GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

[Paul C]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Was it the head gasket then Gavin? Some of my mates did the event and they all said it was hard on tyres.

How did you get on at Fat Albert?

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Fat Albert Stages 29/10/11

So after Woodbridge I got DVY back home and did a compression test before taking the head off, Nos 2 & 3 were well down on compression. With the head removed the head gasket was completely mullered, my block's ringed and it had pushed the gasket past the rings and into the water way on 2 & 3
I had a spare standard cosworth head gasket after the earlier problems this year (during the rebuild, Ron head skimmed the head by 10 thou and fitted a 10 thou thicker head gasket, going back to a standard one would increase the CR from 12:1 to 12.4:1 by my calculations, but hopefully it would be ok) so I fitted the new gasket, taxed her and went out driving, did 75 miles in total, some fast, some slow, no loss of water or oil so I was ready for Fat Albert

As the event is run by my motor club, Tavern MC, I was there early Friday morning and 10 of us spent the day laying out 500 cones, 150 plastic barriers, 30 large straw bales and many boards and arrows, before going to scrutineering just as it was getting dark and then met Holly at the hotel a bit later

Stage 1
Although it was a nice dry day, there had been a lot of rain the previous week which meant the "nadgery" bit was very slippery and the new Start location meant the morning stages used this section 3 times in the 10 mile stage, so we were very sensible especially the first time through and by the end of the stage we'd been overtaken by the 1400 Corsa of James Hunt who started 30s behind us, but everything was going well, gauges looking good and just a little water loss from the rad blanking cap

Stage 2
Lap 1 we were flying, the nadgery bit was a lot drier, I was braking nice and late for the chicanes, but half way round lap 2 coming out of a 1st gear chicane I went for 2nd and it didn't go in, had another go and it crunched in (always had a bit of trouble getting in to 2nd) tried to put the power down but just had a lot of clonks and bangs so went into 3rd, slipped the clutch a lot and got going again, tried 2nd again in the nadgery bit but something was broken inside so carried on without
Back in service, couldn't get neutral either as the lock out cable had snapped, so we replaced this but still no neutral. As I wanted to put some mileage on the engine we decided to carry on

Stage 3
No problems on this one, now I knew it wasn't worth trying 2nd it was easier, flat in 1st gave me 5000 in 3rd which was ok on the straights but made the nadgery bit awkward as 1st was too low and 3rd too high. By the end of the stage we were losing some water from the pressure cap (I'd tightened the blanking cap earlier) and after everything cooled in service I added a litre of water

Stage 4
Lap 1 went as well as it could but coming into the nadgery bit on lap 2 I changed down from 3rd and the gear stick locked up in 2nd and we couldn't go any further

So that was it for the day, the marshals pushed us to a safe place where we watched everyone else go through and got recovered back to service when the stage had finished. The engine had also lost some more water, not sure how much though. Looks like it will be a busy winter sorting everything out for next year, if I can afford it I had the gearbox rebuilt last winter but they couldn't find any problem with 2nd gear, I think they'll be able to find a problem this time...

[dottydogmk1]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Hi Gavin, sorry to read about your troubles with DVY - I am sure you will sort it all out! I just wanted to wish you a merry Christmas and happy new year and hope you might come and give the hills another go next year... My motor is due 1st week in January (3rd rebuild, 0 miles) and I am currently building a bubble arched mk1 shell for it though it will start off in JAY. Lots of pics so may start a thread on here if I get time. All the best, Steve.

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Hi Gavin, sorry to read about your troubles with DVY - I am sure you will sort it all out! I just wanted to wish you a merry Christmas and happy new year and hope you might come and give the hills another go next year... My motor is due 1st week in January (3rd rebuild, 0 miles) and I am currently building a bubble arched mk1 shell for it though it will start off in JAY. Lots of pics so may start a thread on here if I get time. All the best, Steve.

Hi Steve,
Good to hear from you - everything is being rebuilt at the moment so it should be ok for next year, but I'm not sure I'll make it back to Loton next year as my budget has gone on all the rebuilds
I hope your engine works this time
Happy Christmas

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

My 2012 season starts next Sunday 22/01/12 with the Brands Hatch Stages Rally, but I have a couple of problems



A trip to HT this morning to pick up the engine - taking the head off after Fat Albert showed the head gasket starting to go again and some more detonation damage on the inlet side of the head (but none on the pistons) so Ron's spent some time welding up the damage and skimmed the head again. He's also slightly tweaked the mapping, adjusting the timing, to try and reduce the detonation. Hopefully it will all work and I'll have a trouble free run at Brands



Bolted in, the aim is to get it running tomorrow



No sign of the gearbox though, CTS had ordered the parts from Quaife before Christmas but they never turned up, so they've ordered them again and I'll find out on Monday if it's going to be ready, otherwise I'll have to fit a more standard box...

[Paul C]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Good luck for 2012 Gavin. Hopefully we shall meet somewhere along the lines!

I certainly admire your dedication to rallying and commitment of time you put in preping your cars - you must clock up some miles in a year driving all over the place both competing and collecting engines etc!!

Paul

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Thanks Paul, I'm hoping to have a good year just competing and not having any rebuilds

I got the engine running today, took a bit to get going because it was so cold but running nicely once warmed up

[Paul C]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Nice one - just the gearbox to sort out then.

Did you do Brands last year? Did you finish 1st overall from memory?

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Yes I did Brands in 2011, came 18th I think as the injection system wasn't quite ready

[STEVE H]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Gavin, any news on the gearbox?

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Gavin, any news on the gearbox?

Hi Steve,
Phoned them Monday and it was all built up ready for testing, phoned Tuesday and it had tested ok but they were missing an O ring for the gearstick
This arrived yesterday so they fitted it and put the box on a courier and it was waiting for me when I got in tonight
Spent a couple of hours in the workshop and it's now bolted in - just need to tighten all the bolts, fit the stick and prop, fill with oil, then I can test it myself round the yard
I've got the day off tomorrow, so plenty of time to finish it
See you at the weekend
Thanks

[STEVE H]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

That is good news Gavin,see you Sunday.

[cossie matt]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Glad you've got it all back together Gav.

See you Sunday, I'm coming down for a watch.

[BDA_IT]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

See you all Sunday shall i bring some T Shirts to sell you boys with the Mk2 Escort silhouette on them???

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Brands Hatch Stages 22/01/12

A full entry of 80 cars and I was seeded well at Car 7. My brother Derek was codriving on his first stage event and was slightly nervous about feeling ill or calling the wrong way at a split, but the stages were similar to last year so I didn't think it would be a problem

Stages 1 & 2
We started off sensibly on some very soft Dunlop wets as it was so cold, and I was worried about the engine and box, but everything was working well, we didn't meet any other cars and the only minor issue was avoiding some scattered barriers caused by a Mk1 Fiesta who had missed the first corner, ploughed through the barriers and crashed into the armco
Our time left us 22nd Overall, but on Stage 2 we improved by 13s despite being slowed by some marshals when Nigel Mummery span at the end of the pit lane
Derek was calling everything well and enjoting it, finding it not much different to being passenger on a track day

Stages 3 & 4
These were slightly longer using both sides of the pit garages with a tight hairpin at the end. In service we'd fitted slicks as the sun was out and it was perfectly dry. We had 2 good stages, the handbrake was working well, and we made up a quite a few places as other people hit problems and were lying 14th at lunch
I kept a close eye on the gauges and checked the oil and water every 2nd service, but the engine bay stayed clean and everything looked good

Stages 5 & 6
The afternoon stages were a reverse of the morning ones, so the hairpin was the other way round, but we didn't make any mistakes getting round it well every time. With another few cars retiring we were now up to 11th, but having a very close battle with James Slaughter in his Historic spec Mk2 Escort, we were 2s behind at lunch, made up 2s on Stage 5 to draw level, and then set exactly the same times on Stage 6

Stages 7 & 8
During service we had some time to wander round the paddock and see a few friends. A lot of crews were busy fitting lamp pods or spot lights to their cars as the final stage would be in the dark, but I hadn't even brought any, being confident that having been through the chicanes about 20 times already I'd remember where they were
Stage 7 went well, beating James Slaughter by 1s and with John Indri retiring from the lead this put us 9th
Stage 8, in the darkening light, we had our best stage of the day, braking nice and late into the chicanes, nearly clipped a couple but got away with it, and we were 5th fastest. We still finished 9th but were only 5s off 7th, so a great way to end the day, and picked up the 3rd in Class trophy

The engine ran perfectly all day, difficult to say if the remapping had made much difference to our times, but I was happy with the result and the gearbox was changing gear better than it ever had before, so I can now plan my annual trip to West Cork in March

Many thanks to Ron at HT for the engine work, Bernie at CTS for the gearbox, and especially Derek for a faultless job codriving, even when the intercom failed on the last few stages and he had to shout and use hand signals