Willspin-racing Diary  Road to Mallory Park

20th and 21st May 2006

After spectacularly blowing the car up at Pembrey, we had some work to do to the car if we wanted to get out for Mallory 2 weeks later. It was suspected the head gasket had gone, so we needed to take engine to bits in order to just check it was the head gasket. Now the most we have done to the car ourselves is change the brake pads, experiment with body filler (and got quite good at it!) and changed the rear drums. Anything more technical we have normally taken it to a garage or Lodge Sports, but funds had not permitted this to be done, so repair it ourselves it was.

The good part about the 924 Championship is that people are all to ready to lend a hand. Gary Duckman it was who came to our rescue - the guy who has won the opening three races of the season - so i am his competition
- even more testament to the friendly nature of 924 racing. Being trained as a Porsche mechanic before getting into computers, Gary gave us a list of about 20 things to take off the engine, with pointers and tips on how best to go about it.

I was working on the Saturday, but got back from work to see the head had been taken off by Pete (My dad and 'my team'). He had managed to follow all of Gary's instructions in the rain and wind (welcome to
england) on our drive way at home. It had only taken 5 hours!! Quite rightly it was the head gasket that had failed, revealing cylinder 3 to have blown the gasket.

Sunday saw me waking up early (ish) to get the head back on and the ancillary engine components all back together in the reverse order they had been taken off. Being England we had to battle the wind and rain for the second day to get it all back together again. Job done in 5 hours again. It would have taken a trained mechanic a lot less time, but we did it. The car was warmed up, and no problems persisted, apart from an air lock in the coolant system, which was cured by a phone call to Gary and blowing into pipes and stuff. (Nice and technical!)

So thanks to Gary for that one - lets hope i beat him at Mallory Park!!
(Only joking Gary!) (But i still hope i beat you anyway!)

Mallory Park is this weekend (28th May). More to follow after the race.

Don't worry if you missed Will last Diary page you can catch up be clicking on the dates below

15 May 2006 Pembrey