Navigation

Kooky Racing home page

Alternative Energy Racing

Street Racer Blog

Racing Diaries
- March 2007
- April 2007
- May 2007
- June 2007

© Kooky Racing 2007 - 2010

May 2007

Right, the engine has been dropped, and the engine partially stripped to investigate the loss of compression.

The engine ancilleries all had to be removed, altenator, fan housing, tinwear, exhaust and carbs all needed to be taken off. Once the engine was striped near enough back to the long block, the cylinder head for 1&2 was removed. Everything seemed tight, so I didn't think that the head had become loose causing my problems. After the head was removed, it was inspected. Everything looked in order there. No signs of blow-by, no visable cracks appearing, nothing.

So I carried on, I removed the barrel on cylinder 1. Upon removing, I noticed that the top piston ring didn't flex like the others. It still looked complete, but had no 'spring' to it. On closer inspection, the ring was actually in 2 parts. It had snapped. That would explain the loss of compression on that cylinder.

Cylinder 2 was inspected in the same way. And sure enough, the very same result. Bizarre as it may seem, the top piston ring on both cylinders had snapped.

New piston rings have now been installed, and the barrels have been re-honed to remove any slight scoring on the walls. There was also a quite noticable lip on the top edge of the barrel. This has been removed with the hone.

Now the engine needs rebuilding and refitting. Fingers crossed it'll work better next time round!

On a second note, a shift light has now arrived... hopefully that'll help keep my racing times consistant! The light has come all the way from Australia. It was cheaper to buy it there and ship it rather than buy it in the UK due to the strong £.