As we mentioned, track test of our new race motor in preparation for The Mitty at Road Atlanta ended in a catastrophic failure of the engine.
Upon disassembly, the root cause of the failure was soon identified as an assembly error. We presented the evidence to our engine builder, who had built the engine to our specifications. It was the ”if something can go wrong, it will” type of mistake that should have never happened. He accepted responsibility and is building us a new engine.
The issue we had with the trailer hub, which failed only 40 miles since “preventive maintenance” by a trailer specialist, was also traced to an assembly error; they forgot to put grease in the f _ _ _ _ _ _ bearing! We cut our losses and didn’t go back to that supplier.
The weather forecast was for a rainy weekend and, this time, the weatherman was right. We offloaded from the trailer and switched to our rain tires. On the bright side, it was a good opportunity to get some track time in wet conditions, which we hadn’t done in all of last year.
Our first session was cut short, probably because the organizers were running behind schedule, but it was enough to get warmed up and to determine that a small correction to our Webers’ jetting was needed.
Before our second session, in addition to the fuel mixture adjustment and the usual routine checks, additional checks were carried out to ensure everything was normal with our new engine.
We started our second session still in very wet conditions. While the Moya Motorsports’ crew and friends watched from pit row, Alex commented over the radio that the car felt good and all the gauges were normal. In the second or third lap, we saw our Datsun coming into the front straight under acceleration and suddenly a loud BANG was heard. We all watched in disbelief as Alex reported: “Failure, failure, failure.” He could tell that the trail of mist the car was producing was more than water being lifted from the track, and quickly de-clutched, switched the power off and coasted to a stop at the edge of the track just before the pit lane exit.
The track emergency crew brought our injured 510 to our pit, where a hole on the side of the block was immediately discovered. It cannot be said that this was a “racing” incident, since the new engine had only run well under its design capabilities. Our engine builder has been notified and our frustration, due to this totally unacceptable incident, made clear.
The failure cut short our day and the day of friends who, in such bad weather, came out to support our effort. But much, much worse is the disappointment after all the long hours Moya Motorsports put into getting the car ready just in time for testing; only to see our racing season cut short again.
To top off our misfortunes, on the way home from the track, one of the trailer’s four hubs failed and we barely made it home. The trailer had never given us problems and its hubs were always greased before long trips, but, for peace of mind, they had just been inspected and serviced by a “specialist” and new brand-name bearings had been installed. They lasted 40 miles! The old bearings probably had over 10,000 miles.
Moya Motorsports has the experience for tackling successfully almost any job our Team requires, but our regular day jobs get in the way, requiring subcontracting some services. These outside services have, by far, caused our biggest problems.
We can’t say at this time how long we will be out of action, but we will be back and, hopefully, soon reporting on our progress to get back on track.
During last week we trailered the car to a vendor for custom fabrication of a new exhaust pipe.
This week we must, again, trailer to another vendor for other services, but yesterday (Sunday) we put in a solid 10-hour day working on Moya Motorsports’ Datsun 510 vintage racecar and completed all our in-shop work to get it ready for track-testing this Saturday.
Hopefully our Datsun will only need minor adjustments during our track test to be ready for competing at The Mitty, in Road Atlanta, next week.
We continue to make progress, and last Saturday we cheered when we fired up the new engine for the first time. Only a couple of minor items to be completed in our shop, but we must trailer the car to two separate vendors for other work. So far we’ve only encountered a couple of unexpected delays. There’s only one weekend left before track test. Is there ever enough time to have a racecar ready …
We’re hoping to test at Homestead, instead of Sebring, on 4/21/12. If all goes resonably well, our Moya Motorsports Datsun 510 will run at its third consecutive Mitty, at Road Atlanta, the weekend following our track test.
Last weekend we prepped the engine and installed it on its front mounts in the engine bay. Yesterday the intake and exhaust headers, carburetors and linkage, flywheel and clutch and other minor components went in.
Our good friends and on-track adversaries Bob Leitzinger and Dineen stopped by to pick up some parts and we had a good time talking about racing and Datsun 510 racecar preparation.
Only three wekends left to have the car completed for testing on April 21. It’s going to very tight.
We have been out of commision for a while due to serious delays from two suppliers, but this weekend we will start the installation of a new L20B race motor in our #33 Datsun 510 vintage racer. As we said earlier, we had a catastrophic engine failure last October. This was the engine that came with the car when we aquired it in 2008 and, although we had done considerable head work for the start of last season, we have no idea how many races the lower end had before the crankshaft expelled itself from the block in a very explosive fashion. The engine failure also resulted in damage to components in the cylinder head. The head was saved, but all the new bits installed during the resent head work had to be scrapped.
We have already missed three events and will be hard at work trying to have the car ready and tested for the Mitty at Road Atlanta, at the end of April.
This clip shows driver Alex Moya in the #33 Datsun 510 during the Sebring Historic Fall Classic 2011 event during qualifying. This clip shows a great pass against Andre Herke’s potently fast 1968 BMW 2002. We hope you enjoy the footage as much as we did. Drop us a line and tell us what you think.
Although we had a massive engine failure during the Saturday race, the weekend was not a total loss. Here are a few event pictures of our Datsun 510. A video will soon follow.
The Moya Motorsports’ Paddock
The Datsun is Ready
Let’s Rock-N-Roll!
Final Driver Preps
The Grid
Two Minutes to Go
One Minute to Go
Some Last Words with the Driver Before Going On Track
Entering the Track at Turn 17
Turn 15 … Looking Good
Turn 16 – Entering the Back Straight — The Fastest Part of the Track
After Roebling Road, an event where we experienced exceptional reliability, the HSR Sebring event on October 14 -16 proved rough on our Datsun 510.
Thursday’s three practice runs were uneventful. Knowing Sebring is so hard on equipment, our plan had been to inspect our brake rotors after our last practice. An existing stress cracks had opened enough to warrant installation of new rotors prior to our next run the following day.
During Qualifying on Saturday, a vibration was experienced and we cut our run short to investigate. A discrepancy in the steering was discovered and corrected. Our plan was to run the 1-Hour Enduro, but we decided to run a shorter race that preceded it as a further testing session and found the vibration was still present. The culprit was traced to a problem in the drivetrain. This was rectified with no time to spare before the Enduro.
Unbeknownst to us, our real problem laid just ahead. During the Enduro pace lap, our driver reported that the vibration was gone and everything was normal. Later, coming down the back straight at close to maximum rpm in top gear and just before the braking zone, two loud bangs were heard in rapid succession. Our crankshaft had broken, ending our weekend.
We had planned to run one more event with this engine before the end of this year. Then, install a new engine that’s already being built and freshen up the existing one for a spare. The flaw that resulted in the catastrophic engine failure could have been detected if only it would have lasted for one more event. I guess that’s why they say “that’s racing”.
Our research on the history of our Datsun prior to Moya Motorsports does not tell us much about its engine’s service history, but we do know the short block was built in 2006.
The failure will put us out for the rest of this year. In consolation, the fact that the failure was unpredictable and not caused by anything we did, or failed to do, is encouraging.
The next event for the Moya Motorsports’ Datsun 510, piloted by Alex Moya, will be the HSR Sebring Historic Races, October 14 through 16. The duration of each session is approximately 1/2-hour, except for the 1-hour Enduro on Saturday. The schedule should be as follows:
Friday, October 14: 8:35 am Practice Session #1, 10:55 am Practice Session #2, 1:40 pm Practice Session #3. Saturday, October 15: 9:05 Qualifying, 12:30 pm 1-Hour Enduro, 3:15 pm Race #1. Sunday, October 16: 9:30 am Race #2.
We have made some minor changes since Roebling Road and the car is ready.
As always, we will have a full report posted soon after the event.
