mender

"And the big bad turbo said, 'I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll bloooww your rear tires off...'" For only 100 points.

Exactly! Do the engine, etc break-in and general troubleshooting with old tires but don't tune the chassis on them.

Bad juju. Parts that belong at one end of the car end up trying to return to their normal position. Example: the Fiero drive train and rear suspension used to be the front drive train and suspension of the Citation. In dicey situations it forgets its new position and does its best to be at the front again.

I've watched videos of people cursing and gesturing at cars that are only slightly below race speed under yellow, including videos featuring me so I know I wasn't traveling anywhere as slow as 50% or even 70% race pace. I've also had the pleasure of swerving to avoid someone who slammed on the brakes as the yellow flag came into view (Laguna), forcing me and the car I was dicing with to split around the car and of course getting a black flag for passing under yellow.

For me in Canada, they are by far the fastest shipper, most times delivered two days after placing the order, even in the smaller town that I live in. Pretty impressive for cross border shipping when typical packages from other sources can get tied up in customs for twice that long. After paying through the nose for shipping and brokerage costs, it's great to only pay $10 to get something shipped by air across the border. The only time I've had any issues is when my shipment disappeared when it got to the Memphis transfer point. Suspect that it fell off the back of the truck. Fortunately I wasn't needing those parts in a hurry as it took about three weeks to get the replacements re-sent at no additional charge. I buy from Rockauto or from Amazon according to prices but prefer Rockauto for their fast shipping and low part cost. A lot of times they can get parts to me cheaper and quicker than the local parts store can get stuff from their warehouses.

I have fond memories of Charlotte but not in a champcar...

Except this part: "Turbulent flow occurs when the velocity in a given water channel is high." Think rapids vs lazy river.

Are they from China, too?

Thank you, Jay, your response is appreciated. Personally I see the forum as a place that the members can air issues and get feedback on things that may or may not need to get bumped to the next level. I appreciate the discussions that arise and the arcane items that surface during these discussions that from what I can see would remain in the shadows for the majority of teams. Most of the controversy that I see comes from how a rule is being applied, either by a team or by tech, that seems at odds with the written rule. This very topic is about one of those instances that revealed yet another valuation that some people have known about and used apparently for years but never made it to the general public conscious, let alone into the rule book or tech desk. It seems that it's not so much about what we know as what we don't know. I understand the difficulty in applying the rules to a diverse field, and as you said the rules need to be universal enough to cover the popular cars like Miatas, E30-36-46, decades of Mustangs, Camaros, and Corvettes along with the more obscure cars like Fieros and 510s. At one time, posting each car's tech sheet was thought to be a good method of showing how the rules were being applied to a specific car so that everyone could learn and understand the process. Where did that end up? Electronic tech sheets? But then it seemed that people viewed that as sharing the secret sauce and once again the rumour mill was the main method of finding out how the rules were being enforced. You had to be at the track to be in the know, and some of the people who were at the track were the ones that didn't want anyone to know, so the vicious cycle was maintained. The tech desk looked like the answer to this by providing clarification, but while that has certainly helped, the issue of not knowing what to ask about has limited its effectiveness. As mentioned, it seems the main method of finding out is either at the track or on the forum. Perhaps another thread should be started that discusses better methods of information dissemination and some ideas firmed up before adding to your already busy life, but do you have any thoughts, suggestions or possible guidelines?

I didn't get any interest but apparently someone else did: https://bangshift.com/bangshiftapex/heres-a-370hp-naturally-aspirated-ohc-pontiac-six/

I just heard the slightly uneven cranking before firing, after that all I could hear was exhaust. What you described was the typical loose rod bearing knock, with the start-up thumps and then the fully warm (hot oil) low rpm noise. Was it worse in gear? Sounds like a bit of load made it worse. Hot running should clear up moderate piston slap. You could slide a feeler gauge up under the piston skirts to see if you have a collapsed piston. Any other oil pressure related items that could be a bit loose with low oil pressure? Bearings looked fine - well, other than those odd wear marks on the mains.

What happens at the track stays at the track.

Which should work for most people here. I'm used to looking at bigger stuff...

But only 92 litres per hour.

I think it's not so much that people want others to slow down as that the rules be applied/enforced equally and fairly.