The Automotive Thread

[jeb6294]

god damn jeep doing away with the inline 6 I am afraid - its like they took the V6 from the grand Cherokee that always had problems

Worse than that...it's from their minivans.  Getting rid of the I-6 was idiotic.  The straight 6 was a better engine for the Jeeps and they were darn near bulletproof.  Sad to say, but now they are more concerned with being more refined to make the soccer moms happy when they drive their "offroader" to the mall, i.e. Jeeps aren't real Jeeps anymore.

 

[Road Guy]

its really frustrating, glad I didn't spend any money on a lift yet, sucks cause I really like the vehicle. I've been a regular on jeepforum and wrangler forum and haven't heard many similar stories - CarMax offered me $21K if I got the "tick" fixed - thinking about just junking her to them and finding an old TJ with a hard top that still has the I6 and just setting aside some money for a new engine / trany one day -  but shit a 15 year old TJ with 150K miles still sells for damn near close to $15G's....

 

[mudpuppy]

Fiat quality.  The straight 6 was an AMC design, which thankfully Chrysler kept around for a few years and what's in my XJ.  But these days I don't think I could bring myself to buy a Fiat/Jeep.

 

[mudpuppy]

Glad your engine and tranny are covered under warranty though.  The wranglers hold their value pretty well so you'll probably be fine if you don't have any more issues.  If you're not seeing a lot of problems on the Jeep forums you'll probably be ok, knock on wood.

 

[Dexman PE PMP]

Those I-6 engines were a casualty of their own success. Because they were lasting so long, people weren't buying new ones. Combine that with the minimal changes from model year to model year, any new vehicles sold just continued to flood their own market. 

 

[Supe]

It never ends!  Start the car, won't rev, just stumbles at throttle tip-in.  Look at dash - only has about 20 lbs of fuel at the rail, should be 43.  Sonofoa...

New fuel pump and fittings on order.  If its not the pump, I have a spare regulator to try, but I don't think its the regulator.  When the diaphragms leak, there is usually gas in the vacuum line, and it was bone dry.

 

[Flyer_PE]

It never ends!  Start the car, won't rev, just stumbles at throttle tip-in.  Look at dash - only has about 20 lbs of fuel at the rail, should be 43.  Sonofoa...

New fuel pump and fittings on order.  If its not the pump, I have a spare regulator to try, but I don't think its the regulator.  When the diaphragms leak, there is usually gas in the vacuum line, and it was bone dry.

It appears that race cars and airplanes have a lot in common.

 

[Supe]

I suspect my costs of getting this f*cking car together is far closer to your airplane costs than it ever should have been...

 

[knight1fox3]

It appears that race cars and airplanes have a lot in common.

Except for total cost of ownership. But as Supe mentioned, the maintenance budget is quickly approaching a similar level. LOL

 

[MA_PE]

Except for total cost of ownership.

that statement would completely depend on the type of plane and race car that you're using for comparison.

 

[Supe]

At current pace, I think it'd be cheaper to operate and maintain the Concordia.

 

[wilheldp_PE]

At current pace, I think it'd be cheaper to operate and maintain the Concordia.

Wait a sec...are you talking about Concorde (i.e., supersonic passenger jet) or Concordia (i.e., cruise ship that sank in Italy)?

 

[Ble_PE]

Wait a sec...are you talking about Concorde (i.e., supersonic passenger jet) or Concordia (i.e., cruise ship that sank in Italy)?

Yes.

 

[Supe]

Yes.

This.

 

[Supe]

On the plus side, a fuel pump swap fixed the problem, back up and running.  Got the brake ducts in and plumbed yesterday.  All that is left is the windshield, an alignment, and patching some holes in the firewall with foil tape.  The glass people flaked on Friday, supposed to come this afternoon.

Biggest problem now is figuring out how to get the car on the trailer.  I used to drive on, engage the ebrake, and climb out the window.  Now I have no ebrake, and I cannot climb out the window because of the fiberglass door.  Also, the car sits lower and will hit the ramps earlier.  I started installing a winch onto the trailer yesterday.  I think I can do it if I remove the nose and use a soft pull strap and winch it on there.  Fingers crossed, or I'll be buying a new trailer that sits on airbags.

 

[Supe]

Windshield is in, alignment scheduled for Friday at 1:00, then its off to the track Friday evening to drop everything off.  Still have a checklist of 20 small items left to be done to the car, a dozen things to buy for either the race or the trailer, and 57 things to pack as supplies for the race!

Fortunately, the event organizers gave me permission to use the novice pace laps to break in my brake pads.  You can't just drive on racing brake pads out of the box, or they'll never grip right and will wear prematurely.  They need about 5 stops from medium speed, a cooling off period, and then about half a dozen stops from 60 MPH or so to get them really hot and make them fade, at which point, you limp back to the pits without using them and let them cool down for an hour.  The heat cycle deposits a layer of friction material on the rotors and lets them do their job after that.  This saves me from having to waste a full 20 minute timed session breaking everything in, with 39 other drivers up my ass trying to go balls to the wall - not exactly a safe condition on track.

I still have to go pick up the trailer tomorrow night and swap cars.  I need to finish bolting the winch in place, bolt in a couple new D rings (I can't cross the front straps anymore), and bolt in some idler rings so the straps will fit under the nose of the car. 

I'm not looking forward to towing.  My trailer is only 16' and is open deck, so the length of the car's nose makes me load it to where the CoG is further back than I'd like.  The car also has a huge carbon fiber wing on the back which generates about 300# of downforce.  It makes for a very light tongue weight that likes to walk around on the highway.  It does make for some cool rooster tails if you're towing in the rain, though.

 

[Supe]

Ugh, bad race weekend.

1) Rear brakes were locking up badly.  Ended up beached in the sand on one occasion because of it.  Believe the company that supplied the brakes spec'd a master cylinder size that was too large for the rear.

2) Roached the motor.  Motor wouldn't pull over 6K RPM on Saturday.  Data logs showed really really rich, and the software was trying to lean it way out.  In hindsight, I think I may have had a damaged valve that was letting unburned fuel past the O2 sensor giving false readings.  Sunday I noticed low oil pressure during a run, and a loud clacking noise from the right valve cover.  Upon examination, I had two rockers laying loose, a missing pushrod, a broken but visible pushrod, and a stud girdle poly lock sitting loose under the valve cover, which means it had to take a HARD hit from the valve/piston to punt that thing out of the clamp.

Now I get to decide - build a new motor entirely, or try to rebuild this one.

Positive for the weekend - cooling system worked fine, transmission shifted fine, and the thing was CRAZY fast in a straight line (I had zero grip in the turns due to ancient tires).  Data loggers showed 6 MPH faster than the Porsche had ever been (which was a NASCAR oval), and a 30 MPH advantage over some quick cars, and that was on 7 cylinders and braking waaaay early.

 

[Flyer_PE]

^So it's a speedy money pit.  Seems more like an aircraft to me all the time.

Congrats on getting it out on the track.  Sounds like it's going to be fast as hell once you get the bugs worked out.

 

[Supe]

Yep.  It's definitely just an aircraft with an inverted wing on the back.  Only less reliable.

 

[Supe]

Talked to two engine builders last night.  First one is backed up until August.  The second one is the local-ish guy who builds basically every championship winning Miata motor in the country.  He was INCREDIBLY knowledgeable and detailed about the V8 builds, and we got into some pretty technical details about clearances, machine work, etc.  And he thinks he can easily meet or beat my price point.  Suspect I will have a motor being build by Race Engineering very shortly...