Nobody

Some days you win....some days you don't. I knew this day would come....could've been better-could've been worse:

Buttonwillow Sat:

Race: I qualify 1st in GT1 and am gridded 5th overall. Spec Vipers and GT3 Cup cars in front, a Competition Viper Coupe, Winston Cup?/Trans AM cars + a bunch of single seats and misc. cars behind.

Green flag-immediately almost get rear ended by the Winston car...his fault. Spectators said he jumped on the gas and lost the back end. If I hadn't moved over when I saw a mirror full of iron my day would have ended there. Total anarchy in the first corner and things start to thin out. By the second lap the 500+hp cars were within sight, but moving off in the distance and the next closest car to me was a comfortable 10sec back. Brake for T1, apex, get on the throttle - hit 8000 RPM and BAM! Something in the engine explodes and a puff of white smoke blows through hood vent. Clutch in and all I hear through my helmet is horrible mechanical sounds from the motor.

End of race: Open hood and coil pack #2 Has blown into the hood w/spark plug attached. Dent in hood bracing and the pack split at the bolt. Spark plug had apparently loosened and just exploded out of the cylinder, taking the pack with it. One call to Asura later and he tells me to swap a coil pack out to see if it's just the plug/coil. Fortunately a Fellow S2ki-er (human) lent me a coil pack to test the theory and sure enough--everything ran perfectly (w/new plug). Only issue was there were two S2000s that needed to drive home and only 7 coil packs. Calls to local Honda dealers turned up nothing. Rylan has spares, but via Asura I can't reach him. Epiphany--I have a friend who has an '01!--only prob. is she's 250 miles away.

So...7:30pm I'm at Hertz 30 miles South renting a Taurus. I drive from Bakersfield to San Jose, yoink a coil off a pajama'd friend's car at 11pm, then head home, take a much needed shower, sleep for three and a half hours and then drive back to Buttonwillow.

Arrive at the track 7am, swap out coil only to find that 2/3rds of the threads in the head are completely gone. Thoughts shift from podium victory to just limping it home. I begin packing my shit up and by the time I'm done the race is beginning. Extreme disappointment sets in and only gets worse on my sub 4000 rpm 95 deg. drive back to the bay area. Least I made it back under my own power.

Next step: find a shop I can trust to pull the head and find out the extent of the damage. New engine? Just new head? Anyone ever have the F20 turn into a Spark Plug Mortar?

[IMG]http://www.stifiles.com/gallery/v/trackdays/ncrc06192006/IMG_7330.JPG.html IMG]

cthree

I guess there is a reason for the coil pack cover after all. Sorry about your bad luck but it sounds like you averted total disaster if you were able to get it home under it's own power.

zyr

i thought for a second your title was street racing chronicles.. the funny videos making fun of fnf

jasonw

Sounds like what happened to Voodoo_S2K. I think he helicoiled the head and has a slightly scorched cylinder, which causes some oil usage...

Asura

Worst part is you ALMOST changed plugs before the event, but the local parts store only received 1 from the warehouse instead of 4

I like checking up on plugs every oil change so I know the engine is running, and that they were torqued within the last 3000 miles.

Windscreen

Provided the head threads didn't get super knarfed up, any competent machine shop should be able to heli-coil the plug hole to repair the head. I've seen desperate folks do the repair on engine, using grease on a tap to keep the shavings out of the cylinder, but I'd highly recommend pulling the head. Plus you can then check for any internal damage (wall scoring, or chips stuck down in the top ring land).

Steve

edit - spelling & grammar

JackOlsen

Sorry to hear about the bad weekend. Hopefully, a helicoil will do it and you'll be back in Arnaud's nightmares.

Asura

TimeCert>Helicoil, but I would prefer neither.
I found a shortblock and looks like Ry has a head for you. Whatever you need, it should be no more than 2 days in the hands of someone competent.

Nobody

Sweet. Hopefully I won't need that short block. I'll have to see when I can get my car down to that place by TC to pull the head, unless there's a better candidate to do the work that's cropped up.

Next race is in a few weeks, hopefully I can get this sorted by then. Maybe I could just have a plug welded into the head for good if worse comes to worse!

Asura

If the car gods are in your favor, it will be minor. Either way the head has to come off. Then the question is how long will it sit until you can get the necessary parts.



Aside: Possible explanation why Maxrev only has 8K?