[DeTomaso] BBORR report

[asajay at asajay.com]

Sorry to hear about the bad luck with the Stealth Flyer.  Glad you are  
safe and everyone else had a good time as well.

Thank you for representing the Pantera so well.

Oil -in- the bellhousing?  I'm guessing a rear main seal.  Consider  
this... if the detonation was bad enough, it may have blown a hole in  
a piston top.  Now, all that pressure is going into the crankcase, and  
the bottom end at that.  So my guess is one hole in one piston, and a  
blown rear main seal.  But that's just guess.

If you are tearing down the engine, we should turn this into a contest  
to see who gets closest to the cause. :)

Asa Jay

Quoting michael frazier <red3644 at hotmail.com>:

>
>   We got back yesterday afternoon with everyone safe and sound.    
> John Taphorn and Tom Di Iulio ran strong and I think we all had a   
> great time. This is the first time in 8 years I've had to spend time  
>  on the side of the course.  I'm putting all the clues together and   
> trying to remember exactly what happened when.  We can all give our   
> best guess prior to the post mortem.
>
>   Here is what I've put together.  1) The car ran great in Sanderson  
>  on Thursday. 2) Trailered it to Sanderson and filled it with  
> Chevron  Supreme. 3) Car ran well in route to the driver's meetings  
> on Friday  but it was low speed in town. 4) John Taphorn drove it  
> later and  noticed bad detonation.  I had bumped the timing up  
> before we left  San Antonio.  We backed the timing back down and it  
> seemed OK. It  had never done that before. 5) Oil pressure gauge was  
> reading too  high, pegged, then OK again. 6) When John drove the car  
> I saw short  puffs of smoke that I never noticed before but couldn't  
> tell if it  was just when he accelerated or backed off. 7) The car  
> ran strong  out to about 20 miles when IT happened...I don't know if  
> it was a  misfire or a mechanical event but it felt like 2 sharp  
> misses or  pulses right after one another.  I'm not sure if I heard  
> anything or  just felt it.  There may have been a pop. 8) Looked  
> down and no oil  pressure.  It was in a sweeper so I couldn't shut
>  it off immediately but did clutch and coasted off the   
> course...dramatically I might add, lots of gravel and dust.  Shut it  
>  off as soon as I could.  It was running at idle when I did.  9)    
> There was a little oil at the back of the block and on the bell   
> housing.  Not much underneath at the time.  10)  After things calmed  
>  down a little I restarted it and some oil was being slung out the   
> inspection hole on the bell housing.  I only ran it for a moment and  
>  it seemed pretty ragged. 11) There is about a cup of oil on the   
> trailer but the engine oil lever is in the safe zone just under   
> where it was originally.
>
>   That about all I remember at this point but the things that stick   
> in my head are the sudden onset of detonation.  The new fuel.
>
> The strange oil pressure readings and the oil in the bell housing.    
> At first I though I may have blown a rear seal or oil gallery plug   
> at the back of the block but I'm not so sure now. I'm hoping there   
> are no big holes in anything especially the transaxle!! the fluid   
> seems too thin to be gear lube.  There is no water in the oil.  I'm   
> not sure if it had zero oil pressure at the time because of the
>
> weird gauge readings the day before.  Right now I don't have any   
> strong opinions about what happened. Let the theories start!
>
>   Even with this happening we had a great time and I have absolutely  
>  no regrets.  This event is the best of the lot and I hope more of   
> you can enjoy it in the future.  We put a Pantera on the podium   
> again for the 8th straight year which is nothing to sneeze about.    
> There are many many people who have never been there although   
> they've been trying for longer than that.  Again, I hope
>
> some more of you will be able to try this out someday.  You won't be  
>  the same afterwards.  Thanks guys.
>
> Michael
>
> Gruppo Rompiculi Corsa!!!!  Y'all.
>
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