[Wichita-SCCA] Engine Rebuild

[Guy Roberts]

I was going to wait until my car was back together before I updated 
everyone, but I think it's important that everyone learn a lesson that I 
would have liked to have learned the easier way.  Oil is in the engine 
for a good reason.  I know, you all think that's common sense.  I did, 
too.  But now I see what happens when you starve an engine of oil.

You see, I've been so focused on being Solo Chair this year, that I've 
let my Solo Driver skills fall to the back burner.  I kept forgetting to 
check my tire pressures ("they don't look too low"), and my slow oil 
leak that I've learned to live with (park over a piece of wood in the 
garage) got worse.  But instead of checking the oil level before events, 
I did the old "but the light isn't on, so it's ok".  But it wasn't.  On 
the course, going around sweepers starved the oil pump, and the 
crankshaft/bearings/connecting rods paid the price.  You can go to the 
link below to see what it should look like, and what it ended up looking 
like. 

Thanks to my new superheroes Greg Laws and Jason Whitted (at O'Reillys 
Auto Parts), and their INCREDIBLE knowledge of cars and engines, this 
rebuild is not excruciatingly painful (and also my corvette is not a 
lump of broken metal and fiberglass in my garage that I can't fix).  
Getting into it, I realize that there is no possible way I could have 
done this myself.  Greg is so good at working on engines, that he makes 
it look so easy.  Jason knows his parts so well, it makes ordering the 
parts for a full engine rebuild seem like I was getting some Armor All 
wipes from him.

I hope I am this enthusiastic after we put the engine back together and 
in the car, but I am confident that I will be, with what I've seen so far. 

So, hopefully, I can pass on my new knowledge to others, to let you know 
how important it is to check you car's health before you take it out on 
the course/track/street.  Make the time.  It's important.

See the pictures of the process so far here....
http://wichitascca.org/Members/Roberts/Engine.html

-- 
Guy Roberts 
groberts at kiphs.com 

I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, "Where's the self-help section?" She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.