**Watkins Glen, June 5-6, Immediately after Carlisle**

Post by **jkxr4ti** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 10:44 am

Well i'm finally getting back on the forum after a fun but not stress-free carlisle and watkins glen weekend and a busy couple weeks at work.
I first have to thank Pete and Chad for their help and advice at the glen. I had a blast running my car around the track and learning so much about real driving. It was my first track experience but I can tell you that it definately will not be my last.
My watkins glen experience really started before carlisle. Getting the car prepared and up to the task took alot of long hours in the garage. As many of you saw at carlisle i was not without injury (broken blood vessel in the eye from lifting the rear beam and differential).
The first day at the glen was really spent getting used to the track and hitting the marks as far as entry, apex and exit points of the corners. The car was also not behaving properly. It was pushing coolant out the expansion tank into the overflow bottle. That night i drove 2 hours home to Rochester to sort out the problems. I proceeded to work on getting the head off the car to repair what i had assumed to be just a bad head gasket. When i got the head off i saw that it was bad but not the source of my coolant issues. I had been blowing combustion between cyl 2 and 3, but not to the water jacket. When i tore off the intake manifold the cause was very visible. The intake manifold gasket had been leaking beween cly 2-3 into the water passage in the lower intake.
At 8AM I washed my hands and rolled the car out of the garage to make the 2 hour trek back to the glen to finish up the last day. I missed the first track session in the morning but the car was running great and i was hitting all my marks. As pete mentioned he and chad headed out before the last track session of the day. I opted to stay and have a bit more fun, or so i thought. On my second lap of the session the lower rad hose separated and dumped all my coolant. The temp guage did not respond quick enough and the car over heated badly. I coasted into pit road and got a tow to the garage. I repaired the rad hose but something else was wrong. I was again blowing combustion gas into the water jacket but this time more violently. My instuctor was kind enough to take his mustang off the trailer and give me and the car a lift closer to rochester. My friend met us in Canandaigua and we towed the car the rest of the way on a dolly to my house.
This past week i tore her apart again and this time replaced the head gasket which looked like a pice of charcoal between cyl 3 and the water jacket. There was a bit of minor cyl wall scuffing but nothing too major. I decided to throw it back together and hope for the best. It is running now and all appears to be well. This winter i'll tear it down and do the rebuild with the new slugs and crower rods i have waiting in the garage.

Thanks again to Pete and especially Chad who let me borrow a helmet for the 2 days.

What a blast!!!

Post by **DPDISXR4Ti** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 12:09 pm

Damn Jeremy, I thought you were KIDDING when you said you did that to your eye while lifting the rear-end!

But please don't share any further details - I don't want to to know!!

Sounds like you had an "interesting" time at the Glen. A head and block surfacing are in order before you go out and thrash around again. But before you do that, check back with me on an interesting option for an alternate head. Not now, later...

Post by **jkxr4ti** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 12:18 pm

Nope, I wasnt kidding. The only thing that wasnt attached to the beam when i lifted it onto the jack was the brake rotors. I didnt actually feel anything, my wife just asked what the heck happened to me the next morning. I'll check back with you on the cyl head later. The thing that sucks about the motor over heating was that i had installed my motorsport big valve head instead of putting the stocker back on. I will probably replace the bearings, guides and valves in the head this winter too.

white_2kgt · Post by **white_2kgt** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 2:14 pm

Holy crap dude, I had no idea you had that trouble after we left, that SUCKS! I'm so sorry to hear that. At least you had somebody with an old mustang to help you out to get home

.

Don't let it sour you, trust me when I tell you pete had his share of merkur troubles when he first started OTing it. I didn't have quite as many but the ones I did have turned out to be pretty $$$ ones. Don't let it get you down, which it looks like you haven't.

Look forward to seeing you back out at the track someday. Glad you made it back.

Post by **jkxr4ti** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 3:24 pm

Nice dig about the mustang off the trailer. Nah, it didnt really get me down. At least the big breakdown was on the last track session. I was mentally prepared to have something break, thats racing. Just glad it wasnt as severe as the guy with the 300ZX, ouch!
Great in car video by the way.

white_2kgt · Post by **white_2kgt** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 9:46 am

jkxr4ti wrote: Just glad it wasnt as severe as the guy with the 300ZX, ouch!
Great in car video by the way.

I fell really bad for that dude, not only does he have to fix his car, he also has to pay for that guardrail. Luckly for me when I hit the quadrail at VIR they didn't charge me.