The saga continues....
Early '05: As I mentioned on my 2004 season web page, the van had developed a loud ticking noise ever since the last head rebuild. I had figured I'd wait for it to blow up in order to figure out what was wrong, but the dang thing just kept on running. Now that the off season had arrived, it was time to find out what was going on. When the old head was removed and dismantled, the answer was clear: coil bind. Again. On another valve. This after the machinist said he measured and clearanced everything. At that point, a decision was made: it was time to find a new machine shop.
I decided to use a replacement cylinder head rather than repair the ticking one. I dropped it off with my new machinist and he did a simple reconditioning job on it--nothing special since I didn't have the money for porting. While the engine was apart, I decided now would be a good time to finally upgrade the radiator for better engine cooling... and while I was at it, I figured it was time to upgrade to a better intercooler, also. I used a wide two-core radiator which I got from a junkyard P-body (it was a brand new aftermarket unit!) and made custom mounts to put it in the path of as much airflow as possible. I then installed the replacement head and buttoned it all together. The engine fired right up and--miracle of miracles--the valvetrain was dead silent. Two thumbs up for a competent machinist!
Apr '05: I drove the van nonintercooled for a week or so just to make sure it was running well. Then I dug out my three Dodge intercoolers and took them to my local aluminum fabricator to have welded into one giant intercooler. When I got there, I received a rude surprise: he was closing his shop and moving 200 miles away. Now what am I going to do? I had already sold the PowerStroke since I figured I wouldn't need it, so I didn't have that to fall back on. The season was about to begin, so I did something desperate: I grabbed a dusty old Mustang SVO intercooler I had sitting on a shelf in the garage and installed that. (Yes, I have lots of random parts lying around!) While slightly better than a stock Dodge intercooler, this one still isn't exactly capable of gobs of airflow... so I detuned the van to a mere 15 psi in the interest of avoiding detonation on the local crap gasoline. Off to the races!
Apr 22 '05: The first points event of 2005 is here at last. Due to running only 15 psi, I figured I'd be lucky to run low 15's at best. Imagine my surprise when my first time trial was a 14.863 @ 88.92 MPH with a not-exactly-stellar 60-ft time of 2.134 seconds. I immediately backed this up with a 14.847 @ 89.37 MPH on a 2.125 short time. So I thought it was going to be a great evening and dialed in at 14.85 seconds. But then during my first elimination round burnout, only one tire spun. This allowed the still-wet tire to spin wildly at launch, giving me a 2.227 short time on the way to a lousy 15.129 ET. A quarter of a second may not sound like a long time to you at home, but it's an eternity in bracket racing... and I was easily defeated by my opponent. I left the event with my tail between my legs, having earned a measly 16 points.
May 6 '05: Today was the second points event. I made no tuning changes from before; boost was still 15 psi. It had rained all day today, so they spend quite some time drying and cleaning the track. They didn't seem to think traction was necessary, however, so they sprayed almost no VHT to prep the now-dry surface... and it showed, because everybody (and I mean everybody) was complaining about no grip. I was complaining, too. My short times were all over the map, from a best of 2.173 to a whole slew of near 2.3 times (the worst being 2.292 seconds). A very stong crosswind added more "fun" to the mix, meaning there was no way I was gonna generate any faster ETs than before. Indeed, my best ET of the night--15.000 seconds--came on that best 60-ft mentioned above.
But despite all that, a fair bit of luck came my way. I made it all the way to the final round, where I broke out by three hundredths of a second. As the night's runner up, I got a nice trophy and a check which covered my entry fee. I earned 56 points (the bad weather resulted in a smaller-than-normal turnout, which meant there were only five rounds of competition), bringing my season total to 72 points. This put me in fifth place overall.
May 20 '05: Today was event number three. Again, I had made no tuning changes to the van. (I have got to get that new intercooler done!) Thankfully, traction was better this time around; my second time trial was a 14.942 @ 88.27 MPH on a 2.125 60-ft time. (That's still far from where I want to be, but it was a lot better than last time.) For the first elimination round I got a season-best short time of 2.107 seconds and everything was looking great... until, for the first time in my life I missed my 1-2 shift! I slipped and shifted all the way into third gear. The sad thing is it took me about a second to realize what had happened. As soon as I did, I went back to second and tried to salvage the run, but no such luck. My opponent was far too experienced and capitalized on my blunder; my 15.047 pass on a 14.95 dial left him plenty of room to take the win light from me. So it was another meager 16-point night for the ol' Bluesmobile.
June 10 '05: Today was the fourth points event, but due to serious illness I decided not to attend. I know this will have devastating effects for the points race, but I felt it would be far more disastrous physically to try and make the event. But even if I was in proper health, there's a weird ticking noise coming from the van that I haven't figured out. Hmmm.
June 24 '05: Here it is, time for the fifth points event. I'm feeling much better, but the van is not: the noise is still there. Wisdom advises against racing a vehicle with issues, so pride was put aside and I skipped the event.
It turned out to be a good thing: I learned the noise was the transmission coming apart. After four years of hard abuse, it finally gave up the ghost. A few days later I swapped in one of my spares I had lying around. The noise is gone and I'm back on the road. Since I missed two events (there are only 10 in the entire season), I know there is no chance I'll have a decent finish. Because of this, I decided to blow off the remaining points events. I'll return to the track this year, but only when/if I make some sort of change which might alter how fast the van can go.
July 12 '05: Okay, I lied. Today was a special invitation-only bracket event sponsored by a local auto auction company. I got to make an appearance due to my connections at the dealership. (Membership has its priviledges!) I decided I didn't want to languish around the 15.0-second barrier, so I decided to push my luck and up the boost to 20 psi. Not trusting the dinky SVO intercooler to prevent detonation, I also mixed in some 100 octane race gas for a little insurance. Traction wasn't the greatest--averaging about 2.16 or so at the 60' mark--but I did manage a 14.363 @ 93.62 MPH on a 2.161 short time. That's a personal record for this exact hardware setup. And what about the bracket racing? I was runner up in my class, taking home the biggest trophy I have ever seen in my life. (Really.)
Aug 27 '05: Tonight I decided to attend one of my track's Midnight Drag events. A trio of co-workers were going, each of whom has a WRX, and they invited me along so we could see who was the top dog. Time to load up the slicks, add a little race gas, and hit the track! This event follows a simple heads-up format--first to the finish line wins unless you redlight--and I beat everybody. I managed to lay down a 14.076 @ 94.65 on a 2.053, which is a new record for the damn SVO intercooler. (Am I ever gonna get rid of that thing???) Here's a peek at the slip:
Dec '05: One of my co-workers who lost to me (running a best of 14.24) was kinda bitter about watching minivan taillights all the way down the track. To correct the situation, he has spent over $3,000 dollars in upgrades: a larger turbo, a huge front-mount intercooler, fuel injectors, and a professional dyno tune at Cobb Tuning (they are Subaru experts). After all was said and done, his 2.0L WRX now puts 305 HP and 266 lb-ft to the ground. This has given me the necessary motivation to complete my intercooler upgrade (finally!) and prepare for our rematch in the spring. That's right: we're going to run again. Stay tuned!
Modified: 2-19-08.