Getting closer........

[Jim Nilsen]

ouch...poor guy. I feel for you. I know you were chasing EFI issues and maybe what caused this was at least partially what your gremlin was. Good luck man. Probably a new block in order....unless you super check/magnaflux that one. Does it look your new cam is ok?

It was the fuel supply shortage that took it out, the pickup needs to be moved and the return line needs to be feeding it too. I know what to do to fix it and it will take a day to fix it for sure maybe 2.

The block cylinder wall is broken to heckola. The number 2 valve got bent slightly but not bad enought to ruin the seat hopefully, a new valve and reseat should do it if I don't go to better heads. Better heads will make up for the 8:1 compression vs 9:1 I would think. I know I can get more out of the program for sure.

I just don't know if I can get it done in time? I think I can I think I can.

I will feel a lot better when it is out of the car and out of sight. That will take another day of work from what I know about tearing the car apart. I have had all of this stuf in and out so many times I think I can do it in my sleep.

I really didn't need this to happen when I was ready to show it at the optima event more complete.

Take a look at the pics and copy them if you want them because I won't leave them where I can see them for long. It is a bad memory I won't ever forget and I don't need pics to remind me.

[GregWeld]

Wonder if it didn't hydraulic... is there water in the oil? The head gasket looks "funny" between the cylinders... hard to tell from the pictures.

[Jim Nilsen]

Wonder if it didn't hydraulic... is there water in the oil? The head gasket looks "funny" between the cylinders... hard to tell from the pictures.

I know for a fact it was the lack of fuel that did it. I saw the fuel pressure go to 10lb and he didn't back off and I should have screamed so loud he would have heard me without the radio we had. He thought I was having surge problems because he didn't listen to what I was telling him on saturday. It is my fault for not asking him if he understaood the problem and make it perfectly clear what he was to look for. My bad. I rarely keep my mouth shut but several times in my life I think people understood and they were smart enough to know better and I was wrong ,totally expensive and life changing event wrong. I learned a lesson to drill people from now on to make sure they are clearly understanding and repeat it to me. You can bet your life that I will never keep my mouth shut again.

I spent the money on the Racepak and the fuel pressure gauge to make sure I knew what was going on. I have so much data requisitioning on this car that if I had it all recording I could have shown you what rpm and how long it was going without fuel and the wideband would have recorded the A/F ratio at the moment. It is something that there is no 2nd guessing as to what caused it.

It is weird that there was a bit of water in the number 3 cylinder but it could have just gotten there from somewhere else when I lifted the head, as I said it was not much and it could have just fallen in the hole when I lifted it up because the left side came up and tilted that way. I think if it would have hydrolocked itself there would have been some carbon removal on the piston.

It is as if it was destiny for the engine and the car and if it is my destiny then I guess I am not listening to what is going on and it will be the end of me and life as I know it. Learning experinces like this change you and hopefully it is changing me for the better.

I keep winning the fight to get it to the the car it should be but I am getting tired and weary from it. I am also trying not to get angry because it doesn't do any good but maybe I should be a bit angry when someone told me they wouldn't hurt my car and then they beat on it like it was running perfect when they knew it wasn't. There I go again dwelling on it and being negative but if you had heard the words about how I wasn't driving like i was supposed to be driving when I was protecting my investment instead of worrying about becoming Mario Andretti in a day you might understand that it may be the instructors karma to learn something and I am holding back teaching him what he needs to keep myself from looking like a bad guy. I will be sorting it out for awhile before I get over it but I do know exactly what caused it! my BAD all around and I take all the blame but accountability still goes with the driver who is not paying attention to the vitals just like running out of oil because you didn't check it.

I learned the most valuable lesson and that is to never let someone drive you car when it is having a problem and never drive someones car that is having a problem.

Thanks for the help Greg as I need all the eyes and ears I can get to help me get through this.