

Sure would like to see some kind of coverage or at least a video. I like the in car cam; but something from the stands would be great!

mark kibort

Just got back last night, so here is the quick report.

Thunderhill was HOT. over 100 degrees and smokey from all the fires. on Sunday's race, the smoke cleared, but the temps were just as bad. track was real greasy

There was a smaller than usual field, and the usual suspects were there with a few new guys. The NSX turbo who said he ran 1:58 a bunch of times in TT's, a new Panos, and a couple of Comp coupes.
The vet and the blown S2000 took off at the start, along with the red comp coupe viper. another comp couple viper qualfied right behind me, but broke his transmission in another race just before the ITE race.
We all were pretty tight in a row for about 5 laps, so i thought, at least, i would have a good time, as top two cars ran a 2:00ish in qual, while the C5 vet and I were with in a few tenths as usual. behind, we left the nsx , panos and mustangs. the Vet and I started to get rigth on the bumpers of the front two cars, and then I started to overheat. At the same time, it seemed the S2000 and viper started to pick up the pace.
I backed off and secured the 3rd spot in ITE, and after 2 laps the temp got down to mid range and i was able to run a little harder, but thats how it finished. Not very exciting, but fun.

Times were much slower than usual in the race. I would have felt bad about a 2:03, and only a high 2:02 in qual, but the S2000 and Viper Comp Coupe didnt even break 2:02 in the race which is real unusual. (It could have been the heat effecting power or the track was bad, and the later was talked about by everyone in the paddock)


Now the power thing is starting to bug me. I might be temped to change this motor out this week before the next race at Sears over Labor Day weekend. The overheating thing also worries me, as the new motor will have even more HP and heat. However, i am loosing water and dont know where its going. (about 2 pints per race).

Mongo

Are you passing water into the combustion chambers? That's a bit water, and no drips to locate it in order to assume that your car may be burning coolant up along with fuel in the cylinders.

AO

With that amount of water loss, it's enough to be concerned, but probably not enough to really tell where it's coming from during a race. It could be coming from practically anywhere: Rad, hose, water pump, head, etc. But it probably will net get any better.

mark kibort

I can smell the little amount of anti-freeze on start up and warm up, but i cant see any leaks. plugs look fine, and not too clean. Im thinking a slow headgasket leak, as the car never used to overheat in 100degree temp races. hoses all look good. Ill check the plugs again, as this time the car came into the pits and onto a trailer. Yes, trailer! I had my kids with me and we took the Tahoe and slepted in tents at the track! Probably the cheapest race on record more than 3 hours from your house. Free Race entry that I won at the last race, brought all the food, and only bought gas for the tahoe which was 13 gals to get there. (oh yeah, I bought 2 bags of ice, and 4 popsicles for my kids and Rob's = 10 bucks )

mk

Mongo

If you can smell it, it's probably pushing coolant through the expansion tank relief hose, or you may have a leak somewhere at the rear of the engine (i.e. heater valve?) - then again, I don't think your track has a heater valve now, does it??

mark kibort

no heater valve I just have the back of the engine tied directly where the heater valve would go to.

also, when its cold, there is not much pressure, so its kind of odd. when it warms up its ok, and after a race, i dont smell it, but the 2 pints are gone.

dont think its coming out the overflow, as it would leak there, i would think.

mk

Mongo

I had an issue a while back with my 944 where it was pushing coolant out of the reservoir because of a headgasket leak by the water jacket. It was a mystery coolant loss since I couldn't locate any fluid leakage. If you can rig up a catch can to the relief hose coming from the reservoir, you can see if it is pushing coolant out while you drive it.

Mongo

By the way, have you rigged up a cooling system pressure tester to it yet?

Mako 928

MK
After chasing down a external head gasket leak last summer and then finaly pulling the engine, I used a ultra violet flash light that I found at the hardware store. It is only 4" in length which allowed me to get it under the intake. In my garage W/ the lights out the coolant was a bright yellow and I could see exactly where it was leaking. Oil would show up as a darker orange/brown. Great way to pin point leaks.

mark kibort

Here is the Video.
Only the first lap or so. Not much happened after that. Front and rear cam view on this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ase_vATvfR8

http://www.youtube.com/v/ase_vATvfR8