Sunday, January 28, 2018

Coronet Prep for Race #2

It seems like we spent a whole year getting the car ready for our first race.  This time around, we've only spent about 2 or 3 total days getting the car ready.  Our final prep day was this Saturday and we're all extremely excited to get this race going!
The Coronet awaits it's turn on the alignment rack.


Step 1 was getting the car to our local Firestone for a fresh alignment, to make sure all the wheels are pointed in the right directions.  We didn't see any other racecars there. Weird.
All five fuel jugs are now modified for extremely quick filling.

Step 2 was updating the remainder of the fuel cans to shave about one minute per 5 gallon can of filling.  This is going to shave our pit stop time WAY down. I'm very happy with my modifications here.
Landon turns the smooth opening on the water pump into a threaded opening so we can plug it with a bolt. 

Step 3 was to improve our engine cooling.  John did an awesome job fixing up the radiator, so the car is staying cool while at speed, but when running slower or at idle, the temperatures were creeping up leading us to suspect that the water pump wasn't keeping up.

New water pump in place, you can see the bolt just to the left of the rubber hose. A corresponding plug bolt (gold colored) can be seen partially threaded into the intake manifold, just below the fuel filter.  Previously a blue hose connected the two.
We replaced the one that came with the car with a heavy duty pump.  To improve things further, the team threaded one of the not-needed outlets of the pump and inserted a bolt to block off that port.  This should force extra water pressure through the radiator, and increase cooling. In addition, we added some extra ducting and taped off a few areas to improve air flow.
John helps feed the copper piping through the firewall so Jason can connect it to the gauge while Landon finishes up the water pump.

The day wrapped up with replacing the old, brittle plastic oil pressure gauge line with a new copper line.  This will prevent the possibility of the plastic line cracking during the race and pumping oil out onto the track.


Follow our progress through the race at our Facebook page.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.