Day started well, met Tom on route and Geoff upon arrival, usual opening chat then off you go. Lydden has to be one of the friendliest places you can go.

A decent selection of cars, including an immaculate Atom then off we go. I think the Atom got a bit sour through, nice chap but not the fastest so mumbled about having the £7k upgrade kit fitted.

The circuit provides free instructors so after my first 20 minute session looning it around I decided that a bit of instruction was called for before I met the fence, the little blade engine allowed me to overtake everything in sight!

So instructor on board, third session and off we go, they had three instructors on the day, two ladies to show you the lines and Ted (I think that was his name) if you want to go fast, easy choice then so Ted in the passenger seat, I should have read the warning signs as his previous ride stopped on there side in the gravel.

Off we go then, Hooning around and definitely faster, staying much deeper on the straights and carving across the bends, I was driving the bends before with a little wooble on the way out, now sliding on the way out  car going great.

Slowing to hit the devils elbow and, woomph and a cloud of smoke from under the bonnet, up on the grass and stop, B@ll@ks, something really amiss then a few flames appearing through the louves so best to run away.

Diagnostics after the seesion has finished, No.3 con rod failure on the overrun, I can now see daylight through the engine block as it has a hole on both sides and half the big end cpa is sitting alongside the starter motor.

Geoff fared little better, head gasket gone by lunch time and Tom lost decent boost for most of the day.

So now I have a dilemma.

* Swap engine out for another 893
* Upgrade to R1
* Go Cec with a 4.6 RV8 under my bench.

Time to count the pennies...

Poor old Ted's day did not improve either, the only car that he left running was Tom, we did see a spectacular spin half way through so it was not lack of effort on his behalf.

Cannot wait to get it fixed and return, still a great day out
Rescued attachment Hole_small.JPG

Sorry to hear the engine lunched, sounds like you were having a blast.

On the engine front, If you have the V8 how much extra will it cost to fit compared to replacing the bike lump.

Hope your back on track soon.

ATB Dan.

Gearbox and major rework of the frame and mounts, probably the cheapest route as I have lots of bits except the box but a long time and the character of the car changes. BEC feels so good on the track.

I can feel lots of low Ebay bids happening for that bargain engine

Regards Mark.


I should add that I drove it there so went home on a recovery lorry so its time for a towbar on my car and build a light trailer.



[Edited on 19/10/08 by mark chandler]

Sounds like you had some proper fun before things went downhill which must have been great!!!

Not sure that the pink arrow was really neccesary

Go CEC btw you know it makes sense!!!

Cheers

Rich

4.6 litres of v8 plesure under the bench? And you're messing with hairdryers?

What looked very much like a blown head gasket on my car turned out to be a bit more involved. Pulled the head off today, expecting to see a major gasket failure, and much to my surprise found no problem with the gasket.

Further investigation eventually revealed the problem - a cracked liner on no. 4 cylinder I've posted a few photos in my archive if you want to take a look.

Fortunately I've got some spare pistons and liners out of a scrap block under the bench, so hopefully should be up and running again soon and without too much expense. Means I've got to pull the motor out though, so has ended up being a much bigger job. Bugger.

Anyway Mark, good to see you guys yesterday, this hasn't dampened my enthusiasm for Lydden, so hope to see you there back up and running before too long


Geoff.

Ooch, is that common on those engines, its out with the weighing scales then to balance the pistons, still guess you will be running before me though

Engune failure like this is just bad luck really, my 893 engine was of unknown mileage, a quick google shows that con rod failure is not uncommon due to fatigue if thrashed hard on older engines. I was advised yesterday that AB performance only source very low mileage engines to avoid this. Dave the chap with the fury had a £1,200 bill for his lump

stick the v8 in it, you know it makes sence

Mark,

Sorry to hear about your probs with engine, but you know what I'm gonna say about the 4.6, don't you

ATB

Simon