Failed certification

[Robin Lawrence]

While running the NMRA race at Atco many years ago Travis was brought in to provide his expertise in Tech Inspections and Teardowns.

He bounced me for a combustion chamber that was 2 tenths of a CC too small.

From that point on I check my own heads before assembly.

Last 2 times my meetings with Travis have been deemed good to go.

Robin

[Alan Roehrich]

Originally Posted by Robin Lawrence

While running the NMRA race at Atco many years ago Travis was brought in to provide his expertise in Tech Inspections and Teardowns.

He bounced me for a combustion chamber that was 2 tenths of a CC too small.

From that point on I check my own heads before assembly.

Last 2 times my meetings with Travis have been deemed good to go.

Robin

Jimmy Bridges told me that there was a friend who got torn down at the Baby Gators, and had 3-4 chambers, or more, that were too small. Jimmy had the guy give him the heads, he took the valves out, marked them, and took them to a local shop nearby. Said he had the kid there chuck each valve up, and grind "x" amount, each valve being different. Then he reassembled the heads.The friend showed up at the Gators the next week, with his heads off, and passed easily, by around 0.5cc. Put the car back together, won class, and went a few rounds.


I won't mention the name of the racer, or the guy who originally did the heads.

[Jon Sarrett]

My dad was bounced by Danny Gracia at the 2000 Vegas Nationals for being .5 cc over in one cylinder after a class win. Ben and Chris tried to get Danny to bend but no go. My dad and Danny never had a good relationship. Danny would hold his record certs until he called Glendora, then he had no choice but to sign and send. Man I miss those days....

[mtkawboy]

I know a guy that was DQd at Indy in the early 70s in D/S I believe for a couple of TRW pushrods that accidently got in the 69 Mustang 428 CJ engine in a lastminute thrash. Names withheld, lost a class win

[Dwight Southerland]

Bounced at the 1975 Sports Nationals for 1.7 degrees too much duration. Measured by masking tape wrapped around the balancer. Yeah, right.

[Bill Ringer]

At Pomona LONG ago my teardown after Class elims the gasket-deck numbers were scrutinized. It was out of spec by .001" to .002" depending an where they measured the gasket. After some discussion between two DTD's it was accepted and my Class win confirmed. The measuring instruments they used had current calibration stickers and were +/- 0.001" accuracy. So it would be a stretch to reject something where the amount out of spec was a total of 0.002" between two measurements (deck & gasket). I did not have to bring that up, glad that it did not come to me having to point that out. Tech was thorough and accurate. 0.003" out of spec would be hard to challenge when the instrument error is no more than 0.001". At a Topeka teardown I saw the tech department pour another racer's exhaust port at least three times trying to give the him a chance to get it to pass by letting him repeatedly ice the cylinder head. They couldn't get it to measure in spec and ultimately were DQ'd with no complaints, grateful for the extra effort by the tech personnel.

[Mike Pearson]

About 22-23 years ago I won class at the gators. My very first class win. I was torn down and the intake valve was found to be .001 undersize. I was tossed. There was no discussion on the accuracy of the measuring tool. The valve had many runs on it and it had tuliped causing it to measure small. It was definitely not a performance advantage. I had the heads rebuilt with new valves and presented them to tech for inspection before I could race at the next event. The new valves were almost a tenth quicker after the change. In hindsight I probably could have heated the valve to 1300 degrees and it might have measured big enough to pass. I was young and didnt think of that until much later. needless to say I was disappointed that I did not pass and get the class win or get to race in the eliminator.