On fire at 200 MPH

[donpearsall]

I was all set to make some good runs at BUB. Had to beat those New Zealanders! I had modified my fairing to be more slippery, fabricated a water tank to take the place of the radiator, had a new valve job, etc, ect. On my first run on the long course (second day - wet salt) I was doing pretty good and felt that I could make some good speed. But a rod bolt had other plans for me. The rod let go right at the end of the run and sprayed flaming oil all over the turbo. Oh well, there is always next year. Here is a video of the run.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zz-lIVht4Mc

Don

[Seldom Seen Slim]

I've got photos of the bellypan full of shrapnel.  Watching the smoke roll and bits of piees fly up through the view as you wander back and forth as you wait for fire and rescue hurts.  Glad you're okay, Don.

[John Noonan]

Don,

Get a hold of me for parts to repair it.

Glad you are OK.!!

John

[donpearsall]

Thanks Jon and John. I will do a tear down soon and let you know what I need. Case, crank, rods at a minimum. The cylinder and head are probably OK.
Don

[joea]

..........uh......good luck with the cylinder and head.........

not calling you a liar.....just a sincere well wishing......on those
two items....

Joe

[John Noonan]

Cylinder, cases, head, crank, pride and wallet are all hurt..trust me.

I have the pistons, rods, crank and other parts..

AA has it..

J

[Flyboy]

Great video. Really enjoyed it. Good suspense. Glad you're okay.

[DahMurf]

Glad you're ok! Thanks for posting the video. It was kinda cool that you didn't turn it off after you stopped. Sorry bout the fire & hope you can rebuild. I'm not sure I would have been that calm with my bike on fire. I think I'da been trying to throw salt on it or would have purposely knocked it over or something! LOL

...I'm absolutely not criticizing here, just trying to learn & understand from someone who hasn't experienced this sort of thing... but I have a question, you know the whole keyboard jockey kind of thing. I found myself yelling at the video to kill the engine when the smoke started getting thick so I was wondering, was I the only one thinking that? Would that have been an appropriate course of action? Any reason you didn't kill the engine? I mean I imagine you were still trying to ride/control the bike and we can only see what the video shows so I'm just wondering. Any other constructive thoughts or things we can learn from this?

(I'm of the mindset of trying to learn from others and to not have to do this all myself to learn! )

Thank you for sharing this!
Debbie

[Beairsto Racing]

Awesome video Don! Thanks for sharing. Glad your'e ok and safe to race another day.

-Scott

[donpearsall]

Debbie, I don't know if you are joking about killing the engine or what. It was already dead. Quite dead. It had a rod sticking through the crankcase. After a few seconds I pulled in the clutch tried to shift to neutral, but it was stuck in sixth so I just kept the clutch in and coasted to a stop.
Don

[DahMurf]

No I am serious. I'll have to watch it again from home and see why I thought it was still running. Likely it was based on what I heard? I don't imagine it would "run" much in that condition, but I was also considering what might still be pumping.

Ok, I'll post back after I can watch/listen to it again...
Thanks!

[Glen]

Deb, all of the noise after it blew was parts relocating them selves in the crank case. The tranny was in control at that time. Luck was it didn,t lock up the drive tire.

[saltwheels262]

don,

sorry to hear of your misfortune , glad
you're ok.

what brand/ type rod bolts were in motor?
do you know why they failed?

thanks,
franey

[donpearsall]

Franey,
I had Falicon rods in the bike. At the time I installed them, they were supposed to be the best thing for my engine. Since then I have heard people say that Carrillo is the strongest/best. As for what made that bolt fail, I guess it was the stress of 4 seasons of racing. The total hours on the rods was miniscule - estimate about 6 -10 running hours with a few minutes each run at 28-30lbs boost and over 10000 RPM. You would think that rods designed for racing could take that. But break they do. Just look at the survival rate in drag racing - not too long. LSR is a lot easier on an engine than drag racing. So I have no idea if the bolt had a defect, or if the lifespan is just not that long.

Don