I arrived at the track after 5PM and found the team alternating between long faces and frenzied phone calls and internet searching of junkyard parts listings. The car was sitting in the pits, apparently suffering rod knock. They asked me how far I was willing to drive. I replied, "What do you mean? I just drove 500mi to get here!" The rest of the team came with a big motorhome towing the racecar, so my car was the logical way to go get a junkyard replacement engine. We split up, half the guys staying to pull the old engine. I took Jeff and Doug and left for San Jose at 6PM.
8:50PM in San Jose
9:42PM Near the In-N-Out Burger! I had never been before; I wouldn't say it is better than Burgerville, but worth a stop.
12:16AM 1.8-liter Corolla 3T-C in the back of my 1.8-liter Corolla Matrix.
12:18AM back at the track, Blake wasn't looking so good, and the old engine had been out for hours.
12:32AM Note Blake, trooper that he is, drinking energy drink in the background in order to help us.
12:45AM Uh...now what? Caffeine intake break. At least the rain was fairly light.
12:55AM Early-shift drivers take it easy inside the motorhome.
1:06AM Port on our newly-purchased junkyard engine, which was supposed to be used with 30-some thousand miles, and it is spotless!
1:06AM Port on the engine we pulled out, which had a refreshed head with very low miles, and it is dirty!
1:37AM Without overhead lighting, trying to see anything by holding flashlights was a real pain.
1:37AM Prybar
1:38AM Jeff is good with details and not only cleaned up parts, but sorted/swapped fasteners and studs, and kept good track of which parts we needed to swap over.
2:16AM Big hammer...uh-oh!
2:48AM Roughly in place.
2:48AM Kris pokes his head out of the motorhome to check on the progress.
2:56AM Blake bench presses the trannsmission into place.
3:42AM I think we were starting to get tired.
3:42AM
3:56AM
4:14AM Me, elbows deep
4:14AM No flash, actual lighting conditions.
4:14AM Yup, definitely tired.
5:01AM Spotless cylinder head.
5:50AM Don's artwork.
5:51AM Giddy tired.
6:53AM Mostly in and together. Weber carb swapped over. Keep in mind that we didn't have the camera flash for most of this, just hand-held flashlights! At least the 'rain' wasn't that bad by our standards, but it was cold.
6:55AM The motorhome was crowded, so I slept in the back of my wagon, which proved to be plenty spacious to stretch out. The foam mat beckons through the darkness.
7AM Bedtime!