After thinking about this further and re-reading my post I've realised this didnt come off as I had meant it.

I'd like to clarify:

1. The car wis picked off the ground after suggestion by a track worker but after full permission by the team. It was a situation of Track worker: "we're happy to pick the car up and look underneath to try and see if we can find the source" and we agreed.

2. The driver remained in the car while it was lifted (weighing about 175 lbs).

3. The workers decided there was enough oil on the underside of the car to warrant a DQ.

4. It should be noted that as the situation became more and more desperate a number of other trangressions were committed by our team members that likely went unpunished because we were DQ'd.

Just wanted to clear that up.

Many thanks,

Gavin

quote:

Solution for UK = run an undertray with an absorbant pad to catch any phantom leaks.

Giant nappy - I like!

Did you find the source back at base in the end?

Hehehe... yeah I think the most likely source was the valve cover... in the end we found some oil residue trailing down the block from just over the 3rd cylinder.

Life goes on eh... but I will say although it was tough to take at the time (as I'm sure everyone can imagine) the track guys were really good in how they explained it to us why they couldnt let us back out. At the end of a day a leak is a leak and thats the rules.

Giant nappy to the rescue!

UofG sprang a surprise valve cover leak the morning of enduro. Turns out that the vent hole for the catch can was too small and the crankcase was pressurizing. Regardless, they made a simple sheet metal pan with rolled up edges, just in case. I would suggest a "catch pan" to anyone now.

It was a mysterious shift problem that took them out of enduro (stuck in neutral).

or make a diaper for the whole car.

big undertray + absorbent material = diaper

Careful about undertrays to catch oil. I've known a team to get DQ'd when a few drops of oil showed up under their diff on the tray. The leak was so slow it might not have been noticed, but the tray held it for the judges to find.

Lawrence Tech faulted out after 3 laps. We sheared the bolts on our dif and...lost all of our 'go'.

The reason behind it all though, was the use of "shiny" socket head cap screws, instead of your normal black oxide cap screws.. There is such a difference between grade 3 and grade 8!

My stomach turned when I heard we used "the shiny ones" in the dif and i knew exactly what the problem was..

quote:

The reason behind it all though, was the use of "shiny" socket head cap screws, instead of your normal black oxide cap screws.. There is such a difference between grade 3 and grade 8!

Whenever I would see non AN/NAS or grade 8+ hardware in the shop or at the track, I would indescriminately throw it away. Didn't matter whether its a brand new box of 200, or if its holding something onto the car. Eventually the rest of your team learns just not to buy it.

quote:

I would indescriminately throw it away.

amen

Anyone know who lost the tire/wheel and why?

I was there to see the wheel rolling off the endurance course and eventually off into the weeds but I didn't see the car that lost it.

congrats to all the teams.

team #41 from the cooper union.

we just missed the endurance mark and finished 23 seconds outside the target percentage of the fastest time. (we were the last team to finish) sucks, cuz we did really good on fuel economy too. this would have put us well into the 70's and made us the best rookie team this year, but alas, it was not meant to be. it was too bad in the last run group, there were so many caution flags as i know i could have easily made up one second each lap (first 10 laps) and the second driver could have also. (numerous cars broken on track, oil spills, etc.)

do they post or have times for each lap, or do they only make available total times? i would be interested to know the range of lap times we posted due to track conditions.

the competition was a great time, and i hope to see everyone next year.

shiann shin yamin
team co-leader. 2007.
the cooper union.
www.coopermotorsports.org