As many of you know my wife has been dealing with medical issues that have limited my racing. I got once race day in at the Thanksgiving race and despite running very well I overrev'ed my motor due missing a shift. At about 100-105 mph I went for 5th gear and hit 3rd gear. Not sure what RPM that translated to, but the motor did not like it. Finished the race down on power and parked it. I has been hard to find the time to work on the car late, but I finally tore into it saturday.

What I found... (sorry no time for pics). I pulled the head (took me 2-3 hours) and I saw that I banged all 4 intake valves on the pistons. Exhaust valves seemed ok. Visually the exahust looked fine and in intakes seem to not seal. Plus there is the obvious marks on the piston tops.

So head along with a spare "part head" is car to head German Auto. I will have Jim Fluckly take a look and see what he can come up with.

If all goes well he can repair it this week and I will have it ready to install over the weekend. If all goes well the car will be back of the April race.

As for my wife... she is making it through it all if all goes well she will be looking better by the end of the week.

Thanks for all the good thoughts guys!

All great news, Joe. Tough stuff, but glad things are going better!

Glad to hear your wife is beating this, Joe!

dmdirks wrote:


Well it is still on long process. Changes are high nationals will be out this year too. Of course given the distance it was a long shot anyway. Right now we have short term goals. Last major chemo for Gina is today!

Last chemo today!

While I know it was never a question, standing by someone through chemo is a tough road. An unfortunate number of my patients don't. Things will get better, bit by bit, from here on out, for the both of you.

I just picked up the head from Jim Fluckey at German Auto!

I bent 4 exhaust valves. So he replaced the 4 valves with ones from a spare head, replaced all the valve springs with new OEM springs, did a little machine work and got it all back togther on time.