Saturday, January 16, 2010

Happy New Year

Well, Santa didn't come bearing lots of unexpected car goodies, so I had to hit the internet. After some serious shopping, I now have some spendy insurance for the car's engine. Nope, not Haggerty or Hemmings, but Canton.

Canton Accusump oil accumulator to be exact. And lots of really spendy blue and red fittings attached to fat steel braided oil lines. Pics are on the way, but the size 10AN set-up should push some of the 2qt capacity into the engine right quick to avoid any starvation due to pressure drop.

The rebuilt engine returned in late September, the 2009 race season was a complete washout. Three years into this and still haven't gotten to race in a complete Novice session (Seattle was a close one tho, until the dizzy ground wire jumped off its connector 5 minutes before the session ended). Waaaah! Anyway, I had the oil cooler and lines steam-cleaned for re-install with the virgin engine.

But the Accusump came fitted with an 10AN set-up. Hmmm. My current oil cooler lines/fittings are all 6AN. There must be a reason cause the volumetric flow rate is quite different. Some more checking with the engine builder and he's adamant about "nothing less than 8AN, but go with the 10AN !" Drat!!!

So several, and I mean several, hundred dollars later, I have a very nice "Aeroquip fitted, steel braided line plumbed, shiny Blue Accusump pressurized, globe shut-off valved, Earl's Racing cooler, 10AN Oil pressure plumbed" insurance system. It sucks that you need an adapter for just about every swivel fitting (that is a royal bitch to install onto the braided line). 10ANs to NPT threads because there isn't a shut-off globe valve in anything but an NPT thread (that I could find) and NPTs into the engine oil filter sandwich plate, and Accusump. Even Earl's coolers use an O-ring adapter to 10AN fitting. Sheesh Louise !

I'll add pics as soon as the lines and globe valve mountings are in place.