Blech

Last Friday Ben’s motor went into limp mode just before the crest of turn 5 at Thunderhill (think, mini corkscrew-ish a la Laguna Seca). He made it back into the pits and a quick scan threw a code pointing to cylinder 3. After pulling the plug you could see that a valve was bent. After a few ignition bumps it was clear it was stuck open. Fuck.

We didn’t know if it was open far enough to be tapping the piston though. Well, after wrestling the vanos for two days, he and Ivan got it off. Piston 3 took damage. So. That sucks. We thought maybe we could get off with new valves, springs, etc but now at LEAST that piston is going to have to be pulled and that’s sending it close to the edge of the used/crate motor vs. rebuild of this one.

This means the end of track days for probably the rest of the season. I feel bad. Ben loves to drive. It’s a passion. It’s a release. The fact that he’s not going to get to do that for ahwile sucks. I’m sorry, honey.

Piston 3

I’ll be in Bakersfield this weekend for a big Reid Family Shindig. Weather.com is saying 104° for Saturday and 106° for Sunday. Ugh. Ben won’t go to B-town if it’s over 100° and I don’t blame him a bit. My dad and step-mom are driving in for the party then getting the heck outta there. SO! I’ll have some free time down there if anybody wanted to get together, say, Sunday afternoon. :mrgreen:

3 thoughts on “Blech

  1. I was up there a couple weeks ago and it was 109 most the time. But its a nice dry heat, unlike down here where its humid as hell it feels hotter down here than up there. i will take the nice dry heat up there anyday.

  2. Well, compared to what I’ve grown used to it’s gonna suck. In San Jose the high will be 83° Saturday and 86° Sunday. Plus, there’s the FANTASTIC air quality.

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