Unhappy homecomings

[Randy V]

Sorry to hear of the troubles..

If you have the Dyno report for your engine - it should indicate the BSFC (Fuel consumption) at peak HP and RPM.

Make sure that your fuel system will flow that much fuel - whether you're having troubles or not - this is a good thing to test.

 

[mike]

any news yet?

 

[mike]

daryl,
did they find out whats wrong with the car?

 

[Daryl Adams]

daryl,
did they find out whats wrong with the car?

I am pleased to report that it looks like the problem has been diagnosed and repaired. Dennis Olthoff conferenced with my local Roush shop, St. Charles Motorsports, and together they isolated a problem in the electrics. They chased the wiring back through the harness and found an intermittent ground at the high pressure fuel pump relay. After repairing that connection the car has run fine in the shop and on a 20 mile test run today. They are going to take another road trip in the car tomorrow just to be sure, then I'll go pick her up. Hopefully that's it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[Jack]

Good show Daryl......

So glad it was something simple.

 

[Ian Clark]

That is good news, much better outcome than the start of the the posting indicated.

Cheers

 

[mike]

I am pleased to report that it looks like the problem has been diagnosed and repaired. Dennis Olthoff conferenced with my local Roush shop, St. Charles Motorsports, and together they isolated a problem in the electrics. They chased the wiring back through the harness and found an intermittent ground at the high pressure fuel pump relay. After repairing that connection the car has run fine in the shop and on a 20 mile test run today. They are going to take another road trip in the car tomorrow just to be sure, then I'll go pick her up. Hopefully that's it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

im glad it was something simple.
i knew it was in the electronics somewhere.
i think u are good to go..

 

[Dave P]

They need another test ride! :lol: Could I schedule one too:thumbsup:

 

[Jim Nielsen]

Daryl,
I am not 100% but I believe the return from the injectors should go to the swirl pot and a line from the top of the pot should go back to the tank. This way the pot should always be full. Glad you found the problem.

Jim

 

[Daryl Adams]

It appears I spoke too soon. I collected the GT40 this afternoon and headed home. I got exactly 5.8 miles when it stalled approaching a traffic signal. (Aterial street, rush-hour traffic, wouldn't re-start, many irate motorists with blaring horns and glaring looks.) I finally managed to get it going enough to pull into a gas station. So.....back on the flatbed she went. I may be going to Road America in my BMW.

 

[Mike]

That is enough to piss off the Pope!

Mike

 

[Mike Drew]

I may be going to Road America in my BMW.

Bite your tongue, man! The Mangusta is a highly acceptable substitute. Plus, we'll have (slightly) more luggage room.

But here's hoping that they find and sort out the problem, properly. We've got a month still. I don't mind riding in your GT40 with my bags in my lap (or better yet, driving it with you carrying my bags in YOUR lap!) :laugh4:

 

[RandyT]

I had the similar situation and found out it was crud in my gas tank.

 

[Paul Thompson 'Hooligan']

First I want them to check all the electrical issues to eliminate an ignition or ECU problem. It would be nice if the Roush ECU kept event data in memory so we could look at what was going on when the engine quit.

Hi Daryl -

As I recall, the Roush ECU is in fact an Accel Gen7 unit and that includes both data logging and advanced diagnostics inbuilt. A check of the ECU may show the logged data from last run which may help.

 

[Daryl Adams]

Hi Daryl -

As I recall, the Roush ECU is in fact an Accel Gen7 unit and that includes both data logging and advanced diagnostics inbuilt. A check of the ECU may show the logged data from last run which may help.

Thankfully, greater minds than mine are at work on this issue. My local guy is talking with Andy at Roush and Dennis Olthoff. Hopefully we will have a laptop connected tomorrow to mine some data.

 

[Mike Drew]

At the risk of asking the obvious, have you already sorted the 'crud in the tank' issue? This is a well-known fault of the early SPF cars, and yours is #16, isn't it? Therefore it would be logical to assume that yours would have this problem unless you have already taken active measures to counter it. If you haven't then this is where I would focus my attention initially.

Keep us posted! Although I certainly wouldn't mind going to the track in your Mangusta, or any of your other cars, it would certainly be much better in the GT40! :thumbsup:

 

[Mike Drew]

All,

On Daryl's behalf I'm happy to report that the problem is FIXED! :thumbsup: It turns out that Roush had a bad bunch of high-pressure fuel pumps, and this was a known problem on the early cars. The shop working on the car put pressure gauges on the pump and found the pressure fluctuating all over the place. A phone call was made to Roush, a new one beamed to the shop, and they got it installed Monday late afternoon. We picked the car up Tuesday morning, with fingers crossed, and after a quick stop at Daryl's house to pack the car (HAH! Ever try traveling in a GT40?) we had a wonderful and utterly uneventful drive up to Road America.

Jack and Kathleen Houpe, Mike and Paulette Trusty and Kirby Schrader arrived at the hotel a few minutes after we did, and after all four cars were unloaded, we had a fantastic dinner.

Great day at the track today, with quite a few spectator GT40s already present, and the promise of many more to come. There are a bunch of original cars here too, although they are scattered around all over the place; Ford has a big tent that has 13 original cars inside (including P/1040 and AM/GT1, both just rolling shells partway through restoration), and there are probably 8-10 other genuine cars in various other parts of the paddock.

Lance Stander and the Superformance Crew were setting up their trailer today, and I think there were about a dozen SPF GT40s parked in front of it.

If you aren't already here, it's not too late! Come on out!

 

[Jim Cowden]

The car has a fuel pressure gauge ,did the fluctuations not show up on that.
If it doesnt have one I would put one it would have been good for diagnoses.

Jim

 

[Mike Drew]

The car has a fuel pressure gauge

SPF cars don't. Anyway, all's well that ends well--the car has performed flawlessly for days now, including several sessions on the track. :thumbsup:

 

[Daryl Adams]

Thanks go out to my stalwart co-pilot Mike Drew for providing the update to our Road America saga while I was "computerless". My gratitude goes to the guys at Roush for providing the new fuel pump and to Dennis Olthoff in assisting St. Charles Motorsports in getting the new pump in my car in time to head to Road America. As Mike mentioned, all went well. The car performed perfectly including the two GT40 "race" sessions which saw us exploring the upper reaches of the rev range. Being gridded on track next to the LeMans winning car was an unreal experience. Then going on track at the same time with such historic race cars, well...there aren't words to describe it. And it would not have happened had Mike Trusty not offered me his spare helmet and Dennis Olthoff not lent me one of his dad's suits. Can you imagine hauling the mail down the Kettle Bottoms toward Canada Corner, right behind the historic cars, and wearing historic gear? I'll post some other thoughts on the Road America thread.