Hello from an old member

OH My!! The weekend is now upon me. I have worked hard to make sure all will be fine for my Grand Daughters 1st Birthday event tomorrow. We will have lots of family and friends attending our open house day tomorrow. And to be honest the MG needs have gone on the back burner for now :) I have tidied the garden and got all the things I need done so my guests enjoy their day at our house for Faiths 1st Birthday. Luckily, 5 of the guys attending with their kids are race buddies. And the wife (Gillian) has agreed that around 4pm we can go and finish prepping the MG for Sundays racing and shakedowns which should only take an hour or so. Then we can come back in the house and play with the kids etc !!

I intend to capture Faiths 1st birthday event with my new camera. Its a Samsung Galaxy camera which does all sorts of good things. But by 9pm when Faith will be asleep me and the boys will be hauling the MG off the drive and onto the trailer while other (non race folk) sip wine in the garden. By 10pm the MG will be ready to roll with 2 fresh bottles of gas in the truck. I hope to be back here on Sunday night with some pics or at least a report on how Sundays shakedowns panned out ??

Enjoy your granddaughter's first birthday party, and good luck making some great passes sir!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 40FordDeluxe

Enjoy your granddaughter's first birthday party, and good luck making some great passes sir!

---

Oh my goodness!!

Where do I start ?? I had one of the BEST weekends ever :)

Faiths 1st birthday Gig was so cool! Everything went well. We had invited friends with babies for a noon to 5pm session and then other family and adult friends to stop by either all day or from 5pm onwards. The weather was fine and warm, there was a constant stream of family and friends from noon to midnight :) We decided that a BBQ in the garden was not a good idea with children around, so I was busy on the wok for a good few hours during the day making piri piri chicken strips and assorted stir fries to order. The girls made up a huge spread of assorted bbq chicken and nibbles and dips etc... By 7pm the hardcore of family and friends were settled in and the folk with little ones had drifted away. But the food was running low, so my youngest Daughter hopped into the kitchen with me and we hashed up two huge lasagnes with chopped salad and my special shallow fried new potatoes. Just as well we did some big ones as we ended up with 18 folk wanting an evening meal :) It was off the scale and so much fun for me, Gill and the kids to be able to lay on a day out for do many folks :)
Faith had a good day !!
Here she is on the left with a friends little girl who is called Grace

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...ps92846cbb.jpg


Baby Faith stayed up until 1am when we had to all go to bed as we were racing the following morning. Faith and her mum came with us as did some other friends with their children as they seemed interested in seeing what I did. So at 7am on Sunday we were hauling ass to the track with another 10 bodies who had decided to crash with us so they could see some racing. The 10 bodies were 7 adults and 3 children who had spent the night spread around the spare rooms and the lounge in sleeping bags etc.
Long story slightly shorter (you guys know how I tend to ramble ) and we were at the track and the MG was off the trailer and ready in double quick time.

Nitrous was turned off. Sunday was all about making sure the tranny and converter was working. The only difference between Sunday and any other day with the MG running on boost only was that I had to pull the shifter BACKWARDS now instead of FORWARDS :)

And could I get to happen? Hell No!!

I did 5 passes and only on one pass did I actually shift from 1st to 2nd. the other 4 passes saw me launching and going from 1st to neutral. At least I can now confirm that my rev limiter works :)

Summary of the runs:

1st run was me holding on the T brake at 2000 rpm. Then launch and do the 1 to N trick before shifting back through 1st to 2nd and 3rd with pedal to the metal = 11.7 seconds

2nd run = T brake + 3000 rpm and the same 1 to N trick with an 11.4.

3rd run I actually get it together with a 3500 rpm launch on the T brake and I actually shifted 1st to 2nd. But the tyres let go and I was doing some drifting for a while before I hit 3rd and got straight to run 11.7.

Runs 4 and 5 were T brake + 4000 rpm. Both runs were launch in 1st, shift to N and then pull back through 1st to 2nd and then 3rd gears. I kept my foot in all the time even with the limiter popping. The shift light is set to 5700 rpm and the limiter is set at 6000. All of my mates were surprised as they could not hear a missed gear. It just sounds like a longer run in 1st gear from the outside. Both of these passes were 10.9 seconds. This is amazing news for me i think?

On the old tranny I could run 10.9 or 10.8 with a foot brake launch on the blower only. But on these old launches I would put the pedal to the metal as soon as the lights changed and be on it hard from the get go. But even with a missed gear i ran 10.9 on the new setup. 60 foot times on the two 10.9 passes were 1.4's :) On the old setup I would only run 1.5's on boost only and with nitrous I would hit 1.3's in the 60 foot ??

So I'm thinking that I may be on the right road to a new PB soon? But I dont want to run nitrous until I can be sure that I can actually change gears correctly. So next time out on the 27th I want to see if I can grow a pair and see what the engine revs to at full pedal on the T Brake?? When i have done this I will attempt a launch like this !
Enough rambling. Here is a vid of my last run of the day. See if you can hear the missed gear? From outside you cant. From inside there is a rev limiter complaining and a driver in a frenzy. When I heard the limiter popping from inside I quickly hit the shifter backwards and while doing so I hit the curly cable from the T brake button on the steering wheel which flicked the wiper arm which started my windshield wipers going :) Not a lot more could have gone wrong.
Enjoy the short video folks.
Regards from me and the family here in the UK

Perry

Perry Stephenson testing the transbrake - YouTube

Perry, congrats on the success of a big party! She and her friend lok like they're happy and having a great time.

Nice driving in the car. I couldn't really hear the gear miss just your rev limiter. It should really get it once you get used to the new set up and can spray it!

X's 2, you can certainly hear the rev limiter! But not the missed shift,

Good to hear the family day was so enjoyable too. Thanks for the video (as always.)

Pel the reverse shift thing may take a long time to reprogram your brain! I think like riding a motorcycle it's just instinctive for your arms and legs to do all the controls from wrote memories! Maybe just drive the car up and down the block repeatedly shifting first second third, and then go to sleep. They say that doing repetative brain excercises like learning a new language, and then taking a nap, helps you memorise much faster!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by stovens

Pel the reverse shift thing may take a long time to reprogram your brain! I think like riding a motorcycle it's just instinctive for your arms and legs to do all the controls from wrote memories! Maybe just drive the car up and down the block repeatedly shifting first second third, and then go to sleep. They say that doing repetative brain excercises like learning a new language, and then taking a nap, helps you memorise much faster!

---

Ha Ha!!
I've been practicing my launches in my sleep since last weekend :) I would rather have been dreaming about being on a beach soaking up some sun with the wife and maybe doing some snorkeling etc etc... Maybe even being on the same beach while this happened ? http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/...86_468x803.jpg

Ahhhhhhhhhhh Ursala! Sweet dreams my friend!

Ha Ha!! I thought that would raise a smile from someone :)
I was not only dreaming, I was singing "underneath the Mango tree my honey and me" etc But in a Sean Connery accent :) For those of you who have never seen Dr No here is a clip :)

007 Ultimate Bond Girl - YouTube

OH my!! Its nearly the weekend ??

I took today off so i could take my Daughter and Grand Daughter Faith to hospital so Faith could have an op on her eye to unblock a tear duct in her right eye. The poor little lamb has suffered since birth with a gunky eye every few days due to the eye fluid not draining away properly which leads to bacterial build up in the fluid despite our daily efforts to keep her eyes clean. The surgeon said that the op was a success and that she should be good from now on :)

Holy Crap! I remember back in the day how stressed I was when I had to take my 4 kids into hospital for minor surgery. These days its double the worry as I have to keep my Daughter calm as she is fretting over Faith while I also fret over baby girl Faith :)

This Grandad stuff is not a ride in the park sometimes eh ? I'm happy to report that both my girls are now back home and settled in bed. I do have some amusing pics from today to post up when i get minute to get them off my phone.

I have to work tomorrow until 3pm then i can come home by 6pm from London and get the MG ready to rock. My main aim is to come home on Sunday with a 9.5 timing ticket. My secret aim is to come home with a 9.4 timing ticket ;)

I'm glad everything went well with your granddaughter. I still remember when our first born was in the NICU. It was no fun at all. Good luck with the new times. Keep thinking about the knife and not the woman and you might be fine. :LOL:

That's just sweeeeeet glad to see rodding in that that style,I like it good friend from high school drove one his dad won in can you believe a poker game, but it didn't look or run the sweet :)

GUYS!!!
Its now 10pm here. The MG is on the trailer and ready to rock tomorrow. I just need to stop on the way to fill the fuel can and I will be at Santa Pod at 7.15am waiting for the gates to open as usual. Last weekend was the National Finals at the track so it should be well rubbered in. I now feel like an expectant father for some reason ? To say I have the jitters would be an understatement :)
I'm going to hit the track running in the morning. I want a non nitrous PB of 10.7 straight away. I then want a nitrous PB of 9.5 for my second pass. And I want to come home on Sunday with a 9.4 timing ticket if the old girl holds together. I know that I will not sleep well tonight because I will be having the usual dreams about leaving the line and breaking the car straight away. Or I will dream that I am having a good run and I can feel the car is pulling hard, but just before the finish line I see smoke and flames from the zoomies and she loses drive. OR that I leave the line and plant my foot to the floor and nothing happens?? When me and my friends all arrive at the gates in the morning I will be the one demanding coffee from my mates flask first. Then I will sit in the truck and doze off to sleep before the gates open. I'm sure a dream expert would be able to tell me what this all means ? I'm thinking "lack of confidence in myself" ? Who knows!! What I do know is that I'm going to have one hell of a good time with all my buddies this weekend :)

Good luck tomorrow Pel. Here's to getting what we wish for!
Just dream of the flag dropping and the race beginning
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...15_634x940.jpg

Hi Guys!!

ERM!! Where do I start. Firstly the weather here this weekend was fantastic. The track was awesome. My friend in the Slingshot broke the 8's with and 8.8 + 8.8 + 8.7 and finished with an 8.9 this afternoon. My Friend with the Capri beat his PB of 9.03 with an 8.69 straight off the trailer. I had several attempts off gas to get the transbrake launches right. And I found the the push button is faulty. I can push it in and get the T brake working, but any slight side to side pressure on the button makes the brake flick off and back on again. I did however manage to NOT shift forwards into Neutral on all 4 test runs. But I kept shifting straight to 2nd gear as soon as I let the button go DOH !!! Then I decided to leave the transbrake alone and go back to a foot brake launch at 2000 rpm with the nitrous turned back on. This would give me useful information about how different the high stall converter would behave. I left the nitrous settings as they normally are for the 9.6 runs. So the only difference would be a looser converter now. My thought was that it should spool quickly to its flash stall point and be on the peak torque for the engine at around 4900 rpm as I left the line. It certainly did this :) I wont ramble anymore. Heres a video.
Perry Stephenson testing the new transmission - YouTube

Well the track was certainly holding the power and your getting a good hook for sure! Love the wheels up but it looks like it caught you by surprise.

And you're not yet back into the 9's.????? Hopefully the faulty switch will get you on the path to sorting out this combo. It looks like the air was cold also. What was the temp?

Air temp during the weekend days was hovering around 75F. :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by pel

Air temp during the weekend days was hovering around 75F. :)

---

Good temps for making power.. I'm thinking you just need to make some laps and "feel out" this new combo, then you can start tweeking the tune-up based on experience and knowledge and not guessing. You've made a lot of changes over the past 12 months, hoisting the wheels like that says you've got the power and can put it down and the track will hold on to it..

Now you need to relearn the basics and be able to get repeatable results, then tune for the conditions that day. My point oh two anyways! LOL :LOL::LOL:

Those are my thoughts guys. It did take me by surprise and I backed off too hard in panic mode :) I've never left the start line before and only been able to see the sky !

The wheelie bars will be going on over the winter months. And I intend to dial the launch power down and start learning all over again. But before then I need to find out why she wont idle properly now as she seems to be dumping way too much fuel in according to my afr's. And also I need to look at the suspension as it hit the ground hard and pushed way past the bump stops to see the inner wishbone bushes touching down as they now have flat spots on the steel tubes that hold them. The engine is solid mounted, so the impact will have echoed through everything and maybe the carb took a jolt. It my just be one of the float chambers over flowing. And now when I'm rolling anf turn left there is a metallic scraping / grinding noise (like when you have brake pads wearing low and the metal of the pad is hitting the raised groove on the edge of worn disks) coming from the front left side wheel area? And when i tried another burnout after that run I had to abort after a few seconds because the rocker breathers started gushing lots of thick white smoke, so I aborted the run and got towed back to the pits. I left the MG in the pits for 2 hours while I crewed on the slingshot as we then PB'b again with an 8.7 pass before we packed up. I turned the key on the MGB and she fired right up and I drove her onto the trailer while having to tickle the throttle to stop the engine stalling?

I now have about 10 days before the next round on track so I can do some tinkering and testing. I'm just hoping that there is nothing seriously wrong as that will see me off track until sometime next year. And it may cost more than I have in the budget to get it fixed in time. That would put a big frown on my face for sure :( But do you know what? I've watched the video countless times now, and I'm thinking that I lost at least 1 second off that pass with me wimping out and coming right off the pedal until it landed. And then I got back on it which meant that the nitrous would take another second to build back up to full power. And I still ran a 10.1 pass Woo Hoo!! That has turned my frown upside down and I still have a big cheesy grin on my face whenever I think about the run or watch the vid :) Even if I have to wait until next year to get back out. I will be confident that next year I will smash my sub 9.5 goal in a big way ?

And hey! Who would not want a vid like that of their car :)

Regards to all

Pel

Wow, that was a way hard launch! Definitely stinks to hear of the issues from the landing. But it could have been worse. Hopefully it's all nothing serious. Good luck with it!

And here is a vid from behind which shows how hard the launch was :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg3avnsNKrc

Pel It would of left brown marks on my underwear to go up in the air like that. I think you did a great job recovering. The wheelie bars also sound like a good idea!

I'll agree that you lost a second of time.. wheelies eat horsepower and time even if you never lift the throttle. So when you pedaled it ( I did hear you lift) you gave up precious time in addition to hoisting the front.

Are the front shocks a drag shock like 90/10's? that is - it only takes 10 pounds to get them to begin to extend but it takes 90 pounds to begin to collapse.. so it slows the front end from coming back down, hence helping weight transfer. (and deflection of wheelies!)

We're all hoping the front suspension isn't to bad and then you can get another couple runs in for the season..

The front shocks are stock MGB lever arm dampers with stock MGB coil springs :)

Springs seem okay... shocks? I think I'd investigate a true drag race shock to help weight transfer.

I'll have to look into the front shocks thing ?? There really is not much around for this configuration though. I will talk to a guy I know. Doug Smith who owns MG motorsports. He prepares MGB for circuit racing. So if there is a funky shock out there he will know. Failing that it will be a £2000 conversion to fit a coil over conversion kit. I'm thinking wheelie bars first as I have almost all I need to make them in the shed for free as Mike took his single bar off the slingshot and gave it to me. So I have pipes a plenty and a good selection of rose joints to play with. The single wheelie bar on the slingshot was more trouble than it was worth. Mike is a very clever guy and he does all the math required for things to the N'th degree. However, my simple mechanical mind told him that the single wheel would surely need to be set up on a chassis table to make sure it was arrow straight and in line with the center of the chassis etc. Long story short... We tweaked and tweaked but each time the rail got up on the bar it was steering from behind. So Mike did some more sums and figured that 30lbs of weight at the nose of the chassis would give enough leverage to keep the nose down pretty well. So we had some steel cut to fit into the chassis and it seems to have worked :) Virtually no air under the wheels on the slingshot now ! The SBC puts out around 700hp and the rail weighs in around 1800 lbs. So 30lbs up front is not an issue and with this config she has run down to 8.7 now :) The next job on the rail is to run 20% nitro in the methanol now. We will be back out to try that on the 25th October at the track.

As for the MG. I have pulled the top off the engine to get the heads re worked as I have leaky exhaust valves. When i built this engine I bedded in the cam and then went racing. I normally do a few passes and then check the engine. But for some reason I just got stuck into the track days and had fun. My leak down tests found 7 of the 8 exhaust valves letting by quite badly. The engine still runs fine and picks up well and there is no smoke from the exhaust pipes. So I'm thinking that I may still be running with too much timing taken out which may have cooked the valve seats a little? This is where I sort of guessed at how to set the timing with the new engine build. But I made a mistake I think. The old engine ran a CR of 9.3:1 and I used to retard by 1 degree per psi of boost. So 13 degree's retarded for boost. And then another 6 degree's for the 150 shot of gas. So I was running around 15 degree's all in for testing. I eventually put the 6 degree's back in and found a sweet spot where the 9.6's came time and again with no problems. Then I dropped CR from 9.3 down to 7.0:1 and didnt give a thought to adding more timing to compensate for the lower compression ratio. So that may account for the leaky exhaust valves now.

I will drop the heads into a mates workshop this week to get the valves and seats re cut to make sure they are sealing properly. He can re cut the seats and then will use a vacuum leak tester to make sure they are ok. Then i will re built and test. I also discovered a problem with coolant leaking from the inlet manifold into the valley area which means I had glycol in the oil. So that will mean an oil flush etc. I'm beginning to think that the big wheelie has led me to do some basic tests which has found some other faults that I would not have discovered otherwise :)

I hope to be back out on the 25th for some shakedown runs with the launch settings knocked back a few notches ?

Regards to all

Pel

Sounds good Pel. Keep at it! Your dedication and determination will get you those low numbers!

The re worked heads are now back on. I pulled the dominator carb down to its component parts and thoroughly cleaned everything with 3 pints of carb cleaner spray and compressed air. I now have an engine that idles very nice with a totally different exhaust note and hard punches of exhaust gasses from each zoomie !! Its never felt like this before? And the carb now seems to work much better. I used to have the idle needles out 4 turns to get my 13 AFR at idle. Now its only 1 turn out on each mixture screw for the same idle AFR. I guess the carb was gummed up with fuel resins ? And when I open the throttle just a few mm it runs rich as hell and spits black smoke and flames from the zoomies :) So I guess its time to jet back down now. The carb is a Dominator 850 street special. I'll be on track next Saturday to re jet until I can get the engine performing off load as usual. Then it will be 1 or 2 non nitrous runs for data logging. When I'm happy that I have 12.5 AFR at full pedal I will turn the nitrous back on and see how she performs on the logger with gas !! So far so good. But it seems my old dominator was choked up when I got it.
Regards
Pel

Sounds like she's getting fuel with no restrictions now. Love to see it running and hear those Zoomies roar!

Dagnabbit!!!

I played hookey from work on Saturday as my lads covered for me. I got to the track at 7am and we prepped the slingshot first and warmed her through.
Then I jetted the Dominator on the MGB down 10 jets sizes all round and fired her up. It was a pretty good guess I reckon. She idled ok at 12.9 afr and when i blipped the pedal she responded well with hardly any black smoke from the zoomies. I let her warm through and at around 60C engine temp a strange noise developed? It was a scratchy / screechy noise. Imagine a white metal bearing with no oil? Thats what it sounded like. I got underneath and it appeared to be coming from the flex plate / rear of sump area. So I shut it off quickly and stood there wondering what it could be. Then all the thoughts started flowing into my mind !! Should I just run it and see what happens ? Should I stick a rag in the fuel tank and light it then walk away? What if I did run and it let go on track in front of 2000 watchers ? In the end I decided to hit the battery kill switch and lock the doors and forget about it. I was not about to grenade an engine that I have put so much effort into over the years. Its a total one of build now and if I wrecked the thing it would break my heart. So I'm hoping that the problem is not terminal and can be fixed without too much hassle. So I decided to go back to the guys and crew for whoever wanted me for a few hours until my Grand Daughter Faith arrived to see me :) We ran the digger back in the 8's, we ran my mates big block Capri back in the 8's, we got my mate with his Escort Cosworth well into the 10's and I helped a lot of other guys to get down the strip. Then i spent some time with Faith. We were pitted right next to the Monster truck arena where they were running the passenger truck. Its a monster truck with 10 seats in the rear bed so folk can experience gentle runs over cars as they get crushed ! And Faith loved it :)
I'm going to take a few weeks away from the MG now while I get my head together while it sits on the drive under its covers. I dont like to do work on the car if I feel pressured. But one day soon I will come home and think "its time to find out whats gone wrong" and then I will enjoy tearing the old girl down ready for 2015's Drag Racing. I'm in no rush. The wheelie run has shown me that the sub 9.5 will come easy when its back and working again. And the 8 second run will then be less than half a second away ??
Heres some pics of Faith at the track and in her costume for Halloween :)
Looking at Faith in her costume has made me realise that since this little girl came into my life, my lounge has turned into Toys R us :)

Peace and love to all
Pel

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...ps4fb0fd3b.jpg

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...psea69b649.jpg

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...ps8427fa02.jpg

Sorry t o hear the engine noise problem, but taking a break has always helped me in the long run, meanwhile enjoying Faith's company is a win all by itself. Cheers Mate!

X's 2.....

the MG will be there when you're ready for it..

'course it'll be killin' me to be waitin' to see what could've happened!:LOL:

Thanks for the support as usual guys!

My mate is trying to tempt me with a SBC for next year?? He has a spare big block that he is building for the digger. So the small block will be spare. Its nice to know that there may be an option open to me for late 2015 :) But I have to stick with the Rover V8 as long as I can. As long as the problem (whatever it is) is not terminal I shall be running Rover next year. But I think its time to get serious with wheelie bars now, and maybe an ignition upgrade. I have a Mallory AL6 system which is great, but it lacks some features that I think I may now need for fine tuning. We do have a spare MSD Digital 7 in the trailer for the slingshot. The new one we fitted works very well, but after a few weeks it lost comms with the laptop so we could not adjust anything. Another friend had a digital 7 that he used for dyno testing and now does not need it. So we paid him £180 for a brand new system with only a dozen dyno pulls on it. We now have that in the digger while MSD replace the faulty unit. Long story short, I will be able to fit the spare MSD Digital 7 and put my Mallory unit in the spares bin for nothing. The MSD is very sweet, the menu is simple as well. Its just asks what you want and you type it in. How many cylinders= 8 Do you want launch rpm? Yes 4000 please when transbrake button is pushed, what max rpm, er 6000 please, Do you want ign map ramping = yes, X degree's on the launch and bring it up to Y degree's at 6000 rpm. It really is plug and play. So this could help in a big way as I can use a launch rev limit on the T brake with timing held down as well as holding nitrous off. So I could do full pedal launches :) And still keep the hit off the line quite soft. And when I let the T brake off the signal to the nitrous controller will kick off what ever power ramp table I set in the controller. And if I hav to back off for some reason, the nitrous controller can either come back in at full power when I go back on the pedal or it can just restart the soft ramp again. I'm pretty sure that all these fine tuning capabilities will help me to find the 8 :)

The car is outside and snug under its covers. So now I can concentrate on Halloween ;) The kids are downstairs now carving pumpkins for Friday :)

I'm hoping to get the car on a mates 4 poster in the next couple of weeks to pull the sump and see what I find ? I'll be back with a report and pictures when I have looked inside the engine ?? Wish me luck :)

Pel

GOOD LUCK! :LOL: Enjoy your time with Faith and Halloween. That is bad to hear about the noise, but you were probably better off walking away. I know the anticipation is there to go make a pass, but the cost after wards can sure have the car down for a while. Hopefully it isn't anything major.

Hi Folks!!
We had a great Halloween evening with lots of families stopping by with their children to join in the fun :)

The folk around here do make the effort to bring the young ones by to join in the games. We changed bobbing for apples into "limbo for Donuts" which went down well. We had the old favourite of bobbing for chocolate which is chunks of choc laying in icing sugar on a big tray. We had the mystery box challenge which is 3 boxes with holes in the top. One box contains Candy. The other 2 boxes have mushed up jelly and slimy pasta spaghetti inside. The kids that pick the non candy box get a lollipop for taking part anyway. We also do "splat the Skull" which I made a long time ago and is one of the ids faves. Just a long board with a small section of tube taped on. I give the kids 3 attempts to splat the skull as it drops out of the tube. I count 1, 2, 3 and then let the glowing skull drop into the tube, and when it drops out of the end the kids try to hit it before it lands in the bucket. All the kids get a treat for taking part anyway. But if any of the kids hit 3 out of 3 they also get present which is a small toy from a bag full of assorted toys like Yo Yo's or pocket puzzles. My wife is a Primary School teacher so she likes to give away puzzles to the children ;)
I wont go on any more as I'm probably getting bit boring by now. Suffice it to say that we enjoy Halloween as we think it brings joy to all of our visitors. And this years Halloween evening was the best ever because it was warm and dry. We got through $180 worth of candy and toys for the children this year. We were lucky that folk stopped turning up by 9pm because we were almost out of treats and toys !!
A lot of Brits say Bah! Humbug to Halloween. But we love it because it allows us to have a fun evening in front of the house and have some banter with local folk.

Here are a few of the 140 pictures I took on the night !

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...psdb99080b.jpg

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...ps978f6d4d.jpg

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...ps9025a3c8.jpg

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...ps1800ad60.jpg

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...ps0400607f.jpg

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...pse8c3ee93.jpg

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...ps5a2d0255.jpg

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...ps5ac268c0.jpg

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...ps73ebf59e.jpg

That's great.. looks like fun was had by all. (even your wallet!):LOL:

Thanks for sharing the pics and your family.. and bringing the smiles.:3dSMILE:

OH Dear!!!

I found the cause of the screeching noise and it was a white metal bearing as suspected :(

I dropped the sump today and found the big end bearing caps on 5 and 6 were BLUE !!

When I pulled the caps there were no shells in there? When I pushed the rods up I recovered what looked like 2 shells, but these were only about 10 thou thick and they were melted to the point where the metal had moulded itself outside the journal and down the side of the crank. With these two caps removed the engine was still tight so I loosened all the others and it got better, but still not normal. So the mains be be in trouble as well ?
The crank journal MAY be recoverable but from what I have seen today, if I cant find some +20 shells it may be trashed. And I will need two new Chevy rods at least. Thats a bummer because the Chevy 5700 rods have been modified extensively to suit my engine. There is metal everywhere in the sump. Its settled on every horizontal surface :) I said to my mate when we pulled the bottom off "I would be vary happy if I saw this and was a miner panning for white metal" :)

So I've now shelved my plans to be running next January and have moved the date to next July / August for shakedowns if this crank can be saved??
In the meantime the engine will come back down AGAIN to the last nut and bolt for a thorough chemical clean of everything. The block will be crack tested and oil system will be chemically cleaned and flushed. If I'm very lucky the crank will be useable and I'll have to buy some more rods and get them modified to match what I have done with the other Chevy rods. On the UP side I'm happy that all the rods are still INSIDE the engine where they should be, so that shows they are up to the job at the moment :)

I'm no stranger now to having to take the odd break to rebuild and modify / improve during my quest to find the 8 second pass from the Rover V8 ! So I'll get my head down over the next 6-7 months and try to make the engine even better ! I'm not sure that anyone has gone this far with the Rover engine now. She pushing over 600hp with god knows how much torque now. All I know is that the BIG Wheelie run would have easily been my sub 9.5 or better. So I guess I should have just one more attempt at rebuilding to see if that 8 is in there somewhere??

Regard to all

Pel

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...psd0dd781a.jpg

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...ps061c0310.jpg

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...ps02bdd27f.jpg

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...ps02bdd27f.jpg

Wow bad news Pel. Sounds like you are persevering well. We support your 8 second Rover V8 quest!

X2, that is bad news.. but you've got all winter to sort out the needs and wants and I'm certain that like a phoenix, she'll rise again.. carrying the front wheels of course.:LOL:

Ha Ha ! Thanks guys..
I will certainly have the Rover V8 repaired and ready to roll next year. Hopefully by June. I know that if I was to have my "grown up" head on that I would be calling it a day and retiring the old Rover V8. But something is niggling me about this half a second that I need to run my 8 with the Rover. I did say last year that this would definateley be the last time I rebuilt the Rover as I was fed up with melting pistons and blowing head gaskets and throwing rods out of the block. But none of this has happened with this engine so far. So maybe the big wheelie was the cause of my current problems. If that is the case then I would be silly NOT to rebuild the engine, despite all of the damage, as I can stop the wheels up action with wheelie bars to see if this engine will make my 8 or damn close to it. So I'm going to get my head down and dig in for the next 6 months to get this engine ready for one last attempt at my 8 second goal. I do however need to get real at some time and see that pushing around 650hp from a Rover 3.9 / 240ci engine is good going so far. So I have now started my back up plan for 2016 which started with todays purchase of a 350 SBC with 4 bolt mains. ??