Horsepower from your Z?

[Tom Donnelly]

Ty,

Is the builder working with you on this at all? It would appear a reputation would be at stake.
Just my opinion but a builder ain't cheap most of the time.

Not the kind of photo to look at during lunch either. Ooog.

Tom

 

[x-ring]

Is the builder working with you on this at all? It would appear a reputation would be at stake.
Just my opinion but a builder ain't cheap most of the time.

Short answer: No.

The whole story: Up until the early part of this year I was running an engine that a local shop had built for me. It ran pretty strong, even after three seasons it still pulled pretty hard. I even beat the Fast Guy here (Rx7) a couple of times.

The only problem was that on one track (Sandia) there is a RH hairpin that would slosh the oil in my pan (MSA) enough to cause my oil pressure idiot light to flicker for a short moment. I think that light has a 25 psi switch, so it probably wasn’t hurting anything, but it bothered me. OK, so I bought a one quart accusump from Bob Stretch, figuring that should be enough to take care of the ‘problem’ on the one corner of the one track.

Well, that ‘sump sat around for almost a year and I never really found both the time and the motivation to get it installed. About that time the fellow who built the engine for me owed me some money, for a kart, and offered to install the accusump for me in partial payment. That’s fine with me; he’s done several of them in the past for other customers and on his own ITS Z (which he doesn't race anymore).

I get the car to the track for the first race with the accusump, and I notice that the oil pressure is down a bit. Odd, I think, but it’s not bad, maybe 50 psi instead of the 65 psi I’m used to seeing. It’s kind of cold in April in Colorado, maybe 30’s at night and 50’s daytime. The pressure holds pretty steady through the P&Q sessions, so I sort of put it to the back of my mind. By race time it’s about as warm as it’s going to get. Mid-race my idiot light comes on half way down the back straight, I look over at the gauge and we’re at zero. *%$#@ Back in the paddock I drain the oil, and I have a pan full of sparkles.

I go grab one of the other Z guys, now gone EP, to have him look at my new plumbing. About five seconds after he gets there he says ‘that check valve is on the wrong side of the filter adapter’. Nice. Only thing I can figure is that the valve might have been a little sticky or something, and let the oil flow past when it was cold. Once the oil fully warmed up it popped free, sealed, and starved my engine.

So my weekend was over. 900 mile round trip tow, entry fee, hotel, etc. At least I got a finish. I get the car home and call the shop. He’s really sorry, he should have checked his employee’s work, yadda yadda. He offers to eat the cost of the rebuild. I figure it shouldn’t be too bad – I got it shut down pretty fast once the light came on. I take the car over and drop it off. We have three weeks until the next event. My car sits untouched for a week, while he piddles around fixing an insurance salvage Miata so he can have a street car and not have to drive his truck the whole five miles back and forth to work every day. I get pissed off at this point, after he’s had it for eight days, and go over there after work. I get one of his employees to help me push it inside, and I start preparing to pull the engine out. Around 5:30 he wanders over and tells me he’s got to go, but to make sure I lock up the shop when I’m done.

I finally finish up around 11:00, put the tools away (I’ve been working out of the tool box he takes to the track) and leave everything else right in the middle of the shop floor. I guess this motivated him, because the next day he moves the engine to a stand and takes it apart. It doesn’t look bad at all, except for the bearings. The bores look good, leakdown is still fine, etc. He sends the crank to the grinder, orders new bearings, and puts it back together and back in the car. Also, he re-plumbs the accusump and installs a new oil cooler (which I bought) since the old one is undoubtedly full of metal bits. He tells me he feels bad about the whole thing, and why don’t I put my car on his trailer to go to the next race at Salt Lake City since he’s only taking two cars on his four car trailer. OK, cool.

At the end of that weekend, my head gasket pops. But I still got the win (out of one car entered in my class – woo hoo!).

I take the car to another shop, and tell them the whole story. This guy pulls the head, and tells me that he can slip a 0.015” feeler gauge under the middle of a straight edge held against the bottom of the head. Apparently the first shop installed the head without actually looking at it. I have him install a new head, as the old one has been decked to the max. A few weeks later I run another event, and everything seems fine, if a little down on power. Then comes the Labor Day double and, well, you saw the photo.

I’m so damn mad at this point that I don’t even call the original shop to complain. He hears about it through the grapevine though, and calls me on Wednesday or so the following week. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Hello?

Shop owner: So I hear you oiled the track down pretty bad between two and three on Sunday.

Me: No, actually the ES workers told me they figure most of the oil must have burned off in the flash fire, because there wasn’t much on the track.

SO: So what happened?

Me: The crank busted between #5 and #6.

SO: What did you do to it? I’m not going to eat another engine.

Me: Don’t worry about that; I’m not going to ask you to build me another engine.

We haven’t spoken much since.

 

[x-ring]

The Arizona Zcar one uses the stock pickup.

I think you can use the stock pickup with the Arizona pan, but isn't it like the MSA pan in that it's a little deeper? In other words there is room to use a litttle longer (custom) pickup, or lengthen a stock one a bit?

 

[chuck baader]

There is a reason that I build/assemble my own motors Chuck

 

[mom'sZ]

I think you can use the stock pickup with the Arizona pan, but isn't it like the MSA pan in that it's a little deeper? In other words there is room to use a litttle longer (custom) pickup, or lengthen a stock one a bit?

I think you might be right Ty, it might be a little deeper, although if it is, it's not by much. The sump extends further foward and back then the stock sump, that's where the additional 1 quart capacity is. (I assume) When we bought it, I asked Dave at Arizona Zcar if it came with a new pick up or anything and he said "it uses the stock pickup". While on the phone with him, my engine builder commented on it not being much deeper then the stock pan. Dave's reply was that it was for road racing and ground clearance was an issue. Having now installed it, I can say I'm happy it isn't much deeper because it would stick down below the crossmember if it was. Also, installing the motor with the tranny hanging off the back (my prefered method) would be much tougher since you have to tip the engine a lot to get it in like that. (I use one of those load leveler thingies on the crane and love it) In addition to the trap door equipped diamond shaped sump baffles it also has a nice windage tray. I wasn't there when my guy installed it so I can't speak for if it (the pickup) could be extended. If you install your's and find it can be, please let me know. I planned to run it as is for now and get a accusump if needed.
Man, that story... sucks. and sounds all to familiar. I do my own work because it's impossible to find someone who takes pride in thier work anymore. Like Chuck says, but a boring bar and a mill is a little beyond my two car garage's capacity.

 

[mom'sZ]

Talked to my engine guy and he said the pickup was very close to the bottom of the sump, no room to extend it further down.

 

[x-ring]

Talked to my engine guy and he said the pickup was very close to the bottom of the sump, no room to extend it further down.

OK, we'll go with that for now.

The rumor I heard was that there was maybe 1/2" or a bit more under the pickup, which probably isn't enough to fool around with.