Kyalami, conrod through the block, Passion for Speed, Zwartkops, practise, run a bearing, raceday overheating and then there was past Sunday, Super Traxday.
On race day stopping in the pits, I noticed water pouring out from one of the waterpump bolts. An engine that can not hold water pressure, reaches water boiling point sooner, followed by … and …. Not an ideal situation. We also suspected a blown cylinder head gasket.
Well, we promised ourselves two weeks rest from working on our Anglia. That rest was over in two days. Removing the cylinder head, expecting an easy quick repair, ya, right. Lift the cylinder head to find a near perfect cylinder head gasket. The cylinders are almost perfect mirrors. Not looking for too much work I removed the waterpump to find the leaking bolt hole open all the way into the water pocket next to the number one cylinder. The hole was cleaned and sealed from the inside of the block and then pressing the excess from the inside of the hole with the bolt giving me the depth required for fitting the waterpump and alternator bracket.
We then reassembled the engine using a new head gasket. A start revealed no air bubbles in the radiator and our leaking waterpump bolt was sorted. Not wanting to make too much noise at home and avoiding public roads, Sunday morning we load Fossa and head to Super Traxday.
We are there to test and for probably the first time, with absolutely no expectations. Just as well. We only do two stints. Both ending with a very hot engine and the second stint ending with us pumping oil into the catch tank. Yet another first for us!
Gary said that during his last time out with the engine he tried to break it, apparently he came quite close to it!
Next race, 7 March, Kyalami. Is that a target date. No not really. I plan to start researching the reason for the overheating tomorrow and maybe pull the engine tomorrow. I will then strip both engines and look at our options. With a bit of luck, buy spares again on Saturday …..
I am in desperate need of some success! Trust me, sometimes it is very hard to stay positive and motivated.
Greetings