Racing One Lap of America! Kinda.
The Tire Rack One Lap of America 2017 was a race involving 19 events at 8 tracks over a 3
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MotorTranscript
00:00 This time on Roadkill, we rescue my Firebird. We built it in three days, now burnouts.
00:07 Woo! [laughter]
00:14 [laughter]
00:40 Last time on Roadkill, Finnegan bought one of his dream cars, a 1969 Pontiac Firebird
00:46 that we slapped together in two days. And that is not the smart thing to do when your
00:50 goal is to run in Tirax's One Lap of America competition. This event is historic for being
00:57 grueling. It's a week on the road with a massive road trip. It's like eight racetracks,
01:04 multiple events at each track. There's autocrossing, road courses, drag racing. It is punishing.
01:10 And, as we've proved over and over on Roadkill, building a race car in two days is a sure
01:16 fire way to end up broken down at the side of the track. And of course, the Firebird
01:20 was no different. On day two of the One Lap of America with Tony Angelo behind the wheel,
01:25 something blew up in the 400 cubic inch Pontiac engine that we had slapped together the day
01:30 before. Big surprise. We ended up loading the car on a U-Haul and heading for Finnegan's
01:34 house in Georgia to see what we could do to get back in the race.
01:41 So it's Monday and we should be at Road Atlanta right now in Georgia, but we're not because
01:47 yesterday broke the engine. But the good news is my house is on the way to Road Atlanta.
01:51 So we stopped here. My buddy, Daniel Boshiers, brought us some parts. We're not going to
01:55 be beaten. We're going to pull the engine out of the car. We're going to go through
01:58 it and see if we can rebuild it right here at my house. And then we're going to pick
02:00 up with the tour wherever we can. I mean, it heads to Florida tomorrow and then it comes
02:07 up to Virginia the next day. So somewhere in there, we will be back on the road in the
02:12 poncho and we will keep on trucking.
02:14 There's going to be a lot of wrenching going on in this thing today. And Lana and I decided
02:17 it just would not be cool for us to keep racing in our comfy brand new Hellcat. And so we're
02:21 here to thrash along with them and see how quickly we can get this thing back in competition.
02:25 Are we allowed to just push you around the track, Mike? Maybe we don't need to put an
02:28 engine in it.
02:29 I will push this thing across the finish line if I have to. But given the fact that we have
02:33 tools and we have time, let's make it run.
02:36 So the first thing we have to address is that engine. It doesn't want to spin anymore. We
02:39 think it's the bottom end. So the 400 is going to come out. We're going to pull the crank
02:42 shaft out, see if we can sort of clean it up, put new bearings in it, new oil pump,
02:48 windage tray, put an AccuSump on it, which is an oil accumulator that will deliver high
02:52 pressure oil anytime the car needs it on track. And then we will get back on the road.
02:56 There wasn't a bottom bolt in this. That got worse. What happened? That escalated quickly.
03:09 I need some more rags. A lot of people are like, you guys were unprepared. How could
03:21 you have started this race, you know, with a car this like patched together? Thing is
03:26 for us, nothing ever gets done until it has to. So this is a good way to get a whole car
03:32 finished in a few days. You got to get it done and hit the road and then you're required
03:37 to fix it. Whereas if you're home, you'd sit around and procrastinate and play with the
03:42 kids and have a beer. Go, I don't wanna. Wife would go, I don't want you to. This way it
03:49 has to happen. It's a genius plan actually. It's the roadkill plan. You should get on
03:53 board with it.
03:54 Nice shaft out.
03:55 That doesn't look good at all. No, that's wallered. Yeah. So when we were at Diversified
04:23 Creations, we didn't have the right pilot bearing for the back of the crankshaft and
04:29 we took the wrong one, turned it down in the lathe, put it in there and we got the trans
04:34 installed but apparently the input shaft wasn't exactly in there the whole time. Yeah, it
04:38 wasn't in that bushing at all. Yeah. And so it was actually running around the outside
04:43 of the bushing. Which explains vibration, which explains, um, trans coming out of gear.
04:49 Which explains how that's all hashed. I don't think it's engine damage. I found no major
05:12 nightmares so far on the cylinder head or in the cylinders that I could see once I took
05:16 this off. I think all our problems are going to be a connecting rod bearing in my opinion.
05:21 Or we could have just taken them out. They got your shoe. Just put that sh*t anywhere.
05:38 You might lose a little bit of water.
05:41 Oh, it's spun. It's spun it. Wow.
05:45 The rod bearing actually spun. What that means is not only is the surface that the crank
05:49 rides on all eaten up, but the two halves of the bearing shell actually spun around
05:55 in the end of the connecting rod housing, which you can tell because the back of the
05:59 bearing is all chewed up. It's all mushroomed out from heat. There's spin marks in the rod
06:04 and of course the crank journal is hashed. And it looks like we've got that at least
06:08 on one and two and maybe also on three and four. And that's going to be an oil starvation
06:15 issue is my suspicion.
06:22 It's Tuesday and right now everyone that's currently injured and moving along on One
06:28 Lap of America is in Florida. Having fun racing.
06:32 At Sebring.
06:33 Yeah.
06:34 A legendary track.
06:35 Track on my bucket list. We're not there.
06:37 We're not there.
06:38 Yeah.
06:39 We found out the 400 we built out of used parts, spun multiple bearings, wasted the
06:43 crank, wasted the rods. We spent all afternoon yesterday surfing Craigslist and calling everybody
06:48 I know in Georgia trying to find a decent replacement short block. And we couldn't.
06:53 And last night we're at dinner and I get a text from a buddy of mine, my buddy David,
06:57 my buddy Brandon, and they both said, we know where one is. And turns out a family member
07:02 rebuilt a 400 out of a 1970 GTO 30 years ago, put a garbage bag on it, threw it in a shed
07:09 and left it there. So we met them in a parking lot at 10 o'clock last night in the dark and
07:13 picked up this. Which was rebuilt and is now very dry, very rusty.
07:18 They weren't lying, but it doesn't look like it was stored very well. It's clear that it
07:25 has a ton of all the new parts we should need. Right. It's got new pistons, new bearings,
07:29 new rod bolts, new cam bearings, new freeze plugs. Everything was properly rebuilt, new
07:34 rings at one point, but everything above the pistons is pretty rusty.
07:38 Yeah. So sadly, instead of just throwing our top end on this thing and getting out of here
07:43 today, we now need to disassemble this thing, take the rotating assembly out, clean our
07:48 block, put it in there, put our top end back on it. Probably out of here late tonight,
07:53 early tomorrow, if everything goes well.
07:55 So all this metal that's in the bottom of the oil pan, I've been trying to get it out
08:10 for probably 20 minutes. Just keep putting soap and water in. I don't even want to put
08:15 it in our parts washer because it'll just ruin all of our paint thinner. So I'm trying
08:20 to do this as a pre-wash. And every time I find a new passageway, you know, baffled pan
08:26 with all its little doors and stuff, there's just little hideaways full of bearing material.
08:31 And we can blame you later. Yeah, I know. This is a dangerous job. I like to do the
08:35 jobs where there's no possible way that I can be blamed for failure later.
08:39 What we're doing is we're going to lap the valves because we did have a little bit of
08:44 a valve sealing issue. And since we're trying to put this thing back together and not miss
08:50 anything, this is part of it. So David's washing parts, I'm lapping valves and hopefully we'll
08:56 be able to put the heads back together in, I don't know, two, three days, maybe. No,
09:01 we'll have it together in a little while. A lot of fun in the sun, lapping valves.
09:07 I can't believe how much stuff got trashed when this engine had no oil going through
09:11 it. Even the valve guides got a little bit boogered and we're having to go through and
09:16 file off a little lip that got pulled up by the locker lock against the retainer. And
09:23 I'm going through here now after everything has been cleaned up and just lapping the valves
09:27 back to the seat using the age old technique with the new technology of a cordless drill
09:32 of putting a lapping compound on there, holding the end of the valve with a piece of rubber
09:36 hose, hose clamp it on there and go to town.
09:39 I'm just going to valve, hone the valve guides because as David said, they're just completely
10:00 too tight.
10:03 This is yet another project that totally snowballed here. I took the heads apart just to clean
10:07 all the metal out of them because there was junk in them everywhere. And that turned into
10:11 maybe we should lap the valves and that turned into this stem clearance seems pretty tight.
10:16 That turned into honing the guides. That turned into polishing the valve stems. This thing
10:23 is designed specifically for you to hit me in the nuts. Works good though. Look at the
10:30 rhythm and the precision. It's almost like a ballet. It's like a performance ballet.
10:35 Yeah, you should wear your tights next time. Yeah, probably not do that. No, no. Those
10:41 you reserve those for when you're alone at night. Me and tights don't get along. Really?
10:47 You and your J Edgar Hoover poster don't like that? That's bad dude. Boom, valve springs
10:52 assembled. Heads done. There you go. Seating all the keepers, locks. Everything's ready
10:59 to go. I'm going to drill a bit that way a little bit. Is that good enough? That far
11:06 enough? I think we're committed to that angle. Wherever it's going is where it's going. I
11:10 can't believe you did that. I didn't think you would. Now the fun part, tapping cast
11:21 iron. Even at home, sometimes you've got to use the wrong tool for the right job. We're
11:31 trying to drill and tap our cast iron engine block for an A and fitting that will connect
11:37 our accu-sump to our engine, which is the key to hopefully making the engine live. I
11:42 don't have a bottoming tap and we didn't have the right drill bit. I'm shortening a standard
11:47 tap so that I can tap it deeper and get the fitting further into the block. Let's hope
11:51 it works. Now that the tap is shorter, it should thread in deeper, cutting much more
11:58 defined threads into our engine block for our fitting. It's no longer, "Hey, let's get
12:02 the engine together back in the car, fix the transmission and go to several tracks and
12:07 earn points and win." It is now just, "Can we get this fitting in this engine block?"
12:13 Once again, kids, lower, lower, lower your standards until you achieve a goal. Any goal.
12:21 Tuesday night, I like to think we got a lot done today if a lot means cleaning everything
12:27 here. We didn't actually get to the assembly part, which sucks because we probably should
12:32 leave tomorrow if we want to get to the very last racetrack of One Lap America. I will
12:37 be staying here all night trying to reassemble the engine, maybe get it in the car, maybe
12:42 not. There's a lot left to do before we hit the road.
12:49 Man, almost done. Feels good to be at this point. Here's the bad news. We were here until
13:02 3.30 in the morning last night because if you look really, really carefully, you might
13:07 realize that this is not the Pontiac 400 we've been working on the entire time. Nope, that
13:13 is the motor we started out with in Michigan and we cleaned all day yesterday. The problem
13:19 was after all of that work, we discovered that this piston is just tight enough on the
13:24 rod that we did not trust it. The last thing we needed was another failure. So we took
13:31 the 350 Pontiac that's been in the back of Bo Scheer's truck the whole time and stripped
13:36 the top end off of it and put on our heads, our oil pan, our stuff. But yes, we are just
13:41 about ready to drop it in the car.
13:42 [music]
13:49 [music]
13:56 [music]
14:03 [music]
14:28 With the engine reassembled and installed, we swapped the hardware from our old transmission
14:33 over to the new one that Bo Scheer's gave us. This hopefully solves the problem of our
14:37 transmission popping out of gear at high speed. Besides that, it's just accessories that need
14:41 to go in, including an AccuSump system, which will give us the oil control we need to keep
14:46 our new engine alive on the road course.
14:49 [music]
14:50 We've been here since Monday and today is Wednesday. Today's Wednesday and the engine's
14:57 in the car and ready to start. We're crossing our fingers this is the end of this disaster
15:02 because we need to drive 11 hours to Gingerman tomorrow. Hit it.
15:08 You ready?
15:09 Yes, sir.
15:10 Please run.
15:11 New 350.
15:12 [engine starts]
15:13 Perfect. Let's go.
15:14 [engine revving]
15:15 [music]
15:26 Runs good.
15:27 [music]
15:43 Trans feels good.
15:44 It's going to have a deeper first gear and second gear.
15:47 All that work, you know what we forgot to do?
15:49 What?
15:50 Turn the steering wheel straight.
15:51 I thought about it. I thought about it at one point and I was like, "Forget it. It's
15:55 all right."
15:56 [engine revving]
16:05 Not bad.
16:06 Not bad.
16:07 Not bad.
16:08 [music]
16:11 The police are right there. Watch this.
16:14 The cops are going to be like, "You're about to get pulled over for having no hood on your
16:17 car."
16:18 [music]
16:22 And Michigan plates that are expired.
16:23 Yes, that expired 20 years ago.
16:26 Don't pull out. Don't pull out. Don't pull out.
16:30 Come on, cop. You got better things to do than to hassle us.
16:33 Hear that?
16:34 Not the best.
16:35 [music]
16:36 What is that?
16:37 It's the back of the car.
16:38 Yeah, but what is it?
16:39 I don't know. When you step on the brake, it stops.
16:42 [music]
16:47 That wheel looks maybe loose.
16:49 [music]
16:51 Okay. Yeah, that sounds like right rear.
16:53 Oh, it is. I can see it moving.
16:55 Okay. We'll go back before the wheel falls off.
16:57 Yeah.
16:58 All right, but beyond that, she's happy.
17:00 [music]
17:08 [music]
17:17 Something's real bad.
17:18 When you step on the brake, it goes away.
17:20 The whole wheel's loose, but it's not loose on the lugs.
17:24 Okay. We took it for a little lap around the block,
17:27 and we almost made it without what's something that sounds like the wheel's going to fall off.
17:31 So it's probably great that we're about to head out on a thousand-mile journey
17:34 and then road course this thing around Gingerman.
17:37 What do you think, David? We're going to make it?
17:39 One way or another.
17:41 [music]
17:46 That's what we were hearing when we were wiggling the wheel.
17:49 After getting the engine in and running, we went for a test drive,
17:52 and the engine ran great.
17:54 And then the axle tried to fall out of the car.
17:56 So now we're once again working on it, not leaving tonight, really long drive tomorrow.
18:01 This is a Pontiac 10-bolt instead of a Chevy type,
18:04 so it doesn't have a C-clip inside that retains it.
18:06 It has four bolts out here, and they've just come loose and let the axle flop around.
18:11 [music]
18:15 Oh, no.
18:16 What is it?
18:17 The bolts are not loose.
18:19 That's terrible.
18:21 That means the bearing came off its press.
18:23 Turns out the problem is that the axle's coming in and out like this.
18:27 I thought it was because the bolts are loose,
18:29 but the bearing is going to be loose on the axle shaft,
18:31 and so we're going to slam in one from the other 10-bolt that he's got here.
18:35 And we've got to lash the valves and stuff,
18:37 so we've got a little more fiddling tonight before we finally hit the road tomorrow morning.
18:40 Is that actually going to happen?
18:42 I don't know. I hope so.
18:43 Me too.
18:45 Yep. Look at that.
18:47 [music]
19:11 The car works.
19:12 Might even be better.
19:13 Overall the same car, probably.
19:14 Could be worse.
19:15 Let's try it.
19:16 Yeah.
19:17 [music]
19:29 Thank you, Daniel Boshiers.
19:31 Coming to the rescue.
19:33 I've changed my goals now.
19:35 New goal is to end this trip with a firebird
19:40 and at least one running out of four Pontiac engines.
19:42 That would be dope.
19:43 Beat Mr. Corvette guy at Gingerman.
19:48 That would be great.
19:49 At least one lap.
19:50 Got to beat him.
19:51 And then, you know, party on.
19:55 [music]
20:05 Holy [bleep]
20:07 [laughter]
20:08 Holy [bleep]
20:10 How are you doing?
20:11 I seen your roadkill and I was sitting right there and I was like,
20:13 "No way. No [bleep] way."
20:15 [laughter]
20:16 Hey, yeah, I know.
20:18 We're leaving right now, but here's some stickers.
20:20 Oh, yes, dude.
20:21 Oh, my God. This is awesome.
20:23 [music]
20:52 [music]
21:08 We made it.
21:09 The second to the last stop on One Lap of America.
21:11 This is Gingerman Raceway.
21:13 We're in South Haven, Michigan,
21:15 and yesterday was like a 700-plus mile drive.
21:18 Yeah, it should have taken 11 hours.
21:20 And it took?
21:22 15, 16?
21:23 16 and a half.
21:24 16, yeah.
21:25 Yeah, and it was very rough in the cushy as hell cat.
21:27 At one point, I couldn't find one of the USB cords,
21:30 and so our music had to stop and there wasn't satellite radio.
21:33 Yeah, I don't think the video guys caught that, though.
21:36 No, how are they going to know how we suffered?
21:38 I know. It's been really, really rough.
21:40 No, it wasn't.
21:43 Whew, it's Friday.
21:44 We just drove 800 miles in the Firebird.
21:48 We have a used engine, a brand-new gearbox,
21:51 lots of hope, lots of dreams, and new goals.
21:54 All we really want to do now is beat one quarter of the racetrack,
21:58 which is what we blew up on the last time.
22:01 And doing better than that Corvette would be nice.
22:04 We're going to change the oil right now, adjust the car a little bit,
22:07 check the air in the tires, and then I get to go on a road course
22:11 for the very first time in my dream car.
22:13 I'm pretty sure the Firebird's going to make it.
22:16 I had my doubts when we first left, but it drove all these miles.
22:20 It's not making any noises that were any worse than when we left.
22:25 We'll see.
22:28 Oh, I got a wedgie.
22:30 I'm sure that'll work it somehow.
22:34 That's a good start.
22:40 Okay, got oil pressure.
22:42 I have a steering wheel.
22:44 It's really all I need, because the last time this went wrong,
22:47 we didn't have oil pressure.
22:49 As long as I have that and a steering wheel, we're good.
22:55 Driver suit wadding up my underwear.
22:58 Okay, I believe I get to go racing, even if we are dead last.
23:02 I don't care.
23:04 Okay, pulling up.
23:06 I am next.
23:09 Come on.
23:12 Please work. Please work.
23:14 All right, here we go.
23:18 I have no idea what turn is over this hill.
23:21 I'm assuming it's here, because the braking zone's on the right.
23:24 Yes, it is.
23:26 I can see where a ton of people have gone off there.
23:28 I see an apex cone.
23:32 Woo-hoo-hoo.
23:34 I get to do this.
23:41 I'm going to do a warm-up lap, so theoretically, you shouldn't be pushing hard,
23:43 but it's running.
23:45 Probably went through some turns with a little bit of G-force.
23:47 Here it comes. We're driving. We're racing.
23:51 All right, here we go.
23:55 Come on.
23:58 Yes. Turn that thing.
24:05 We're still going.
24:07 I came out of gear.
24:11 Okay, it doesn't want to stay in third gear.
24:19 Oh, my God.
24:21 The trains will not stay in third gear.
24:25 That kind of sucks.
24:36 I do not have the brakes for that.
24:44 David is going to be flying.
24:53 Nice.
24:55 There we go.
25:00 Woo-hoo-hoo.
25:02 We're all in F now.
25:10 Oh, come on, girls. Come on, girls. Brakes, brakes, brakes.
25:15 One more turn.
25:19 Oh, [bleep]
25:21 The train jumped out of third gear under acceleration and deceleration.
25:25 One lap. We did one lap.
25:28 We have done one lap in America. That's what they call this, right?
25:32 One lap in America, guys.
25:35 Go, girl, go.
25:38 Damn it.
25:40 Pretty much a three grand pops out of third gear all on its own.
25:44 Kind of sucks.
25:46 But I don't care because I'm still racing my high school dream car.
25:50 Woo-hoo.
25:52 Finally racing the Firebird on a real road course
25:55 after all of the late night thrashing to get it running is badass.
25:59 This car rips.
26:01 I don't care that the transmission pops out of third gear.
26:03 The main thing is it's not overheating, the engine is still in one piece,
26:07 and the RideTech suspension makes this thing stick to the pavement.
26:11 In the end, everything we've been through has been worth it.
26:14 I'm even letting Tony turn a few laps in the Firebird knowing full well he may nuke my motor again.
26:21 This has definitely been the best day at work ever.
26:23 David is out there tearing it up in the Hellcat Challenger as well.
26:27 It's been a cushy trip for him and Alana, and the car has been outstanding on the track
26:31 despite having old, worn-out brakes.
26:34 It's a bummer they had to skip most of their week to help us get the Firebird running,
26:38 but we couldn't have done it without them.
26:40 After wrapping it up at Gingerman Raceway,
26:42 we headed back to Tire Rack in South Bend to finish off the week with burnouts and drifting.
26:48 [Engine revving]
26:58 I hope the hat keeps something going.
27:00 [Engine revving]
27:08 [Laughing]
27:10 [Engine revving]
27:34 All in all, despite all of the breakdowns and having to piece together three engines to make one that would run,
27:41 I was able to buy one of my dream cars, build it, road trip it, and race it in one lap of America.
27:47 Like David said, doing it this way forces us to complete projects that may otherwise sit collecting dust.
27:54 And that is what Roadkill is all about.
27:57 [Music]
28:00 Support companies that support Roadkill.
28:03 Buy your speed parts at JEGS.com.
28:06 [Laughing]
28:09 So straight ahead?
28:10 Might have spilled a little there.
28:17 [SOUND]