[DeTomaso] Latest update on Larry Stock's Friday engine problem

[JDeRyke at aol.com]

As those who were at the Reno Fun Rally know, after being forced off-track 
@90 mph in Thursday's practice and scraping a bunch of his new experimental 
underbelly aero-mods off, Larry Stock had an ignition failure the next day 
when he went on track. Early reports said it was a Duraspark failure. To me, 
that was odd 'cause the Ford Duraspark ll distributor is one tough unit and 
I'd never heard of a failure. The brain-box or coil- yes, but not the dizzy 
itself.

The answer turns out to be a little different. What actually happened was, 
the OEM PCV valve stuck closed. This pressurized the crankcase 'cause he had 
no other crankcase vents. The pressurization blew 5 of the 8-1/2 quarts of 
oil in his Aviaid pan overboard during Thursday's track runs. Lack of oil 
the next time on-track heated the distributor shaft enough to sieze the thing, 
crack both the double pins in the drive gear and crack the cast iron 
distributor gear itself. No real racer pays much attention to stock oil pressure 
gauges, particularly the wildly inaccurate one in a Pantera, so low gauge oil 
pressure wasn't noticed during warmup, and no one checked the pan level 
(Larry actually has no pit crew for Ol' Red the '73). 

For you who run a converted Ford Duraspark distributor in your Cleveland 
(including me), relax: the assembly's good record continues. But replace those 
stock PCVs now 'n then, and check your oil level frequently. Matter of 
fact, I think our PCV came with our Pantera circa 1972.... 
FWIW- J Deryke (heading for Kragen's right now!)


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