This was the season finale for the club, with 3 races consisting of cars from all the different series' mixed together.
Qualifying
Heavy fog meant qualifying was delayed by 3&1/2 hours. When we finally got underway, it was pretty hectic on track with 42 cars entered in the event. I was building the speed, re-learning the lines and getting ready to really go for it, when on lap 5 someone’s engine blew up, leaving an oil slick for 400 metres. So that was that, no one was going to go any quicker and I was lucky not to go off when I first hit the oil. Qualified 14th (7th in Class) with a 2:23.31
Race 1
Great start, making up a place or two on the first lap. The safety car was deployed due to a start line incident and on the restart, the lead car made a pigs ear of it, backing up the pack when he should have been accelerating (as the rest of us were!). I had to brake to avoid rear-ending the car in front, whereupon I was passed by the two cars behind me, before the start line! I passed one of them a few corners later, then clipped the exit kerb coming onto the Revett Straight and lost all power. Pulled onto the grass and awaited recovery. Post race investigation found that the standard inertia fuel cut-off switch had tripped due to the vibration of the kerb. Tie-wrapped a rubber grommet over it to stop it happening again. DNF Fastest Lap: N/A
Race 2
Starting from the back of the grid (35th place), I had a lot of ground to make up, with a horde of Toyota MR2’s in front. Good start, made up 6 or 8 places by the first corner. Continued making my way through the traffic, passing 19 cars by the time I reached the Bombhole, whereupon my engine expired. Smoking like a Red Arrow, I immediately pulled onto the grass to avoid dropping oil. DNF Fastest Lap: N/A
Race 3:
DNS. Put the car on the trailer, watched the race and went home.
#94: Re: GTi Circuit Racer - 2015 Tricolore Trophy Author: Addaz, Location: SuffolkPosted: Thu Nov 05, 2015 5:26 pm ---- Saw this on facebook, gutted for you mate
Just saying though, 2.23?! Thats crazy fast for a 206! My brothers BMW only manages a 2.14!
Then the E36s with an even more money spent only manage 2.11s
Very impressed is all i have to say!
#95: Re: GTi Circuit Racer - 2015 Tricolore Trophy Author: Squashedfish, Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2016 9:36 am ---- Is the engine repaired now?
#96: Re: GTi Circuit Racer - 2015 Tricolore Trophy Author: razza987, Location: NorfolkPosted: Sat Oct 15, 2016 9:33 pm ----
Squashedfish wrote:
Is the engine repaired now?
Short answer: No
Here's a few pics of what I found when I finally stripped the engine in May.
#97: Re: GTi Circuit Racer - 2015 Tricolore Trophy Author: Sim, Location: West CountryPosted: Sat Oct 15, 2016 9:42 pm ---- Wow don't see that everyday
Heat damage or cambelt? Real pity mate.., but what's next for you in store?
#98: Re: GTi Circuit Racer - 2015 Tricolore Trophy Author: razza987, Location: NorfolkPosted: Sat Oct 15, 2016 9:44 pm ----
#99: Re: GTi Circuit Racer - 2015 Tricolore Trophy Author: razza987, Location: NorfolkPosted: Sat Oct 15, 2016 10:00 pm ---- Where did the piston go? No idea!
The good to come out of this? I found out the engine had a lightened flywheel fitted.
And the bad? The Newman cams were damaged when the lifters disintegrated. I was planning to re-use these in the next engine.
#100: Re: GTi Circuit Racer - 2015 Tricolore Trophy Author: razza987, Location: NorfolkPosted: Sat Oct 15, 2016 10:12 pm ---- Within weeks of the engine blowing up I'd bought a 180 engine off Ebay, complete with inlet and exhaust manifolds, starter, alternator and PS pump. Manifolds to be sold, the rest are useful spares.
After the initial removal of ancillaries and manifolds, months passed until I did any more work on the new engine. Did a compression test and found low compression on cyl 1 & 2 (annoyed!!). So I removed the head, couldn't see anything untoward but had a lot of carbon build up:
#101: Re: GTi Circuit Racer - 2015 Tricolore Trophy Author: razza987, Location: NorfolkPosted: Sat Oct 15, 2016 10:16 pm ---- An hour with some gunk and a soft brush and I was left with this:
#102: Re: GTi Circuit Racer - 2015 Tricolore Trophy Author: razza987, Location: NorfolkPosted: Sat Oct 15, 2016 10:23 pm ---- I've had a lot of delays with the head due to personal problems minimising how much time I can spend on it and getting the inlet cam pulley bolt undone was a b***h! Had to make a homemade hernia bar to clamp the socket in place while I undid it with a breaker bar, with 3 sets of mole grips clamping the cam.
#103: Re: GTi Circuit Racer - 2015 Tricolore Trophy Author: razza987, Location: NorfolkPosted: Sat Oct 15, 2016 10:39 pm ---- This week I had the cams checked by Newman. Turns out they are basically 306 gti-6 Ph2 spec, 264* duration, 10.66mm lift. They think they can be repaired, so that would be good. Strangely enough, I bought a pair of 306 gti-6 Ph2 Newman cams back in July. The problem with these cams in the 180 head is that there isn't enough clearance for the lobes to rotate without hitting the head casting where the lifters are. The 138 head has loads of room here in comparison. So the 180 head is going to need a bit of machining to create clearance, I just need to decide whether to take the head to a machine shop or do it myself with a die grinder.
The plan is to use the same cams as before, but in a 180 engine. This will give me a stronger bottom end so we can rev it a bit more to maximise the cams. 200bhp should be achievable without stressing the engine too much, I don't plan to rev past the standard 7300rpm rev limit.
#104: Re: GTi Circuit Racer - 2015 Tricolore Trophy Author: Edward, Location: In the garagePosted: Sun Oct 16, 2016 8:15 am ---- So that's an internally standard 138 engine revving to 6900 rpm? This is why I'm slightly worried about mine going to 7300rpm but I guess road work is slightly less stressful than track work. At least your rods stayed intact, could the piston have got a little hot on that cylinder causing it to break up?
That 180 engine has the floating crank pulley doesn't it? Is it not a good opportunity to go for some longer duration cams now?
#105: Re: GTi Circuit Racer - 2015 Tricolore Trophy Author: razza987, Location: NorfolkPosted: Sun Oct 16, 2016 9:06 am ----
Edward wrote:
So that's an internally standard 138 engine revving to 6900 rpm? This is why I'm slightly worried about mine going to 7300rpm but I guess road work is slightly less stressful than track work. At least your rods stayed intact, could the piston have got a little hot on that cylinder causing it to break up?
That 180 engine has the floating crank pulley doesn't it? Is it not a good opportunity to go for some longer duration cams now?
Hi Edward,
My shift light was set to 6.5k, so it didn't get revved beyond that normally. It was only when it went on the dyno 2 months before it expired that I found it was making power all the way to the limiter at 6.8k.
Yeah I agree about the piston breakup, just seems strange that it wasn't at max revs when it let go, I'm sure it was only around 4-5k. That engine had done a load of road miles before it became a dedicated track car, then did the equivalent of at least 20 races during which time it had a couple of oil changes and nothing else.
With yours, I'd be concerned about running it to 7.3k on standard internals. Has the bottom end had anything done to it at all? Lightening and balancing? I am tempted to strip the bottom end of my 180 engine and get the pistons and rods lightened and balanced, I'd be happy pushing to 7.5k and maybe a little bit beyond if power's still climbing.
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