Gremlins

We are about 14 days until SS El Platillo Volador sets sail for a 3 week cruise of Mexico. The gremlins are creeping around these days, causing us to unexpectedly have starter problems. I've been putting miles on the car, just so we can try and discover any last minute frets. This one popped up suddenly when Matt drove the car home, and then on me in a parking lot. It was not going to start, even after beating mercilessly on the starter and finally had AAA on the phone ordering up a flatbed. One last try, while waiting for the operator to come back on, and it fires right up. Needless to say, a new starter is on the way here. We are on the virtual to keep the gremlins in check.

Next Time: I Got Mine!

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One Step Backwards, Two Steps Forward

We have had to take a small step backwards to make a leap forward in finishing some needed repairs.One of the old bugs in the car has been an oil leak at the main seal, it's been there since creation. We tried to fix it before the Chihuahua race, and thought it was a done deal, but it came back and has been a worry since. The main seal is between the oil pan and the block, at the back of the motor where the flywheel is connected to the crankshaft. A leak here could mean oil getting on the clutch disk, and then, that's all she wrote. The leak never seemed that bad to me, I mean, hey, what's a couple of drops, but Rick has a thing, so it was time to dig in and find the problem.
In taking it all apart, we found that a roller bearing that sits inside the end of the crankshaft had started to slide out of itself, not good, the flywheel needs resurfacing and the clutch was toasted. In this particular block, there is an adaptor plate used to house the main seal, this is where the problem originated. The idea was that maybe this adaptor wasn't right and to replace it. Because the headers have been changed, we could now completely remove the oil pan with out having to take out the motor and get a good look at things. Unfortunately, everything looked fine, no cuts or wear, no visual problems. OK, now what? Well, someone decided to do something almost unheard of and very unusual in engine building, read the directions! And there it was, in black and white, it said, "remove the locating dowel". A locating dowel is a round, one inch piece of medal, used on most of the GM blocks to center the main seal. With this particular adaptor, it's not used. As far as the clutch, we tossed out the Ram clutch we used and went with one made by a small company called Superior Clutch , they make a Kelvar disc that's supposed to be top notch, we'll see.

Well, after just a small freak out, one of the oil pan bolts wasn't tight and there was still a leak, we think we have a major problem solved. I put about a hundred miles on the car yesterday and no sign of any oil, wheeew!

Next Time: Gremlins

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El Platillo Volador

El Platillo Volador, The Flying Saucer!
What you are looking at is a postcard we had made to hand out to the mass of fans we should encounter during La Carrera, clamoring for autographs. And if not, we're good on Christmas cards this year. When we first bought the car, one of the things we noticed was that there was an alien head sticker or a Grayling for you Area 51 fans, on the back window of the Chevelle. This was significant, in that it gave us a means to name the car. I think this is a good story. There was a guy from Mexico who worked at the shop, so I asked "How do you say UFO or flying saucer in Spanish"? He was a little perplexed by this, and didn't quite get what I meant. Finally, after a bit more coaxing, he got a big smile of understanding on his face, and said "Apaches"!! Whoa, oh man, that goes deep into the psyche of a Mexican, way back when Apaches came across the border and and took a few pilgrims to Planet Arizona. I thought it was a great answer.


Next Time: One Step Backwards, Two Steps Forward

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Summer Sabatical

I've been on a bit of a layoff from the blog since we got back from the Chihuahua race. I wouldn't exactly say I've been fiddling and nothing has been getting done.We've been doing enough things to the Chev to keep a little busy, and now that we are about 30 days out till we leave, it's time to get back to writing about what's been going on.

Now if I can just find my notes........

Next Time: El Platillo Volador
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Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes

It's been a summer of making some big and small changes to our car, things that even if you saw it before, you might not notice. If you look at this picture of the Chevy, you can see we have added a few nifty stickers to our ride. Once we get to Oaxaca, I'm sure we'll find a few things for the local Picasso's to add on.
Some of the new additions include, a Terratrip rally computer, so I can really get confused navigating. We have changed the exhaust headers from full size Hooker Headers to shortys made by JBA. This was because the Hooker's were the lowest point on the car and scrapped bottom on most every "tope" in Mexico during the Chihuahua Express. The jury still out on this idea. The clutch linkage was reworked taking it from needing to be god-like to push it in, to semi-superhero status. Some of the smaller fixes are, we reattached the window nets so if the door actually did fly open, we would now probably stay in the car. The gas petal was repositioned to eliminate a day long foot cramp and the fuel filter moved so it can be changed in three minutes rather than fifteen.

One thing we had overlooked was the breather on the rear end. The stock GM one was left on for the Chihuahua race, and the car got little greasy on the bottom side. That was changed to a long breather tube, with a catch can. We've replaced and repaired our auxiliary fuel pump, which also gave us problems in Chihuahua.

There's been some lights added, a third brake light, and LED bulbs to the regular brake lights. And also, a nice, bright red oil pressure light, in case it all goes bad.
There's a few other things I'm forgetting, but it's work in progress, right up till October 26th, about 8AM.


Next Time: Summer Sabbatical

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Unfinished Thoughts

These unfinished thoughts are that we did what we set out to do, give the car a good shakedown, and give ourselves a clue what road racing in Mexico is all about. We put a little over a thousand miles on the car in Mexico alone, so that gave us a pretty good idea. We didn't burn up any tires or brakes and we didn't tear up the motor or trans, that's all good. A list of "fixes" was started during the race and continued on the ride home, nothing too extreme, but enough to keep busy for awhile. In fact, a couple of the small ones are already fixed, and that's just a little bit of alright! At this point, we have about 90 days till we leave to meet the convoy in Texas to drive to Oaxaca, where the La Carrera Panamericana will start. I'm just about ready to get excited!

Next Time: Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes

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Pass the Red Bull's and iced coffee!

It was decided that the trip back home would quicker than the trip down. Majority rules in these cases, I'm always for a leisurely trip, the more sightseeing the better. Logan was suffering a minor case of home sickness, and Rick didn't seem to care one way or the other, so it was full speed ahead back to California. The country side of Chihuahua was just as dazzling and beautiful in the AM as it was on the way down in the PM. We were convoying along with Chip Johns crew and when we got to a military check point, we noticed his trailer was listing hard to the left, one of the tires had disappeared. Rachel Larratt's trailer caught up with us as we started on the wheel, so I took pictures as the boys unwrapped steel belt from the axle and changed the tire. These checkpoints are always thought provoking, an 18 year old with a big German sub-machine gun, I guess that's happening all over the world, always interesting. With our race car, they were rather curious about our fuel cell, and why his stick wouldn't go all the way to the bottom of the tank. After pulling up a brick of foam, they got the idea we weren't hauling any contraband. Besides, they seemed to get a kick out of the Chevelle, with "Malibu" being the secret password.



A couple hours up the road, we were scraping the entry sticker off our windshield and then heading into Cuidad Juarez. This time the stop at customs took only two hours, a minor amount of paperwork and then an x-ray of the tow car, trailer, and race car. We were given a clean bill of health and crossed into the good old U.S. of A. After a very short discussion as to whether we should go on a shopping spree in El Paso for boots and saddle blankets, we parted ways with Chip and Company. It sounded good to me, but as I said, we were now on a mission to get home ASAP. Being back in Texas, and hungry for something other than Mexican, we had choice of real southwest BBQ or a full selection of junk food palaces, we ate at Wendy's. That was our last stop for almost real food. On one of our gas stops in New Mexico, we came across "The Joyride

Rally", some sort of Richie Rich charity drive from Santa Monica to New Orleans. They were all driving expensive, exotic rides, I got a picture of the Maybach and Bentley, and there was also a red hot Mercedes that tore up the on-ramp. At this particular trading post, among other things, they sold big 'ol fireworks. Personally, I would never touch those nasty things, yea right, but it was kind of fun to be in a super market of them. After that, all I remember is only gas stops, Red Bulls and iced coffees. Twenty four hours after we left Chihuahua, Mexico, we were pulling into Santa Rosa, California.

Next Time: Unfinished Thoughts
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