Race Report: 2013 Monticello There Goes the Neighborhood

Race Report: 24 Hours of LeMons 2013 There Goes the Neighborhood at Monticello Motor Club in Monticello, NY, April 6 & 7, 2013

Drivers: Brandon, Ruffy, Steve, Scot, Carl
Guardian Angel and Good Luck Charm: Zouneda


A 24 Hours of Lemons race at Monticello Motor Club is a rare event; in fact this will probably be the single time it will occur in the history of the Earth so it was imperative that we race there... even if it is to be very very very cold and tractionless.

A Beautiful Course, primped and proper, not at all what endurance racers are acclimated to:



Monticello Motor Club North Course



A bit more to scale I'd say



Tech and Safety Inspection: we mostly passed, with only two warnings... I lost a quart of sweat while the officials negotiated Warning (go race) vs Fail (go home).

 

1) The Kirkely Race Seat we have is a tall back, and the seat harness comes through about a foot from the top of the seat (making a weak point) - we need to add a support bar or brace behind the top part of the seat to keep it from folding back via helmet strike. Note the support does not have to attach to seat, only stop it from folding back.

 

2) One of the roll cage 'star' connection points is weak since someone cut out a section of tube years ago; never mind that the car has been in five prior LeMons races and passed tech - I see their point!

 

Thankfully, they let us race with these two points of 'oppertunities for improvement' with a deposit of promise to fix them before the next race.

MGB GT 50 - Gormless Racing, pic courtesy of official LeMons photo gallery

 

 Last minute check of the car yielded a loose bolt - THE loose bolt - that holds the brake and clutch pedal assembly on. This is the bolt that came off during the 2012 Captiol Offense race while Scot was driving. No coincidence that it is Scot's hand in the photo tightening the bolt!



More tea, Vicar?

In the first 15 minutes of the race, our driver pulled in complaining of loud clacking in the engine. We pulled off the valve cover and sure enough valves 7 and 8 were a bit off (0.016 instead of 0.013 warm), so we adjusted them and sent him back out.
Later, one of our newer drivers got into a bit of a tangle with one of Those Annoying Volvos and smashed in the front fender - luckily the tire was there to stop the steel from bending all the way in.... er....


Ruffy the MGB GT Front Fender Bender Mender - adding airspace between razor sharp jagged steel fender and soft supple race compound tire

We had to visit The Judge twice before we had bent the fender back enough to be deemed safe to rejoin the race:







 

At the end of Day 1 after 7 hours we were in 9th place in C Class and 80th place overall out of 121 entries.

 



MGB GT 50- Gormless Racing in action, pic courtesy of official LeMons photo gallery

The remainder of the race was spent adding oil, or trying to find out where the oil was spraying from, or swabbing the oil out of the engine bay, or borrowing oil from other teams, or cleaning up oil from the paddock.


Scot checking... something, while two supervisors keep him in check.

Cardboard & Kitty Litter - yep, it's British Leyland!

MGB Head Gasket bubbling like overcooked eel pie

MGB Engine Bay - now with built in rubber glove dispenser for oil cleanup!!

We ended Sunday after 14.5 hours in 66th place overall (out of 121) and 6th in C Class (out of 16) - not too dang bad for having 3 brand new drivers and taking our sweet slow time in the pits.

Unreasonable English Engine Studs

After measuring the compression of the cylinders as 150/110/100/100 and finding water in the valve cover area it was obvious that, at a minimum, the head gasket needed replacement. Sounds simple, until the you realize the engine in question may not have ever been disassembled since 1978, and all the bolts are fuzed to the block.

Those that gave their all in attempting to remove the head from the engine block:

MGB Engine Head - Stubborn as a British Tory

Autocraft Stud Remover - only partially accurate :-(

MGB Center Head Stud - Snapped; air injection holes plugged.

Finally - after many injuries and curses - the head is removed; the head gasket looks less than optimal - perhaps we shall not reuse it:

MGB Head Gasket is less than fantastic

Well now that the head is removed.... I can't get ANY of the seven remaining head studs out of the block. You can see the center stud is a bit shorter than the others, mostly due to its upper part BEING STUCK IN THE BLOODY Autocraft Stud Remover And Snapper(TM). As we have a race in about three weeks, I shall decline to snap the remaining bolts and let a professional snap them. They will probably be quicker - took me a few days to just snap one!

Seven Angry Studs

Race Report: 2012 The Real Hoopties of New Jersey - 24 Hours of LeMons

The MGB was all ready and rarin' to go for the 24 Hours of LeMons race The Real Hoopties of New Jersey at New Jersey Motorsports Park on April 14 & 15 2012.

Sometimes it takes 12 wheels to get a tiny 1500 lbs car to a race.

Nice open pit area, front row. So front row that the LeMons crew came over to inspect us early so we didn't have to wait in line! Classy! 

Those big gold "50" balloons later detached in the gusty wind and floated up into the next-door airports airspace... oops - sorry NORAD.

Safety Inspection found a few items, which we fixed pronto:

1. Some of the seat bolts were a bit loose which allowed them to move it a bit side to side, so we tightened them all up and added bolts to the back bottom of the seat for extra stability.
2. Bolts holding the seat back support to the seat itself needed spreader washers (the seat is aluminum and would tear easily).
3. Seat harness bolts needed tightening.

Since we had plenty of spare time, Bob & Scot replaced the Weber DGV Carburetor Accelerator Pump Diaphragm:

Blue engine bay, blue roll bar, blue engine, blue hands, blue shirt... gee, no wonder we blew the engine.

Poor Queenie the Solar powered forever waving monarch fell off the MGB 50th Anniversary Cake and had a bit of a mash up - we didn't recognize the portent for what it was until too late.

"I Shall Forever Wave No More Forever"

Having fun while it lasted:

Now that's what I'm talking about!

 My bad, turn 1, ran out of talent:

The tire mark is only halfway up the MGB fender - what's the problem?

Scot's first stint - came in and reported the drivers side front suspension "wobbles" at high speed. We told him to keep his elbow INSIDE the window, but to appease him we checked it out anyway... sure enough, the bolt that sealed the oil in the shock / dampener had vibrated a bit loose and was leaking oil. Yes, MGBs have dipsticks on the shock absorbers. We filled it back up and out she went, ready to rumble:

"Knock yourself out, buttplug!"

Scot was just happy that, since it was indeed the dampener, he could return to hanging his elbow out the window:

She wobbles at high speed, just like the Queen!

At the end of day 1, the car seemed a bit underpowered but was running good enough as far as we cared to admit, so we offered Steve - who had just come down to pit crew and see what was up with endurance racing - some seat time.

Unbeknownst to Steve, he prepares for the worst.

Remember that whole "If someone offers you something for free it's probably worth every penny" parable? Yeah, that... Engine Grenade in 3...2....1.... I think he only got 4 laps or less!!! Sorry about that.

The old MGB cylinder 3"Bearing Blender" maneuver.

Hey! You can't park there Steve!    Wait... why aren't you out on the track!?!

Manly tractor engines can cry too, you know.

The full extent of damage in the blown engine may be found in this post: Engine Done Blowed Up Real Good!

The other four drivers - notice the correlation between the still-running engine before the race and the smiles - 100%!

The MG is thinking: "Uh huh - put your asses on ME will you?!!? I'll show you bastages in about 7 hours!!

MGB Wheel Cross Reference

For reference, the MGB wheel has a 4 X 4.5 bolt pattern.   This is equivalent to 4 X 114.3 mm. The MG offset is 15mm negative (not verified). List of cars (from somewhere on the web - I'll find it and update this post with link) with wheels somewhat similar:

Acura Legend 86-91, CL, Vigor

Buick - Special '61-'63

Chevy II all  4-bolt

Chevy Corvair all 4 bolt

Chevy Sprint '85-'87

Chevy Nova ('61-'70)

Chevy Corvair all 4-bolt

Datsun/Nissan - most models to '89

Datsun roadster -early

Datsun 240SX 89 - 94, 95-up 4 cyl

Datsun 200SX - early

Dodge Colt, Plymouth Arrow RWD 79 - 92

Dodge/Chrysler/Eagle - most 4 lug 83 - 92

Eagle Summit 86 - 92

Ford Capri 91 - 91

Ford Festiva

Ford Mustang all 65 - 68 all 4-bolt

Ford Mustang II

Ford Falcon all 4-bolt

Ford Maverick all 4-bolt

Ford Granada all 4-bolt

Geo Metro

Honda Accord 90 up except V6 Accord

Honda Prelude 92-up

Hyundai all

Infinity G20 91 - 94

Infinity M30 90 - 92

Mazda 323 86 - 89

Mazda 626 88 - 91

Mazda GLC 81 - 85

Mazda RX-7 GSL 84 - 85

Mazda RX-7 SE 86 - 88

MGA, MGB all 4 bolt (14")

Mitsubishi/Eagle

Mitsubishi Gallant 83 - 97

Mitsubishi Mirage 88 - 92

Mitsubishi Precis 87 - 94

Nissan/Datsun - most models to 89

Nissan 200SX 80 - 88*

Nissan Altima, Stanza 93 - 98

Nissan 240Z*, 260Z, 280Z /ZX*, turbo 70 - 85

Nissan 510

Nissan B210

Oldsmobile - F-85 61 - 63

Plymouth - Arrow 79 - 88

Plymouth - Sapporo 79 - 88

Plymouth-Mitsubishi Conquest (15")

SAAB - 900  79 to '87 come in 5.5 x 14, 5.5 x 15, or 6 x 15 *

Suzuki Swift 89 - 98

Toyota - most exc. MR2 and P.U. to 89

Toyota Celica RWD

Toyota Corolla RWD

Toyota Supra 4 lug

Triumph TR 2-6

Volvo P1800 68 - 70

Fuel Cell Quarantine

Since the Fuel Cell doesn't have a FAI stickier on it (even though the company makes the same cells for another company which is FAI listed), I decided to play it safe and quarantine the tank as per LeMons rules. So, all holes between tank and driver compartment must be sealed.

I had a blast making this; heaven knows why - it was a real pain.

This took the better part of 2 days, and I don't have to door done yet - but you get the idea:

That's the fuel cell at the bottom that the scissors are sitting on


Underside of 2nd half of trunk lid, made with a galvanized steel shelf and parts from a sliding door track:



The not-quite finished trunk lid assembly. All rivets making it one piece, sheet metal screws holding it to the frame members. The screws are LONG so if they ever come loose, we'll see them long before they escape. Kira helped on the painting.

2013 UPDATE!

MGB GT gets an FIA rated ATL Fuel Cell

Roll Cage modifications

The LeMons and ChumpCar rules have very particular descriptions on safety items, Roll Cage being primary. Danged if we're going to show up at a race and be refused because our back bars are at 50 degrees instead of 45... so mods were in order. Xtreame Welding in Mt. Airy Maryland did a fantastic job, with very little notice and even less space to work with. I laid out the mods using Christmas Wrapping Paper tubes and cardboard before hand:

Racing the MGB GT

We are getting a 1968 to 1972 (it has parts from a few B's) MGB GT ready to race for the April 9th 24 Hours of LeMons race at New Jersey Motorsports Park... The Real Hoopties of New Jersey 2011


The white GT in this messy pic: