Upcoming Events
- Infineon raceway
March 20, 2010 - March 21, 2010
(Race) NASA NorCal
- Pikes Peak raceway
April 10, 2010 - April 11, 2010
(Race) NASA Rocky Mtn. Season Opener
- North Carolina Center for Automotive Research
April 10, 2010 - April 11, 2010
(Race) NASA Southeast
- Firebird raceway (Night Event)
April 10, 2010
(Race) NASA AZ
- Gateway (Mid West Season Opener)
April 17, 2010 - April 18, 2010
(Race) NASA Mid West
- Buttonwillow raceway
April 17, 2010 - April 18, 2010
(Race) NASA SoCal
View Full Calendar
|
|
24 Hours of Lemons, Oct. 20-21, 2007 |
|
|
|
|
Written by Ken Huey
|
|
Friday, 26 October 2007 |
|
Page 3 of 8 Car preparation:For those that are viewing this article from various LeMons cross links, welcome!
For those not familiar with a 944, the first thing you do with an unknown 944 is change the timing belt. The timing belt costs about $10 which is cheap but if it breaks, the valves would hit the pistons and cause a lot of damage. The belt is not that hard to change but most "Porsche" shops charge a crazy amount of money to do it. We also changed the balance shaft belt (~$38) because it was old. We cleaned the spark plugs (did not replace them), changed the oil, flushed the radiator and filled it with water only (no antifreeze or even water wetter per the rules).
The next step we know all too well from 944-Spec racing is gutting the car. The carpeting, the heavy mat under the carpeting, the sunroof motor assembly, rear seat assembly, front seats, center console, glove box, power window units and glass needed to be removed. The tar in the center tunnel well can be easily removed with a heat gun and metal putty knife. The tar on the floorboard also can be removed by this method but it takes a lot of work due to the peaks and valleys of the formed metal. All of the lights also needed to be removed including the headlights, fog lights, turn signal lights, side markers, and rear light assembly.
We spent almost no money on safety equipment except for new roll cage foam padding. I had an old 944 Autopower bolted-in roll cage lying around. This cage was no longer NASA race legal because of its ERW wields and current NASA rules require DOM wields. It was a great reuse of this old cage for the LeMons race. A Recaro race seat, 5-point harness, window net, fire extinguisher where borrowed from our other cars. The brake pads on the car were fairly new so we didn't have to change them. While bleeding the brakes, we found a retaining clip was missing from the right front caliper and because of that, the two bolts holding the caliper together came loose. The wheel kept the bolts from coming off all together. We were able to replace the retaining clip. The brake bleeding nozzle rusted off of the left front caliper. We couldn't bleed the left front but it wasn't leaking either so we left it alone. An extra left front caliper was brought to the track just in case we needed to change it.
|
|
|
