Fingertight =/= Fun

The debut of my ST car was fun. Until it wasn't. It lasted about 7 runs, and then we had fuel issues again, which meant cleaning out the sock and installing a new fuel filter. That helped a bit, until there were BAD NOISES coming from somewhere around the engine and tranny. We figured it was knock, then gears, then who the butt knew?

Dropped the tranny and as it turns out, the flywheel bolts were only finger-tight, and did not have any Loctite on them. Note to self: Check previous owner's handiwork. At least it wasn't an expensive fix....or so we thought.

As it turns out, all the debris that lodged itself between the flywheel and crank fused itself to the crank and ripped the piss out of the flywheel. Not knowing what would happen, PJ installed a spare flywheel and took to fixing the crank. An angle grinder, metal file, dental pick, and indicator later, the car is within spec and running again.

All this (plus Panda) has made me realize the fragility of the KA. So we picked up a built motor, in pieces, from a ONE member. It's a 0.020" overbore stock rebuild, with brand new OEM or OEM equivalent replacements. It will be my first engine assembly...I've only taken them apart...and those had blown up blocks.

The goal is to have it assembled and installed before the Jersey Pro. T-minus 7 weeks. Panda needs a new butt as well, and a new transmission, so we'll see which car takes precedence.

After the nightmare that was ordering wheels and tires, the new wheels and tires came in. Drag DR-42's in a +42mm offset. Not ideal, but we were desperate, and EVERY set of wheels we wanted/liked were backordered, sold our, discontinued, or abducted by aliens. These are actually far less ugly than the eBay picture, so I'm happy with that. We'll be running the Hankook RS-3's, in the hopes that the heavy car will perform better on them over Toyos, and that they'll be able to handle the heat of 3+ drivers per event.

The challenge now is to get the wheels (1 hour from us) and the tires (1 hour from there) to CT Tire (one hour from there) and have them mounted, and then installed on the car (35 minutes from there), before Saturday.

In other news: Bad gas is bad.

We cleaned out as much as we could last night with a sponge, a siphon, and Shop Towels. Tonight (assuming it doesn't downpour), we will be taking a ScotchBrite pad and Shop Vac to the tank, since it's been drying out since yesterday. Though not totally spotless, it should be ok for the weekend. I'll probably have to source out another tank, since this one is fairly shot and the baffle has rusted off.

And a final thought to end this entry: gasoline will MELT your plastic gloves to your hand. Do not recommend.