Putting The Fresh Mill In The Old Pig

The Central Coast Autohaus Flying Pig Mustang team gathered at the Autohaus shop on Saturday morning to put the fresh motor in the car.  Ric Fauset of Fauset Racing Engines started by freshening it up with the basics- rings, bearings, etc.  Then he took a stab at a slightly different approach to putting the power to the track.  After observing a whole lotta tire spin last year, Racer Ric talked to me about changing the cam profile, which made a hecka lot sense.  His concept is to soften the launch a little, giving us a better shot at hooking rather than spinning, and then throw a little more power on at the big end.  The result should be as quick if not quicker ETs, with a lot less drama! 

When we pulled the motor at the end of last season, we were looking at some cracked, tweaked and otherwise pitiful motor mounts, so they had to be replaced.  Only thing was, nobody seems to reproduce that exact motor mount.  After searching the web for hours, exhausting the archives of a gazillion message boards and ordering a pair that flat didn't match the old ones, we turned to the one Flying Pig guy who could fabricate our way out of the jam we were in.  Barry.  Formerly known as "the twin", heretofore known as "Where's Weldo"!  Oh yea!  Barry says "give me the old motor mounts and we'll make some trick new all steel pieces.  Then he saw the old ones were broken and bent.  Hmmm.  Well says "Weldo", I'll just make the plate and two end tabs for each side, we'll hang the motor in place, tack the welds, pull them out, complete the welds and BAM, done!  And so the plan was hatched...

So, here's the 557 hangin'                                            

 And here's "Weldo" tacking the tabs...

It all was going to plan...until we broke the tack on one side of each mount when removing them.  So Weldo headed back to his house to finish them on a better welder.  Well...as these things go...the finished pieces were "just a hair" off, so for the next coupla hours, "The Wrench" and "Weldo" filed, grinded, filed, grinded, beat, bent and cussed those motor mounts into place. 

And at last the mill was securely mounted! 

But as time wound down for everybody at FPR (Flying Pig racing), we had to put the big piggy on the back burner until next weekend, when we can finish the plumbing and fire it up.  Looking forward to the 20 minute break-in!  WooHoo!  But until then it will rest in the Autohaus under the watchful eye of Santa.  Ehr, I mean Dan.

Installation to be continued...

Keep the shiny side up.
SLORacer out.

                              

                                                                             

2012 Season Schedule

Well the 2012 season is sneaking up on us quickly!  The Central Coast Autohaus Flying Pig racing group is once again prepared to compete in both the Summit racing Series and the ANRA series at auto Club Famoso Raceway this year.  The schedule (so far) looks like this:

March
24 Open Test and Tune - Gates 7am
25 Team Famoso Summit Race - Gates 8am

April

14 Open Test and Tune - Gates 7am
15 Team Famoso Summit Race - Gates 8am

20 ANRA- arrive and pit
21 ANRA- qualifying
22 ANRA-eliminations

28 Open Test and Tune - Gates 7am
29 Team Famoso Summit Race - Gates 8am

May
19 Open Test and Tune - Gates 7am
20 Team Famoso Summit Race - Gates 8am

June
15 ANRA- arrive and pit
16 ANRA- qualifying
17 ANRA-eliminations

August
24 ANRA- arrive and pit
25 ANRA- qualifying
26 ANRA-eliminations

September
22 Team Famoso Summit Race - Gates 8am
23 Team Famoso Summit Race - Gates 8am
26-30 Summit Series ET Finals @ Bakersfield - Gates 7am (More info coming soon)


Racer Ric, Fauset Racing, is freshening the motor and making a slight change to the cam grind.  Based on his observations from last year, watching us spin the tires hard at launch and often down track, he has decided to try softening the launch and give us a little more power on the top end.  Theory is that it should improve consistency and reduce the tire spin.  I'm looking forward to that!

As far as Flying Pig race team is concerned, we'll be working with the same crew- Dave "the wrench" Lee will be handling fuel and tire pressures, as well as keeping the driver company in the lanes and turning wrenches under the direction of Dan.  Autohaus Dan will be overseeing mechanicals both at the Autohaus shop and at the track, and Ken "the nuke" Wilson will handle photography. In addition to them,  Barry "the twin" will be assuming all other duties (like making sure the beer is cold, and the dinner menu is satisfactory), oh yeah, and making sure Dan gets to the hotel safely. :)

As for me, I'll be staying at the track this year after picking up an RV during the off season!  I am stoked to be able to spend the nights at the track and not do the hotel commute thing!  This way I can devote more time to keeping the wrench focused on racing!  just kidding Dave.  Not.

That's it for now.
Remember to "keep the shiny side up"!
SLORacer out.