A sunny Saturday in July is the perfect time to start learning more about the dragster engine. Today I worked with the engine specialist of Lex Joon Racing on the assembly of one of the engines. Arjan (engine specialist) already prepared the engine block last week. He cleaned everything and mounted the cylinder sleeves already in the block.
Today I started with making a tool for the crankshaft. This new crankshaft has a different bolt in the front which mends that the special socket couldn’t be used anymore. This socket had a pin inside which made it possible to let the torque wrench connected to the bolt even when u let go of the handle. This makes it easier/safer to let the wrench in during service. The new bolt had a different shape so I used the ledge again to make a new insert in the socket the fitted the new bolt.
After that I assisted Arjan with the installation of the crankshaft and the camshaft. Once these 2 part where installed we needed to adjust the timing of these 2 parts. This process I had never seen before and I learned a lot of it by doing this together with Arjan. After plenty of checks and double checks we had the timing right. The double checking is extremely important because when the timing is off the can break at the first start-up.
Next weekend I won’t be working at Lex Joon Racing but at Assen for Tachyon Motorsport. At the track of Assen the third race of the Ducth-GT4 is held accompanied by the next race of the NK-htgt season.
