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At this point allow me to elaborate. The car has over 125,000 miles (200,000 kilometres) on the engine and, apart from JWT cam installation, it has never been apart. It has 8 years of gradually increasing track use and for the past two years significant abuse by two drivers. The fact that the head gasket failed is not a failure; it is amazing that it had not failed earlier.
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| Dave Schlueter is a great mechanic and an even better friend. Here he is putting the pieces back together again. This photo gives a great shot of RallyBob’s SR20 throttle body mounted on the GA. Thanks Bob. |
With the car back home I made arrangements with my good friend Dave Schlueter to work with him on the car in his shop. The parts were ordered from Kitchener Nissan and then some clean up work began. The head was warped from the heat damage so a local machine shop was involved – about seven thousandths had to be removed to ensure it was true. Everything went well as we put it back together and were looking forward to firing it up. Just as we approached 5 p.m. I snapped the thermostat housing – you would think that I would know not to rush near the end of a job. Done for the night! First thing Saturday morning I was on the phone to the dealership who did not have the part available. A call to a local auto parts supply was promising as they assured me that they would have the part in overnight. Of course, it was not even close to the right part. Fortunately, another Nissan enthusiast who had swapped a SR20DET into his Sentra had a GA thermostat housing that was available. Less than 48 hours later all was back together and the ignition key turned. It fired up right away, and we started the break-in process. We ran it ten minutes and changed the oil and filter. Put 350 miles on the street with just mild runs up to the redline (which has been raised to 7200 rpm) and changed the oil again. We were ready for another trip to Mosport International Raceway for a lapping day followed by event number six.
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| Richard Wintle took this picture right at the top of Moss’ corner at Mosport. This is a very fast and challenging course, leaving little room for error. |
Mosport is a 2.459 mile (4 kilometre) ten corner track with outstanding elevation changes combined with camber changes plus it is very fast. It is host to the ALMS series and in August 2010 the pole sitter captured the spot with a time of 1.06.956. In comparison, last season on Hoosier R6s Katie completed the course in 1.47.625 so we were very curious what our times would be on the Toyo R1R street tires with their 140 AA A UTQG rating. Our Father and Daughter competition took a break this weekend as, in our volunteer based series, I was the organizer for event six and therefore was not eligible to compete for individual points. I did plan on running for a comparison, this did not transpire.
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| This momentum car hits the fastest point on the track between turn four and turn 5, called Moss Corner, which is also the slowest corner on the track. |
Saturday’s lapping was a great day. I could tell by the expression on Katie’s face that the car was running well. I was working as an instructor as well as getting some seat time in my own car, and I was also pleased with what I saw when she passed and while I was in the driver’s seat. Scott Murfin from Can-Alignment took the car for a few laps to see how it drove. He has really assisted us in car set-up through his incredible knowledge of corner-balancing and alignment. He also shared a slightly different line through turn 5, Moss Corner, which I could tell would allow us to maintain more speed. It also took us a little closer to the proverbial edge, which I experienced as I had some significant over-steer as I tried to maintain my speed through that line. As I shared this line with Katie, we discussed the need to avoid facing on-coming traffic if we wished to place well! That, however, is what practice is for and we both were quite comfortable with our new approach by the end of the day.
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| Paul McFadden in his heavily modified Subaru WRX got a SGT3 class win on street tires with a time of 1.34.755 at Mosport. |
