Post-race news?

[Unregistered]

Has anyone heard any interesting things about the post-race events?

Any word on the source of metal in Dreadnought's 4360? Anyone know if they plan to fly her home or break her down and truck her back again? Its unheard of for Dreadnought to break twice in a row. There's GOT to be a back story (bad part, assembly problem, etc.) on that one.

What about September Fury? Will she go home via flatbed again too? What about Bossman? Same question.

Enquiring minds and all.... :-)

Steve

[Unregistered]

A little mouse told me that both Sea Furys are going home on a flatbed and Bossman will get a borrowed engine to get home where it will get 2 new zero time motors.

[Unregistered]

Where's paintboy to fill in all of us commoners?

[Unregistered]

Thanks for the info.

It sure seems like its hard to get a good radial built these days. Bear spends a fortune and then winds up changing jugs and running reduced poiwer. Mike Brown and the Sanders are going through 3350s like crazy, both the 'common' (Skyraider) type and the exotic. Critical Mass found an undiscovered problem in their 3350 after the prop strike last year. Bossman loses a 2800. And of all things, Dreadnought loses a brand new 4360!

I miss the days when radials were the *reliable* powerplants :-(

[Unregistered]

Your Welcome.



"Critical Mass found an undiscovered problem in their 3350 after the prop strike last year. "

Could you tell me what that was. Us commoners would like to know.

[Kevin L]

Maybe they should put a pair of 3350's on Big Bossman. Add a couple of P-3 props like the Bear has. Wouldn't that be an awesome sound?

Are all of these teams getting their motors built at the same place? Is it just bad luck or a flaw in some component that is common to all of these engines? I don't ever remember this many radials laying down at one event.

Kevin

CUBS are in 1'st place

[Reever]

I asked a Sanders crewperson where they got their engines.

He said that the 4360 came from one rebuilder and the 3350's came from another. I don't exactly remember if he included the 2800's, but I don't think so.

[Unregistered]

Originally posted by Unregistered
Your Welcome.



"Critical Mass found an undiscovered problem in their 3350 after the prop strike last year. "

Could you tell me what that was. Us commoners would like to know.

That's all I read (I think it was here, actually, but may have been P1 or WAP). The prop strike did some internal damage, but "something else" that could have lead to a failure was also found. I'd like to know the whole scoop also, or if it was just a baseless rumor for that matter.

And as someone else pointed out, the radial faiures aren't all from one builder (except maybe the failures in Argonaut, Sept. Pops, and Miss Merced over the past couple of years). Seems like its just generally hard to get a radial built like the Bear engine from the early 90s or the Dreadnought engine from the late 90s- engines that just go and go and go without a lot of grief. Especially the whole shedding metal problem. I know the Sanders had to rework some of Dreadnought's cylinders for oil consumption and jugs got replaced on the Bear engine, but they didn't start making metal at the drop of a hat like so many seem to be doing lately.

[Magnum]

"Critical Mass found an undiscovered problem in their 3350 after the prop strike last year. "

The "undiscovered problem" was discovered when the engine was being torn down after the prop stike. It was not within the engine itself and was not caused by the prop strike. Parts were secured and repairs made. I could tell you more, but then "I'd have to kill you" as the saying goes.

Unlimited racing simply means that an unlimited number of things can go wrong. When aircraft are pushed as these are, s.... happens. I cannot speak to why it seems that so many radials are laying down, but for a cylinder to do so is certainly not uncommon. You can only rebuild something a given number of times before tolerances start to slip torward the upper limit. Take an engine with valve guide tolerances approaching the upper limit, push it hard enough and things go wrong.

New cylinders may be getting harder to find and, more significantly, harder to pay for.

[Unregistered]

"Critical Mass found an undiscovered problem in their 3350 after the prop strike last year. "

When we tore the motor down after the prop strike last year, we found that the thrust bearing for the "starter shaft" which is also the blower drive shaft was burned up due to an improper clearance. We use pieces and parts from several versions of 3350 with an aluminum spacer between the late model supercharger and the skyraider (26WD) intermediate section. These pieces were never intended by Wright to work together. The "Starter shaft" is one of the pieces that has to be cut down to make all these pieces work together and it was not quite short enough. Based on what we learned from that, we modified the new starter shaft accordingly when the motor went together. The screens on this motor have been clean from the start. In retrospect, when we put the last motor together for the 2000 season, it took almost 20 hours on the motor before we stopped seeing any trace of lead in the oil screens. That should have been a clue something was not right, but it got better with every flight and eventually cleaned up entirely. The thrust bearing had "found its clearance" burned or not. Hope this helps.

Ken Dwelle
Crew Chief Race 10

[mayday51]

THANKS Ken!

..........you cannot imagine the value we find from input and answers from "the REAL PEOPLE",the ones who actually
"do it".
.......not even NASCAR gets us as close as you have,
Thank-you for taking you time to keep us "fed".

[mayday51]

......ugh,yea....
..............Thanks Wayne for providing the"platfom" for them to talk with us!

........yep must be "oldtimers...outsiders......."

............its those 52 hard years......right Wayne?....