Ok, dammit, I've been sucked into the beerhaven vortex.
Dean, my friend, thank you for taking the time. It’s a long winded tale, to be sure. One of the reasons I do this, and the reason I encourage others to maintain a public build diary on their projects, is that if you put it out there, if you state your position, if you follow through and demonstrate to others one’s commitment, it makes it increasingly difficult to back out.
Muhammad Ali once said,
“It's the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.”With that, Dean, Rob, Graham, Gog’s, Max, Wayno, Charles, Udo, Sparky, Sumo, Grummy, Captthundarr, everybody, I’m asking you to go to your fridge, crack one open, and join me in some commiseration.
Wisdonm and I got a call from Fordboy – running late, lost in Waukesha, Wisconsin – not an unusual situation for even former residents like myself. He suggested I get the transmission and rear end up to temp to minimize one variable for the tuning session.
Spooled it up, climbed with the typical effort of a cold engine, cleared out, spun it really tight, and it started to miss a bit.
Clean cut.
Fordboy shows, he pulled the plugs, I pulled the valve cover.
#1 intake adjuster had opened up. Our thinking at the time was that it was just an oversight, so I set the lash, tightened it down, and while I was doing that, Fordboy changed out a set of jets – it was running rich on the A/F meter.
At this time, Wisdonm noticed the rear tire had gone all but completely flat. We aired it up, and decided to monitor it.
Started it up, and Fordboy could tell something wasn’t right, and cued me to shut it down. A second restart filled the room with oil smoke from the exhaust.
He ran a compression test – nothing in hole 1. Checking hole 2, a quick crank-over splattered him with oil from hole 1.
The discussion was see if we could do anything there at the shop or take it home. I decided dyno day was over, and we put the Midget on the trailer.
It was time to stop for burgers –
We got it to the Pommy Performance Playhouse, off loaded it and pulled the head -
Cylinders 1 and 2 had about ¼ inch of oil in them – a function of a shared intake port, I’m fairly certain.
Removing the valves got us this – #1 intake -
It’s stuck – really stuck. Looking closer, and ignoring the galling from the vice trying to remove it, note the wear marks and crack –
This is the result of a clearance issue I overlooked. I’m grateful that I have vertical valves, because it hit squarely on the piston, and hopefully didn’t damage it – a canted valve engine would have holed the piston -
This is why I have become insistent on testing. In 2010, I took it out and ran the 130 club, and tripped the lights at 22.55156 mph. Last year, I ran the last event at Maxton, where I clocked a 91.91283, and discovered problems after I returned. If I had taken the same approach this year as I had in the last two, it’s likely that I would never have completed my rookie pass.
Dean, I agree with the sentiment – get it on the salt – it’s long past due. But with every advance and every setback, everything I learn and every bullet I duck, I am more convinced that this car will eventually perform as I expect it should.
“It's the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.”The Midget may not take the record, but when this car hits the salt, know that I will have done everything in my power to have built the fastest damned stock bodied, naturally aspirated, five-port, one liter Midget ever to hit the salt.
Period.
Cheers!
Topic: Milwaukee Midget (Read 3299917 times)